From Part 1, Marion Reese was charged with the murder of Charles Williams. Dan Luckie and Ellen Anderson were indicted as accessories. Attorneys Hart, McDow, and Youmans represent the defendants while Solicitors Henry and DeLoach represent the state.
With legal wrangling out of the way, Robert Anderson began his testimony, saying that on the evening Charles Williams was murdered, he was in Avacaliente, Arizona. He had been living there since December 1895. He said that before going west, he had met Marion Reese when he came to Blacksburg to visit his estranged wife, who was working in Reese’s store. One day, after returning to the store from a buggy ride with Ellen, Reese met them with cursing and verbal abuse because she had left the store with the keys.
The defense attacked Anderson’s character, asking if it was true he was a fugitive from the law for trafficking liquor. He denied knowing about the warrant for his arrest until two months after he left Georgia, that he was in Yorkville on special bond “to protect my name and try and get my baby.” Then, as now, a man claiming a desire to face up to his previously neglected fatherly obligations could move the public — nearly everyone in the courtroom applauded. The sheriff tried to quiet the crowd, but the room would not come to order until the judge banged his gavel several times.
The prosecution questioned Anderson about his marital history. The first marriage with Ellen terminated in divorce over his alleged drunkenness, cruelty, adultery, and threatening her with a firearm. The divorce was settled with him paying $3,000 for the benefit of the children. Anderson said he remarried Ellen only for the welfare of the children, but the marriage lasted only a few days. The attorney hammered at his character, suggesting he had lived the life of a “libertine and despoiler of virtue.” The prosecution questioned him about hanging a woman and whipping his wife with a horse whip. He denied both as lies to defame his character.
The remainder of the day was taken up in reading letters written by Ellen to Charles Williams over a period of four years while living with her husband. Judge Watts considered the subject matter too filthy for young, impressionable minds and ordered the courtroom cleared of all boys under the age of 17.
At some point during the reading of the letters, Ellen fainted. Youmans and the defense team believed it was staged. When Youmans later questioned Doctor Ramseur if he thought it was real or not, he did not get the answer he was hoping because Solicitor Henry objected to the question and Judge Watts sustained the objection.
The letters expressed Ellen’s love for Williams and her hatred for both Reese and her husband, saying the only reason she was living with Anderson was because of the money and that she did not like the town or its people. The reading of the love letters continued until about six that evening, after which the prosecution announced it was ready to close the case. Court was adjourned until Monday morning.
A throng gathered outside the courthouse on Monday, and when the court chamber was opened the masses pressed in until every seat and standing spot was taken. Many were from out of town, having traveled by train to witness the excitement for themselves.
When Judge Watts called the court to order, Youmans asked the judge to retire the jury so he might bring a motion before the court. Judge Watts agreed to hear the motion. The defense attorney requested that the jury bring in an acquittal on Ellen Anderson, since she was not directly involved in the murder. This would allow her to testify in defense of Luckie and Reese. If he put her on the stand without an acquittal, or the promise of an acquittal, she could appear to be a biased witness testifying for herself.
The state wanted nothing to do with it. DeLoach, though he had the power to stop her prosecution at any time, said he would make no promise. He argued that the court had no right to ask for a verdict at this time, and if it did so, it would be an outrage on the state and justice. Judge Watts, however, didn’t agree and contended that he had a perfect right to instruct a verdict since the state had not succeeded in connecting her with the case. Though he was not willing to do so at the time, he suggested he would when he believed it was the proper time. The trial continued.
The defense called railroad conductor, Jason Cannon, who testified he had seen Williams come to Blacksburg in November. Once he was wearing street clothes. But the second time, he wore green goggles and a cap without a visor, and his mouth was muffled in a handkerchief. Williams told Cannon he was investigating a freight agent who was using too much expense money.
H. Gaffney, a section master with the railroad, said he had met Williams that afternoon and that he had told him the same story. Williams, Gaffney said, stayed at his home for about two hours and before leaving said that he would be back around 9:30 that night. But Gaffney never saw Williams again.
Smith Williams, a Blacksburg blacksmith; E. H. Bridges; and A. J. Blalock all testified they had seen Williams on the day he was murdered.
