WEBVTT

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Calpuder got Puritans are fond of blaming
part of the crime and violence of today

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on this age of jazz. They
might better blame the gin which furnishes purple

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moments. To Volstadians, jazz unaccompanied
is rarely responsible for more than a harmless

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fling. Gin with jazz is something
else. Again. Many a front page

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murder had its origin in a bottle
of this colorless fire. It was one

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o'clock in the morning, not a
witching hour, particularly since it was March

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and in Chicago. The two policemen
who trudged their beat in a residence district

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were doubtless anxious to have the hour
get done with as quickly as possible,

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so the next one could come and
go in its turn. It was a

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raw and solitary and dreary sword of
night. The policeman noticed the sedan automobile

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standing in front of forty eight oh
nine Forestville Avenue as they passed. Its

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presence registered itself in their minds.
But since in Chicago there are places where

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one can park one's car, and
since nothing seemed to be a miss,

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they let it alone. A woman
appeared from somewhere and got into the car.

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This likewise did not appear to be
a matter for official investigation. The

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police walked on, turned the corner
and pulled the signal box by which they

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reported to the station. Barely had
they reported that nothing was amiss in that

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section when three shots shattered the lonely
stillness of the night. The first shots

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came from around the corner and back
from the direction in which they had left

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the park automobile and the mysterious night
riding woman, whom they had not bothered

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to investigate. They hurried back,
and the automobile was no sign of the

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woman, but a man slumped curiously
down in the driver's seat. There was

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a bullet in his brain. On
the floor of the automobile was a pistol.

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Near it was a half empty bottle
of synthetic gin. No one was

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around, though here and there a
sleepy head appeared at a window number forty

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eight oh nine Forestville Avenue was an
apartment building, and though the police might

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have gone through on a blind search
for the missing murderer, they first did

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a more strategic thing. Taking the
license number of the automobile, they telephoned

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to the vehicle bureau and learned that
it had been issued to missus belvet Over

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beck Gartner of forty eighth nine Forestville
Avenue. With this clue, they went

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to her apartment. The mysterious night
riding woman was there, up and waiting

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for them, pacing the floor somewhat
unsteadily. Seen in the light, she

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appeared to be in her late thirties. She was not beautiful, but had

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an indefinably attractive quality that the gin
had not dulled, and there was no

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doubt that she had been drinking it. Interesting was the word that might be

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applied to her. She had chekh
But one thing stood out about all other

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features of her fashionable self. There
was blood on her clothes. True Crime

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Historian presents yesterday's news tales of classic
scandals, scoundrels, and scourges told from

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historic newspapers in the golden age of
yellow journalism. Episode two hundred and fifty

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two explores the two murders that inspired
the hit musical Chicago, which was based

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on a play by Maureene Watkins,
who did some reporting on both cases as

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a reporter for the Chicago Tribune.
I'll be joined by my colleague Susan Furman,

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whose own podcast, Catastrophic Calamities will
premiere next week on the Popular Media

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Network. Susan will read about the
case of Beulah Annan, who became roxy

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Heart. On stage, I will
read the case of Belva Gardner, who

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became Valma Kelly. I'm true crime
historian Richard O. Jones, and for

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your scandalization and indignation, I give
you Jim Jan's guns. The real Chicago

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murders shaker goes. I'll go around. Missus. Gardner told the policeman she

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was drunk, she didn't need to
tell it, and that she didn't know

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what had happened. It was a
unique answer and an effective one under the

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circumstances. There was no question of
her incriminating herself when she used an excuse

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with which masculinity has saved its face
on many an occasion. But they took

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her along to the police station.
Nevertheless, it was believed that so briet

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he might refresh her memory and anyway, there were the necessary formalities to be

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gone through with, And in the
automobile outside, where the dead man still

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hunched over the wheel with the cold
steel revolver and the half emptied gin bottle

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on the floor beside him, the
body could not be moved until the coroner's

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physician made his examination. Doctor Joseph
Springer, coroner's physician, arrived soon he

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certified to the man's death. Papers
on the body revealed the unknown's identity.

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He was Walter Law thirty two thirty
three Ellis Avenue. The papers did not

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reveal the full extent of the tragedy, for Law was married and the father

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of a three year old child.
The bullet, which had been started on

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its way by Jen, left a
baby fatherless and a woman widowed. Missus

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Gardner was likewise examined by the physician. To his questions, she had the

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same monotonous, simple answer she had
given the police. I was drunk.

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I don't remember. But the next
day she did remember a little more,

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and to the police she sobbed out
a grotesque and ghastly story of bullets and

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gin and wagers and duels, with
Law and herself as the hazy figures.

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She admitted they bought the gin at
the Gingham Cafe, also that the revolver

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was hers. She said quote on
our way home we began talking about stickup

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men. I told Law we were
taking an awful risk going home so late.

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Think of it. I said,
what if some bandit stopped and robbed

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us and maybe tried to get rough
with me? What would we do?

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Our conversation drifted along this line for
some time. Then I remarked, I

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bet I'm a better shooter than you
are. I suggested jokingly that we toss

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a coin and that the winner shoot
the loser. I said, if the

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winner missed the loser, the latter
would get a chance to shoot, and

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vice versa, until one of us
was shot. There were nine bullets in

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the pistol. And then, Oh, I don't know just what happened.

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I was too drunk. I remember
seeing him collapse over the wheel, but

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I had no idea what was the
matter? Walter Walter, I called,

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but he did not move or answer
me. Then I tried to pull him

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out of the driver's seat so I
could drive the car home, but I

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couldn't budge him. He was so
limp. His head fell on my arms,

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and that is how my clothing came
to be spattered with blood. I

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became frightened and ran into the house
assist of State's Attorney Stanley Klarkowski had little

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better luck than the police as far
as getting any real information. Out of

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the shekh and vague and terrified Belvi
Gartner to him. She varied her story,

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at first, declaring that Law was
the one who had proposed the duel,

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that he had done so before they
left the cafe, But when pressed

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for details, she wept hysterically and
wailed, Oh, mister Attorney, I

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can't remember anything, not if I
have to hang for it. Mister Attorney

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had someone bring in the smelling salts. When Missus Gardner was calmer, she

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only said, in the past,
we have always bought a pint. This

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time there were only quartz, and
we had to take a large bottle.

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I wish there had been pints.
This with bizarre sadness, Missus Gardner went

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back to her cell. Law was
buried by his widow. The Gingham Cafe

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watched it step for a day or
two, and the police began delving into

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the past of the two persons in
this drama of gin and guns and Gingham

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Cafe love. Law they found was
the son of a wealthy man. He

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had been an automobile salesman and much
inclined to step out. Yet his wife

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was utterly ignorant of his philander.
She knew nothing of Belvi Gardner, or

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the hilarious episodes which dotted the evenings
when her husband was supposed to be kept

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downtown by business. That very evening
on which he was shot, he had

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called her up and told her he
would be detained by business. Belvi Gardner

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had a more openly colorful history.
She had started out singing in the cabarets

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as Belle Brown and had made a
good thing out of it, and the

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good thing being married. In nineteen
sixteen, she married Arthur Overbeck, but

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the good thing didn't last. A
year later he divorced her. A few

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months later, she made a better
thing. William Gardner was sixty one,

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but he'd also piled up a fortune
in the manufacture of scientific instruments. Belvi

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and he ran away together and were
married at Crown Point, Indiana. Mary

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in Crown Point and repent in Chicago
was the way the divorce attorneys put it.

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In August nineteen eighteen, Gartner sued
his wife of a year for ann

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allment on the very basis of the
Crown Point marriage, namely that the Illinois

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law required the elapse of a year
between divorce and remarriage, but the romance

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was not faded to go on the
rocks. Just yet. There was a

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reconciliation and the annulment suit was dropped
after the full year required by law had

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elapsed. Gardner and Velvete were remarried
in Illinois, and then in due time

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there did come a divorce. It
was attended by great publicity, for mister

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and missus Gardner each had so many
detectives watching the other that they fell over

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them at every turn. Meanwhile,
Missus Gardner broke into the headlines in quick

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and easy fashion. She bought a
taxicab. An experienced motorist, she had

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no difficulty getting a license to drive
it, and her picture in all the

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papers as the first and only woman
cab driver in the city. She set

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out to do business and did it
boomingly until a streetcar hove into the taxicab.

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By that time, the divorce had
proceeded to a settlement basis, and

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the ex missus Gardner had started a
newer and gayer life. By that time,

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the divorce had proceeded to a settlement
basis, and the ex missus Gardner

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had started a new and gayer life. She had fitted up an apartment at

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the Forestville Avenue address and gone in
for the artificial gayety of cabarets. In

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her own circle, she was known
as a gay companion, a good spender,

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and the life of the party.
Generally, her life was a round

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of pleasure. But her surroundings did
not daunt Gardner, the once divorced and

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almost annulled husband. He had come
wooing all over again, and for a

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while it looked as though Cupid might
strike twice in the same place. Now,

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the elderly millionaire told reporters, I'm
through with her forever. Chicago,

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March thirteenth, nineteen twenty four.
Velvet Gardner twice, a deforesee of page

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one Notoriety, was placed in the
county jail last night, charged by a

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coroner's jury with slaying Walter Law,
young automobile salesman. Law's body was found

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in the car early yesterday morning.
He had been shot to death with a

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steel jacketed bullet after a cabaret gin
party. One minute of testimony from a

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pal of laws brought the turning point
in the inquest. It seemingly cleared all

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doubt from the minds of the jurors. The witness was Paul E. Goodwin,

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a fellow automobile salesman. Quote,
Walter told me Monday that he planned

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to take out more life insurance because
missus Gartner threatened to kill him three weeks

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before, he told me, she
locked him in her flat with her and

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threatened to stab him with a knife
unless he stayed there. Unquote. That

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story, supplemented by sentence or two
of explanation, seemed to sweep from the

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minds of the jury. Retold details
of the gin party, the visible grief

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of Law's young wife and child,
the story that missus Gardner had told the

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police that she was so drunk she
remembered nothing between leaving the cabaret and suddenly

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hearing a great explosion as Law toppled
against her dead. The state, represented

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by Stanley Clarkowski, Assistant State's Attorney, had planned to have the inquest continued,

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but as Goodwin walked from the stand, the prosecutor announced, quote,

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the state is willing to let this
case go to the jury at once without

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further delay, asked Deputy corps and
Heer Kennedy. Does missus Gardner wish to

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take the stand? Tom Riley,
one of her three attorneys, high hired

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by her former husband, William Gartner
replied, quote, she does not on

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the advice of counsel. Her statement
to the police has been admitted in evidence.

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That is all she cares to say, unquote. Twenty minutes later,

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the jury came back and the foreman
read the verdict. We the coroner's jury

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find that Walter Law came to his
death in the automobile of Missus Belvi Gartner

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from a bullet fired by Missus Belvi
Gartner. Then came the recommendation that she

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beheld without bail. Goodwin's brief moment
on the stand switched the entire complexion of

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the investigation. It brought the first
clear direct intimation that Missus Gardner had planned

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to make a target of the twenty
nine year old man some five to ten

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years her junior, who made her
acquaintance through an automobile sale and retained it

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through midnight jin escapades. Prior to
Goodwin's testimony, the two hours of the

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inquest had been taken up with details
circumstantial and corroborative, but assembled it was

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simply this Belve and Walter got drunk
at the Gingham cafe. They drove home.

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The car was found in front of
her house Law's body hanging over the

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steering wheel, her gun on the
floor. She was found in her apartment,

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her clothes covered with blood, maintaining
she was so drunk she couldn't remember

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anything. But she had said that
at the cafe, Law had proposed that

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they flip a coin to see which
should have the first shot at the other,

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but that she had talked him out
of the idea. The questions that

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arose at the inquest were did she
murder Law? Did she shoot him in

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self defense? Did she accidentally shoot
him? Did he kill himself? Did

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a third person do the slag?
Mister Klarkowski said the motive which the state

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believes lies behind the case as this
missus Gartner had ensnared Law, he tried

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to break away to stick to his
wife and family. She killed him rather

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than lose him. Back of Goodwin's
testimony lie further details not yet brought before

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the public. They are in amplification
of his story, made partly by himself

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in private statements to officials, partly
by other friends of the dead man.

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Law. These details say had feared
missus Gardner for some time. He had

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repeatedly tried to break away from her, but she refused to let him go.

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Law was depicted as a boy who
couldn't refuse when women and gin were

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suggested. As recently as twenty four
hours before his death, he confided in

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friends that someday he'd die, and
probably at the hands of the woman whom

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he went on drinking spreeze once or
twice a week. Klarkowski said, quote,

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I believe that when Law and missus
Gardner returned from the cafe, she

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had tried to make him enter her
apartment. He remembering the time she locked

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him in and held him there at
the point of a knife. Refused,

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Then she pulled the gun. Perhaps
he tried to stop her but couldn't unquote.

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Prior to good One's testimony, there
had been a succession of witnesses whose

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stories had told nothing to refute the
statement of missus Gardner that quote, we

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got drunk and he got killed.
I don't know how unquote. Then detective

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Sergeant Corkoran, who arrested Missus Gardner
testified. Then Detective Sergeant Corkoran, who

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arrested Gardner, testified. She had
talked to him, he said, because

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he was so nice. She said
she was too drunk to remember leaving the

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cafe. Didn't know a thing until
there was a big noise and Law toppled

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over unquote Curly Brown, manager of
the Gingham, about whom missus Gardner said

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00:19:04.279 --> 00:19:10.359
she and Law had some words because
she danced with Brown gave a touch,

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00:19:10.400 --> 00:19:15.720
which some thought was satire. Quote. They didn't have any gin, just

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ginger ale. We don't allow gin. They didn't display any gun in the

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cafe, though they must have talked
about one, for I always got my

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eyes peeled for guns. They were
such a nice couple. I'm certainly shocked.

