“Gaston B. Means to Be Tried for His Life,” from the Monroe
Journal, Nov. 2, 1917
Solicitor Clement Has
Asked for a Change of Venue, Claiming That a Fair Trial Cannot be Secured in
Cabarrus County
Concord, Nov. 1—The grand jury of Cabarrus County this
morning returned a true bill charging Gaston Bullock Means with the murder of
Mrs. Maude A. King, wealthy New York and Chicago woman, who was shot and killed
at Blackwelder Spring near here on August 29. Immediately after the bill was
returned, Means was arraigned in court and a special venire was summoned from
which to select a jury to try him, but Solicitor Clement asked a change of
venue and court adjourned until 2:30 at which time the defense will make its
answer to the affidavit.
Means put in a plea of not guilty.
In asking that the trial of Means be removed to another
point in this judicial district Solicitor Hayden Clement sets forth the
prominence of the Means family during 100 years in this vicinity; that the defendant
had employed practically all the lawyers in the city to defend him; that when
he wanted to swear out a warrant charging Means with the murder of Mrs. King
the officers were reluctant in issuing same, and that the feeling displayed
against the New York witnesses and newspaper reporters, together with articles
regarding them printed in a local newspaper and a newspaper at Kannapolis, made
it difficult to properly try the case here.
The counsel for the defense asked to be given time to reply
to the affidavit of Solicitor Clement and at 10:30 o’clock court adjourned
until 2:30 this afternoon.
The indictment charging Means with the murder of Mrs. King
came after the grand jury had examined witnesses for three days. Among those
testifying before the jury were Dr. Burmeister, coroner’s physician of Cook
County, Illinois, whose alleged discoveries at a postmortem examination of the
body of Mrs. King at Chicago, where it had been carried for burial, was partly
responsible for the reopening of the investigation into the case in this state.
A coroner’s jury which investigates the circumstances surrounding the killing
of Mrs. King returned a verdict the day after the tragedy at Concord that she
had met death by an accidental bullet wound, self-inflicted.
Mrs. King was killed about 8 o’clock on the evening of
August 29 at Blackwelder Spring, an isolated spot 10 miles from Concord, where
she had gone with Gaston Means, Afton Means, a brother, and Carolyn Bingham,
apparently for target practice. Mrs. King was a guest with her sister, Mrs.
Mary C. Melvin, at the home of Gaston Means’ parents in this city. Means has
maintained that he and Mrs. King left the automobile party and started for the
spring, Means leading the way. According to his story, he was leaning over the
spring getting a drink of water when he heard a shot, and whirling around he
saw Mrs. King fall, some distance away.
Means is being defended by an array of leading lawyers of
North Carolina and the state is being represented by Solicitor Hayden Clement
and Attorney General James S. Manning.
When Judge Frank I. Osborne stood before Judge Cline this
afternoon to oppose the removal of the Means case to Statesville or Salisbury,
a bog preliminary battle began, for the defense, having shown its hand, now is
ready to fight to a finish and the suspension and waiting of the last three
days will be changed into spectacular happenings that promise to characterize
the entire trial.
Solicitor Clement, in his affidavit this morning, included
among his reasons for asking a removal, the prominence of the Means family, the
universal discussion and forming of opinions by Cabarrus people, the employment
of practically the entire Concord bar by Means, and last, certain editorials in
the Concord Observer, which the
solicitor declared were strong arguments in favor of the defendant.
Summing up, Mr. Clement said that he was satisfied a fair
and impartial jury of men who had formed no opinion in the case could not be
had in Cabarrus.
The arraignment of Means was the most dramatic spectacle in
the proceedings of the morning. Hardly had Foreman C.S. Farrow of the grand
jury announced the finding of a true bill, than Means was being conducted into
the court room by Sheriff Caldwell from his cell hard by, where he has spent
two months following his arrest on September 22. Mrs. Means, who had been on
her daily visit to her husband’s cell, was with him when he received the
discomforting news of the grand jury finding and she wept bitterly as she
entered the little court room where only a few score citizens, urged on by
curiosity, were keeping a silent vigil in hope of witnessing the grand jury
return. Col. W.G. Means completed the family as represented at the court house
this morning. Mrs. Mary Melvin was not present.
Means himself, despite his contagious optimism of past
weeks, looked like a man suddenly shaken by some terrific emotion as he entered
with his wife and the sheriff. When the clerk of court had uttered the words of
arraignment, Means’ eyes were filled with tears and he showed far more emotion
that he has ever displayed since the case had its beginning two months ago. His
look was hard to interpret but there was disappointment and perhaps a
suggestion of chagrin as if he felt the sting of some invisible lash and could
offer no force to resist it with his own will or hands. When the clerk, a
lifelong friend, had taken down Means’ plea of not guilty, and had uttered the
solemn words, “And may God give you a true deliverance,” the dramatic elements
of the tragedy of it all seemed to shoot home to Means’ consciousness and he
fell for the moment under the sway of emotions that could not be
controlled—perhaps the presence of the woman who had learned to love and trust
him made the moment harder for him. And Colonel Means, the father and veteran
lawyer of a thousand legal battles, became a chief actor in the scene which
hundreds of times he has witnessed but only as an outsider and an uninterested
witness. Judge Cline, it is probable, will grant the prayer for removal, but it
is pointed out that the drawing of a jury from Rowan or Iredell would offer a
ready compromise to the two pleadings, one for removal and the other against
it, and many people here give this a likely place on the further program in
this sensational case.
Since Assistant District Attorney Dooling and all of his
aides are on the ground with the large contingent of Chicago men, the early
hearing of the murder case will save these men form a great deal of
inconvenience and, while their going and coming will not be material in setting
the date of trial, there has been no hint that Judge Osborne or Mr. Cansler
will ask for a continuance of the case, though a removal to Statesville or
Salisbury would cause the case to await the next term of court in either town
unless a special term is called and that would not head off a delay of 10 days
or longer.
Therefore, it is believed that the trial will have an early
opening. Not less than two days is the limit fixed by lawyers for selecting a
jury to try Means.
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