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Wife, Long Bearing Accusations of Her W ounded Husband in Tears, at Last Tums His Accuser
GRACE CASE FULL OF DRAMATIC INCIDENTS FROM ITS BEGINNING
MRS. MARTHA ULRICH. JOHN W. MOORE. . ' EUGENE H. GRACE.
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Accused Woman Is De
fiant as Day for Her
Trial on Charge of
Trying to Kill Her
Husband Approaches.
Here is the story ot the Grace af
fair, the most mysterious and
strangest criminal case which has
ever come before the Fulton coun
ty courts. It is told as it devel
oped. from that first startling tele
phone message' from the wounded
man. to the release of Mrs. Grace
from the Tower and her retire
ment to a suburban home to await
her trial:
CHAPTER I.
Grace Tells the Police by Tele
phone, “I Am Shot and Dy
ing. Send Help!”
It had been an unusually quiet day
at the Decatur street police station.
The arrests had been so few that only
the names of a 1 couple of petty negro
offenders soiled the blotter, and back
behind the turnkey even the drunken
prisoner who had earlier polluted the
atmosphere with his curses
had lapsed into inebriate silence. Desk
Sergeant Lindsay was indolently ex
plaining to Call Officer Wood that the
city of Atlanta should really provide
lounges for its Inside police force on
such a peaceful day, when the telephone
bell tinkled at his side. Lindsay, smil
ing at his own jest, pulled the receiver
toward his ear.
“Somebody probably wants to know
bow long he can sleep before the base
ball season opens.” he began in an
aside to the chuckling emergency po
liceman—but the tone of the tense,
choking voice at the other end of the
wire stopped him in the middle of his
sentence.
"I'm Grace,” the voice said in agon
ized accents, "I’m E. H. Grace, at 29
West Eleventh street. I’m shot. I'm
dying here alone. Send me help!”
Heard a Body Fall.
The sergeant at the telephone heard
the receiver at the other end drop and
sway against its hook and faintly
over the same wire came the sound of
a thud as though a body had fallen
heavily upon a floor. Then he turned
to Call Officer Wood and said:
"You take that other man and shoot
out to 29 West Eleventh street. Man
who says his name is Grace is out
there—says he’s been shot and thinks
he's dying. I think I heard him fall
on the floor after he told me on the
Phone. You get up there quick and
phone me tvhat is the matter.
Wood, with two other policemen at
his heels, reached the house at -29 West
Eleventh street in ten minutes. As
they reached the front door an ambu
lance from St. Josephs hospital, or
dered out by telephone from police
headquarters, also came dashing up.
Wood's furious banging at the door
was answered by a colored servant
who, questioned in the hallway, said
riupidly fhftt he knew nothing of any- I
"ne being shot in the house.
The policemen dashed on to the sec
ond floor. They found the rooms that
they passed through In a state of some
disorder, but all the doors were open
to admit of *easy ingress, until they
came to the southeast corner. That
door was locked. Wood rapped once
upon it; then put his shoulder to the
Panels and sprawled inside as the oaken
barrier gave way.
At the further end of the room he
saw a tall man clad in night clothes
'•'mg sprawled horribly over the side
°L, a . bed- His head hung downward
off the edge and one leg doubled be
neath his twisted body as though he
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LAMAR HILL. MRS. DAISY OPIE GRACE.
Hero are the principal figures in the strange case of Mrs. Daisy Grace, accused of shooting her husband. Mrs. Ulrich, aged mother
of the defendant, is hurrying from her Philadelphia home to stand by her daughter in distress, while Mrs. Grace’s little blind son,
Webster Opie, is left behind at school, in ignorance of his mother’s plight. John W. Moore, of Moore & Branch, is one of the counsel
for the defense, while Lamar Hill, a relative of Grace, is assisting Solicitor General Hugh Dorsey in the prosecution. The latest por
trait of Eugene Grace and a new photograph of the defendant are shown.
had collapsed in a final lurch to throw
himself upon the bed.
"Shot While Asleep.”
The man was only half conscious;
he gasped pitifully for every’ breath.