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00:19:30.960 --> 00:19:36.720
Unquote. Then as people yawned and
women wondered if there'd be anything hot,

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a detective whispered in Clarkowski's ear.
Bring him in, quick, said

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00:19:41.480 --> 00:19:49.599
the prosecutor, and ten minutes later
Goodwin took the stands in Chicago, Chicago,

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00:19:49.680 --> 00:20:02.440
Foo, visit all wanta settle din? Chicago, Chica, Visit all

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00:20:02.559 --> 00:20:10.440
wanna settled die. For years,
women have been speculating on just how a

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00:20:10.519 --> 00:20:15.400
wife must feel when her grief over
the sudden news of her husband's death is

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00:20:15.519 --> 00:20:21.720
jogged out of line by the equally
abrupt revelation that he died at the hands

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00:20:21.759 --> 00:20:27.160
of the woman who was not his
wife yesterday. Missus Freda Law answered that

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00:20:27.279 --> 00:20:33.920
question. Seated in the South Wambash
Avenue station, the young widow of a

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00:20:33.920 --> 00:20:40.200
few hours heard a coroner's jury hold
Missus Belve Gardener to the grand jury charged

219
00:20:40.240 --> 00:20:45.920
with the murder early yesterday morning of
Walter Law thirty two thirty three, Ellis

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00:20:45.960 --> 00:20:52.839
Avenue, Frieda's good husband and Belve's
courteous escort. When they talked of gin

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00:20:53.039 --> 00:20:59.799
and blood, Missus Law trembled as
if she might faint, huddled close to

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00:20:59.839 --> 00:21:03.519
her father in law, and tried
to keep from crying. It was her

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00:21:03.559 --> 00:21:08.720
grief for a dead husband, she
indicated. When they spoke of the defour

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00:21:08.799 --> 00:21:15.240
sees nocturnal habits with Law to the
south Side cabarets. When they told of

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00:21:15.319 --> 00:21:18.839
Belvi's zeal to quote throw my arms
around him and get him to talk to

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00:21:18.920 --> 00:21:25.680
me, unquote, Missus Law pushed
herself forward and sneered across the table at

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00:21:25.720 --> 00:21:30.200
the older, more vivacious woman with
the seven diamond rings. It was her

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00:21:30.240 --> 00:21:37.440
hatred for her husband's alleged slayers,
she admitted. But Harry J. Law,

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00:21:37.880 --> 00:21:42.599
the white haired gentleman from North Carolina, father of the murdered automobile salesman,

230
00:21:44.160 --> 00:21:48.480
and the third dramatic figure about the
table steered a middle course, for

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00:21:48.559 --> 00:21:52.039
he placed a share of the blame
for the tragedy on his own son,

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00:21:52.200 --> 00:21:57.400
Walter. Even as he praised him
again and again, he murmured to the

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00:21:57.480 --> 00:22:02.759
tired daughter in law at his side, No daughter, No daughter, It's

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00:22:02.799 --> 00:22:06.599
not that woman's fault. Entirely.
Walter ought not to have gone out with

235
00:22:06.720 --> 00:22:11.000
anyone. He had a lovely wife
and a fine baby. No, he

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00:22:11.039 --> 00:22:15.000
did wrong, and we know it
vaguely. Some of the friends suggested that

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00:22:15.079 --> 00:22:21.440
the devor see well tutored in getting
what she wished, might have led him

238
00:22:21.480 --> 00:22:26.960
unwillingly away from his domestic duties,
and as a corollary to the shooting,

239
00:22:26.480 --> 00:22:33.200
they hazarded or remarked that the modern
wicked woman is awfully wicked. His voice

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00:22:33.359 --> 00:22:40.000
was soft and stern. No daughter, No, the times aren't getting worse.

241
00:22:40.599 --> 00:22:44.039
Things were this way when I was
a boy back in the Carolinas,

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00:22:44.599 --> 00:22:48.720
but it was more quiet. A
man has to stand up and fight against

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00:22:48.759 --> 00:22:55.359
it, that's all. Unquote.
The frail old man sits there between the

244
00:22:55.400 --> 00:23:03.440
two women, an unconscious balance.
Wheels Gardner is plainly gowned her best care

245
00:23:03.599 --> 00:23:08.200
cool coat, her chek white hat
and her modern green dress are ruined with

246
00:23:08.400 --> 00:23:15.000
blood, so she wears a brown
sport dress, a plain black coat with

247
00:23:15.079 --> 00:23:19.400
a fur collar, and a brown
sport hat. Seven diamond drinks and a

248
00:23:19.480 --> 00:23:26.119
wristwatch have been washed clean of Walter
Law's blood. They sparkle more brightly from

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00:23:26.119 --> 00:23:30.799
that cleansing as she uses her hands
to gesture. Missus Law, too,

250
00:23:32.039 --> 00:23:36.920
is plainly gowned. She spent the
night before in her home sewing curtains,

251
00:23:37.359 --> 00:23:41.960
and that occupation doesn't call for the
elaborate gown and the silver slippers that missus

252
00:23:41.960 --> 00:23:48.400
Gardner had to wear when she went
dining and dancing with mister Law last Tuesday

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00:23:48.480 --> 00:23:53.720
night. Missus Law relates quote,
I sat up waiting for Walter. He

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00:23:53.759 --> 00:23:56.799
had phoned at dinner time and asked
me if I wanted to go out,

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00:23:56.960 --> 00:24:00.640
but I said I had to sew, so he told me he was going

256
00:24:00.680 --> 00:24:06.000
to work. I waited up for
him. About two in the morning,

257
00:24:06.240 --> 00:24:10.599
I saw a taxi cab stop next
door. You know, Walter's mother and

258
00:24:10.680 --> 00:24:15.279
father owned the Ellis Avenue property,
so we have to live there. I

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00:24:15.319 --> 00:24:18.640
thought Walter was drunk and was going
into the wrong house, But the next

260
00:24:18.680 --> 00:24:23.839
minute She pauses for a moment,
then continues, in a metallic voice.

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00:24:25.200 --> 00:24:29.000
The man came to my door and
told me my husband had been killed.

262
00:24:29.920 --> 00:24:33.559
At first I felt sorry for that
other woman, because she was guilty of

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00:24:33.680 --> 00:24:38.240
killing and everything. But did you
see her come in? She was almost

264
00:24:38.279 --> 00:24:42.920
giggling. Oh. I never knew
I could hate anyone so much. My

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00:24:44.039 --> 00:24:47.960
friends have told me they hope she
hangs. No, I don't want her

266
00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:52.200
to hang. And she shuddered as
much, almost as when she had seen

267
00:24:52.240 --> 00:24:56.240
the pistol with which her husband had
been killed. But I don't want her

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00:24:56.279 --> 00:25:00.799
to go to jail for a month
or two and then step out unquote,

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00:25:00.920 --> 00:25:06.240
regardless of what the legal penalty is. Missus Law and her father in law

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00:25:06.319 --> 00:25:11.799
feel religiously confident that quote, things
have been taken out of our hands unquote,

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00:25:11.119 --> 00:25:17.799
and that Belvit Gartner someday will learn
the law of compensation. The father

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00:25:17.960 --> 00:25:22.200
muses, it may not be today
nor tomorrow. It may take a long

273
00:25:22.319 --> 00:25:29.519
time, but it'll happen. With
an almost sprightly air of going slumming in

274
00:25:29.559 --> 00:25:33.720
a police station. Missus Gartner,
a few seats away, is explaining that

275
00:25:33.839 --> 00:25:38.680
quote Walter never did get along with
his wife He often told me that if

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00:25:38.680 --> 00:25:42.440
it weren't for his little boy,
he'd never lived with her. Then comes

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00:25:42.480 --> 00:25:47.039
the voice of missus Law. He
was so good, and he was so

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00:25:47.200 --> 00:25:51.000
fond of the boy, Walter Junior, the very image of his father.

279
00:25:51.480 --> 00:25:55.519
What will I tell the baby when
he begins to ask questions? What will

280
00:25:55.559 --> 00:26:00.599
I tell him? As the widow
is insisting that she never had the slightest

281
00:26:00.640 --> 00:26:06.039
suspicion that her husband was interested in
any woman, and reaffirming her testimony that

282
00:26:06.079 --> 00:26:10.720
he rarely was away from home in
the evenings, the devorcee is branding such

283
00:26:10.759 --> 00:26:15.839
a story as just a wife's yarn. Quote why sometimes he'd take me out

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00:26:15.880 --> 00:26:18.359
three evenings a week, and always
at least once or twice a week.

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00:26:18.440 --> 00:26:25.160
Ever since we met in December unquote. Paul Goodwin, a Fellows salesman down

286
00:26:25.200 --> 00:26:30.640
at Nash Automobile Company, has just
testified that Law told him Missus Gardner had

287
00:26:30.680 --> 00:26:36.720
threatened to kill him, and that
Law contemplated increasing his insurance for just an

288
00:26:36.720 --> 00:26:42.440
instant. Perhaps Missus Gardner loses her
buoyancy, her fingers swathed in their diamonds

289
00:26:42.440 --> 00:26:48.799
and sapphires, clutch at her purse
and her cosmetics, But a moment later,

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00:26:48.960 --> 00:26:53.720
she finds it easy to label this
story as the bunk quote. That's

291
00:26:53.799 --> 00:26:57.160
just a frame up on the part
of the automobile people. I'll tell you

292
00:26:57.200 --> 00:27:02.039
the truth about that insurance. A
few weeks ago, Wally told me his

293
00:27:02.079 --> 00:27:04.799
wife had her fortune told, and
the woman warned her that her husband would

294
00:27:04.880 --> 00:27:12.680
die inside of seven weeks unquote.
Law According to missus Gardner's story, confided

295
00:27:12.720 --> 00:27:18.119
to her that his wife, influenced
by the fortune teller, urged him to

296
00:27:18.160 --> 00:27:22.920
take out more insurance. Belva seems
proud of the information quote, but Wally

297
00:27:23.039 --> 00:27:26.200
told her he would tie up the
insurance so that his wife couldn't get a

298
00:27:26.240 --> 00:27:30.359
penny of it. He said he'd
have it all made out for his boy.

299
00:27:30.279 --> 00:27:34.160
Me threatened him with a knife.
That's crazy. He was always a

300
00:27:34.240 --> 00:27:38.920
courteous gentleman to me, Why should
I ever be angry with him? Unquote,

301
00:27:40.440 --> 00:27:45.319
And she opened her large brown eyes
still wider. The inquest is over.

302
00:27:45.759 --> 00:27:51.119
The jurors, to the immeasurable surprise
of Belva, have held her to

303
00:27:51.160 --> 00:27:56.039
the grand jury charged with murder.
Those who have been speculating on the feelings

304
00:27:56.039 --> 00:28:00.680
of a grief stricken widow. Shocked
at the news of her husband's infidel now

305
00:28:00.759 --> 00:28:04.559
begins to wonder how it feels to
kill a man. William Gardner, a

306
00:28:04.599 --> 00:28:11.519
wealthy manufacturer, it was revealed,
purchased the expensive care cool coat which his

307
00:28:11.599 --> 00:28:15.240
wife, Belva, was wearing the
night of the shooting. Missus Gardner,

308
00:28:15.519 --> 00:28:21.240
who had been divorced May seventh,
nineteen twenty, declared she hoped for a

309
00:28:21.319 --> 00:28:29.480
reconciliation quote just as soon as possible
unquote. He provided her with lawyers at

310
00:28:29.519 --> 00:28:33.279
his home. Missus Gardner admitted last
night that Belva had called him by phone

311
00:28:33.400 --> 00:28:38.680
nightly, but failed to do so. Tuesday night, the ex husband sat

312
00:28:38.720 --> 00:28:42.799
looking up at a full length portrait
of Belva done in the days when she

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00:28:42.920 --> 00:28:48.279
was a cafe singer. He had
paid two for the car in which Law's

314
00:28:48.359 --> 00:29:02.359
body was found. She that joleuse
to Chicago, Chicago. I'll show you

315
00:29:02.480 --> 00:29:08.480
around that at your bottom dollars.
You lose and lose in Chicago. All

316
00:29:08.559 --> 00:29:15.799
the folks who visit, I want
to settle down on stay Hate Street,

317
00:29:15.880 --> 00:29:21.759
that bring Hate Street. I just
want to say they do things that don't

318
00:29:21.799 --> 00:29:26.759
do on Broadway. Say you'll have
the time to tell you of life,

319
00:29:27.079 --> 00:29:33.160
Bring all your friends, your kids
in your way to Chicago, my home,

320
00:29:33.440 --> 00:29:55.079
time to Chicago, my hometime.
March fourteenth, nineteen twenty four.

321
00:29:59.279 --> 00:30:03.440
No, sweetheart, the world is
worth killing, especially when you've had a

322
00:30:03.480 --> 00:30:07.400
flock of him and the world knows
it. That is one of the musings

323
00:30:07.440 --> 00:30:12.359
of missus Belvigartner in her County jail
cell. And it is why so,

324
00:30:12.440 --> 00:30:17.960
she says, a broad minded jury
is all that is needed to free her

325
00:30:18.000 --> 00:30:25.240
of the charge of murdering Walter Law, the latest alleged lady murderess of Cook

326
00:30:25.359 --> 00:30:30.200
County, isn't a bit worried over
the case. Why it's silly to say

327
00:30:30.240 --> 00:30:36.079
I murdered Walter, she said during
a lengthy discourse on love jen guns,

328
00:30:36.119 --> 00:30:40.440
sweeties, wives and husbands. I
liked him and he loved me. But

329
00:30:40.599 --> 00:30:44.319
no woman can love a man enough
to kill him. They just aren't worth

330
00:30:44.359 --> 00:30:48.920
it because there are always plenty more. Walter was just a kid twenty nine,

331
00:30:49.119 --> 00:30:52.720
and I'm thirty eight. Why should
I have worried whether he loved me

332
00:30:52.880 --> 00:30:59.200
or whether he left me? Then? The double devor, say a frequent

333
00:30:59.240 --> 00:31:06.079
newspaper notoriety, turned to the question
of jury's Now that coroner's jury has held

334
00:31:06.119 --> 00:31:11.119
me for murder, that was bum
They were narrow minded old birds that they

335
00:31:11.240 --> 00:31:14.960
never heard a jazz band in their
lives. Now, if I'm tried,

336
00:31:15.279 --> 00:31:18.440
I want worldly men, broad minded
men, men who know what it's like

337
00:31:18.519 --> 00:31:22.880
to get out a bit. Why
no one like that would convict me?

338
00:31:23.359 --> 00:31:27.839
A long laugh and then are frown
But I wish I could remember just what

339
00:31:29.039 --> 00:31:33.240
happened. We got drunk and he
got killed with my gun in my car.

340
00:31:33.000 --> 00:31:37.759
But gin and guns, either one
is bad enough, but together they

341
00:31:37.759 --> 00:31:40.160
can get you in the dickens of
a mess, now, don't they?

342
00:31:40.839 --> 00:31:44.000
Now? If I hadn't had a
gun, or if Walter hadn't had the

343
00:31:44.079 --> 00:31:48.640
gin. Of course, it's too
bad for Walter's wife, But husbands always

344
00:31:48.680 --> 00:31:53.720
caused women trouble. No attempt was
made yesterday to get missus Gardner out on

345
00:31:53.799 --> 00:31:59.000
bail, and it's not likely one
will be made before the Grand Jury acts

346
00:31:59.480 --> 00:32:04.640
prosecute. Stanley Klarkowski hopes to get
the case before the Grand jury tomorrow or

347
00:32:04.720 --> 00:32:09.079
Monday, and is convinced there will
be an indictment. And while Missus Gartner

348
00:32:09.200 --> 00:32:15.480
twirtled in jail, plans were completed
for young Law's funeral. It will be

349
00:32:15.559 --> 00:32:29.960
held from his home and will be
private. April fourth, nineteen twenty four.

