Newspaper Page Text
LAST PLEA FOR MRS. GRACE
THE WEATHER
Forecast for Atlanta and Georgia:
Fair today and tomorrow.
VOL. X. NO. 265.
MBS. BRACE’S STDRY
REHEARSED DIE
li'MW
Drilled and Trained by Various Law
yers and Assistants for Weeks—Her
Speech Pruned and Edited—-Grace
Name Dragged in Mire and Police
Led Astray to “Save Family Honor.”
Mrs. Daisy Grace's reinarkabL
band Eugene, recited to the jury 1
lion, pruned, amended and polishe
rehearsed as a dramatic offering b
This startling fact was reveal*
lion before it had been delivered in
It had been prepared in the
offices of her lawyers, John
W. Moore and -lames A. Branch,
'(’here it had been decided in
numerous conferences what would
lie good for lhe jury to hear and
what might best be omitted.
There its 7.500 words had been
intoned day after day by Mrs.
Grace. There, ami in other places,
the woman win- was to recite it
in explanation of her part in a
tragie shooting bad been re
hearsed and guided and trained
bv lawyers, a secretary and a pri
vate detective, and from there it
loimd its wiy into type hours
before -Imige koan and the jury
of twelve men who possibly
thought it an extemporaneous
masterpiece neard a word of it.
To Save Grace Name
Dragged It in Mire.
\- u,. sa:-,r time that these -uipris
ing riVL'liitiors were made, the aston
' Xing fact Atis bared that Mrs. Grace’s
luv. vers Meme <S- Branch, had known
.‘I he’- claim that Grace shot himself
ii- j|i. vbeginning. Despite that
f... t. the} had permitted the entire po
]i> (• fine of the city and detectives in a
iiost of otivt cities to waste many
v eaiiscme weeks hunting supposed sus
pects and -my ■ terions persons.”
As the testimony showed, Mrs. Grace
was pointing suspicion toward her hus
batiil’s servant, end indirect accusations
involved many others not specifically
named.
While the lawyers were Keeping Mrs.
Grace's alleged secret—presumably be
cause ol hei alleged promise to Grace
to shield "the family honor”—they were
giving out a mass of and papers
•md statements reflecting hideouslv
upon '.he wounded n.an and conditions
in the Grace home.
Their attacks, as well as those of
their client —while site and they were
sending scotes of police on false scents
to "shield the family honor” —made the
G ice family life a by-word, and often
contained insinuations unprintable.
The training in this ease was no
half-hearted affair. No playwright ever
'worked more painstakingly to eliminate
wha: might hurt him with his audience
and insert what might benefit him than
those who had a part in the construc
tion of Mrs. Grace's story. No star of
th* 1 stage wa- ever more carefully
trained to speak her piece effectively
end without the aid of the prompter
than the woman accused of trying to
i. urdi r Eugene Grace.
Plenty of Critics
And Stae Managers.
Coachers. dramatic critics and stage
managers there were a-plenty. When
it was first fashioned it may have been
a rough, uncouth tale: when It left the
chief dramatists' office to be given to
the street and finally to the jury, it was
a gripping, well rounded melodrama,
with pistols and gems and attempted
killings and unexpected climaxes
a-plenty.
Mrs. Grace did credit to her coat her
and the playwright, whoever they may
have been She had rehearsed with
her lawyers She had repeated the
story day after day to Detective Burke
ami to a specially engaged assistant,
who found in that their principal work
She said her speech before Mr Rosser,
arid then recited h to his law partners
She studied faithfully and conscien
tiously day and night
Her coachers w er- p«rei»t- nt mil
The Atlanta Georgian (
Read For Profit—GEORGIAN WANT ADS—Use For Results [
le story of the shooting of her hus
was a carefully prepared deelama
:d by her lawyers, and as,carefully
iy a professional actress.
ed by the publication of the recita
n court by Mrs. Grace.
tireless. Most of them could go on the
stand today and recite the story them
selves—so often lave they heard it in
the quiet north side home or the farm
on the outskirts of the city, where Mrs.
Grace may have treated the birds and
the rabbits to an eloquent phrase or
two of her masterpiece.
Learned Her Speech
Os 7,500 Words.
As a result, Daisy Grace accomplish
ed the difficult feat of committing to
memory and repeating 7,500 words
without an error except when her ig
norance of grammar caused an occa
sional slip. She had droned them and
intoned them so often she could have
probably spoken them in one' of the
dreams helpless Gene says she occa
sionally had. •
The recitation in court was. there
fore, little of an ordeal. With her
wounded husband lying before her, his
eyes fixed steadily and clearly upon
hets, she spoke her piece, dropping a
word here or a phrase there occasion
ally, but m th" main sticking to manu
script with commendable accuracy.
