Brownsville herald. [volume], July 22, 1929, Page TWO, Image 2

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Leahy Making Final
Play In Death Game
As Insanity Studied
I
--
BY RAYMOND BROOKS
AUSTIN, July 20—Upon the
meaning a Williamson county jury
getjuJrom a blurred X-ray photo
graph. and the measurements of a
mental yardstick applied by psy
chiatrists of the Austin state hos
pital the jury this week will de
cide whether Harry J. Leahy shall
go to the electric chair at Hunts
ville, or shall spend the rest of the
days of his life in an insane asylum.
Leahy, held in Travis county jail
awaiting the sanity hearing at
Georgetown Monday which snatch
ed him from the chair a few min
utes before he was to have gone
to his death a week ago, holds little
hope that the sanity hearing will
save him. But he is calm and cheer
ful. just the same.
The giant six-foot-six cattle
trader of Live Oak county, who
gambled with his life for freedom,
and lost, has gone under the sci
entific measuring stick of the men
tal specialists this past week. His
I
St.Joseph’s
ASPIRIN
pure
US
money can buy
head has been X-rayed, his body,
measured, and his mind given that .
quantitative measurement which,
psychiatry has developed as its
test of normality.
t*ocahontas
Leahy was given a 45-year sen
tence in Live Oak county for the
slaying of Dr. J. M. Ramsey, aged
Mathis physician, whose body was
found in a shallow grave, convicted
on testimony of a Mexican boy who
claimed to have witnessed the doc
tor’s murder. He won a new trial
and at Georgetown was given the
death penalty.
A modern Pocahontas, in the
person of Miss Amanda Davidson,
a Taylor telephone operator, is re
sponsible for Leahy’s being alive
now. After visiting him at Hunts
ville, she made an affidavit of be
lief that he is insane. Dist. Judge
Harry Dolan at Georgetown, as re
quired by law, then forbade his
scheduled execution and ordered
him back to Georgetown for a san
ity hearing. Dist. Judge J. D.
Moore of Austin accepted Judge j
Dolan s invitation to sit in the san
ity hearing. Leahy was brought
here Thursday, and examined by
mental specialists Thursday and
Friday, and is to be taken to
Georgetown Monday morning, when
a jury will hear the specialists’ tes
timony, look upon Leahy’s face, and
decide whether he is sane or insane.
The last hope for life, except the
verdict of this jury, has been taken
away from Leahy by Gov. Dan
Moody’s refusal to intervene in the
case.
Leahy Is under the constant
watch of special guards in Travis
county jail.
Leah’s gamble with death, in de
manding a second trial, has likened
his whole case to a grim turn of
the cards. He lost the final play.
Had he accepted his first sentence,
imposed on him in the county ad
joining his home, b would have
been in prison, facing the prospect
of possible freedom before old age
overtook him. But he asked a new'
trial, won it, was sent to George
town. and there received the death
penalty, which was affirmed.
Bonham Is Lawyer
Leahy, contrary to claims that
have been made for him, did not
conduct his own defense in his trial
at Georgetown. He had four law
yers, headed by former Rep. H. S.
Bonham of 3eeville.
During his trial, the cattle trad
er attempted to cross examine the
widow of Dr. Ramsey, but was de
nied that privilege.
Attorney Bonham, who recently
pleaded in vain with Gov. Moody
for commutation of the sentence to
life imprisonment, likely will assist
him in the final round of courtroom
procedure that will determine
whether he shall live or die.
In the sanity proceedings. Leahy
will play another round with fate,
with the preceden4- equally for
and against l.im.
An ironic aspect of his ca~e is
We hear a lot about efficiency methods—but what
does it mean?
It means we believe, doing a certain task quickly,
accurately and economically. Of course proper of
fice equipment is essential when the word efficiency
is applied to office routine. Let our planning service
help you.
"IF IT’S FOrt THE OFFICE-WE HAVE IT"
__
that in the search for the Mexican
alleged accomplice whose testimony
convicted Leahy, Chief of Detectives
Sam Street of San Antonio was
active. Street was shot to death
by Pete McKenzie, who was given
the death penalty; who won a san
ity hearing and escaped the death
chair when the jury found him in
sane.
In the Millikin case from Cald
well county, where a man much of
the same type as Leahy was charged
with killing a woman companion, a
sanity trial was granted; but Mil
likin, also a brilliant and versatile
man who invoked the classics and
who quoted poetry, failed to con
vince his jury, and finally went to
the chair.
So the score is one and one in
sanity appeals in similar Central
Texas cases.
Another Central Texas case, most
gripping in human drama of them
all, revolves around the same issue
of mental equilibrium, with the
future freedom of the principal de
pendent upon those modern scien
tific measuring-sticks of the psy
ciatrist. That is the case of Mrs.