350
00:32:31.240 --> 00:32:36.559
For more than two hours yesterday afternoon, Missus Beulahan and a comely young

351
00:32:36.599 --> 00:32:40.440
wife played a foxtrot record named Hula
Lou in her little apartment at eight seventeen

352
00:32:40.519 --> 00:32:45.519
East forty sixth Street. Then she
telephoned her husband and reported that she had

353
00:32:45.599 --> 00:32:47.960
killed a man who had quote tried
to make love to her. The Hawaiian

354
00:32:49.000 --> 00:32:52.839
tune was the death song of Harry
Colstead, twenty nine years old, of

355
00:32:52.880 --> 00:32:55.759
eight oh eight East forty ninth Street, whom missus Annan shot because he had

356
00:32:55.880 --> 00:33:00.000
terminated their little wine party by announcing
that he was through with her. His

357
00:33:00.119 --> 00:33:04.920
body lay hunched against the wall in
her bedroom as she played the record over

358
00:33:04.960 --> 00:33:07.279
and over again. When taken to
the Hyde Park station by the police,

359
00:33:07.359 --> 00:33:13.079
missus Annan protested tearfully that she had
killed Colstead to save her honor, saying,

360
00:33:13.200 --> 00:33:16.279
quote, he came into my apartment
this afternoon and made himself at home.

361
00:33:16.559 --> 00:33:20.400
Although I scarcely knew him, he
tried to make me love him.

362
00:33:20.680 --> 00:33:23.960
I told him I would shoot he
kept coming anyway, and I did shoot

363
00:33:24.000 --> 00:33:29.640
him unquote soon after midnight. However, after the fumes of the liquor had

364
00:33:29.640 --> 00:33:32.599
worn away. She told a different
story to assistant state's attorneys bert A.

365
00:33:32.720 --> 00:33:37.240
Cronson and William F. McLaughlin.
For hours they had questioned her without breaking

366
00:33:37.279 --> 00:33:42.400
down her story. Then, with
Captain Edward Mernane of the Hyde Park Station,

367
00:33:42.640 --> 00:33:45.880
they took the woman back to her
apartment. There she was forced to

368
00:33:45.920 --> 00:33:49.480
stand in a dim light facing the
scene of the murder, while questions were

369
00:33:49.480 --> 00:33:53.160
fired at her in monotonous succession.
What about the blood on the phonograph record?

370
00:33:53.319 --> 00:33:58.319
What about the wine and gin bottles
in empty glasses? How come that

371
00:33:58.480 --> 00:34:02.119
Colstead was shot through the back?
Missus Annan was asked. Finally she broke

372
00:34:02.160 --> 00:34:06.839
down, You're right, I haven't
been telling the truth, she admitted.

373
00:34:07.039 --> 00:34:09.599
I've been fooling around with Harry for
two months. This morning, as soon

374
00:34:09.639 --> 00:34:13.920
as my husband left for work,
Harry called me up. I told him

375
00:34:13.920 --> 00:34:16.000
I wouldn't be home, but he
came over anyway. We sat in the

376
00:34:16.000 --> 00:34:20.559
flat for quite a time drinking.
Then I said, in a joking way

377
00:34:20.559 --> 00:34:22.400
that I was going to quit him. He said he was through with me

378
00:34:22.480 --> 00:34:25.199
and began to put on his coat. When I saw that he meant what

379
00:34:25.239 --> 00:34:29.840
he said, my mind went into
a whirl and I shot him. Then

380
00:34:29.880 --> 00:34:34.000
I started playing the record. I
was nervous to see, and as she

381
00:34:34.119 --> 00:34:37.119
played it, missus Annan began to
wonder about her husband. What would he

382
00:34:37.199 --> 00:34:40.239
say when he came home and found
a dead man lying in his bedroom?

383
00:34:40.519 --> 00:34:45.760
So at ten minutes before six,
she telephoned him at the garage at ninety

384
00:34:45.800 --> 00:34:50.119
one twenty Baltimore Avenue, where he's
employed. I've shot a man, Albert,

385
00:34:50.320 --> 00:34:52.840
she told him. He tried to
make love to me. Annan hurried

386
00:34:52.880 --> 00:34:58.400
home in a taxicab and found his
wife in an hysterical condition. Colstead,

387
00:34:58.440 --> 00:35:01.239
in his shirt sleeves, was hunching
ans the wall nearby, where his coat,

388
00:35:01.360 --> 00:35:07.000
hat, vest and overcoat. Missus
Annan's clothing was stained with blood.

389
00:35:07.280 --> 00:35:10.280
Annan picked up the telephone to call
the police. His wife threw herself on

390
00:35:10.400 --> 00:35:15.440
him, imploring him not to At
that instant, the connection was completed and

391
00:35:15.480 --> 00:35:19.840
the voice of Sergeant John O'Grady sounded
over the wire from the Wabash Avenue station.

392
00:35:20.320 --> 00:35:24.199
Missus Annan snatched the receiver. I've
just killed my husband, she shrieked.

393
00:35:24.519 --> 00:35:28.840
In reply to the sergeant's follow up
question, she mumbled her address.

394
00:35:29.079 --> 00:35:32.480
The receiver clicked. When detectives reached
the apartment, they found missus Annan,

395
00:35:32.639 --> 00:35:37.519
a beautiful woman of twenty three,
slim and tall, with reddish brown hair,

396
00:35:37.639 --> 00:35:40.960
bobbed the mode, waiting with a
fanciful story of having painted after shooting

397
00:35:42.039 --> 00:35:53.639
Colstead. April fifth, nineteen twenty
four, Beula May Annen, the twenty

398
00:35:53.679 --> 00:35:58.519
three year old wife who shot the
other man Thursday afternoon to the tune of

399
00:35:58.519 --> 00:36:02.320
her husband's phonograph, was held to
the grand jury yesterday afternoon by a coroner's

400
00:36:02.400 --> 00:36:07.039
jury, which charged her with the
murder of Harry Colstead. Assistant State's attorneys

401
00:36:07.119 --> 00:36:12.280
Bert Cronson, roy Wood and William
McLaughlin are preparing to rush the case to

402
00:36:12.320 --> 00:36:15.719
an early trial, at which they
will ask the death penalty. Thursday afternoon,

403
00:36:15.880 --> 00:36:21.519
missus Annan played Hula Loo on the
phonograph while the wooer she had shot

404
00:36:21.679 --> 00:36:25.519
during a drunken quarrel lay dying in
her bedroom at age seventeen East forty sixth

405
00:36:25.559 --> 00:36:31.280
Street, And yesterday afternoon, the
chapel organ at Boydston's undertaking Parlors played Nearer

406
00:36:31.320 --> 00:36:36.519
My God to Thee for an old
soldier's funeral while she waited for the inquest

407
00:36:36.559 --> 00:36:40.480
to start at the Hyde Park station. She insisted that Colstead's advances had caused

408
00:36:40.519 --> 00:36:45.840
her to shoot him to quote unquote
save her honor. Several hours later,

409
00:36:45.920 --> 00:36:49.159
however, when the effect of the
liquor had worn off, she broke down

410
00:36:49.239 --> 00:36:52.360
hysterically and confessed that she had lied, that Colstead had threatened to leave her,

411
00:36:52.400 --> 00:36:55.440
and that she had killed him rather
than lose him. But yesterday she

412
00:36:55.480 --> 00:37:00.119
only shook her head dreamily and smiled
when questioned, say, quote, I

413
00:37:00.199 --> 00:37:05.079
wish they'd let me see him still, it would only make me feel worse

414
00:37:05.480 --> 00:37:08.400
unquote. The last time she saw
him was when he lay dying, and

415
00:37:08.440 --> 00:37:14.360
she dare not feel his heart or
pulse because quote he was so bloody unquote.

416
00:37:14.519 --> 00:37:17.920
They say she's the prettiest woman ever
accused of murder in Chicago. Young,

417
00:37:19.039 --> 00:37:22.199
slender, with bobed auburn hair,
wide set, appealing blue eyes,

418
00:37:22.440 --> 00:37:29.639
tip tilted nose, translucent skin,
faintly very faintly rouged, an ingenuous smile,

419
00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:35.519
refined features, intelligent expression and quote
an awfully nice girl and more than

420
00:37:35.599 --> 00:37:38.960
usually pretty. She wore fond collar
dress and hose with black shoes, dark

421
00:37:39.000 --> 00:37:44.079
brown coat, and a brown georgette
hat that turned back with a youthful flare.

422
00:37:44.440 --> 00:37:46.880
While waiting for the inquest to start, she talked of her early life

423
00:37:46.920 --> 00:37:51.679
in Kentucky and her little seven year
old son by a former marriage, who

424
00:37:51.719 --> 00:37:55.320
now lives with his father's people in
Owensboro, Kentucky. Divorced from Perry Stevens

425
00:37:55.400 --> 00:37:59.719
after a year, she moved to
Louisville, where she met Albert Ann and

426
00:37:59.760 --> 00:38:02.599
her her present husband, whom she
married in Chicago four years ago. He

427
00:38:02.639 --> 00:38:07.440
made fifty or sixty dollars a week
as a mechanic at a garage at ninety

428
00:38:07.440 --> 00:38:12.280
one twenty Baltimore Avenue, but she
wanted to work too, and last September

429
00:38:12.360 --> 00:38:15.880
became bookkeeper for Tenant's Model Laundry.
It was there that she met Harry Colstead,

430
00:38:15.960 --> 00:38:20.559
another employee who took her for walks, visited her a few times in

431
00:38:20.599 --> 00:38:23.519
her husband's absence, and shared with
her a taste for booze. Calmly,

432
00:38:23.559 --> 00:38:28.280
she played with a piece of paper
and softly whistled through it. As Colstead's

433
00:38:28.280 --> 00:38:31.400
brother in law, William Wilcox told
the coroner's Journey which she had told him

434
00:38:31.639 --> 00:38:37.360
of the tragedy the night before.
He also identified the statement read by assistant

435
00:38:37.360 --> 00:38:39.920
state's attorney Roy Woods, as the
one she had made in his presence the

436
00:38:39.960 --> 00:38:45.119
preceding night. According to this,
Colstead had telephoned her early Thursday morning that

437
00:38:45.159 --> 00:38:47.960
he was going over on the West
Side to get some wine, and had

438
00:38:49.000 --> 00:38:52.519
come to her apartment fifteen minutes later
to get the money with which to buy

439
00:38:52.559 --> 00:38:54.519
it. She had the afternoon off
from work, and he joined her at

440
00:38:54.519 --> 00:38:59.400
about noon with two quarts of wine. After drinking for an hour or so,

441
00:38:59.519 --> 00:39:02.800
they started quarreling. She teased him
a little about to quote Billy the

442
00:39:02.880 --> 00:39:07.480
boy with an auto unquote, and
he reproved her for doing things she shouldn't.

443
00:39:07.920 --> 00:39:12.519
Then she flared back, you're just
a fore flusher and called him a

444
00:39:12.639 --> 00:39:16.719
jailbird. Colstead, it seems,
had served a penitentiary sentence for a statutory

445
00:39:16.840 --> 00:39:22.599
crime. He retorted hotly that she
was quote no good. A revolver was

446
00:39:22.679 --> 00:39:25.199
lying on the bed, and they
both sprang. Both went for the gun,

447
00:39:25.320 --> 00:39:30.760
interrupted W. W. O'Bryan,
counsel for missus Annan. Both sprang

448
00:39:30.840 --> 00:39:34.559
for it, but she reached at
first. The story went on. Colstead

449
00:39:34.559 --> 00:39:37.960
turned for his coat and hat,
but quote didn't get that far. She

450
00:39:37.039 --> 00:39:42.239
cupped her chin in his slim hand
with its orange blossom ring, and didn't

451
00:39:42.239 --> 00:39:45.000
blanche as the state read her answer
to the question why didn't he get that

452
00:39:45.119 --> 00:39:50.000
far? For darn good reason,
she said, I shot him. She

453
00:39:50.119 --> 00:39:52.599
caught him as he slipped to the
floor, calling my god, you shot

454
00:39:52.639 --> 00:39:57.159
me, and tried to tell him
that it wasn't true. His hands still

455
00:39:57.199 --> 00:40:00.800
felt soft, his face was soft, but she couldn't feel for his heart

456
00:40:00.880 --> 00:40:04.840
because it was quote all bloody.
She played again with the paper as the

457
00:40:04.840 --> 00:40:08.719
state's attorney read a confession of intimacy
with Colstead on three occasions, and laughed

458
00:40:08.800 --> 00:40:14.800
lightly as the lawyers quarreled over the
questioning. According to the testimony of policeman

459
00:40:14.880 --> 00:40:17.400
Thomas E. Towrton, who was
called at six oh five Thursday night,

460
00:40:17.639 --> 00:40:22.920
the shooting must have occurred at approximately
two o'clock that afternoon for almost four hours.

461
00:40:22.960 --> 00:40:28.199
Then she played the phonograph and paced
the floor before she telephoned her husband

462
00:40:28.199 --> 00:40:30.760
that she had killed a man.
Doctor Clifford Oliver, who arrived at six

463
00:40:30.840 --> 00:40:35.599
twenty o'clock, said Colstead had only
been dead half an hour or so.

464
00:40:36.079 --> 00:40:39.800
Missus Annan had posed prettily for the
photographers, but her husband hid his face

465
00:40:39.880 --> 00:40:44.719
with his rough, scarred hands.
When he took the stand, he identified

466
00:40:44.760 --> 00:40:49.199
the revolver a thirty eight caliber as
his and haltingly told how he had found

467
00:40:49.239 --> 00:40:52.159
the man who he did not know, dead and his wife too hysterical to

468
00:40:52.239 --> 00:40:57.639
talk. Thursday night at the station, he told the officers bitterly, quote,

469
00:40:57.960 --> 00:41:00.719
I've been a sucker. That's all
simp a meal ticket. I've worked

470
00:41:00.760 --> 00:41:05.239
ten, twelve, fourteen hours a
day and took home every cent of my

471
00:41:05.360 --> 00:41:07.960
money. We bought our furniture for
the little apartment on time, and it

472
00:41:08.000 --> 00:41:12.360
was all paid off but one hundred
dollars. I thought she was happy.

473
00:41:12.639 --> 00:41:16.320
I didn't know, unquote, but
yesterday he wouldn't talk, just shook his

474
00:41:16.320 --> 00:41:21.639
head sadly to all the questions.
Under advice of her attorney, missus Annan

475
00:41:21.719 --> 00:41:24.760
made no statement. When the finding
of murder was announced. She powdered her

476
00:41:24.760 --> 00:41:29.239
nose, took the money her husband
had borrowed, and went back to jail

477
00:41:29.320 --> 00:41:45.719
to await developments. April sixth,
nineteen twenty four. Of course, I'm

478
00:41:45.800 --> 00:41:49.719
sorry. I'd give my life to
have Harry Colstead alive again. And I

479
00:41:49.880 --> 00:41:53.719
never said I was glad. Why
I couldn't at this point tears filled the

480
00:41:53.760 --> 00:42:00.039
eyes of missus Beulah may Annan,
the quote unquote prettiest murderess held to the

481
00:41:59.880 --> 00:42:04.599
grand jury for shooting her sweetheart in
a drunken quarrel at her apartment on Thursday.