Very skillfully Mrs. Grace was re
served for the last witness. She was
not under oath, and the state could not
cross-question her. The fact that, her
surprising story was a. painstakingly
prepared and oft rehearsed story could
therefore, not be put before the jury.
Grace to Tell All
After Verdict
NEWNAN, GA., Aug. 2. —"I will give
out no statement for publication until
the jury has rendered its decision,” de
clares Eugene H. Grace. "When the
jury decides the case I shall have some
thing to say, and what 1 shall say will
be what I would have said had 1 been
permitted to go on the stand.”
Grace made this positive assertion
on his second home-coming trip to
Newnan from Atlanta yesterday after
noon and he reiterates it today at his
home. His attorney. Lamar Hill, he
said, had advised this course: but he
indicated that he was anxious to say
the last word in the affair, and that he
would take up his wife's accusations in
the finest detail".
Lying on his cot in the baggage car
of train .15 of the Atlanta and West
Point railroad, Grace scanned his wife's
prepared statement as closely as
blurred print and two dim lights would
permit. On being told that the state
ment had evidently been given out prior
to her statement before the jury, he
said. "Then she must have guessed at
it when she went on the stand.” This
■ was the most direct reference he made
to the ease during the ride, and after
it. he cheeked himself with the remark
that he could not pursue the subject
further.
The trip down was uneventful, but
marked by pleasantries and the good
humor of Grace’s host of "brother”
Elks. In the escort were T. G. Farmer,
Jr., E. M. Carpenter, R. E. Platt and
B. H. Kirby. Grace’s boyhood friends
from Newnan who had come up to the
trial with him. A picture of these
friends in an Atlanta newspaper held
the wounded man's eye seveial mo
ments Then he turned to his wife's
allegations as the very newest thing in
the case. Grace’s stepfather, 3. L.
Hill, of Newnan, and Robert Bailey,
the negro boy who has been with him
constantly for four months, were also
along
Conductor "Jim" Lynch passed
through the car several times and once
he paused opposite Grace to play a
game of solitaire on an empty soda
water case. Grace lay on his cot near
the middle of the baggage car, at the
loft, facing toward Newnan. On his
right was an express strong box, be
hind him a big consignment of flowers
tagg-d to a LaGrange florist, ami tn
front a couple of trunks and a block of
Ice, and farther front, a -rated calf
billed to a wayside town.
LAWYER CALLS MRS. GRACE
“POOR, PERSECUTED WOMAN”
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• Mrs. Martha \A|^ ; ' KTM
I 'lrich. who iias N -. 'l PRI
been at her X x? :; /
daughter’s side '' .
during the trial.
_ _________ ._ .
GOV. BLEASE BRANDS
MAYOR GRACE WILFUL
AND MALICIOUS LIAR
COLUMBIA, S. C., Aug. 2.—The
bteak between Governor Blease and
Mayor Grace, of Charleston, went a
step further when the governor issued
a lengthy statement calling the
Charleston official a "malicious and
willful liar.” This was a denunciation
of Grace's recent statement that the
governor had "nursed" McDuffie
Hampton, son of the late General Wade
Hampton, into the office of railroad
commissioner, paying Hampton's cam
paign expenses with money furnished
him by the Southern railway, jtnd th.it
the governor had been in a "drunken
carouse" on the night before his in
auguration.
The issue has nqw come to be one
of whom to believe. Mayor Grace has
called the governor a liar and the gov
ernor has strongly branded as false th
- told by Grace on the chief '-x
--ecutive.
ALEXANDER FAILS TO
SPEAK IN DEFENSE OF
THE TIPPINS MEASURE
Hooper Alexander failed to male- his
promised speech in favor of the passage
of the Tippins bill over the governor's
veto today. When the measure came
up in the ltou.se representatives, the op.
ponents of the measure, ieu by Ran
dolph Anderson, declared they were
content to let the governor's vto speak
for itself. •
Mr. Alexander then decided lie would
not talk for tin measure, and several
other friends of the bill also ahan-
ATLANTA. GA., FRIDAY. AUGUST 2, 1912.
MRS. GRACE’S MOTHER
SENATE CALLS NEW I
COUNTY WHEELER
! INSTEAD OF KENT
■ The senate committee on constltu-
I tional amendments today approved the 1
i bill to make a new county of part of 1
I Montgomery and agreed that If the ,
? people of Alamo, the proposed county ;
I seat, will raise $20,000 for a new court I
i house and Jail the new county will be 1
‘ authorized and named Wheeler, In hon
-1 or of the late General Joe Wheeler.