But as the policemen straightened him
out upon the bed he managed to tell
them:
‘Tve been shot in my back while I
was asleep in bed. I’m Eugene
I’m dying. Get a doctor.”
Wood sought to question the wound
ed man but he seemed too far gone.
But when the ambulance attendants
came up and lifted him upon a stretch
er to carry him to the waiting wagon
the policeman saw two big blots of
dry blood upon the bedclothing and
another blot of blood, aiso quite dry, on
the nightshirt of the wounded man.
The ambulance surgeon raised the
garment.
“He’s been shot through the side,”
he said. “The bullet did not come out.
It’s lodged in his spine. I guess. He
may live until we get him to the hos
pital. But he’s mortally shot.”
They carried the wounded Grace
downstairs to the ambulance and 1
rushed him to the hospital.
On the floor of a room on the first
floor Wood stumbled over a pistol ly
ing there. When he examined
weapon he saw that it was Grace’s
own, and that one chamber in It had
been fired. Policeman Wood put the
pistol in his pocket, noting mentally
that he had found it more than 30 feet
away from where the man had been
wounded, and that the door of the
wounded mgn’s room had been locked.
CHAPTER 11.
Grace, Recovering Consciousness,
Accuses Wife, Who Is Ar
rested, Protesting In
nocence.
Meanwhile, on a railroad train
Grace's wife of less than a year was
speeding to the home of his own people
in Newnan. She had left the home in
West Eleventh street at noon to make
sure that she would not miss "the train.
At Newnan she was embracing Grace’s
mother and tell’ng her that she had
hurried there because her husband was
leaving on a business trip to Philadel
phia that same day—when the tele
phone bell rang and a. voice from po-
THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN AND NEWS. FRIDAY, JULY 26, 1912.
lice headquarters in Atlanta told
Grace's mother that her son had been
shot through the spine and was prob
ably dying at St. Josephs hospital.
Young Mrs. Grace evinced tremen
dous surprise and pitiful grief at this
sudden, tragic news. When both wom
en had recovered from the shock a bit
the wife agreed eagerly with the sug
gestibn that both of them hurry back
at once to the side of the wounded man.
The telephone message Grace’s mother
had received had told her of the nature
of the wound and its probable fatality,
but it did not tell her then that Grace,
once more recovered consciousness in
the 'hospital, had declared that his own
wife had shot him.
The mother and the wife rushed back
to Atlanta by the next train, consoling
each other and both wondering who
could have committed the crime.
But on the arrival in Atlanta came
another shock to both.
Glrgpe, lying in the hospital, had
made an ante-mortem statement when
the doctors told him that he could not
live 48 hours.
Statement Accusing Wife,
“My wife, Daisy Opie Grace, shot me
while I slept In bed early in the morn
ing of the sth of March," he said. “She
must have drugged me so that I did
not hear the shot nor feel the pain of
the bullet in my spine* She shot me
because she was tired of me and be
cause she thought that by killing me
that way she could get the $27,000 in
insurance policies I have taken on my
life and made over to her name. The
night before she shot me we had been
to the Forsyth theater. That night,
afterward, at home, while my mind was
not clear, she made me sign a letter
that would revoke the power of attor
ney she had given me to dispose of her
property in Philadelphia. These are
the reasons why she shot me."
The arrest of Daisy Grace followed
immediately and she was locked up at
police headquarters charged with as
sault with intent to kill.
She denied the charge vehemently.
"I do not believe my husband ever
said that," she declared. “He knows I
had no reason to shoot him. A negro
burglar shot him after 1 had gone from
the house and was bn my way to his
mother at Newnan. It is all a terrible
mistake.”
Sensation followed sensation rapidly.
Declaring that she wished to nurse her
husband back to life, Mrs. Grace main
tained her protestations of innocence,
even to the point of cohfronting her
wounded husband in the hospital.
CHAPTER 111.
‘‘You Can Not Live,” Grace Is
Told. Mrs. Grace Rearrested
and Confined in Tower.
The second day after the shooting
Mrs. Grace was released from the Tow
er after her bail had been furnished by
.two professional bondsmen of the city.