482
00:42:04.880 --> 00:42:07.639
Thursday night, she was in a
mad, hysterical frenzy when she babbled

483
00:42:07.679 --> 00:42:13.280
conflicting accounts of the murder Friday in
a daze that left her cold and unmoved

484
00:42:13.280 --> 00:42:16.679
at the inquest. But yesterday afternoon, in the county jail where she awaits

485
00:42:16.719 --> 00:42:21.920
indictment for murder, she began to
realize what it means to kill. And

486
00:42:21.960 --> 00:42:25.719
the music's changed too, hululoo on
the phonograph, while the lover she shot

487
00:42:25.880 --> 00:42:30.599
lay dying a funeral song in the
chapel when she awaited the inquest, and

488
00:42:30.760 --> 00:42:36.559
yesterday bring them in from the Fields
of Sin, sung by prisoners indicted or

489
00:42:36.639 --> 00:42:40.920
sentenced for robbery, prostitution and murder. It jars on her horribly, the

490
00:42:42.039 --> 00:42:45.719
laughter of the girls, their constant
talking the music. How can they she

491
00:42:45.840 --> 00:42:51.039
said, shivering. She posed for
her picture with Missus Belvi Gartner, whose

492
00:42:51.079 --> 00:42:54.719
trial for the shooting of law the
young auto salesman begins on April twenty first,

493
00:42:54.960 --> 00:43:00.079
but as of yet the two have
not talked over their common interest a

494
00:43:00.199 --> 00:43:02.679
man, a woman, liquor in
a gun. But unlike Missus Gardner,

495
00:43:02.679 --> 00:43:08.320
who waits cheerfully and philosophically, protesting
her innocence and disclaiming all recollection of the

496
00:43:08.400 --> 00:43:14.719
killing, Missus Annan remembers, I'll
never forget it. She shuddered, that

497
00:43:14.840 --> 00:43:19.119
white silk shirt, all covered with
blood. He never spoke or moved,

498
00:43:19.320 --> 00:43:22.960
just lay there. I know he
died as soon as he fell, and

499
00:43:22.159 --> 00:43:27.400
I was with him dead at this
point. Her eyes widened in horror.

500
00:43:27.679 --> 00:43:30.920
For two or three hours. I
never thought of a doctor until the policeman

501
00:43:30.960 --> 00:43:34.719
came, and when they said he
might be alive. Oh, it was

502
00:43:34.760 --> 00:43:38.559
the happiest moment of my life.
She remembers too, just how it happened,

503
00:43:38.880 --> 00:43:43.280
saying, quote, I had learned
that morning, just before I came

504
00:43:43.360 --> 00:43:46.079
home, that he had been in
the penitentiary, and I accused him of

505
00:43:46.119 --> 00:43:51.480
it. He grew angry and that
it wouldn't have happened if we both hadn't

506
00:43:51.519 --> 00:43:54.360
been drinking, and he had had
quite a lot before he came over.

507
00:43:54.719 --> 00:43:59.440
We both lost our heads. Saw
the revolver lying there, uncovered by the

508
00:43:59.440 --> 00:44:02.039
pillow. I hadn't made the bed
that morning and grabbed for it. I

509
00:44:02.079 --> 00:44:07.320
can see him now, that look
in his eyes. He was perfectly wild,

510
00:44:07.679 --> 00:44:10.639
and I know he would have killed
me if I hadn't reached it first.

511
00:44:12.039 --> 00:44:15.400
Her lawyer W. W. O'Brien
stated Friday that self defense would be

512
00:44:15.440 --> 00:44:20.800
her plea and that the statements made
at the police station would be repudiated as

513
00:44:20.840 --> 00:44:24.639
having been made under dress when intoxicated. I listened when they read the statements

514
00:44:24.639 --> 00:44:29.599
at the inquest, and some of
the things were right. But the newspapers

515
00:44:29.639 --> 00:44:32.840
are all wrong. They say I
killed him rather than have him leave me.

516
00:44:34.199 --> 00:44:37.280
Why I was the one who was
going to leave him. You see,

517
00:44:37.320 --> 00:44:39.400
I realized we couldn't go on,
that we never could be anything to

518
00:44:39.440 --> 00:44:43.960
each other. I've never loved him
as much as I did my hubby,

519
00:44:44.320 --> 00:44:46.639
And besides, he had nothing to
offer me, no inducement to make me

520
00:44:46.760 --> 00:44:51.599
leave Albert. It had gone on
as long as it should. I knew

521
00:44:51.639 --> 00:44:54.199
no good could come of it,
and her voice trailed off in a long

522
00:44:54.400 --> 00:44:59.360
sigh. And Albert annan for whom
what did come of it? Was a

523
00:44:59.360 --> 00:45:02.239
total shock, for he never dreamed
of her other love interest is going ahead

524
00:45:02.280 --> 00:45:06.519
with his work in the garage and
giving what money he can to help her

525
00:45:06.559 --> 00:45:09.719
out. What'll I do when it's
over. I don't know. There's not

526
00:45:09.880 --> 00:45:15.079
much use to think about that.
Albert probably won't want me back. My

527
00:45:15.239 --> 00:45:19.559
life is ruined anyway. I can
never live it down. Even if I

528
00:45:19.599 --> 00:45:22.719
went away where nobody knew you,
you can't get away from yourself. And

529
00:45:22.760 --> 00:45:28.760
I'd always remember that i'd killed him, always see that white shirt and the

530
00:45:28.920 --> 00:45:32.639
blood. She broke into sobs.
Her attorney helps to arrange bond for her

531
00:45:32.679 --> 00:45:37.039
in a couple of weeks and is
hoping for a speedy trial. Mister and

532
00:45:37.119 --> 00:45:42.280
Missus John Sheriff, parents of Missus
Beulah Annon, are heartbroken at their modest

533
00:45:42.280 --> 00:45:46.039
country home near Owensboro, Kentucky.
They received the news today of their daughter's

534
00:45:46.119 --> 00:45:52.000
arrest ten years ago. Beulah May
Sheriff, a beautiful country girl with curly

535
00:45:52.079 --> 00:45:55.599
Titian hair, came to Owensboro and
was married about eight years ago to Perry

536
00:45:55.639 --> 00:46:00.760
Stevens, a respected young man.
The beauty of the young wife won her

537
00:46:00.800 --> 00:46:06.400
many friends that eventually caused her husband
to sue her for divorce and the custody

538
00:46:06.480 --> 00:46:10.599
of their infant son. An automobile
accident nearly cost the life of Missus Annan

539
00:46:10.679 --> 00:46:15.599
a few years ago in this city, when in company with a young man

540
00:46:15.639 --> 00:46:19.360
of Owensboro, they were speeding on
the highway when the car crashed into a

541
00:46:19.400 --> 00:46:22.360
telephone pole. Shortly after that,
she went to Louisville, where she was

542
00:46:22.440 --> 00:46:28.239
married to Anna. Mister and Missus
Sheriff declined to discuss their daughter's case and

543
00:46:28.280 --> 00:46:38.480
said they had not decided whether they
would go to her defense. In Chicago,

544
00:46:39.360 --> 00:46:46.119
April seventh, nineteen twenty four,
Missus Beulah Annan's second day in the

545
00:46:46.159 --> 00:46:51.920
county jail where she waits indictment for
the murder of her sweetheart, Harry Colstead,

546
00:46:52.119 --> 00:46:55.719
was a trifle monotonous. Sunday's bad
enough any place, she said,

547
00:46:57.159 --> 00:47:01.000
but here, and Chicago's prettiest woman, the killer shrugged her shoulders in disgust.

548
00:47:01.960 --> 00:47:07.159
She missed the conveniences of home.
They won't even let you have coal,

549
00:47:07.199 --> 00:47:10.559
cream and powder, and they tuned
in the radio for a sacred concert

550
00:47:10.639 --> 00:47:17.000
instead of a Hawaiian foxtrot. And
the uncertainties growing tiresome. Will the grand

551
00:47:17.039 --> 00:47:22.239
jury indict her this week? Will
she get bond? Will her father,

552
00:47:22.400 --> 00:47:27.239
John Sheriff, Kentucky farmer, furnish
the money for she hasn't heard from him

553
00:47:27.239 --> 00:47:30.079
since the arrest, nor from her
mother, missus Mary Neil, who moved

554
00:47:30.119 --> 00:47:36.440
from forty nine nineteen Lake Park Avenue
Saturday night and left no address because she

555
00:47:36.480 --> 00:47:40.000
didn't want to be bothered. But
the husband, Albert Annan, who knew

556
00:47:40.039 --> 00:47:44.760
nothing of the other man till he
found the dead body in his apartment,

557
00:47:44.960 --> 00:47:49.920
is standing by her. Yesterday afternoon
he bundled up some clothes, a black

558
00:47:49.960 --> 00:47:52.239
crape dress and a checkered flannel,
and took them down to the jail.

559
00:47:53.039 --> 00:47:57.960
But Sunday isn't visiting day, so
he went back home to the little flat

560
00:47:58.119 --> 00:48:01.159
at eight seventeen East forty six,
where his wife had killed a man in

561
00:48:01.199 --> 00:48:07.559
a drunken quarrel. They'll have to
sell the furniture, now bought last November

562
00:48:07.599 --> 00:48:12.159
and all paid for except for a
hundred dollars there. An hour or so

563
00:48:12.360 --> 00:48:16.320
later, he repeated his steady refusal, nothing to say, and set his

564
00:48:16.440 --> 00:48:22.000
jaw determinedly. Ten years older than
Beulah May, he is quiet and a

565
00:48:22.039 --> 00:48:25.800
little stern. He had talked to
her only once since the tragedy at the

566
00:48:25.840 --> 00:48:30.119
Hyde Park Station when he tried to
shoulder the blame by saying he had killed

567
00:48:30.159 --> 00:48:35.960
Colstead when he found the two together. Tell her I'll stick. That's all

568
00:48:36.159 --> 00:48:39.679
that I'll stick, he said slowly. He's getting off from work today.

569
00:48:39.880 --> 00:48:45.800
He's a mechanic at a garage at
seventy one ninety Baltimore Avenue to see her

570
00:48:45.880 --> 00:48:50.800
attorney W. W. O'Brien about
getting bond. We've got to get her

571
00:48:50.880 --> 00:48:54.360
out, he said fiercely. Others
are helping to while away the hours for

572
00:48:54.480 --> 00:48:59.960
Beulah. A group of young men, admittedly, after having a few drinks,

573
00:49:00.119 --> 00:49:04.079
sent Flowers with a note, and
she didn't eat the chicken dinner he

574
00:49:04.119 --> 00:49:07.679
had planned for her. For a
friend sent in a juicy steak, French

575
00:49:07.679 --> 00:49:22.920
fried potatoes, and cucumber salad.
May ninth, nineteen twenty four. What

576
00:49:22.119 --> 00:49:25.440
counts with the jury when a woman
is on trial for murder? Youth,

577
00:49:25.719 --> 00:49:30.400
beauty, and if to these she
adds approaching motherhood for pretty missus Beulah ann

578
00:49:30.480 --> 00:49:34.920
And who shot her lover Harry Colstead, to the tune of her husband's phonograph,

579
00:49:35.039 --> 00:49:37.719
is expecting a visit from the stork
early this fall. This twenty three

580
00:49:37.800 --> 00:49:43.199
year old murderess now waiting trial is
making this the basis for a further appeal

581
00:49:43.239 --> 00:49:46.280
to clemency. Because of the four
term rule, missus Annan's case cannot be

582
00:49:46.320 --> 00:49:51.079
continued for more than four terms of
court without her consent. If she is

583
00:49:51.159 --> 00:49:54.079
brought to trial before autumn, her
condition could be considered by the jury since

584
00:49:54.159 --> 00:49:58.440
it has the right to pass sentence, and if the jury should give her

585
00:49:58.480 --> 00:50:02.079
death, there is no direction statute
covering such a contingency set a former state's

586
00:50:02.079 --> 00:50:07.119
attorney, but the state would have
to delay execution until after the birth of

587
00:50:07.159 --> 00:50:09.760
the child, since it would be
taken two lives instead of one. Her

588
00:50:09.840 --> 00:50:15.119
condition has no bearing upon the legality
of the case, said her attorney,

589
00:50:15.159 --> 00:50:19.760
William Scott Stewart. It would be
a matter of executive clemency whence the sentences

590
00:50:19.840 --> 00:50:22.599
passed, or it might affect the
jury. Will a jury give death?

591
00:50:22.800 --> 00:50:28.199
Will jury send to prison a mother? To be what affects a jury anyway?

592
00:50:28.519 --> 00:50:31.840
That's what they asked themselves, the
seven inmates of Murderers Row yesterday afternoon,

593
00:50:32.199 --> 00:50:36.599
for the conviction of one of their
number broke the monotony of their life

594
00:50:36.679 --> 00:50:40.760
and startled them into a worried analysis, and Elizabeth Uncoffered the queer one who

595
00:50:40.840 --> 00:50:45.079
received life for the leapier murder of
her lover, Sam Boltshoff, held the

596
00:50:45.119 --> 00:50:50.239
spotlight for a few brief hours.
They gave her life because she killed a

597
00:50:50.280 --> 00:50:52.599
man. I've killed a man?
Will they? Then? They gamely shake

598
00:50:52.639 --> 00:50:57.039
their heads. No, it can't
be life for them. What counts most

599
00:50:57.079 --> 00:51:01.159
with the jury, After all,
sex never swung in Illinois, said one

600
00:51:01.199 --> 00:51:07.239
triumphantly. Looks Elizabeth's Uncoffer was not
cursed with fatal beauty. A jury isn't

601
00:51:07.320 --> 00:51:13.199
blind, said another. And a
pretty woman's never been convicted in Cook County

602
00:51:13.559 --> 00:51:17.639
Gallant old Cook County youth Kitty Malm, who received life for shooting a watchman

603
00:51:17.760 --> 00:51:22.559
last November, is said to be
the only pretty young woman who's ever gone

604
00:51:22.599 --> 00:51:29.039
over that road. And Kitty wasn't
well quite refined. Of the four awaiting

605
00:51:29.119 --> 00:51:32.519
trial, the cases of Missus Annan
and Missus Belvi Gartner would seem most similar

606
00:51:32.559 --> 00:51:37.480
to Elizabeth un Kaffer's. Each is
accused of shooting a man, not her

607
00:51:37.599 --> 00:51:40.920
husband, with whom her relations were
at least questioned. Each is supposed to

608
00:51:40.920 --> 00:51:45.679
be a woman scorned who shot the
man rather than lose him, but neither

609
00:51:45.840 --> 00:51:51.599
was at all disconcerted by missus Unkaffer's
sentence. I can't see that it's anything

610
00:51:51.639 --> 00:51:55.320
at all like my case, said
missus Gardner, the sophisticated divorcee indicted for

611
00:51:55.400 --> 00:52:00.440
shooting law the young auto salesman,
as she twirled about in her red dancing

612
00:52:00.519 --> 00:52:05.760
slippers. The cases are entirely different, said missus Annan, quite the ingenue

613
00:52:05.880 --> 00:52:09.400
in her girlish checked flannel frock.
Elizabeth, with her straggly mop of red

614
00:52:09.440 --> 00:52:14.159
hair, pale eyes, and flabby
cheeks, remembers it all too well,

615
00:52:14.480 --> 00:52:17.119
she paused, in her scrubbing of
the jail floors yesterday afternoon, to live

616
00:52:17.159 --> 00:52:22.400
it all over again. Her attorney
had pleaded insanity. Think I'm going to

617
00:52:22.480 --> 00:52:25.559
say I'm crazy, she asked,
indignantly. Not much. They'd lock me

618
00:52:25.639 --> 00:52:29.480
up then with some that are worse
than I am, and no telling them

619
00:52:29.559 --> 00:52:32.239
what would happen. I wanted them
to shoot me, why not at Stayton

620
00:52:32.280 --> 00:52:36.440
Madison, make a big day of
it and give everyone a front seat.