The committee heeded numerous pro- ,
I tests from residents of the proposed ;
county demanding that when created '
J it should not be given the name of
, Kent, after Oscar W. Kent, the lawyer 1
i i
. who recently was disbarred by the su- ,
preme court.
’ The bill undoubtedly will be passed i
' by the senate. A similar bill, though 1
carrying tile other name for the coun- 1
ty. lias already passed the house.
SLEEP WALKER DIES
OF INJURIES FROM <
SECOND-STORY FALL (
‘I AUGUSTA, GA.. Aug. 2.Miss Alice J
. i.\, Hora, a prominent woman of North
• I Augusta, S. (died today from injuries
- | sustained when she fell from a second- '
» ! story window white walking in her *
, sleep. She had been in ill health for ‘
some time.
(>n Monday night Minx Hora became ’
L restless and while walking about the 1
hou.*»e in a stupor fill from the second
i story to the ground. She was picked !
I up by members of the family, who ’
heard he* cries, and medlca* attention 5
UNUSUAL DEATH OF
WOMAN AFTER VISIT
OF RELATIVE PROBED
WORCESTER. MASS., Aug. 2.—The
police today- began an investigation of
mysterious circumstances surrounding
the death of .Mrs, Max Biller, wife of a
wealthy contractor. Her stomach was
sent to the Harvard Medical school to
be examined by Dr. William F. Whit-,
noy for poison.
Elizabeth, an eighteen-year-old
daughter, declares that her uncle, Emil
Biller, called at the house yesterday,
talked with her mother a short time
and then left. Her mother immediately
went upstairs, she said. She heard the
window of a room upstairs thrown
open. Then she heard a heavy fall.
Going upstairs, she found her mother
lying on the floor dead.
It is said that Emil Biller has been a
frequent caller at the home of his
b. other and Mr. Biller informed Medi
cal Examiner E. 1,. Hunt that this was
in defiance of his orders. Mrs. Biller
left home on July X very- quietly and
returned only last Friday, saying that
she had been in New York,
OFFICER? IN SOCK FEET,
CHASES LUNATIC ABOUT
STREETS OF CORDELE
t'< iRDELE. GA . Aug. 2. < m tiny re
tclise Tn wanting a glass of war l>.
Smith, an inmate of the in ane as., lum
at Milledgeville, being taken to Ash
wood, Berrien county, to answer to a
charge of bmglaiy, e-, aped from the
I lixie Fly <•) at i 'ordeb
When the deputy sheriff found bis
prisoner had gone n< rushed from the
train, in sock feet ami bail -headed ami
tor seveial minutes elvis-d tile lunatic
Declares That Prosecution Has Con
cealed Evidence That Would Help
Clear Her—Case Goes to Jury Today.
TA ith every prbspect that the state’s case against Mrs. Daisy Opie
Grace, charged with the attempted murder of her husband, Eugene,
and her remarkable defense would go to the jury this afternoon, coun
sel for both sides continued their summing up today.
Mrs. Grace, as confident and undisturbed as ever, was on hand
once more as court reopened, but her husband, whose clear, accusing
eyes confronted her as she told her amazing story yesterday, was back
at his home in Newnan still stretched on the cot he has occupied since
he was found paralyzed by a bullet on March 5.
“I am confident that L will be acquitted,” said Mrs. Grace, “and
I am glad that the ordeal is drawing to a close.”
Grace declared at his home that he would have an important'
statement to make when the jury had rendered its verdict. Mrs.
Grace, when told of this, declared that, she would have a no less im
portant announcement.
Lamar Hill, of counsel for the state, resumed his attack on the
accused women when the court reopened. A great crowd was on hand
for what promised to be the last day of the famous trial. Mr. Hill
termed Mrs. Grace a modern Lucretia Borgia and tried to show how
she had carefully planned and executed the crime.
John W. Moore, one of the wom
an's lawyers, then launched into a
vicious attack an the state, charg
ing it with concealing important
evidence and weaving a false net
about a ‘‘poor, innocent woman."
Likens Mrs. Grace
To Lucretia Borgia.
Lamar Hill resumed his argument
this morning at 9:05 o'clock.
He brought out the fact that circum
stantial evidence was well recognized
by law. He likened Mrs. Grace to
Lucretia Borgia. He said that she had
planned the deed with the same cun
ning that she would have had she liad
the advice of lawyers from the begin
ning
“Mrs. Grace has told you,” said he,
“that Mr. Grace shot himself while they
were struggling on the bed. Look at
the top bed covering and see it there
was blood upon It. Not a drop.”
Mr. Hill went on to show the heart
lessness of Mrs. Grace’s action in leav
ing when she knew he was suffering.