During that night and for many,
many nights following Eugene Grace
seemed just at the point of death. He
held his consciousness, it is true, but
the bullet seemed to have reached a
vital spot with telling effect.
Noted physicians worked and studied
over his case. An operation was con
sidered, but abandoned as an immedi
•ate possibly until the location of the
bullet, which had either severed or was
pressing against his spinal cord, could
be determined. X-ray examinations
were held—>the approximate position of
the bullet was located, but srtilj no op- •
eration. The doctors shook their heads.
Grace's Death Sentence.
One day all of them gathered in the
little room at St. Josephs hospital- and
the wounded man could see that some
thing foreboding was in the air.
“You can not live,'’ said Dr. J. W.
Goldsmith, and turned away. Dr. Wil.
Ils Jones, by a nod of the head, con
firmed this. Mrs. S. L. Hill. Grace’s
mother, wept softly, but Grace never
turned a hair.
Meanwhile, Solicitor General Hugh
Dorsey had been considering the ad
visability of Mrs. Grace's remaining on
bond. Reports from the hospital were
that death to Grace was a matter of a
few hours. This urged him to a de
cision and he accordingly ordered Mrs.
Grace arrested again, as her bondsmen
were men in the business of regularly
bonding people.
At her temporary home in the Kim
ball house she was visited a second
time by the officers of the law and
taken to the Tower. She was writing
to her mother at the time. Her last
words on the sheet of paper were; "1
am innocet
CHAPTER IV.
Mrs. Grace Makes Bond and Hur
riedly Departs For Philadel
phia. "She’s Skipped,”
Said Arnold.
Mrs. Grace in the Tower—surrounded
by felons and petty thieves and “bugs”
—thought of her husband, prayed in
termittently, and read feverishly in the
attempt to throw from her mind the
dreadfur nightmare of the previous
days.
Eugene Grace —in his room at St.
Josephs hospital—swore vindictively
whenever the name of his wife was
mentioned.
"She shot me.” he snapped. “She
knows she shot nie. She was tired
of me—she wanted my insurance. I
was beginning to wake up to the fact
that I had been stung—that my married
life was a farce, that I had been the
victim of a virago, a frequenter of cases
and other popular resorts.” x
He ■ stormed at his nurses, he was
fretful and unpleasant. In a moment
of sudden anger he ordered that his
mustache be shaved off because SHE
had liked ft.
Mrs. Grace shook her head slowly
as she read the newspaper accounts of
Grace's conduct.
"I Still Love Him. Anyway.”
"I don’t believe he said these things,”
she declared sadly, “but even If Eugene
doesnft love me any more, 1 still love
him, and will be faithful to him.”
The days tossed on. Minor sensa
tions sprung up and were exploded.
Letters purporting to be from women
who said they kqew who shot Grace
were received, but created small notice.
Grace grew neither better nor worse.
His physicians continued to declare
that his death was only, a matter of
time. The charges against his wife he
reiterated and amplified from time to
time.
He was still bitter. She was still
sad, but firm in the declaration of her
own Innocence.
One night her lawyers managed to
negotiate her bond. An attempt was
made to carry it through secretly, but
with little success
Throng Follows Her to Station,
When Mrs. Grace left the Tower in
the company of her lawyers the night
of March 19. a mob ot the curious and
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WEBSTER OPIE, JR.
a young army of newspaper men sur
rounded her. She was placed quickly
in a cab and the driver ordered to whip
up his horses.
To the Terminal station he galloped,
followed by honking newspaper auto
mobiles and hundreds of the curious
running beside the machines.
Attorney John Moore made a quick
purchase at the ticket window. Three
newspaper men crowded onto the same
train, and the memorable trip to Phila
delphia was begun.
"That’s the last we’ll see of Mrs.
Eugene Grace,” said Attorney Reuben
Arnold when apprised of the flight.
“She has skipped.”
CHAPTER V.
Mrs. Grace, Hardened by Accu
sations, Turns Accuser—
Grace Taken Home to Die.
Prior to her Philadelphia trip tlie
mental attitude of Mrs. Grace
was one of meekness and resignation.
Each accusation by her husband was
like a lash across her face, but she
bowed a head of acceptance.