621
00:52:36.599 --> 00:53:07.199
But they gave me life instead.
May twenty fourth, nineteen twenty four.

622
00:53:08.519 --> 00:53:15.199
Beautiful Beulah Annan's chance for freedom was
lessened yesterday when Judge Lindsay ruled after an

623
00:53:15.199 --> 00:53:19.320
extended hearing that the confession she had
made to the police the night following the

624
00:53:19.400 --> 00:53:23.519
murder of Harry Colstead April third,
were admissible as evidence. I'm the only

625
00:53:23.559 --> 00:53:29.119
witness. Beulah has boasted Harry's dead, and they'll have to believe my story.

626
00:53:29.440 --> 00:53:32.400
But which one? The confession she
made to assist in state's attorney Roy

627
00:53:32.440 --> 00:53:37.480
C. Woods, with a court
reporter present in her apartment at nine o'clock

628
00:53:37.559 --> 00:53:39.760
the night of the crime, when
she said that she shot Colstead, whom

629
00:53:39.840 --> 00:53:44.960
she barely knew, to save her
honor as he approached her in attack,

630
00:53:45.440 --> 00:53:47.719
or the statement that she made at
the Hyde Park police station, also with

631
00:53:47.800 --> 00:53:52.320
court reporters present, three hours later. Then she broke down and admitted she

632
00:53:52.400 --> 00:53:55.400
shot him in the back. The
man was about to leave her. After

633
00:53:55.400 --> 00:54:00.239
a jealous quarrel, she said,
will the jury believe that? Or will

634
00:54:00.280 --> 00:54:04.119
the jury credit the story that she'll
tell in court a plea of self defense?

635
00:54:04.480 --> 00:54:07.360
Quote we both grab for the revolver
when she takes the stand today,

636
00:54:07.760 --> 00:54:13.000
pale not quite so pretty. Beulah
didn't smile as she took the stand yesterday

637
00:54:13.079 --> 00:54:16.239
morning to help her attorneys, William
Scott Stewart and W. W. O'Brien

638
00:54:16.360 --> 00:54:21.679
proved that she had been unduly influenced
and offered immunity by the state if she

639
00:54:21.679 --> 00:54:24.800
would make a statement. Slim and
straight in her new brown satin crape frock

640
00:54:24.960 --> 00:54:29.840
with fur piece thrown over one arm, she walked carelessly to the stand,

641
00:54:30.079 --> 00:54:34.719
moistened her lips, and was sworn
in seemingly calm but her answer is keen

642
00:54:34.719 --> 00:54:38.400
only for the judge in the absence
of the jury were weak. Question who

643
00:54:38.440 --> 00:54:43.800
was the first person to arrive at
your apartment after the shooting? Answer Officer

644
00:54:43.880 --> 00:54:47.920
Torpy. Question what did he say? Answer? Where's the gun? Question

645
00:54:49.280 --> 00:54:52.960
what did you say? Answer?
My husband gave him the gun and I

646
00:54:52.960 --> 00:54:59.000
don't remember much else. Question whom
did you see? Next? Answer Assistant

647
00:54:59.000 --> 00:55:02.760
States Attorney. Would it's question now
you had fainted during the time you saw

648
00:55:02.880 --> 00:55:08.000
Torpia and mister Woods? Answer yes. Question what did mister Woods say?

649
00:55:08.280 --> 00:55:12.239
Answer? Well, we went into
the kitchen and he said, don't you

650
00:55:12.320 --> 00:55:15.320
know me? And I said no, and he said, I'm Roy C.

651
00:55:15.519 --> 00:55:19.719
Woods and I'm a customer of mister
Wilcox and a personal friend of his.

652
00:55:20.159 --> 00:55:22.119
Then he told me not to be
afraid that I'd shot the man in

653
00:55:22.199 --> 00:55:27.400
my own house, and that it
was no crime. This evidence was uncontradicted

654
00:55:27.400 --> 00:55:30.280
by the state since mister Woods,
as prosecutor in the case, couldn't take

655
00:55:30.320 --> 00:55:35.639
the stand, but Judge Lindsay indicated
in his talk with counsel that he gave

656
00:55:35.679 --> 00:55:39.239
it slight credence, saying, quote, her statements are entirely too vague.

657
00:55:39.559 --> 00:55:44.679
Moreover, it is peculiar that she
was so intoxicated that she didn't know what

658
00:55:44.800 --> 00:55:49.199
had happened a few hours after the
crime, and today has a perfect recollection

659
00:55:49.320 --> 00:55:53.320
of minute details unquote. W.
W. Wilcox, brother in law of

660
00:55:53.360 --> 00:55:58.199
the dead man, testified that no
one had tried to force Beulah to make

661
00:55:58.239 --> 00:56:01.639
the statements or had promised herunity.
However she tried to get it. He

662
00:56:01.760 --> 00:56:07.199
stated. She asked Woods if he
couldn't frame it to look like an accident,

663
00:56:07.519 --> 00:56:10.280
and Woods said, you don't frame
anything with me. He stated further

664
00:56:10.360 --> 00:56:15.519
that Beulah seemed perfectly natural the night
of the crime, seeming a little sorry

665
00:56:15.559 --> 00:56:19.079
now and then, but smiling most
of the time. Albert Allen, the

666
00:56:19.119 --> 00:56:22.079
court reporter who had taken both of
her confessions, testified that she had made

667
00:56:22.119 --> 00:56:25.480
them with full understanding that they might
be used against her, and that they

668
00:56:25.519 --> 00:56:30.960
were voluntary and of her own free
will. Police officers gave testimony to the

669
00:56:30.960 --> 00:56:36.039
same effect, though they noted she
was in a hysterical condition for several hours.

670
00:56:36.400 --> 00:56:39.760
Counsel for the defense objected in particular
to the admission of states exhibit to

671
00:56:40.239 --> 00:56:45.119
the Midnight confession, as in it, missus Annan confessed to intimacy on various

672
00:56:45.159 --> 00:56:51.360
occasions with the man she afterwards killed. We're not trying a case of adultery,

673
00:56:51.480 --> 00:56:54.440
Judge objected, W. W.
O'Brien. Judge Lindsay, however,

674
00:56:54.559 --> 00:57:00.639
ruled that the admission was relevant to
the case. Beulah, frankly by such

675
00:57:00.679 --> 00:57:04.760
technicalities, stared around the room like
a wide eyed kitten, and gave her

676
00:57:04.760 --> 00:57:09.000
attention only when state's attorney William F. McLaughlin read the two confessions. According

677
00:57:09.000 --> 00:57:14.079
to the first statement, Colstead had
come into her house early in the afternoon,

678
00:57:14.400 --> 00:57:16.920
greatly to her surprise, for she
barely knew him, and he took

679
00:57:16.960 --> 00:57:20.840
off his coat and hat, then
turned and tried to take her in his

680
00:57:21.000 --> 00:57:23.840
arms, saying with a look in
his eyes, she anne, I'm crazy

681
00:57:23.880 --> 00:57:28.519
about you. She begged him to
go. She said, but he refused

682
00:57:28.559 --> 00:57:30.800
and followed her into the bedroom,
where she reached for the revolver, which

683
00:57:30.840 --> 00:57:35.719
was lying under a pillow on the
disarranged bed. Then she closed her eyes

684
00:57:35.800 --> 00:57:37.960
and shot him as he approached her, but he was shot in the back.

685
00:57:38.079 --> 00:57:42.360
They told her it was this fact
which caused her to make a new

686
00:57:42.440 --> 00:57:45.920
statement, giving what the state believes
is a true account of the affair.

687
00:57:45.280 --> 00:57:50.159
Beulah listened with set features to the
reading of her admission that she had given

688
00:57:50.239 --> 00:57:53.039
Colstead, whom she had known for
several months at Tenant's laundry, where she

689
00:57:53.079 --> 00:57:57.400
was employed as a bookkeeper, a
dollar to get some wine to bring to

690
00:57:57.440 --> 00:58:01.400
her apartment Thursday afternoon, her afternoon
off. He came about half past twelve,

691
00:58:01.440 --> 00:58:06.480
and they started the party. Question
how much did you drink? Answer?

692
00:58:06.800 --> 00:58:12.320
Half a gallon? Question the two
of you answer yes. We had

693
00:58:12.360 --> 00:58:16.159
an argument. Question what about Answer
well, I heard he had been in

694
00:58:16.239 --> 00:58:20.800
jail, and I asked him about
it. Question what did he say?

695
00:58:21.199 --> 00:58:23.480
Answer? He said he had And
then I told him he had always told

696
00:58:23.519 --> 00:58:27.440
me he had a lot of money
and his people were sending him money.

697
00:58:27.719 --> 00:58:31.159
The questions then related to a certain
billy who had called missus Ann in that

698
00:58:31.239 --> 00:58:37.320
morning for a date which she had
refused for Colstead. Question did he say

699
00:58:37.360 --> 00:58:40.960
anything to you about your having done
things that you shouldn't? Answer? Oh,

700
00:58:42.079 --> 00:58:45.039
yes, and I said to him, well you're nothing. Question did

701
00:58:45.119 --> 00:58:51.079
you call him anything? Answer?
Yes? Question what did he say then?

702
00:58:51.320 --> 00:58:54.079
Answer? He lumped me. Question
did he say anything to you about

703
00:58:54.079 --> 00:58:58.440
being through with you? Answer?
Well, he may have said to hell

704
00:58:58.519 --> 00:59:02.840
with you or something like that.
Question When was that answer after I told

705
00:59:02.920 --> 00:59:07.920
him he was just a jailbird and
didn't have any money. Question then you

706
00:59:07.960 --> 00:59:10.800
say he jumped up? Answer?
I was ahead of him. I grabbed

707
00:59:10.840 --> 00:59:15.239
for the gun. Question and what
did he grab for? Answer for what

708
00:59:15.440 --> 00:59:20.840
was left? Nothing? Question did
he get his coat and hat? Answer?

709
00:59:21.280 --> 00:59:23.880
No, he didn't get that far. Question why didn't he get that

710
00:59:24.000 --> 00:59:29.840
far? Answer? Darn good reason? Question what was it? Answer?

711
00:59:30.199 --> 00:59:35.280
I shot him? Further answers told
the story of her playing the phonograph Hululu,

712
00:59:35.400 --> 00:59:38.199
who had more sweeties than a dog
had fleas to keep the neighbors from

713
00:59:38.199 --> 00:59:44.400
suspecting. The judge cast unbelieving glances
at the young woman who sat so calmly

714
00:59:44.519 --> 00:59:46.800
listening to the story of the killing, as told in her own words.

715
00:59:47.159 --> 00:59:51.800
All this time, the jury had
been excluded while the judge decided whether the

716
00:59:51.880 --> 00:59:54.599
various versions of the killing were to
be read before it. With the return

717
00:59:54.679 --> 00:59:59.320
of the jury into the courtroom,
Beulah pepped up a bit and tried to

718
00:59:59.360 --> 01:00:04.159
register antrition and regret. At the
proper intervals, William F. McLaughlin gave

719
01:00:04.199 --> 01:00:07.320
a brief outline of the case the
state would present. Then W. W.

720
01:00:07.480 --> 01:00:12.679
O'Brien gave his version, and the
whole court sat up in attention as

721
01:00:12.679 --> 01:00:19.239
he depicted Beulah the virtuous working girl, Beulah the modest little housewife. Tears

722
01:00:19.280 --> 01:00:22.960
slowly came to Beulah's eyes as he
told how Colstead, a regular bum,

723
01:00:23.159 --> 01:00:27.840
had come to her apartment early the
morning of the shooting, and had tried

724
01:00:27.880 --> 01:00:30.639
to borrow a few dollars to get
booze. Finally, to get rid of

725
01:00:30.679 --> 01:00:34.960
him, she had given him a
dollar, and then that afternoon he had

726
01:00:34.960 --> 01:00:38.480
returned, intoxicated and forced his way
into the house. Frightened, she begged

727
01:00:38.519 --> 01:00:43.679
him to leave, but he refused, and then she foolishly took a drink

728
01:00:43.960 --> 01:00:46.599
just to humor room and get him
to go, said mister O'Brien, with

729
01:00:46.719 --> 01:00:51.880
sad regret and played the victrola at
a drown as loud talking, but he

730
01:00:52.000 --> 01:00:55.840
started to make love to her improper
advances, and then they took another little

731
01:00:55.920 --> 01:01:04.800
drinks. The jury followed him down
the path of another little drink until Colstead

732
01:01:04.840 --> 01:01:07.679
threatened to attack her, boasting that
he had served time for quote having his

733
01:01:07.760 --> 01:01:13.159
way with a woman and quote that's
the kind of man he was. Then,

734
01:01:13.239 --> 01:01:15.960
according to her attorney, Beulah,
in a frenzy, started Oh no,

735
01:01:16.039 --> 01:01:20.079
not for the gun, but the
telephone to call her husband, to

736
01:01:20.079 --> 01:01:22.519
tell him of the danger she was
in. And it was then Colstead went

737
01:01:22.519 --> 01:01:27.119
for the gun, conveniently parked on
the bed, but she had the inside

738
01:01:27.159 --> 01:01:30.599
track, and in the struggle she
turned around, and that's how he was

739
01:01:30.599 --> 01:01:34.679
shot in the back. Attorney Steward
posed to show just how it was done.

