were pulled out and dumped on the floor, two valises had the sides cut
out and were on the floor, too.
Q. Did you make a careful search of the home for the purpose of finding
money?
A. Yes.
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Q. Did you find any money in the house?
A. Yes. There was a little box with some change in it, and that was all
the actual money that we found.
Q. What clothing did you find on the body?
A. A pair of stockings and a pair of shoes.
Q. What jewelry did you find?
A. She had on diamond earrings and a bracelet watch on her left wrist,
and a gold bracelet on her right wrist, and a gold chain around her
neck. She had one ring on her left hand and three rings on her right hand.
Q. Did those rings contain jewels?
A. Yes, sir, diamonds.
Q. Was her hair done up or loose?
A. Done up.
Q. Did you find the rest of the clothes she had been wearing immediately
before her death?
A. Yes, sir, they were hung up on the coatrack inside the front door.
Q. All of them?
A. I should imagine so.
Q. Was there anything about the body that would indicate a struggle on
her part immediately before her throat was cut?
A. No, sir.
Q. What was the appearance of the wound on her neck?
A. It started on the left side of her neck and extended over under the
right ear, a very large, deep cut. Her head was almost severed from her
body.
Q. Did you discover any articles in the house that did not seem to
belong there?
A. I discovered a glove with a rock in it.
Q. Have you that glove and rock?
A. Yes, sir.
Witness exhibits rock, which is examined by judge and district attorney.
Q. These are the identical articles you found?
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A. Yes, sir.
The glove and rock are admitted as evidence, marked Exhibit 1.
Q. The court notes that the glove is a man's glove, made of brown
leather, lined, well-made, and almost new. Chief Fortson, where was the
glove, containing the rock, when you found it?
A. It was by her right foot.
Q. Did you see a washbasin there?
A. Yes, sir, near the washstand, close to the body, about a foot from
the body.
Q. What did it contain?
A. Bloody water, it seemed to me.
Q. Was there a towel?
A. Yes, sir, on the washstand. It was damp.
Q. Was it blood-stained?
A. Not that I could see.
Q. Other than the glove and the rock, did you find any other weapon of
any kind in the house?
A. No, sir.
Q. Did you discover a knife that had the appearance of having been used
by any one to inflict the wound upon the person of Mrs. Beecham?
A. No, sir.
Q. You made a thorough search of the house and didn't find any money?
A. No, sir. I mean, yes, sir. No money other than the box of change, and
the jewelry. Mostly just a lot of little trinkets.
Q. Of any value?
A. Not of any great value.
Q. Evidently the person who rifled the drawers and grips was not looking
for jewelry?
A. Didn't seem to be. If he did, he overlooked a lot of it.
Q. Did you know Mrs. Angel Beecham in her lifetime?
237
A. Yes, sir.
Q. You knew her to be known as the Dawson Darling?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Also that she resided at Number 3 Front Street in Niniltna?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did you know her personally or professionally?
A. I-I'm a married man, judge.
Q. Answer the question, please, chief.
A. I knew Mrs. Beecham to say hello to on the street.
Q. I see. Thank you, chief, you may step down.
J. R. STEWARD, being first duly sworn, testified as follows:
Q. What is your name?
A. J. R. Steward.
Q. What official position do you hold?
A. Chief deputy marshal.
Q. Did you hold that position on the eighth day of April 1915?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did you know Mrs. Angel Beecham during her lifetime?
A. I did. I knew her when I saw her.
Q. To say hello to on the street?
A.' Yes, sir.
Q. Did you see her body on the evening of the seventh of April?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Where?
A. In her house on Main Street, in the town of Niniltna, Alaska.
Q. What officials were there when you arrived?
A. Uh, yourself, Judge Brittain, and Chief Fortson, and myself. Oh, and
District Attorney Turner.
Q. Anyone else?
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A. Oh, Doctor Davidson was also there. When I arrived, he was examining
the wound in the neck.
Q. Where was the body at that time?
A. In the room called the kitchen.
Q. What was the position of the body?
A. Lying on her back in a pool of blood, with her feet, one under the
washstand and the other right near the middle door.
Q. Was the body clothed?
A. Partially. Both legs from just above the knee downwards were clad in
red silk stockings with reinforced tops and feet. These were held up by
a pair of garters with the tops of the stockings rolled over the
garters. The right stocking was torn. Both feet wore high-heeled shoes
with rhinestone heels.
These garments as enumerated are admitted as evidence, marked Exhibit 2.
Q. Did you assist in making a thorough search of the house?
A. I did, yes, sir.
Q. How many times have you searched it?
A. Two times thoroughly, and two or three times I have been over there
since to verify certain things.
Q. Chief Fortson testified that you found two valises, both cut open.
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Describe the cuts.
