Charlotte Observer, Feb. 28th
While Thomas I. Watson was being fined $100 and costs in Superior Court yesterday morning for carrying a concealed weapon, Mrs. Watson was being given a term of from one to three years in the Mecklenburg Industrial home on a charge of registering at a hotel for immoral purposes.
Watson paid his fine and was again a free man, following the verdict of not guilty rendered Thursday afternoon in the case charging him of shooting and killing Joseph E. McDonough, registered at the hotel with Mrs. Watson as man and wife, when Watson accompanied officers to the room to identify them for arrest on Sunday night, February 15th.
Mrs. Watson, through her attorney, John J. Parker, gave notice of appeal from Judge Wade H. Williams, sentenced to the industrial home, and bond was fixed at $500. Mrs. Watson’s attorneys wanted to have the case tried at this term, but the grand jury had been dismissed for the term, so a true bill could not be found, thus not getting it before the court.
Her case was then continued until the next term of criminal court, beginning on May 11, and $500 cash bond was posted by her father, R.M. Miller, for her appearance at that time.
And the principals in one of the most appealing tragedies ever enacted in Charlotte have gone.
Watson, his 13-year-old daughter, Isabel Watson, and Mr. Miller, Mrs. Watson’s father, left last night by automobile, supposedly for Concord, to get the trunks left there by Mrs. Watson on the fatal Sunday while she was on her way from Greensboro to Birmingham to join her husband. Mr. Miller said he might be here again today for a time, but plans to Leave as soon as possible for his Texas home, taking with him his daughter, one of the angles in the tragic triangle.
Mrs. Watson left the city yesterday. Just where she went was not disclosed, but it is presumed that she went to Concord to make a separation of the effects in the trunks there belonging to her and Mr. Watson.
While Mrs. Watson’s plans were to return to Texas with her father, leaving probably today, Watson said last night as he was leaving for Concord that he expects to return to Charlotte in a day or two. It is intimated that he may work for a while in this state, but further than that his plans have not been announced.
Intimations are, also, that there might be no move or step toward a reconciliation between husband and wife, for the time, at least, and that this phase would not be considered until after the case against her, 10 weeks off, is finally disposed of. Neither has given any hint of his or her attitude toward reconciliation.
A conference between Mr. and Mrs. Watson may have been held in Concord last night, if that is where she went. It is very well understood that they have not conferred since the tragedy in the hotel room nearly two weeks ago.
Watson submitted to the charge of carrying a concealed weapon in Superior Court yesterday and the evidence submitted in the murder charge against him, with reference to the pistol, was admitted. Judge Lane imposed the $100 fine.
In city court no evidence was submitted in Mrs. Watson’s case. Judge Williams had heard the evidence in Superior Court and this was admitted as evidence, following the formal plea of not guilty that had been entered by Attorney John J. Parker, who addressed the court, making a plea that Mrs. Watson be permitted to go home with her father. He read letters from people in Texas, which contained expressions of high regard in which she was held in her community and in college.
Solicitor High McAulay expressed sympathy for the parents, but expressed the belief that Mrs. Watson should receive some punishment. “The defendant was the direct or indirect cause of a man’s death and of her husband tried on a murder charge. This takes it out of the common run of cases of this sort and justifies the statement that the defendant should be punished for her share in the proceedings,” the solicitor said.
The parents of this woman have my sympathy, but justice cannot be administered by sympathy,” said Judge Wiliams, in whose hands the case was left. “The jury that rendered a verdict of not guilty in the case of her husband yesterday, by that verdict seemed to think that McDonough’s death was justifiable. If that phase of the case is to be taken into consideration, why should the defendant be allowed to go free? If she is a woman of education and refinement, then she is more guilty because she knew better,” Judge Williams said.
Only three white women were in the courtroom that was crowded to the doors with men.
From page 3 of the Concord Daily Tribune, Feb. 28, 1925. I question whether the wife's age was just 13, although that's what was printed in the newspaper article. She was held in "high regard by her community and in college.... If she is a woman of education and refinement, then she is more guilty because she knew better, Judge Williams said." Maybe the newspaper article has a typo and Mrs. Watson is 23 instead of 13?
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1925-02-28/ed-1/seq-3/#words=FEBRUARY+28%2C+1925
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