740
01:01:34.920 --> 01:01:38.360
Later, the state called a surprise
witness, missus maybel Bergmann ten twenty

741
01:01:38.360 --> 01:01:43.679
two Dayton Street, head bookkeeper at
the laundry where missus Annan was employed.

742
01:01:44.079 --> 01:01:47.239
Question did you hear from missus Annan
in the afternoon of April third, when

743
01:01:47.280 --> 01:01:52.039
she was off of work? Answer? At about four ten she called me

744
01:01:52.119 --> 01:01:55.320
up at the office. Question?
What was said? Answer? She said,

745
01:01:55.360 --> 01:01:59.039
Hello, Betty, what are you
doing? And I said, I'm

746
01:01:59.079 --> 01:02:02.400
awfully busy. And she said,
is Billy there, meaning mister Wilcox,

747
01:02:02.719 --> 01:02:06.440
And I said that he'd been in
and out. And then she said,

748
01:02:06.599 --> 01:02:10.039
is mu there meaning Harry Colstead?
And I answered, you know, he

749
01:02:10.119 --> 01:02:15.079
hasn't been here all day, and
she said, that's funny. I had

750
01:02:15.079 --> 01:02:17.719
an appointment with him for a quarter
after twelve and he hasn't shown up.

751
01:02:19.000 --> 01:02:22.039
The court and jury looked at Beulah
for at four twenty Colstead was lying in

752
01:02:22.079 --> 01:02:28.079
her apartment dead, and she was
playing the jazz records on the VICTROLA question

753
01:02:28.400 --> 01:02:31.119
what did you say? Then?
Answer? I said, what's the matter?

754
01:02:31.239 --> 01:02:35.400
Red? You sound kind of stewed, and she said, no,

755
01:02:35.599 --> 01:02:38.079
I haven't had a drink all day. I talk queerly because I'm trying to

756
01:02:38.119 --> 01:02:42.079
talk to you, and read the
telephone directory all at the same time,

757
01:02:42.440 --> 01:02:45.880
and that was all. The two
women exchanged flashing glances as the pretty brunette

758
01:02:45.920 --> 01:02:51.599
stepped down from the witness stand and
sailed past Red. The character of Harry

759
01:02:51.639 --> 01:02:54.679
Colstead was brought up in the questioning
of W. W. Wilcox. Mister

760
01:02:54.719 --> 01:02:59.880
O'Brien implied that the dead man had
been in the penitentiary in Michigan, and

761
01:03:00.000 --> 01:03:04.920
its witness resented it. He was
in the Saint Cloud Reformatory. Wilcox said,

762
01:03:05.199 --> 01:03:08.840
for what reason, the attorney asked, wife. Desertion was the answer.

763
01:03:21.159 --> 01:03:27.360
May twenty fifth, nineteen twenty four. Beulah Annan, whose pursuit of

764
01:03:27.440 --> 01:03:30.800
wine men in jazz music was interrupted
by her glibness with the trigger finger,

765
01:03:31.000 --> 01:03:36.800
was given freedom last night by her
beauty proof jury. The jury retired from

766
01:03:36.880 --> 01:03:40.039
Judge Lindsay's court at eight thirty and
at ten twenty brought in the verdict of

767
01:03:40.079 --> 01:03:45.599
not guilty on the third ballot,
acquitting her of the murder of her admirer,

768
01:03:45.719 --> 01:03:50.400
Harry Colstead and her apartment at eight
seventeen East forty sixth Street. On

769
01:03:50.440 --> 01:03:54.280
April third, the fair defendant thanked
the jury all around, assisted by her

770
01:03:54.320 --> 01:04:00.079
faithful husband. Al Oh, I
can't thank you, she said, flash

771
01:04:00.199 --> 01:04:03.199
a glance at each one as she
pressed his hand. You don't understand,

772
01:04:03.360 --> 01:04:08.880
you can't know, but I felt
sure you would. Mister Annan, who

773
01:04:08.960 --> 01:04:12.079
had stood by her from the very
night he found the man lying dead in

774
01:04:12.079 --> 01:04:15.679
his bedroom, was almost overcome with
joy and gratitude. I knew my wife

775
01:04:15.719 --> 01:04:19.079
would come through all right, he
said proudly. That seemed to be the

776
01:04:19.119 --> 01:04:25.320
consensus of opinion. Another pretty woman
gone free was the only comment made by

777
01:04:25.320 --> 01:04:30.159
Assistant States Attorney William F. McLaughlin, who prosecuted the case alone after the

778
01:04:30.199 --> 01:04:33.960
withdrawal of Royce Woods, who was
called as a material witness. Beautiful but

779
01:04:34.199 --> 01:04:40.039
not dumb, for she had talked
incessantly two different versions of the shooting before

780
01:04:40.079 --> 01:04:43.760
she came to trial, and the
third one when she took the stand yesterday

781
01:04:44.000 --> 01:04:47.199
was the charm We both grabbed for
the gun under the glare of the motion

782
01:04:47.360 --> 01:04:53.280
picture lights. A newsweekly Beulah took
the stand and yet another new dress,

783
01:04:53.519 --> 01:04:57.920
navy twill, tied to the side
with a childlike more Beaux with new necklace

784
01:04:57.960 --> 01:05:02.239
of crystalline jet. She made her
as an actress, and the jury laughingly

785
01:05:02.320 --> 01:05:08.000
nominated the youngest of their sheikhs as
a Rudolph for the Titian haired Sheiba more

786
01:05:08.039 --> 01:05:12.440
calm than she was Friday. She
answered the questions in her childlike Southern voice

787
01:05:12.559 --> 01:05:16.159
and turned innocent, pleading eyes to
the jury and attorney. Question did you

788
01:05:16.199 --> 01:05:21.920
shoot this man? Answer? I
did? Question why? Answer because he

789
01:05:23.000 --> 01:05:27.360
was going to shoot me? Simply, she told the story of Coolstad's morning

790
01:05:27.440 --> 01:05:30.480
visit to her apartment after her husband
had gone to work, of his attempt

791
01:05:30.519 --> 01:05:34.519
to borrow six dollars from her for
booze, and of the subsequent return that

792
01:05:34.599 --> 01:05:39.960
afternoon with two quarts of moonshine.
I saw he was drunk and begged him

793
01:05:40.000 --> 01:05:43.320
to go, but he refused and
asked me to take a drink first,

794
01:05:43.599 --> 01:05:45.599
so I did, just to get
him to leave, but he still wouldn't

795
01:05:45.599 --> 01:05:48.920
go, though I begged him to
told him my husband might come home and

796
01:05:48.920 --> 01:05:53.320
that he would shoot us both.
Question and what did you say to that?

797
01:05:53.840 --> 01:05:57.360
He said, to how with your
husband? Then he insisted that I'd

798
01:05:57.400 --> 01:06:00.440
take another drink, and I did. Then he said let's have a little

799
01:06:00.519 --> 01:06:04.119
jazz and we played the Victrola and
then and then he said come on into

800
01:06:04.159 --> 01:06:09.320
the bedroom, and I refused and
begged him to go, and finally I

801
01:06:09.400 --> 01:06:13.800
told him. She faltered and sent
an appealing glance to her attorney. Yes,

802
01:06:14.159 --> 01:06:17.360
said mister Scott Stewart, encouragingly,
Go ahead, Beulah, tell the

803
01:06:17.440 --> 01:06:21.599
jury. She closed her eyes a
moment, then went bravely on. I

804
01:06:21.760 --> 01:06:27.239
told him of my delicate condition,
but he refused to believe me and boasted

805
01:06:27.280 --> 01:06:30.760
that another woman had fooled in that
way, and then he had done time

806
01:06:30.760 --> 01:06:34.079
in the penitentiary for her. And
I said, you'll do another And he

807
01:06:34.159 --> 01:06:39.280
said you'll never send me back.
And I said, I'll call my husband

808
01:06:39.559 --> 01:06:43.960
and he'll shoot us both. Question
what did he say to that? Answer?

809
01:06:44.280 --> 01:06:47.360
He said, where is that damn
gun? Question? Then what did

810
01:06:47.360 --> 01:06:51.639
he do? Answer? He started
for the bedroom. Question how did you

811
01:06:51.679 --> 01:06:56.360
reach the bedroom? Answer? Maybe
he was a step ahead of me,

812
01:06:56.639 --> 01:06:59.480
and by the time we got to
the bed, I was even with him.

813
01:06:59.719 --> 01:07:01.440
He grabbed for it. I reached
for it and got it first.

814
01:07:01.760 --> 01:07:04.880
Then he put up his hand and
said, by god, I'll kill you

815
01:07:05.039 --> 01:07:10.639
yet. Question Then what did he
do? Answer? He started towards me,

816
01:07:10.679 --> 01:07:14.320
and I pushed his shoulder with my
left hand and shot. She closed

817
01:07:14.320 --> 01:07:17.000
her eyes, her face pale under
the glare of the movie lights. In

818
01:07:17.199 --> 01:07:21.320
horror of the picture, and weakly
describing the details of the shooting, She

819
01:07:21.440 --> 01:07:26.840
told how she had wiped his face, had turned off the grating phonograph record,

820
01:07:27.079 --> 01:07:30.880
and had sunk down in a daze
beside the body. She denied having

821
01:07:30.920 --> 01:07:33.880
called Betty Bergman the afternoon of the
murder, told again of her promise of

822
01:07:33.920 --> 01:07:39.000
immunity if she would make the statements
to the police, and denied intimacy with

823
01:07:39.119 --> 01:07:44.360
Kolstead. Thoroughly poised under direct questioning, she was a trifle nonplussed by the

824
01:07:44.400 --> 01:07:48.760
opening attack of the prosecution. In
cross questioning for mister McLaughlin tried to establish

825
01:07:48.840 --> 01:07:54.119
the fact that her story had been
framed by her attorneys, but she rallied

826
01:07:54.119 --> 01:07:57.719
when it came to the story itself, and was only slightly daunted when he

827
01:07:57.760 --> 01:08:01.199
pointed out that it was remarkable that
she should be a step behind Colstead in

828
01:08:01.280 --> 01:08:04.800
the getaway, have the outside track, and yet beat him to the gun.

829
01:08:05.199 --> 01:08:09.199
One by one, he read her
the questions and answers she had made

830
01:08:09.239 --> 01:08:12.400
at the Hyde Park police station the
night of the murder, in which she

831
01:08:12.440 --> 01:08:15.359
confessed to killing the man after a
jealous quarrel. She searched him with her

832
01:08:15.399 --> 01:08:18.880
shallow eyes, What was back of
it all? When you were asked?

833
01:08:18.880 --> 01:08:24.079
This? Was this your answer?
I don't remember, No, I did

834
01:08:24.199 --> 01:08:29.439
not. One by one she repudiated
every statement in the confession, burying the

835
01:08:29.479 --> 01:08:34.359
defiance of her no with the childishly
petulant I don't remember. That's my story

836
01:08:34.399 --> 01:08:39.079
and I'll stick to it. Was
her attitude, and she did till she

837
01:08:39.119 --> 01:08:43.680
stepped down demurely from the witness stand, with the settled complacency of a schoolgirl

838
01:08:43.720 --> 01:08:46.359
who had set her piece, and
under the glare of the movie lights.

839
01:08:46.479 --> 01:08:50.720
Missus Mary Neil, her mother,
was called by the defense as a sympathy

840
01:08:50.760 --> 01:08:55.680
witness. Her dark eyes were drawn
and mouth set as she answered a few

841
01:08:55.720 --> 01:08:59.760
simple questions as to her name,
relationship to the defendant, et cetera.

842
01:09:00.000 --> 01:09:03.560
All Her faithful husband marched briskly to
the stand, but he was not permitted

843
01:09:03.600 --> 01:09:08.800
to testify on account of his relationship
with her. Roy C. Woods,

844
01:09:08.840 --> 01:09:12.880
originally a prosecutor in the case,
was called by the state as a rebuttal

845
01:09:12.920 --> 01:09:16.479
witness to refute Missus Annan's testimony that
he had promised her immunity if she would

846
01:09:16.479 --> 01:09:20.039
confess to him. Question did you
say to Beula Anne and that you would

847
01:09:20.039 --> 01:09:25.239
help her if she would keep Wilcox's
Colstad's brother in law's name out of it?

848
01:09:25.520 --> 01:09:29.640
Answer? I did not. Question
did you tell her it was no

849
01:09:29.800 --> 01:09:33.159
crime for her to shoot a man
in her own house? Answer most certainly

850
01:09:33.239 --> 01:09:38.439
not. Question did you tell her
that she couldn't frame anything with you?

851
01:09:38.920 --> 01:09:44.279
Answer? I did Beulis sat with
bowed head through the state's opening argument,

852
01:09:44.640 --> 01:09:47.479
in which mister McLaughlin pointed out the
weak points in her story. That a

853
01:09:47.520 --> 01:09:51.119
woman should try to soothe the man
who was threatening to attack her by drinking

854
01:09:51.159 --> 01:09:55.960
with him, that he knew where
the gun was in a totally strange house,

855
01:09:56.399 --> 01:09:59.520
that he was shot in the back. You have seen that faced,

856
01:09:59.560 --> 01:10:02.199
gentleman. It's probable that she hadn't
had many men tell her to go to

857
01:10:02.279 --> 01:10:06.439
hell, and that was why she
went for the gun. The prosecutor told

858
01:10:06.439 --> 01:10:11.600
the jury his main argument was hinged
on the credibility of the witness, who

859
01:10:11.640 --> 01:10:15.359
had made three entirely different statements to
the jury. William Scott Stewart read line

860
01:10:15.399 --> 01:10:19.880
by line the confessions and demonstrated the
third degree methods that were used to obtain

861
01:10:19.960 --> 01:10:25.439
them. Then Beulah, the tender
hearted slayer, broke into gentle sobs.

862
01:10:25.840 --> 01:10:29.479
She had played the big trolla while
a man she murdered lay dying. She

863
01:10:29.560 --> 01:10:32.439
had laughed at his inquest. She
had sat calm and composed while they read

864
01:10:32.479 --> 01:10:36.920
descriptions of the crime. But she
broke down when she heard her attorney's impassioned

865
01:10:36.920 --> 01:10:41.920
account of the sufferings she had undergone
at the hands of the police and assistant

866
01:10:41.920 --> 01:10:46.359
States Attorneys who questioned her for statements. And again she was overcome with emotion

867
01:10:46.720 --> 01:10:53.119
when mister O'Brien painted the picture of
this frail little girl gentleman struggling with a

868
01:10:53.199 --> 01:10:57.880
drunken brute, and the jury shook
their heads in approbation and chewed their gum

869
01:10:57.920 --> 01:11:02.239
more energetically. The verdict in your
hands was the voice of the people's prosecutor.