A. They were similar cuts, rectangular in shape. It looked as if a knife
had been driven in at one end and pulled lengthwise across the grip,
down and back again.
Q. What would be the purpose of such cuts, Marshal?
A. To see if anything of value had been hidden in the lining.
Q. What, if anything, was found that might be construed to be a weapon?
A. Well, nothing in my search. I was there when the
239
glove and the stone were picked up, but there was nothing besides that
found that I have ever seen that would be used as a weapon.
Q. No knife, or ax or anything of that kind at all?
A. No, sir.
Q. In your searches of that house did you find any money?
A. The only money we found was some miscellaneous change in a little tin
box.
Q. Besides the knife, money was the next thing you were looking for?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did you make a thorough search?
A. We looked everywhere, into receptacles of all kinds, and even in the
water in the basin, and the ashes in the stove, and everywhere. We made
a very thorough search.
WILLIAM WOOD, being first duly sworn, testified as follows:
Q. Mr. Wood, where do you reside?
A. Here in Niniltna, Judge.
Q. What is your occupation?
A. Messenger.<
br />
Q. Were you acquainted with Mrs. Angel Beecham?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. When did you last see her alive?
A. Right in her own house, between twelve and twelve- thirty at night.
Q. What night?
A. The night before they found her dead.
Q. So Wednesday after midnight, as she was found dead Thursday night.
Where did you see her?
A. She was standing under an electric light, reading a paper or looking
at something. She had on a pair of glasses.
Q. Do you know what kind of glasses?
A. No.
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Q. Were they colored glasses or just clear white glasses?
A. Clear glasses.
Q. Was she alone when you saw her?
A. Yes, so far as I could see.
Q. Did you hear any sound in the house at all?
A. No, sir.
Q. Everything seemed to be quiet there then?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did you take a good look at her then?
A. Why, I looked in through the glass as I passed. I was on my way home
from work, sir. My wife was waiting up for me.
Q. But you saw Mrs. Beecham in passing?
A. I looked in through the glass as I passed. There's a little square
door with a thin screen curtain on the door, and the blind was up, and I
saw her through the thin curtain.
Q. Did she appear to be excited or nervous or anything of that kind?
A. No.
Q. Had you been there before that night?
A. Oh no, sir. That is, only in passing.
Q. Did you see any person in that house that night before that time?
A. No.
Q. Do you know of any person having been there that night?
A. No.
Q. Do you know from her whether or not she had been having any trouble
with anyone?
A. No, sir.
Q. Do you know whether or not she was expecting any trouble?
A. No, sir.
Q. She never told you anything of the sort?
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A. No, sir.
Q. Did you as messenger carry her anything to eat?
A. The night before I took her over a dozen oranges.
Q. What night would that be?
A. Tuesday evening.
Q. Did she order the oranges?
A. Well, she was surprised to get them, so I would have to say no.
Q. Someone else ordered them for her?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did she say who that someone was?
A. No, sir.
Q. How did you know to pick up the oranges?
A. It was included with other deliveries I picked up at the grocer's.
She didn't order them, but they were sent to her direction, and the
grocer had me bring them along.
Q. Which grocer is that?
A. Riverview Mercantile.
Q. Did you see anybody in the vicinity of the house at the time you saw
Mrs. Beecham through the window between twelve and twelve-thirty?
A. I didn't see anyone near her house. I passed two or three fellows up
around the Moose Hall, but it was too dark to tell who they were.
Q. Did you see any person there acting suspiciously at all?
A. No, sir.
Q. No unusual actions?
A. No, sir. Just like you see every night, fellows walking up and down
by there.
DR. DAVIDSON, being first duly sworn, testified as follows:
Q. What is your name?
A. Henry Louis Davidson.
Q. What is your profession?
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A. Physician and surgeon in the employ of the Kanuyaq Copper Mine.
Q. Were you called to the house of Mrs. Angel Beecham on the evening of
the eighth of April of this year?
A. My wife was called, and she found me at the Red Cross Drug Store and
sent me down.
Q. Did you recognize the body?
A. Yes, it was that of Mrs. Angel Beecham.
Q. Did you make an examination of the body?
A. I did.
Q. What did you find as a result of that examination?
A. I found that the body was cold. Rigor mortis had set in. There was a
large gash in the front of the neck, and there was blood on the floor
around the head of the victim. It had congealed by that time, of course.
Q. Was there any evidence of a struggle on the part of the woman just
before the gash was made in the neck?
A. None that I could see.
Q. Was there any blood spatter over the body?
A. None except around the neighborhood of the wound on the front of the
neck.
Q. Would the facial expression of the victim show an awareness of
imminent danger?
A. Not necessarily. It did not in this case. The pupils of the eyes were
not more than normally dilated.
Stabenow, Dana - Shugak 11 - The Singing Of The Dead Page 30