A subtle change came over her as she
sped northward. Repeated statements
condemning her came from the bedside
of the wounded man. One day site fin
ished reading and crushed the paper In
her hand.
“Why does he say that?” she cried —
then a hard look crept into- her eyes
and she almost hissed the next words.
“He knows who shot him! He KNOWS
WHO SHOT HIM. Why—” turning to
the newspaper correspondents. “I could
clear myself In three minutes before
any jury in the world. I could tell
things which would show clearly how
this thing happened. He —”
Lawyer Sealed Her Lips.
She was interrupted by her lawyer,
J. A. Branch. He put his hand on her
arm. “You mustn’t talk too much,” he
said qilckly. She and turned
away. The newspaper men cursed and
went to a nickel show.
In Philadelphia friends of Mrs. Grace
and Mrs. Grace’s family testified bit
terly to the effect that Eugene had
never been much —had always lived on
his wife's money. Indubitable evidence
that she owned property was shown.
“Why should I kill him for his insur
ance?” she asked querulously, holding
up a handful of stock in a well known
corporation.
Grace's condition in his hospital pris
on continued to ebb and flow. His
condition one day was pronounced much
better. Then it turned and steadily
grew worse. His physicians bad aban
doned entirely the idea of an operation.
He was going to die.
His parents then put in. a request.
Let him die at home—at Newnan. This
was agreed to by the physicians.
In an express car his cot was placed.
Wounded Man, Recov-"
ering, Renews Con
demnation of Wife.
Declares He’ll Seek
Divorce After Trial.
On the trip down to the Coweta county
seat he once more declared his wife,
guilty of having shot him. His removal 1
took place Saturday afternoon, March
29. The next afternoon Mrs. Grace
returned to Atlanta.
The meanwhile, had been
fanned Into a frenzy of curiosity of
minute reports of what Mrs. Grace had
been doing in Philadelphia. The in
coming train was delayed several hours,
but in spite of that the Terminal sta
tion was blocked and crowxied with
waiting men and women anxious for
one glimpse of the woman.
It was a repetition of the night of her
departure, only on a larger scaJe. She
was rushed Into a taxicab and carried
rapidly up the street. Ten, fifteen,
twenty automobiles followed. The first
and only stop was made at the Kimball I
house.
She was taken to a room— ln which
she locked herself, and with no com
pany save that of a nurse remained for
more than a week
CHAPTER VI.
t
Mrs. Grace Held For Trial.
Grace Operated on Success
fully—All Ready For Trial.
Things moved slowly now in the
Grace case.
At Newnan, Grace lived from day to
day in spite of saturnine prediettona on
the part of Atlanta surgeons. A new
physician was now in charge and he
refused to believe that Grace coutdn’t
live.
As the days wore on and public curi
osity in the case began to wane, Mrs.
Grace moved from her Kimball house
room to the home of Mrs. Louise Wil
son in West End.
Meanwhile certain letters had come
to light—letters from Eugene to Daisy
before their marriage, before she was
divorced by death from Webster Opie.
In these letters he confessed to having
lived a wild life. He also declared his
love in passionate terms. The letters
revived interest in the case.
Other documentary evidence brought
to light revealed the fact that the
Graces had been married twicer—the
first marriage at the Little Church
Around the Corner in New York was
no marriage at all. A second ceremony
had been performed in New Orleans.
Mrs. Grace Bound Over.
The preliminary trial, held before
Justice Ridley, in which only the evi
dence of the prosecution was heard, re
sulted in Mrs. Grace being bound over
to the grand jury. An indictment was
returned later.
For a third time Mrs. Grace was re
manded to jail, but after about two
weeks incarceration was again bonded.
Now, at her home in West End, she
awaits her trial.
A few days ago an operation was
performed on Eugene Grace. The bul
let was located and the pressure
against his spine removed. For a while
it looked as if he might return to a full
possession of his faculties. That he
might live indefinitely, in any event,
was established beyond a doubt. He
will not be able to attend the trial of
his wife. He says, however, that what
ever Its result he will divorce her as
soon as he can, as he still is convinced
of her guilt.
The last act in the drama begins
Monday,
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