Rebecca Bradley Rogers, who while
stenographer to then Atty. Gen.
Dan Moody, was arrested for rob
bery of the Buda bank. On her
trial at LaGrange, when insanity
was pleaded as her defense by her
husband-attorney. Otis Rogers, Mrs.
Rogers was given a 14-year sen
tence. This has been reversed and
she faces another trial this year, to
be held at New Braunfels or at a
place to be decided when the court
convenes at New Braunfels. The
same plea will be made that the
mental quirks and complexities
which have been her heritage are
such that she was not responsible*
for the commission of the alleged
offense of single-handed robbery
of the bank, when she locked two
men in a vault and escaped with
$1000, according to the charges.
Fought on Lefense
Leahy fought first on the de
fense that he was not guilty of the
crime. His involved part in pro
perty controversies, in which title
to a ranch acquired by the retired
physician was at stake, showed a
courageous procedure hardly believ
able on the part of one who should
have planned to do away with the
man who stood in the way of his
gaining the property.
But with that defense gone, he
now, through the intervention of
the Taylor girl, rests his hope of
life upon the probings into his in
ner mind by the scientists who know
mental ills as doctors do physical
ills.
Seemingly he doesn't care. Seem
ingly he is content to go. But W’ho
could believe a man can count off
a few hours given him to live, and
not turn in revulsive fear from the
I giant shadow of the chair in which
many men before him have had
[ their lives fried out of them?
Recently, juries have been im
posing the death penalty with much
greater frequency. A practical re
sult is that so many cases of life
and death come finally to the man
who sits in the governor’s chair at
Austin that trying to decide the
perplexing and baffling questions
of life and death has become of it
self almost a full-time job. For
the governor's decision must em
brace not only the findings of a jury
on fact, the charges of a judge on
law, but must take into considera
tion all that the mentalists can
find in the inner recess of a con
demned man’s mind, in order to
reach substantial justice, if he acts.
If he fails to act, then ths con.
demned man’s claims to tne relief
and benefit of psychiatric science
are foreclosed.
So troublesome has this become,
and • with civilization’s gradual
emergence from the belief that the
laws of man can confer the right
of legalized murder, Texas already
has tried to get away from inflic
tion of death penalty except in the
most extreme cases.
Would Abolish Chair
Rep. Frank Baldwin of Waco this
year sponsored a bill whose purpos
es Gov. Moody has advocated
which in effect would have virtual
ly abolished the use of the electric
chair.
Baldwin would have written Into
the law that a condemned man's
execution should not Ire set, or the
man executed, until all the possible
maneuvers to save him were ex
hausted. That is, a judge would
not fix the execution date, and a
man wou’d not be executed until
the governor, after having all need
ed time for investigation, should
order the execution. As it is now,
the governor may enter a case only
by postponing the execution, and
he cannot do this without setting
up hopes in the condemned man
and his family, of his escape from
the most terrible of all penalties.
The pressure upon a governor Is
intense as the lawyers and family
of a man plead in the last despera
tion of saving a condemned person
from the chair. Legislation that
was proposed, and which it has been
said will be revived, would take that,
pressure off, would limit executions
virtually to those who escape prison
after incarceration and are recap
tured. It would prevent the execu
tion of a man who became insane
after conviction, who now takes
the thance of not getting a sanity
trial. Theoretically now' the defense
of insanity forestalls the death pen
alty from a person insane at the
time of trial or commission of his
offense.
Leahy's case, along with Pete Mc
Kenzie’s escape from the chair and
Bcb Silver's escape from the chair,
and the insanity aspects of Becky
Bradley’s case, and the fact that
after all, the sanity question must
| be determined by a non-expert jury,
often after hearing conflicting tes
Total Concrete Road
Paving in Cameron
County 187 Miles
With two-thirds of a $6,000,000 road bond issue voted in 1926 ex
pended, Cameron county’s total mileage of concrete pavement is 187.89
not including paving done within the corporate limits of cities in the
county. In addition, the county has laid some two miles of paving in
the city of Brownsville for which the city paid, giving a total of approxi
mately 190 miles completed under the supervision of the county in the
past two years.
Approximately $2,000,000 still is available for work and it is esti
mated that with the preliminary work already done, 100 more miles of
hard surfaced roads ,a total of almost 300, will be completed with the
bonds voted.
Cameron county’s improved graded roads, some of which will be
paved with the remainder of the present bond issue, totals 362.89 miles.
Some of this mileage is ready for hard surfacing now. and other parts
will be as soon a sthe grade settles. This includes grades under present
pavement. Thus after the entire present bond issue is expended, there
still will remain probably 75 miles of graded roads in the county ready
for hard surfacing.