Eventually, Ellen Anderson was called to the stand. An intense stillness fell over the courtroom when her name was called and she rose from her seat. After a number of preliminary questions, Youmans asked Ellen to explain her version of what had transpired that evening.
She said that as she was getting ready for bed, her brother went out to fill a lamp with kerosene. She thought she heard something at her window and found the shutters had been slightly opened; perhaps a breeze moved them. Satisfying herself with that explanation, she then heard someone on the piazza approach her door. She thought it was her brother returning from filling her lamp, but when she looked up, it was Charles Williams who came through the door.
“I told you not to come here,” she exclaimed as she grabbed a revolver and made a threatening motion toward him. She said he backed out of the door with no hesitation, and she followed him into the street until he disappeared into the darkness. To make sure he would not come back, she claimed she fired a shot with some difficulty, then with both hands pulled off a second shot, then two more. She had not intended to hit her ex-husband, she insisted, but only wanted to scare him — she did not hear of his death until after midnight.
When asked why she was telling her story now, she said her only reason was “because the feeling, prejudice and suspicion” against Reese and her brother was so strong that she was afraid they would not get a fair trial, adding she would rather go to the gallows than have somebody else punished for what she had done. Ellen held to her story as the state subjected her to severe cross-examination. When questioned, her brother supported her story.
Though the public opined Marion Reese was the murderer, when he testified he said that he did not do it, but that Ellen and Dan were “trying to saddle” him with it. Reese said he talked with Ellen the next day and that she had told him she’d shot Williams and believed it best for her to face the police, crying, “Oh my God, what will I do? What can I do with my poor little child? If I go to jail, it will kill us both.” Reese said he told her that he would not say anything to the police, but if it were proven she killed Williams, he would have to tell the truth.
Reese said that the second time he met Ellen she was very distressed, “wringing her hands and reminding me of my promise.” In trying to console her, he assured her that if worse came to worst, he would never give her away.
Closing arguments began on Wednesday after several witnesses were called to verify or refute previous testimonies. Mr. DeLoach opened for the state, contending all three — Luckie, Reese, and Ellen Anderson — were guilty. He reviewed the whole trial for the jury, beginning by reminding them how each of the defendants pled not guilty upon arraignment. He covered the state’s damaging evidence and how the pistol shots had been heard and the flashes seen by others in the neighborhood, but Reese and Luckie claimed they had been unaware of the shooting.
DeLoach ridiculed the defense, saying how they, in desperation, conjured up the idea of getting Mrs. Anderson to confess that she alone was responsible. “Did you ever hear of such a thing, gentlemen? Do you believe it? You cannot believe such an absurd story! No, gentlemen, she did not do it. This man, Charles T. Williams, was murdered by Marion Reese, with the assistance of Daniel Luckie, and not by the woman.”
When DeLoach rested the state’s case, McDow began his argument for the defense, pointing to the bitterness, malice, and personal interest of the prosecution. “Witnesses,” he said, “were brought from the gold regions of Arizona to the shores of the Gulf of Mexico; yet they did not have one word to say against the testimony of the widow of Charles T. Williams. Then there was the husband who came all the way from Arizona to protect his name, but why did he not come before?”
McDow painted a mental portrait of Williams as a serpent coiling himself around poor Ellen’s heart, stealing her reputation and virtue, pursuing her with threats of making information public that would rob her of her child. McDow pointed out how she had tried to break it off with Williams, but he came to Blacksburg in a disguise, avoided her brother, and forced himself into the home of a defenseless woman.
No, he reasoned, it was impossible for this poor woman to have fired the shot that killed Williams. From the beginning to the end, McDow held the attention of the jury and spectators, moving some to tears. At that point it was easy for Major Hart to support McDow’s theory and reconcile the testimonies in support of the defendants. Finally, Youmans made the closing remarks for the defense and moved the spectators from being bitterly suspicious to sympathy and tears.
Next part, Solicitor Henry demonstrates his oratory abilities, and the jury brings in its verdict.
J.L. West – Author
This article and many others found on the pages of Roots and Recall, were written by author J.L. West, for the YC Magazine and have been reprinted on R&R, with full permission – not for distribution or reprint!
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