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Wife. Long Bearing Accusations of Her Wounded Husband in Tears, at Last Turns His Accuser GRACE CASE FULL OF DRAMATIC INCIDENTS FROM ITS BEGINNING k 'S' Wfew y 'Wo ; M Kr 1 / hUIFW/ Mh &■ i pMPk \ ® O r® !■ ’■ 1 V* 4w.v \ £E&$ W ®' (i \W h x /JMMm Cv/ wKS U h • \\ / JHF /jMHM i 'MIK ; \\ r . k \\ Ju \m MM /MMMn Wwfil/7 - r | \ K - iMkv/wWaO’ - . w™r WHmi i. Iw/ '< WMBi f i W WBW < > //• •*» 1 f ■■’*» IMMWB \ \ iMMIKHfc Errw“ ' MMrw B jimwi L MW :Y'Wi Xccused Woman Is De fiant as Day of Trial Approaches. Here is the story of 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 VI. 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 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 demented 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 how 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 "ho 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 what is the matter. Wood, with two other policemen at his heels, reached the house at 29 West Eleventh street in ten minutes. As ’h'.v reached the front door an ambu lance from St. Josephs hospital, or dered out by telephone from police a ] sc , came flashing up. W ood’s hectic banging at the door "as answered by a colored servant "ho, questioned in the hallway, said stupidly that he knew nothing of any ‘ 1 ' being shot in the house. I he policemen dashed on to the sec °nd floor. They found the rooms that I ' v passed through in a state of some mder, but all the doors were open ’ 1 admit of easy ingress, until they < ime to the southeast corner. That 'b'or wag locked. Wood rapped once u Pon it; then put his shoulder to the Pan<‘| s and sprawled inside as the oaken barrier gave way. •'t the further end of the room he a tall man clad in night clothes Cng sprawled horribly over the side a bed. His head hung downward n the edge and one leg doubled be ■’"ath his twisted body as though he >.id collapsed in a final lurch to throw •i 'is,.if up,, n thp he() “Shot While Asleep.” foe mar, was only half conscious; gasped Pitifully for every breath. Bbl z - •jMbk -Xu ( if a A\ A lisil ■ v M o Ut i r ~ Al Here are the principal characters in the strange case of Mrs., Grace, accused of shooting her husband, and who will he tried next week. At the left, above, is Mrs. Martha Ulrich, the aged mother of the defendant, who is on her way from Philadel phia to share with her daughter the ordeal of the court. Next is John W. Moore, leading counsel for the defense. At the right is Eugene 11. Grace, the wounded husband. The central picture is that of Mrs. Grifee. while below, at the left, is Lamar Hill, a cousin to Grace; and one of his counsel assisting the state in the prosecution. The little picture at the lower right is Web ster Oiiie, Jr., the tiny blind son of Mrs. Grace and her first husband. The child is in school near Philadelphia and ignorant of his mother’s troubles. But as the policemen straightened him out upon the bed he managed to tell them: "I’ve been shot in my back while I was asleep in bed. I'm Eugene Grace. 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, also 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 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 the weapon he saw that it was Grace’s own. and that one chamber in it had been fired. Policeman Wood put the prstol in his pocket, noting mentally that he had found it more than 39 feet away from where the man had been wounded, and that the door of the wounded man’s room nad been locked. CHAPTER 11. Grace, liecovering 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 Nc.wnan. She had left the home in West Eleventh street at noofi to make sure that she wotild not miss the train. At Newnan she was embracing Graces mother and telling 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 lice headquarters in Atlanta told Grace’s mother that her son had been shot through the spine and was prob ably dying at S' Josephs hospital. Young Mrs. Grace evinced tremen- THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN AND NEWS. 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 gestion 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. Grace, 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 nte 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 I had gone from the house and was on my way to his mother at Newnan. It is all a terr’ble 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 confronting her wounded husband in the hospital. CHAPTER 111. ‘‘You Can Not Live,” Grace Is Told. 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 still 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. Us 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: “I am innocent.” CHAPTER IV. Mrs. Grace Makes Bond and Hur riedly Departs For Old Home. Mrs. Grace in the Tower sun 'uhded iby felons and petty thieves and ' bugs'' FRIDAY. JULY 26, 1912. —thought of her husband, prayed in termittently, and read feverishly In the attempt to throw from her mind the dreadful 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 me. 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.” 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 it. 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 doesn’t love me any more, I 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 knew who shot Grace were received, but created small notice. Grace grew neither better nor worse. Ills 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 of the curious and a young army of newspaper men sur« rounded her. She was placed quickly in a cab and the driver ordered to whip up bls 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. Pi lor to her Philadelphia trip the mental attitude of Mrs. Daisy 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 she 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 quickly. She sighed 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 had 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. On the trip down to the Coweta county seat he once more declared his wife guilty of having shot him. His removal took place Saturday afternoon, March 29 The next afternoon Mrs. Grace returned to Atlanta. The public, meanwhile, had been ✓' I Wounded Man, Recov ering, Renews Con demnation of Wife. 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 crowded 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 scale. 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 hOUSe. She was taken to a room—ln which she locked herself, and with no coin* p.iny save that of a nurse remained for more than a week. CAPTER VI. 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 ilay in spite of saturnine predictions on the part of Atlanta surgeons. A new physician was now in charge and he refused to believe that Grace couldn’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 tn 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 th'e case. Other documentary evidence brought to light revealed the fact that the Graces had been married twice—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. • Mr. Buslnes Man or Woman: Aren’t you on a sharp lookout for competent help of all kinds? You know that it is good business policy to get live wires with you. Let us call your attention to the "Situa tions Wanted" columns of The Georgian Here is where you have a chance to select the best help that can be had on the mar ket. These people that advertise cat furnish you the best of references. So from now on read the "Situation Wanted' columns of The Georgia and get the help that will be of the must service to you. 3