He ridiculed her statement about her
oath to Eugene being the reason why
she didn’t tell the true story, upon her
arrival in Newnan.
Every point in the case, said Mr.
Hill, pointed clearly to the gtfilt of the
defendant.
State Concealed
Evidence, Says Moore.
John W. Moore opened the argument
for the defense at 9:07 o’clock He
began quietly and dispassionately,
speaking in soothing, cajoling tones.
He said he felt he had done his duty as
a lawyer in this case.
“This Is the first case in all my ex
perience,” he said, “where it was nec
essary on the part of the defense con
tinuously to struggle to force the state
not to cover up evidence.”
He walked up and down slowly in
front of the jury box. clappinf his
hands, extending his arms at full
length, placing his hands on his hips
and looking solemnly into the faces of
the jurors.
"They have tried to convict this poor
unfortunate woman, not by evidence,
not by circumstances, hut by concealing
and covering up.
"There’s not .- man hero but knows
E. 11. Grace wrote a letter they have
'UNDERTOOK' to saddle off on that
woman. Is that fair? Has It come to
the pass that these representatives of
the state of Georgia have come to such
a point that they must spend all their
time in coveting from the Jury all evi
dence in her favor?
"Another instance: They undertook
to convey the impression that Mrs.
Grace wrote a typewritten letter that
she knows nothing about and 1 know
nothing about. The} haven't let you
know much about that letter, but they
undertook, by a typewriter expert, who
proved he couldn't be certain of any
thing. that she wrote that letter.
"How Easy to Prove
She Couldn't Use Typewriter."
‘ I low easy it would havo been to
prove that this woman couldn’t op
erate .< typewriter! Rut the> didn’t.
"They tried to Impress you that this
woman was scheming to Ret her hus- i
band to Philadelphia for the purpoi*
of doing her » favor. \nd even, then,
thev had thiM power of attorney in iindr
pojfrfcrsMivh, and they refused to intro-
IXTRA
2 CENTS EVERYWHERE & V HB NO
duce it here so you might know what
Grace was going for. Was that fair to
you?
“These lawyers have tried to 'coyer
it up. cover It up.’ They have tried be
fore the trial and during its session*.
“I do not believe the great state of
Georgia indorses their acts. They tried
to convey to you that this woman tried
to drug Grace and they knew that he
bought that medicine himself, and they '
made us bring the witnesses here to
prove it.
"Persecuted in a
Land of Strangers."
“This poor woman Is persecuted tn,
a land of strangers. What a hurrjrl
when she was invited here to give hen
simple story; what a hurry to resort toe
theatrical effects! You thought when)
you brought Gene Grace in here thi»
poor woman could not look the jury in
the face. But your plan failed, miser-j
ably. If that woman hadn’t been telle
ing the truth, she would have failed in
that hour when she should not to have
been disturbed. But even with all your
trickery and your theatrical efforts—
some of us still believe in an old per
sonal God—she capie in all her inno
cence. she took her seat, calmly and
dignified, not brazen, and with a ring
of truth she looked him in the face and;
she told the most reasonable story, the
most reasonable statemnet. If she had
not been sustained by truth and right
they would most unfairly and unjustly?
broken her down. Oh, how sickened,
they were when the plan failed. It was
their own doing—and their own undo
ing.
"She made her statement with thw
same feeling, with the same composure,
as the Smithfield martyrs of old. They
could not break her down. Such eon
met as that of those lawyer* U frowned
upon by all fair men.
‘ Case Built
Alone on Theory.”
"You've heard nothing but theory.
I never saw a case so impregnated with
theoryfl Did you take your oath that 1
you would put a woman in chains on’
theory? I didn’t hear any sueh oath.
You said you'd find a verdict by the
evidence and not by some interested e
person's theory a
"They say that this woman, for ineu
cenery motives, whose life na's be€h-_
one of indescretion —possibly yes, but
not bad whose gain was that she was
hurried from the grave of her first
husband to fresh matrimony? What
did she gain?
The Power of the
Fascinating Man of the World.
"Poor, foolish, credulous woman! She
mart led the 'most fascinting man in the
world to her.’ What does it mean when
a woman meets a fascinating man of
tile world? What power, what influ
ence! They say she was mercenery,
who spent her wealth on her new hus
band lavishly, unselfishly Find one
act in her life tiiat smacks of merce
nery motives
"They say that away back in New
York she had slnlstei motives when
she raised for him $6,000 to go into
business in Atlanta Where was the
mot i ve ?
"There sits the man, E. K. Law
ti me, whom they could have put on
the stand and disproved it. But we
• had to call him.
"1 run show you who wus mercenary.