870
01:11:02.560 --> 01:11:06.119
And you must decide whether you will
permit a woman to commit a crime

871
01:11:06.239 --> 01:11:11.239
and let her go because she is
good looking. You must decide whether you

872
01:11:11.319 --> 01:11:15.159
want to let another pretty woman go
out and say I got away with it,

873
01:11:15.880 --> 01:11:29.640
And they did. June fourth,
nineteen twenty four, Belvit Gartner,

874
01:11:30.159 --> 01:11:34.439
charged with the murder of Walter Law, was a perfect lady yesterday and Judge

875
01:11:34.479 --> 01:11:40.159
Lindsay's court as she faced four of
the jurors who will decide whether she really

876
01:11:40.159 --> 01:11:45.800
did shoot the young auto salesman found
dead in her sedan March twelve. For

877
01:11:45.840 --> 01:11:50.000
the lady was so dead drunk after
a night of jin and jazz at the

878
01:11:50.039 --> 01:11:57.399
Gingham End, that she doesn't remember. And another woman studied the jurors a

879
01:11:57.479 --> 01:12:02.279
sweet faced woman in heavy mourning Missus
Walter Law, who did not know Belve

880
01:12:02.520 --> 01:12:08.239
existed until they met at the slain
man's inquest, and of the two,

881
01:12:08.399 --> 01:12:15.079
she seemed more concerned. Cabaret dancer
and twice divorcee, Missus Gardner was as

882
01:12:15.119 --> 01:12:21.640
demure as any convent girl, with
brown eyes dreamily cast downward. Her lips

883
01:12:21.680 --> 01:12:27.880
were closed in a not quite smile. The contour of her cheek was unbroken

884
01:12:27.920 --> 01:12:32.239
by lines, and the rejuvenating rouge
made her well on the dangerous side of

885
01:12:32.359 --> 01:12:40.279
thirty, said one ardent court fan. Say she's got the Anning girls skinned

886
01:12:40.279 --> 01:12:46.159
a mile, said another. Not
so pretty, but more class class.

887
01:12:46.640 --> 01:12:51.600
That was Belva, for she lived
up to her reputation as the most stylish

888
01:12:51.680 --> 01:12:59.159
of Murderous's row. A blue twill
suit bound with black braid and white lacy

889
01:12:59.279 --> 01:13:04.319
frill down the front, patent leather
slippers with shimmering French heels, chiffon gun

890
01:13:04.359 --> 01:13:11.359
metal hose, and a hat ah
that hat helmet shape with a silver buckle

891
01:13:11.439 --> 01:13:17.880
and cockade of ribbon, with one
streamer tied jauntily, coquettishly bewitchingly under her

892
01:13:18.000 --> 01:13:28.680
chin. Assistant State's Attorney Samuel Hamilton
asked a prospective juror, would you let

893
01:13:28.720 --> 01:13:33.319
a stylish hat make you find her
not guilty? He staunchly answered no,

894
01:13:33.960 --> 01:13:41.159
and solemnly agreed that sex should have
no part in the verdict. Missus Gardner

895
01:13:41.199 --> 01:13:45.640
spoke only once, a whisper to
her attorney, Thomas Nash. Then he

896
01:13:45.800 --> 01:13:50.520
asked the jurors, would you be
prejudiced if it should developed that the lady

897
01:13:50.560 --> 01:13:57.399
had been drinking that evening? The
prospective jurors assured him that they wouldn't,

898
01:13:57.760 --> 01:14:00.880
and the questioning went merrily on to
find a hat proof, sexproof, and

899
01:14:01.000 --> 01:14:09.159
damp jury who would also accept circumstantial
evidence as conclusive, for there were no

900
01:14:09.319 --> 01:14:14.920
witnesses, just a man found dead
slumped over the steering wheel of missus Gardner's

901
01:14:14.920 --> 01:14:18.399
car, a bullet and his head
from her pistol left lying on the sedan

902
01:14:18.520 --> 01:14:25.760
floor, and the woman herself in
her apartment at forty eighth nine Forestville Avenue,

903
01:14:26.359 --> 01:14:31.600
hysterical, disheveled and drenched with blood. She is expected to take the

904
01:14:31.680 --> 01:14:36.960
stand in her own behalf, and
the defense loss of memory will at least

905
01:14:38.199 --> 01:14:44.840
be unique. She's as guilty as
kitty Mam, said assistant State's attorney Harry

906
01:14:44.880 --> 01:14:48.680
Pritzker, who won a verdict of
life against the Tiger Girl, and I

907
01:14:48.720 --> 01:14:54.760
hope to send her over the same
road. The state thus far has not

908
01:14:54.880 --> 01:14:59.640
qualified the jurors for the death sentence, though they indicated it may be asked

909
01:14:59.760 --> 01:15:03.840
lay. A charge of manslaughter was
also included in the indictment, so that

910
01:15:03.880 --> 01:15:08.960
if the state fails to show an
intent to kill, she may be found

911
01:15:09.039 --> 01:15:24.399
guilty on the lesser charge. June
fifth, nineteen twenty four, Belvit Gartner,

912
01:15:24.640 --> 01:15:29.720
the lady who was so drunk she
doesn't remember, registered virtuous calm as

913
01:15:29.760 --> 01:15:33.840
the state opened its case in an
attempt to prove her guilty of murdering Walter

914
01:15:34.039 --> 01:15:41.680
Law. Her sultry eyes never lost
their dreaminess as policemen described the dead body

915
01:15:42.079 --> 01:15:46.199
slumped over the wheel of her nash
sedan, the matted hair around the wound,

916
01:15:46.680 --> 01:15:51.199
the blood that dripped in pools,
and her revolver and fifth of gin

917
01:15:51.439 --> 01:15:58.439
lying on the floor. Her sensuous
mouth kept its soft curves as they told

918
01:15:58.560 --> 01:16:02.000
of finding her in her apartment with
blood on her coat, blood on her

919
01:16:02.079 --> 01:16:08.720
dress of green velvet and silver cloth, and blood on the silver slippers.

920
01:16:09.520 --> 01:16:14.319
Calm and poised, but her slim
French heeled shoes, beat the floor,

921
01:16:14.720 --> 01:16:20.560
twitched nervously, and crossed and recrossed
himself. Those twinkling feet had danced her

922
01:16:20.600 --> 01:16:27.840
into Overbeck's heart when she was bell
brown cabaret girl, and that had carried

923
01:16:27.880 --> 01:16:32.199
her to and from a bridle path
romance with Gartner, a wealthy manufacturer,

924
01:16:32.600 --> 01:16:38.479
that had stolen her into a palship
with the young married man, and then

925
01:16:38.640 --> 01:16:44.880
to a murder trial. Doctor Joseph
Springer, coroner's physician, was called as

926
01:16:44.960 --> 01:16:49.399
the first witness for the state.
He testified to examining the body at four

927
01:16:49.560 --> 01:16:54.960
fifty five the morning of March twelfth, and stated that there were no powder

928
01:16:55.000 --> 01:16:59.880
burns near the wound where the bullet
had entered near the right temple quote.

929
01:17:00.399 --> 01:17:05.039
A gun must be held within fifteen
inches or so to make powder burns unquote.

930
01:17:05.319 --> 01:17:11.159
Assistant State's Attorney Samuel Hamilton asked,
from the absence of these, is

931
01:17:11.159 --> 01:17:15.920
it your opinion that he did not
shoot himself? The answer was he did

932
01:17:15.960 --> 01:17:23.520
not. In cross questioning, Michael
Ahearn, counsel for the defense, tried

933
01:17:23.560 --> 01:17:27.920
to get the doctor to place the
pistol at the presumed angle and distance while

934
01:17:27.960 --> 01:17:34.000
he posed as law committed suicide.
In cross questioning, Michael Ahern, counsel

935
01:17:34.039 --> 01:17:38.760
for the defense, tried to get
the doctor to place the pistol at the

936
01:17:38.800 --> 01:17:44.960
presumed angle and distance while he posed
as law committed suicide. He clicked the

937
01:17:45.000 --> 01:17:49.640
revolver, said, mister ahearn there
you see, he could have killed himself.

938
01:17:51.399 --> 01:17:59.279
Doctor Springer answered crisply he could not. He also identified the gin bottle

939
01:17:59.319 --> 01:18:02.880
which was found lying on the floor
of the car. Belve's jury, selected

940
01:18:02.880 --> 01:18:08.199
for their lack of prejudice in favor
of the Volstad act. Peped up a

941
01:18:08.239 --> 01:18:12.760
bit at the sight of this,
and Valve herself leaned forward, but it

942
01:18:12.840 --> 01:18:18.800
was empty. Sergeants Quinn and Patrolman
Fitzgerald told of finding the dead body and

943
01:18:18.840 --> 01:18:24.760
of tracing the owner of the car
by the license number. Detective William Sullivan

944
01:18:24.800 --> 01:18:28.600
went to the owner's address, he
said, and found missus Gardner in a

945
01:18:28.680 --> 01:18:33.199
bathrobe with the blood drenched clothes on
the floor. She couldn't shake her head

946
01:18:33.439 --> 01:18:39.560
nor nod approvingly at the testimony,
for she doesn't remember, but she could

947
01:18:39.600 --> 01:18:45.520
show impatience as the officer floundered and
is describing her clothes, but to his

948
01:18:45.680 --> 01:18:51.840
relief, they were admitted in evidence, the mashed hat and rumpled coat,

949
01:18:53.279 --> 01:18:59.720
the one more struggle than I'm free
dress, and the flimsy slippers. According

950
01:18:59.760 --> 01:19:02.960
to doctor Springer and the police officers, missus Gardner when they talked to her,

951
01:19:03.479 --> 01:19:09.600
was sober early that morning. Burt
Brown, floorman at the Gingham Inn,

952
01:19:10.119 --> 01:19:15.000
was also called to prove this point. He said that Law and missus

953
01:19:15.039 --> 01:19:18.960
Gardner had come to the inn at
sixty eighth Street and Cottage Grove Avenue five

954
01:19:19.079 --> 01:19:24.399
or six times previous to the night
of the shooting, and that evening had

955
01:19:24.479 --> 01:19:29.039
arrived about ten o'clock and stayed an
hour and a half. According to his

956
01:19:29.159 --> 01:19:33.239
statement, the Gingham In is matched
in dryness only by the Sahara. No

957
01:19:33.359 --> 01:19:39.079
liquor is sold there, no liquor
is brought there, no liquor is displayed

958
01:19:39.119 --> 01:19:44.720
there on the table, floor or
undercover. Consequently, the couple who arrived

959
01:19:44.760 --> 01:19:49.880
sober must have left in the same
condition, flared the Council for the defense.

960
01:19:50.520 --> 01:19:56.640
You're saying that to protect the place
where you're employed. The statement missus

961
01:19:56.680 --> 01:20:00.920
Gardner had made at the police station
early that morning was ruled out by Judge

962
01:20:00.960 --> 01:20:05.359
Lindsay, but Sergeant William Egan testified
as to the points she had been questioned

963
01:20:05.399 --> 01:20:11.239
on. Quote, She in law
was at her house at nine o'clock that

964
01:20:11.439 --> 01:20:14.600
night, and when they left for
the Gingham Inn, she got her ex

965
01:20:14.720 --> 01:20:17.640
husband's gun for fear of a hold
up and put it in the pocket of

966
01:20:17.680 --> 01:20:24.119
the car. Unquote, with similar
a plumb. Missus Gardner, the most

967
01:20:24.119 --> 01:20:30.279
stylish of murderous's row, fastened her
choker, gathered up her white kid gloves

968
01:20:30.520 --> 01:20:43.760
as court was adjourned and swept out. June sixth, nineteen twenty four.

969
01:20:45.239 --> 01:20:50.640
Belvit Gartner, another of those women
who messed things up by adding a gun

970
01:20:50.760 --> 01:20:57.279
to her fondness for gin and men, was acquitted last night at twelve ten

971
01:20:57.319 --> 01:21:02.000
o'clock of the murder of Walter Law. So drunk she didn't remember whether she

972
01:21:02.079 --> 01:21:08.439
shot the man found dead in her
sedan at Forest Avenue and fiftieth Street on

973
01:21:08.600 --> 01:21:15.239
March twelfth, but after six and
one half hours and eight ballots, the

974
01:21:15.359 --> 01:21:20.960
jury said she didn't. Missus Gardner
lost the emotionless poise she maintained throughout the

975
01:21:21.039 --> 01:21:28.520
trial, burst into hysterical laughter,
threw her arms around her attorneys, and

976
01:21:28.640 --> 01:21:33.479
thanked the jury as she exclaimed over
and over oh I'm so happy, so

977
01:21:33.840 --> 01:21:40.640
happy, and I want to hurry
out now and get some air. She

978
01:21:40.800 --> 01:21:45.319
left at once to get her elaborate
wardrobe from the jail, and from there

979
01:21:45.399 --> 01:21:50.000
went home with her sister, Missus
Charles Krushar. Sometime within the next month,

980
01:21:50.119 --> 01:21:56.479
she said she will remarry her divorced
husband, William Gartner, the wealthy

981
01:21:56.560 --> 01:22:01.720
manufacturer, and they will sail for
Europe to forget all this. But there's

982
01:22:01.760 --> 01:22:08.079
a woman who won't forget, Missus
freed de Law, widow of the slain

983
01:22:08.239 --> 01:22:13.399
man, who half fainted when the
verdict was read and crept away to sob

984
01:22:13.479 --> 01:22:18.239
in the arms of her sister.
There's no justice in Illinois, no justice

985
01:22:18.479 --> 01:22:26.880
Walter paid. Why shouldn't she women? Just women, was the laconic comment

986
01:22:27.039 --> 01:22:31.720
of the Assistant State's Attorney, Harry
Pritzker. The crowd said, why did

987
01:22:31.720 --> 01:22:38.880
they wait so long? That's what
Belvit Gardner asked herself as she smoked cigarettes

988
01:22:38.920 --> 01:22:45.159
and paced the floor of the bullpen
while the jury not six feet away deliberated

989
01:22:45.199 --> 01:22:50.640
whether she had murdered Walter Law.
And neither they nor the blase divorcee,

990
01:22:51.000 --> 01:22:58.479
Cook County's most stylish defendant knew that
Judge Lindsey had ruled when the defense asked

991
01:22:58.479 --> 01:23:01.760
for the Noel Pross quote, I
haven't the power to tell the state's attorney

992
01:23:01.800 --> 01:23:05.520
what to do, and therefore deny
the motion. But if the jury should

993
01:23:05.520 --> 01:23:10.800
bring in a verdict of guilty,
I'm confident the Supreme Court would reverse the

994
01:23:10.880 --> 01:23:15.159
decision, as the evidence is only
circumstantial, strong enough to arouse suspicion of

995
01:23:15.199 --> 01:23:19.520
guilt, but not to convict.
The state has not made its case.

