The evidence of Mr. Varner, delivered amid outbursts of weeping, constituted the sensation of the day and of the entire trial. He told the jury that he had known Baxter McRary, the negro in the case, for about 25 years and had always regarded him as somewhat exemplary, certainly as a leader of his race in the state. He had been friendly toward him, but at no time ever regarded him as a social equal.
It was while testifying to the receipt of several notes from his wife after his return from New York in August, 1920, that Mr. Varner broke down. He wept bitterly during the recital of this testimony. He said that his wife had written several letters pleading with him to come back and allow her to explain and asserting her innocence, but that he had not gone back. “I wrote her a note,” he testified, “saying that I was crushed and heart-broken and couldn’t see her.” He denied he had promised to see her before she left for Salt Lake City to be with her mother.
In the early part of his testimony, Mr. Varner explained that his duties kept him away from home a great deal, that he always attended meetings of the editorial associations of the state, that his duties as chairman of the state prison board demanded frequent trips to Raleigh and that he was also away from home a great deal making speeches in the interest of the good roads movement.
Up until 10 years ago, he said, his wife usually accompanied him on these trips but since that time had seldom gone with him. He told of having made reservations in the summer of 1920 at the Grove Park Inn for himself and his wife to attend the publishers’ meeting, but that at the last moment she decided she would not go. She accompanied him as far as Winston-Salem, driving the car.
He then told of having to go to New York a few days prior to the time Baxter McRary was caught under the Varner home. It was the understanding that she backed out, saying that she did not line the ride on the railroads and the oppressive heat of the metropolis. He had promised to buy her a $750 seal coat in New York and finally, when she decided not to go, she sent him the dimensions and left him to make the purchase in her stead.
Coming n down near the tragic night of discovery, Mr. Varner had greater trouble controlling himself and answered the questions between sobs.
In reply to an inquiry from his attorney, Mr. Cansler, he said that he first heard of the alleged association between McRary and his wife from Fred Sink at the Greensboro passenger station on the morning of August 11 as he was returning from New York, whence he had been summoned by Sing by telegram on account of the discovery made at the home.
Continuing, Mr. Varner said:
“I received a telephone call about 1:20 a.m., August 10, just after I had gone to bed in the Biltmore hotel. I recognized the voice of Fred O. Sink. He said come home at once. I tried to get him to tell what was the trouble. Any way all the information I could get was to come home.”
Mr. Varner said that he was unable to sleep any more that night. Before leaving New York at 9 a.m., he said he wired Mr. Sink to telegraph him in Washington what the trouble was. Upon his arrival at the National hotel, Washington, he received a message from Mr. Sink, stating that he would meet him in Greensboro and explain it all.
He declared that he did not receive a message from his wife.
Mr. Varner in trying to explain of meeting Mr. Sink here was forced to stop. After drying the tears from his eyes he declared that Mr. Sink entered No. 37. As soon as he finished dressing he asked Mr. Sink to tell him what the trouble was.
He testified that Mr. Sink told him that Baxter McRary had been pulled out from under the Varner home between 12 and 1 o’clock on the morning of August 10, and that he had fled the state. Mr. Sink, said the witness, then told him what had happened about five years ago (the conversation he had with Mrs. Varner and McRary.)
Mr. Sink, according to the witness, said that at that time he informed McRary that if he ever entered the Varner lot, either in day or night time, he would do so at his own peril.
“Before we got to High Point,” testified the witness, “he told me that some friends would meet me there. I couldn’t talk.”
Upon their arrival at High Point they were met by Sam W. Finch, postmaster of Lexington, T.S. Eanes and Major Wade Phillips. From there they took an automobile to Lexington, said the defendant.
Mr. Varner said that Mr. Sink told him what O.P. Dickerson had seen on July 21, 22, and 23, in addition to other things that had transpired. mr. Sink, said the witness, declared that he had tried not to believe them.
The defendant declared that not a great deal was said on the way form High Point to Lexington. He did, however, tell them that he was ruined, and that his friends tried to console him.
“I told them I couldn’t go home and asked them what I could do. They said I had better go to a hotel, so I told them to drive me to one. After my arrival there, a number of people called on me.”
He declared that he sent for O.P. Dickerson and E.H. Holmes. The former, according to the witness, recited the stories that he testified to during the present trial—that he had watched McRary on the nights of July 21, 22, and 23, enter the Varner property about 10 p.m. and remain there until nearly 1 a.m.
Holmes, declared Mr. Varner, practically corroborated mr. Dickerson’s stories.
“Mr. Montcastle,” testified the witness, “also came. I asked him if he had heard about it. He told me that he had, but that his wife didn’t believe it. He further said that he had been approached five years ago by people who urged him to tell me about it. I asked him why he didn’t. He said that he didn’t believe it.”
Defendant Investigates
Mr. Varner then related of how he investigated with a view of getting at the bottom of the affair and that when Mr. Sink told him what he knew he (Mr. Varner) knew he was telling the truth.
Mr. Varner then told practically the same story that Mr. Sink narrated on the stand last week.
“In consequence of what you heard did you send Mr. Sink and Major Phillips to see your wife?”
“Yes, I asked them to go and tell her that the best thing for her to do in my opinion, was to go back to her mother; that I couldn’t (word obscured) with her any longer as I was thoroughly convinced of her guilt.”
He stated that he told the two men to tell her that she could take anything she liked from the house.
Mr. Varner then told of their reporting back to him.
Mr. Canslwer then asked him what, if anything, they told him she had said in regard to their living together and about a divorce. To this he replied:
“They stated that she said she knew we couldn’t live together any longer and that she wouldn’t fight a divorce.”
The witness stated that she had sent him several notes on the day of his arrival home.
Mr. Varner, sobbing, said, “I wrote her a note, told her I was crushed—as heart-broken and couldn’t come.”
“You didn’t go?”
“No, sir.”
Mr. Varner then denied that he told her at any time that he would see her before her departure for Salt Lake City.
The defendant told of giving Mr. Sink $200 with which to purchase Mrs. Varner a ticket and also a New York exchange amounting to $500.
He also stated that she had $2,282.22 in the bank and several thousand dollars worth of diamonds and watched, etc.
He stated that when she arranged to leave Lexington in the automobile for Salisbury he left town as he knew that he would not be able to go through the ordeal of seeing her.
“After she left for Salt Lake City did she make any demands on you for support until this action?”
“No demands whatever.”
From the front page of the Charlotte News and Evening Chronicle, Tuesday, February 22, 1921
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