Statistics in the office of the county engineer show that with the ex
ception of Highway 12, all of this grading has been done since 1927. All
but 34 miles has been completed in the last three years.
It is the same in the case of pavement. Excepting the state high
way, which was built between 1921 and 1924, all improvements have
been made in not quite three years of work.
Most of the surfacing is of standard 18-foot width. Two short nine
foot stretches are along the Paredes line road and the old Alice road.
Details follow:
PAVED HIGHWAYS
Miles Width Date Paved Cost
State Highway No. 12 -69 18' 1922
State Highway No. 12 4.07 15’ 1921
State Highway No. 12 10.47 ljT 1922
State Highway No. 12 2.12 15 J9il"22
State Highway No. 12 -42 18 1922
State Highway No. 12 10.32 18 1923-24
State Highway No. 96 3.11 18 1924 t 10n,n
State Highway No. 96 7.85 iZ 1929 $145,190.00
State Highway No. 100 7.4^ 18 1927 184,531.<2
State Highway No. 100 5.28 18’ 1929 114,852.53
Boca Chica Road 87 ]??7!
Boca Chica Road 5.53 18 R2i)
San Benlto-Rio Hondo Road .73 18 1927)
San Benito-Rio Hondo Road 7.63 18’ 1926 JJ’JJ3 32
San Benito-River Road -73 18 1927 186.443.26
San Benito-River Road 6.06 18 1926 14? 7509J
Duke’s Highway 6 81 18 1927 147,750.98
Dnkp’s Hiehwav i.2d 18
Duke’s Highway 4.16 18’ 1927-28) 196,912.99
DUKCS nignway lg, 1928 80,161.58
Harlingen-Rio Hondo Road 9.13 18’ 1927 224,150.43
Paredes Line Road 10.56 18 192 -28)
“ l£ Road .H IT 1M7 > 369.820.22
ISSHSE* »| " «.*.U
Old Alice Road z -32 18 1928-29)
,Sd Alice K 3.55 9- 1928-29 . 49,135.50
MiotC?u“va?mcR1Ue T°Wn 2.67 16’ 1928 51,449.90
Brto? Road 2.51 16- 1928 50,467.61
Wilson Tract Roa d 5,43 16’ 1923 102,195.24
Combes-Santa Rosa-Wect Road 5.91 16 1928-29) r
Combes-Santa Rosa-West Road 2.30 16’ 192®'29 ) 202 360 12
: : I
ss.’srMr 36 : s I
”2o “■ iw 5?:ooo:,4
Military Road (La Paloma „„
to Los Indios) 5.12 16 19^9 95,063.38
Palmetal Boulevard -53 18 1929 > „ -
Palmetal Boulevard 2.02 16 1929) 49.86o.8i
Grimes Road 3.75 16 1929 71.503.18
nSSSh Crossing Road 2.39 ir 1929 43.095.92
Altas Palmas Road 1 74 16 1929 3l.o24 .
StrSd « » -1929)
££ Bead 1.43 .8; .929 . 35.400.0C
Line “3" Road -21 18 1928 6-392’aa
187.89 $3,185,537.39
Paving within City limits of Brownsville
Sonthmost Rood ■« £ £5£ 24’*£ "
Cld Pt. Isabel Road £4 }« ?£9 14.3I4.8o
Sh'atrm' R°ad :« is- 1929 9657.68
13th Street GRADED HIGHWAYS
Mile9 Date Built
Dukes Highway 2’®}
Dukes Highway J-J} 19;7
Combes-Santa Rosa-West Road 5.91 1 -
Combes-Santa Rosa-West Road 3.31
Harlingen-Rio Hondo Read 9-J“ ,L7
San Benito-River Road 1027
San Bcnito-Rio Hondo Road '
Old Alice Road 1927
New Pt- Isabel B.oad 2j? 1927-28
Boca Chica Road l927-'*8
Bcca Chica Road 21.88 1927 -8
Sonthmost Road 7.J3 }9“1"28
Military Road (Precinct 2) 9 34 1937
Paredes Line Road 28.01 1927-2*
Carnino de Buena Vista Road 9.92 19-8
Old Pt. Isabel Road 4.59 1928
Racgerville Road 6.36
MPit«>ry Road (Blue Town to
Coi?ne> 2-67 1928
Palmetal Boulevard 2.57 1928
Grimes Road 3.76 1923
Briggs Read 2.51 1928
Dilworth Crossing Road 2.o0
Stuart Place North Road 2.28
Wilson Tract Road 5.43 i 28
Primer? Road 2.37 1928
Faso Real Road 3 29 Jg
Line “3” Road -21 }92R
Atlas Palmas Road J-J® }MR
14th Street Road 3.63 Tnan-aq
Olmito North Read. 1818 ’
Olmito North Road 3.58 1928 .J
San Jose Ranch Road 15.68 1928
Zillock Ranch Road 3.71 19
East Browne Tract Boulevard 3.00 1928
Bio Hondo East Road 934 1928
Pennsylvania Avenue 2.11 19-8
Oscar Williams Road -49 1928 -
Oscar Williams Road 2.24 1928 ZJ
Military (La Paloma to Los Indios)
Line “M” ®5®
Fresnal Road 1-98 0
Tio Cano Lake Cross Road 2.S9 wzj
Bcca Chica Ft. Isabel Road . 2.4o 1J2H
Fernando East Road 1°-12
Fair Park Road 3.03 1929
Fair Perk Road -3]
Share 31 Road 144 19Z8
Arroyo 31 Road 9.33 1929
La Faloma Cut-Off Road 5.00 1928
Share 27 Read 2.22 1929
Brant Read 9.94 1929
Highway No. 12 * 34.06 19A-2*.
