Walter Ward Not Guilty of Murdering Clarence Peters, Oct. 1, 1923

Ward Found Not Guilty by the Jury

A special from White Plains, N.Y., says: Walter S. Ward was acquitted today of the charge of murdering Clarence Peters.

As the jury foreman announced the verdict, a cheering throng of spectators, mostly women, climbed over the rows of benches and kissed the face of the wealthy baker’s son.

Ward, blushing, smiling and chewing gum, tried in vain to fight his way through the milling crowd that packed the court room and reach the side of his wife who had fallen into the arms of her brother, Ralph, when she heard the jury’s verdict. Mrs. Ward was in an ante-room. Ralph burst in with the glad tidings and with a murmur she sank into his arms.

While the trial itself was not unusually long, the events that preceded it dragged out over a period of more than 16 months. Peters was a former sailor. His body was found on a lonely road near the Kansico reservoir in May, 1922. It was several days before his body was identified. Then Ward came forward with a statement from his attorney that he had shot Peters in self-defense as the result of an alleged attempt to blackmail him.

From the front page of The Reidsville Review, Monday, Oct. 1, 1923