996
01:23:20.039 --> 01:23:26.920
Was the attitude of the defense,
represented by Nation Ahearn and Marshall Solberg,

997
01:23:27.319 --> 01:23:32.000
who waived their opening statement, rested
without offering a single witness, and waived

998
01:23:32.079 --> 01:23:38.439
closing argument. The jury, who
had heard only the state's plea for a

999
01:23:38.640 --> 01:23:44.279
just verdict, listened gravely, and
the court fanned sleepily to the instructions of

1000
01:23:44.319 --> 01:23:48.600
the judge with their droning rhythm.
Beyond all reasonable doubt, you shall find

1001
01:23:48.640 --> 01:23:54.880
a defendant not guilty. But they
all sat alert when he reached the age

1002
01:23:54.880 --> 01:23:59.640
of the defendant about thirty eight,
and turned to stare at the slim,

1003
01:24:00.079 --> 01:24:05.039
youthfully rounded creature who never looked prettier. And she wore a new dress,

1004
01:24:05.319 --> 01:24:13.119
cafe ola braided in black with bell
shaped sleeves and deep cuffs that clung in

1005
01:24:13.239 --> 01:24:18.279
soft folds to her body, and
the close hat of a deeper brown matched

1006
01:24:18.279 --> 01:24:24.920
her eyes, and the mink choker
softened the lines of her throat. Only

1007
01:24:24.960 --> 01:24:30.439
the hands, with their Rosalie tinted
nails, showed her age and nervousness as

1008
01:24:30.479 --> 01:24:33.239
she played with her gloves and fur, while the state attempted early in the

1009
01:24:33.319 --> 01:24:40.199
day to prove that she was not
too drunk to remember. Arthur Quodbach,

1010
01:24:40.720 --> 01:24:45.840
proprietor of the Ginghamn at sixty eight
hundred Cottage Grove Avenue, and his head

1011
01:24:45.840 --> 01:24:50.399
waiter, William F. Leathers,
testified concerning the sobriety of Law and Missus

1012
01:24:50.439 --> 01:24:56.359
Gardner while they were in the cafe
the night he was killed. Perfectly sober

1013
01:24:56.840 --> 01:25:00.680
was Quotdebox's statement, said Leathers,
I wish I always had been as sober

1014
01:25:00.680 --> 01:25:06.720
as they were that night. Following
testimony by the widow Missus free to Law

1015
01:25:06.920 --> 01:25:21.840
establishing the corpus delecti, the case
went to the journey June seventh, nineteen

1016
01:25:23.000 --> 01:25:30.119
twenty four, not guilty for Belle. The Gartner brought joy to her playmates

1017
01:25:30.159 --> 01:25:34.680
in the county jail and made hope
spring a little higher in the hearts of

1018
01:25:34.760 --> 01:25:42.680
the remaining women killers, only Sabella
Nitty mourned. Poor Sabella, who chopped

1019
01:25:42.720 --> 01:25:46.960
her husband up one day, assisted
by a rumor the state charges her greeting

1020
01:25:46.960 --> 01:25:53.600
to visitors used to be me choke, which being interpreted reads I'm sentenced to

1021
01:25:53.680 --> 01:25:59.159
hang, and now she waits a
new trial. Each acquittal brings pangs of

1022
01:25:59.239 --> 01:26:03.600
comparison to her. She have gun, she shoot, she go free me

1023
01:26:03.880 --> 01:26:10.000
no gun, no shoot me here. Over a year, only four women,

1024
01:26:10.279 --> 01:26:14.680
the fewest in years, are now
waiting trial for murder, and they're

1025
01:26:14.720 --> 01:26:18.039
getting out even faster than they're getting
in. And the two who walk to

1026
01:26:18.079 --> 01:26:24.520
freedom. In the last two weeks, pretty Beulah Annon and stylish Velve Gardner,

1027
01:26:25.159 --> 01:26:30.720
robbed the women's quarters of their claims
to distinction and plunged murders's row into

1028
01:26:30.760 --> 01:26:35.159
oblivion. Two of those left are
colored, many Nichols and Rose Ups.

1029
01:26:36.119 --> 01:26:43.119
The other two, Sabella Nitty and
Leelah Foster, are middle aged and well.

1030
01:26:43.359 --> 01:26:46.960
Neither is accused with the grace or
the beauty of Diana. Then two

1031
01:26:47.520 --> 01:26:53.880
Bulah and Belve killed young men friends, and these ladies only bumped off their

1032
01:26:54.039 --> 01:27:00.439
husbands so they can't hope for publicity, maybe not even acquittal. They'll be

1033
01:27:00.439 --> 01:27:03.319
given the same chance with the other
weapons of defense that the other women have

1034
01:27:03.399 --> 01:27:10.079
had. Powder, rouge, lipstick, and mascara. Makeup is taboo,

1035
01:27:10.159 --> 01:27:15.520
and jail only soap and water is
permitted until those testing days when they face

1036
01:27:15.800 --> 01:27:19.920
the twelve good men and true.
Then begins the fashion show. For each

1037
01:27:19.960 --> 01:27:27.199
woman is firmly convinced that clothes make
the man look more. Sympathetically, shops

1038
01:27:27.239 --> 01:27:31.439
and dresses on approval. Friends bring
in frocks of their own, and anxious

1039
01:27:31.520 --> 01:27:38.279
lawyers borrow from their wives for their
clients. They study every effect, turn

1040
01:27:38.399 --> 01:27:43.000
and change, and who can say
it's time wasted? But these girls will

1041
01:27:43.079 --> 01:27:46.600
lack the advice of Belve, known
even in some other circles as an expert

1042
01:27:46.680 --> 01:27:50.560
in dress. The place ain't the
same without her, they mourn, for

1043
01:27:50.720 --> 01:27:56.760
she was the best dancer, the
best card player among them. It's true

1044
01:27:56.800 --> 01:28:00.720
she was a little well, not
industrious, and hired other girls to wash

1045
01:28:00.760 --> 01:28:05.680
out her clothes and iron them on
the wall. She lets Sabella take care

1046
01:28:05.720 --> 01:28:10.560
of her neat little bunk, But
that's over now, and they wish her

1047
01:28:10.640 --> 01:28:15.800
happiness on her European trip to forget
it all, mused one girl. Funny

1048
01:28:15.840 --> 01:28:19.199
the way they take it. As
soon as Beulah was out, she up

1049
01:28:19.199 --> 01:28:24.439
and left poor al, cold and
flat. And now Belva rushes off to

1050
01:28:24.520 --> 01:28:29.039
a wedding, married him once and
that was annulled, married him again and

1051
01:28:29.079 --> 01:28:33.399
got a divorce. Third time's a
charm. Missus Gardner, who is resting

1052
01:28:33.479 --> 01:28:39.199
up for a few days with her
sister, declared a terrible strain, but

1053
01:28:39.319 --> 01:28:59.279
she looks one hundred percent better after
her three months rescuer in jail epilogue,

1054
01:29:00.000 --> 01:29:06.760
March eighteenth, nineteen twenty eight.
For nearly a year, New York Audience's

1055
01:29:08.039 --> 01:29:14.680
Nightly watched Roxy Heart, Chicago's most
Beautiful, Murderous, sardonically get away with

1056
01:29:14.880 --> 01:29:20.960
murder in Maureen Watkins's searching play Chicago, Forgive Them if they smiled in Faint

1057
01:29:21.000 --> 01:29:27.520
Amusement. Chicago, to the New
Yorker, is a hinterland where anything can

1058
01:29:27.600 --> 01:29:32.600
happen. Chicago saw the play,
too, and audiences here were apt to

1059
01:29:32.680 --> 01:29:39.920
smile indulgently as Roxy Heart shot her
boyfriend of the moment, then played raucous

1060
01:29:40.039 --> 01:29:45.720
jazz on a tiny gramophone in burlesque
Requiem. They smiled too, when her

1061
01:29:45.760 --> 01:29:50.119
poor sap of a husband spent his
last cent in her defense to be rewarded

1062
01:29:50.319 --> 01:29:58.640
on her acquittal by being divorced.
They grinned broadly when Roxy contentedly pasted into

1063
01:29:58.680 --> 01:30:04.880
long strips newspaper columns of publicity given
her lavishly by the gentlemen of the press

1064
01:30:05.439 --> 01:30:13.199
Chicago knows itself, a few did
not smile. They knew roxy Heart,

1065
01:30:13.760 --> 01:30:17.920
They knew her in real life as
bulah Annan, And today the bulah Annan

1066
01:30:18.000 --> 01:30:24.359
who is Roxy Heart is dead and
buried in the Kentucky town where she was

1067
01:30:24.399 --> 01:30:30.239
born. Ironically, missus Annan,
who is known wherever newspapers are read as

1068
01:30:30.319 --> 01:30:38.159
Cook County's most beautiful murderous, received
not one line in passing she who had

1069
01:30:38.199 --> 01:30:43.319
known hundreds of thousands of lines of
flattering publicity. Just four years ago,

1070
01:30:44.960 --> 01:30:50.680
Chicago's sensational press raved over beulah Annan. They told how she married her sweetheart

1071
01:30:50.800 --> 01:30:57.840
Harry Kolstett in her apartment and then
played jazz on a tiny gramophone for hours

1072
01:30:58.239 --> 01:31:02.560
before she thought to call her husband
and tell him what she'd done. Albert

1073
01:31:02.600 --> 01:31:08.279
Anne and rush to her defense,
even tried to claim he killed Colstett,

1074
01:31:08.439 --> 01:31:13.399
but Beulah enjoyed the story of the
jazz records, as recorded at length in

1075
01:31:13.479 --> 01:31:18.119
the papers, more than she valued
her freedom. She only boasted about it.

1076
01:31:18.880 --> 01:31:25.640
Only one defense did she offer.
We were all gemmed up, and

1077
01:31:25.720 --> 01:31:30.159
her husband spent practically every cent he
had to secure her freedom. On the

1078
01:31:30.199 --> 01:31:36.159
strength of that defense. He won, then he lost. In August nineteen

1079
01:31:36.239 --> 01:31:42.960
twenty six, two years after she
killed her playmate, Beulah divorced her husband.

1080
01:31:43.760 --> 01:31:46.800
The irony of it was good for
a play in the papers for a

1081
01:31:46.880 --> 01:31:55.039
while, and then forgotten. Bulah
leaped back into print last June when she

1082
01:31:55.159 --> 01:32:00.239
married Edward Harlb, a pugilist,
and back again three months later when she

1083
01:32:00.279 --> 01:32:06.119
divorced him. Harry Annen was too
slow, Edward Harley was uncongenial. Then

1084
01:32:06.279 --> 01:32:14.119
she dropped from view a week ago. Dorothy Stephens died of tuberculosis at the

1085
01:32:14.159 --> 01:32:19.239
age of thirty two in the Chicago
Fresh Air Hospital. Some days later,

1086
01:32:19.600 --> 01:32:24.880
her body was taken to a little
town of Glenville in the Green River Valley

1087
01:32:24.880 --> 01:32:31.399
of Kentucky and buried at home.
Dorothy Stephens was Bulah Annon, and not

1088
01:32:31.520 --> 01:32:36.479
a single line was printed on her
death. It only became known when brief

1089
01:32:36.520 --> 01:32:44.199
dispatches from Glenville recorded that Beulah Annon
had been Bullah Stephens before she came up

1090
01:32:44.279 --> 01:32:48.000
to the big time, and there
was even more irony in the passing of

1091
01:32:48.039 --> 01:32:55.359
the most beautiful murderers. Maureen Watkins, who used almost without effort at disguise

1092
01:32:55.920 --> 01:33:00.039
Buella's entire story for the annex of
roxy Heart. She used her again a

1093
01:33:00.039 --> 01:33:06.560
few weeks ago in another setting,
this time in a story Butterfly Goes Home,

1094
01:33:06.960 --> 01:33:13.439
told again the story of roxy Heart
alias Bulahanne. It told of her

1095
01:33:13.479 --> 01:33:17.479
play and the lights, her death
and obscurity, her burial in the little

1096
01:33:17.520 --> 01:33:25.000
town where she was born, So
Bula Anne and died in obscurity, and

1097
01:33:25.119 --> 01:33:30.760
the Butterflies Gone Home with not even
ten lines of print to be clipped and

1098
01:33:30.880 --> 01:33:35.520
pasted to the string of the other
story, not even as a climax.

1099
01:33:41.840 --> 01:33:47.720
Valvet Gardner did reconcile with her husband, although there were further allegations of infidelity

1100
01:33:47.880 --> 01:33:54.640
and more divorce proceedings initiated in court. They remained married until his death in

1101
01:33:54.680 --> 01:33:59.199
the nineteen forties. Than she moved
to California to live with her sister,

1102
01:33:59.359 --> 01:34:21.760
where she died in nineteen sixty five. At the age of eighty. That

1103
01:34:23.199 --> 01:34:31.239
was Jin Jazz Guns The Real Chicago
Murderers called from the historic pages of the

1104
01:34:31.319 --> 01:34:36.640
Chicago Tribune, the New York Daily
News, and other newspapers of the era.

1105
01:34:39.640 --> 01:34:44.560
You can hear more about Bulah and
Velvis cellmate Sabelle and Nitti in True

1106
01:34:44.640 --> 01:34:50.439
Crime Historian episode two hundred and thirty, The Ugly Duckling Murderers. True Crime

1107
01:34:50.600 --> 01:34:56.960
Historian is a creation of popular Media. Keep your ears open for popular media's

1108
01:34:57.079 --> 01:35:03.000
newest creation, Catastrophic Calamities, coming
soon at www dot Calamities dot us.

1109
01:35:03.439 --> 01:35:09.840
Or radio journalists Susan Firman ask the
age old question what could go wrong?

1110
01:35:10.800 --> 01:35:15.479
Spoiler alert everything. If you want
to get a jump on the next episode

1111
01:35:15.479 --> 01:35:19.960
of True Crime Historian, then download
the new podcast app Himalaya and get all

1112
01:35:20.039 --> 01:35:25.000
new episodes a day early, and
then you can drop a bucket in the

1113
01:35:25.039 --> 01:35:30.680
tip jar for True Crime Historian,
or sign up for Himalaya Plus for premium

1114
01:35:30.720 --> 01:35:35.520
content and other special features. Or
you can support your favorite podcaster at www

1115
01:35:35.600 --> 01:35:42.199
dot patreon dot com slash true Crime
Historian. Just a bucket episode reserves your

1116
01:35:42.199 --> 01:35:47.560
bunk at the safehouse and gives you
access to exclusive content and whatever personal services

1117
01:35:47.600 --> 01:35:55.239
you require. Opening theme by Nico
Vitessi. All that jazz music's been licensed

1118
01:35:55.239 --> 01:36:00.159
from podcast music dot Com. Closing
theme by Dave Sam and Rachel Shott,

1119
01:36:00.479 --> 01:36:05.920
engineered by David Hish at Third Street
Music. Media management by Sean Miller.

1120
01:36:06.039 --> 01:36:12.640
Joe And as for me, while
I'm still true crime historian Richard O.

1121
01:36:12.840 --> 01:36:15.239
Joe signing off for now,