Thursday, July 5, 1901
STATE vs MARY YOUNG, continued
OKEY COLLINS
The next witness is from Webster County, 25 years old and works in a lumber camp. He was in the hotel kitchen when the shot was fired. He cared for Mory. Evidence as to events leading up to the shooting the same as Gordon Hevener. Stated that Mory was “loaded” and “pretty full” and that he and Hevener had been drinking. Mory was a small man of perhaps 150 lbs., of compact build.
DR. LAMBERT
Was the physician who held the inquest and was called in to attend the dying man. The ball passed through the 7th rib, through the liver, cutting off the hepatic artery, which feeds the liver, ruptured the gall bladder, passed down through the stomach and lodged on the opposite side just under the heart. Death resulted from internal hemorrhage. The wound showed that the man was in a stooping position when he received the wound. The bloodstained clothing was introduced and identified. Mory had pistol in his hip pocket.
SAMUEL SHEETS
Deputy sheriff identified pistol as the one taken from Mrs. Young. Was loaded in all chambers. Got it at Dunmore out of Mrs. Young’s luggage. Had not searched her sooner because he was in a hurry to get the prisoner away from Durbin, and Mrs. Young came on with a guard while witness went for another team.
CHARLES SLAVEN
Called in to identify revolver found in Mory’s pocket. Had once owned it. Had one load in it. Was a revolver which would not revolve. The two pistols are almost exactly alike and of the same make. Iver-Johnson can cut one more notch on their stick when they hear of this death.
EVIDENCE FOR THE DEFENSE
ROBERT KERR
This witness is the financier of Durbin, being to that town what Col. McGraw is to Marlinton, owning the land on which it was built. He testified that Gordon Hevener was full of liquor on the day of the killing and the length of time the Youngs had lived in Durbin. Had noticed the marks on Mrs. Young’s neck. On cross examination, witness said he was not assisting in hiring counsel for the prisoner; had had a mighty good chance to, but had not done it.
DR. LAMBERT
Dr. Lambert testified that he saw Mrs. Young after the death of Mory and made an examination of her neck. There were prints of a thumb and two fingers on her throat…
MARY YOUNG
Came to Durbin September 10, 1900. Husband was a railroader. Was running the Riverside Hotel the first of February. Husband was sick.
When she first saw Mory on the day of his death, he was disputing with Graves about a check. Hevener asked for dinner for two. Hevener and Graves went out of the house. Mory went into the office. Dinner being ready, she started to show him to the dining room. On the way thither, he made an indecent proposal to her, which witness resented. He told her if she did not do what he wanted he would kill her before he left there. When they reached the dining room, Tony Young was there. Mory grabbed witness and threw her back into the corner of the room and took liberties with her person. Tony pulled him away. Witness went to the kitchen and got a revolver. Hevener and John Taylor had come in. Witness flourished the pistol over Mory’s head and told him that he had choked her and that if he laid hands on her again, she would blow his head off.
She sat down and laid the pistol by her plate. Mory continued to quarrel and threaten to blow witness’ heart out. He finally started to get up and grab his plate. Taylor grabbed it and held it and knocked Mory down. Mory got away from Taylor and started towards her with his hand on his pistol. Then witness fired and dropped the pistol. Mory walked into another room and fell.
JOHN TAYLOR
Cook at hotel. He is black and has the whitest teeth ever a man saw. When told to talk plain, he said he couldn’t talk plain like West Virginia people. Had tried to keep down the disturbance. Thought he was gone when the row began, turned his back looking to be shot. The main part of his testimony substantiated that of Mrs. Young’s.
TONY YOUNG
Tony Young is a young ruddy faced boy of about 15, mainly distinguished by a wart on his ear. He distinguished himself by getting as badly rattled as ever a witness was on the stand. He thought Gordon Hevener was the man that was killed. Asked if he heard the shot, he said he did. Asked who fired it, said he did not remember. He covered himself with confusion and left without throwing any light on either the testimony for the prosecution or defense. It was a case of stage fright and every young lawyer in the bar felt for him.
THE ARGUMENT
Friday morning, the argument began and the speeches were the most thrilling, we may say, that have ever been heard in that courthouse. In the south, the courtroom is the theatre of the people. And who can say that the situation was not dramatic? A woman of slight, almost fragile form, was there to justify her killing of a strong man in the prime of life. On her lap sat a baby boy just beginning to talk, and nearby her husband, showing more emotion than she.
She had said that she wanted either freedom or death. No intermediate sentence of lingering confinement in the penitentiary…
The speeches were not long but they were intense… The heavy parts were in the hands of Gilmer and Jones, old actors who have played on the feelings of hundreds of juries.
Gilmer’s speech showed the condition of the woman, who was making the fight for a livelihood for her child and a crippled husband by means of a boarding house, in a rough town when she killed the man. How could she not have made a living out of that business and remained as sensitive to insult as a woman whose lot was happier?…
Gilmer embodied the doctrine of the New Testament, but Jones brought into the argument all the thunders of the Mosaic Law. An eye for an eye, a life for a life. He is an orator of the old school that is fast passing away. His voice fills the courthouse and floats out over the town and draws the people to hear him. He spoke for near an hour demanding that justice be meted out to the woman who had killed Mory.
The jury retired and after about two hours deliberation brought in a verdict of
“NOT GUILTY.”
John Taylor had been held as an accessory, and his case was promptly nollied.
The party went to Hinton on the evening train.