Highway No. 96 10.96 1928
Highway No. 100 24.51 1926
timeny from experts, may contrib
ute to hastening the day Then Tex
■ as abandons the practice of killing
! men for crimes.
Leahy will go to the Georgetown
courtroom Monday to play his final
hand against fate, and apparently
not caring greatly whether he wins
or loses. And a jury must ponder
those Imponderables of mental
quirk and complexity, of the strange
terms of the psychiatrists, and the
new measurements of the psychic
yardstick of the scientists, in saying
‘ Leahy must die,” or “7,eahy shall
live.”
Leahy Sanity Trial
Scheduled to Begin
Monday; 100 Called
GEORGETOWN. Texas. July 22
—</P)—Harry J. Leahy’s last defense
—the insanity plea—against a death
sentence for murder was ready for
presentation to district court here
today.
More than lOOwitnesses, including
alienists for prosecution and de
fense, were called to testify in the
hearing, granted only a few hours
before the scion of a pioneer south
west Texas family was to have died
at Huntsville for the murder of Dr.
J. A. Ramsey, aged Mathis physi
cian.
Leahy’s battle with the state has
been a long one. He originally was
sentenced to 50 years imprisonment
in Georgewest, Texas, but he ap
pealed, the conviction wras reversed
and a subsequent trial here brought
him the death penalty.
It was the state's claim that
Leahy killed the elderly doctor and
fcv -’ed the body in a shallow grave
for pecuniary gain.
Judge J. D. Moore of Austin pre
sided the sanity hearing. Judge
Harry Dolan having disquali
fied.
HOOVER RETURNS
WASHINGTON, July 22.——
President Hoover returned to Wash
ington today from his Virginia fish
ing lodge where he had spent the
week-end.
* .—--—
TEXAS TOPICS
• • •
‘Ma’s” Secretary Writes Book on
Woman's Sphere—Justice Ad
journs Court to Swarm Bees—
Why Gin-Mating Law is Weak
—Burglars Thwarted by Fiat
Tires.
Clara Ogden Davi6, red-headed
Texas newspaper woman, is having
a book published, entitled “The
Woman of It.” She was secretary
to Gov. “Ma” Ferguson, and her book
deals with women in politics in a
way that promises to start a nation
wide controversy between women’s
political clubs and the housewife
type of woman. “A real woman is
not equipped to hold a high political
post, and should not aspire it,” Clara
says.
Justice W. M. Boring at Del Valle,
Travis county, adjourned court to go
out and settle a swarm of his bees
that had left their hive.
Robert Costan of Fort Worth has
invented what he terms a revolu
tionary device. It is a new airplane
propoller. •
Dallas physicians condemn the
Texas “gin-mating” law as weak be
cause it fails to require the same
physical examination of women as
of men prerequisite to the issuance
of marriage licenses.
Burglars captured an auto and
robbed the Eustace railroad station
but were forced to abandon their
loot and run when a watchman shot
the tires flat on the car.
The board of medicel examiners
created 256 new Texas doctors in its
recent session at Marlin.
Muleshoe, Tex., the city which
Gene Howe tried to give a more art
istic name, doesn’t seem worried
about the one it has. It sends out
the report it is shipping a record
output of 50,000 pounds of wool.
Leonard. Tex., which has grown
1700 in 50 years, and had 10.000
visitors recently to celebrate that
growth.
Cooking a hamburger at Victoria
started a $50,000 fire.
J. H. Wilcox, who adopted and
reared 47 Texas boys and girls, is
dead.
J. H. Ross of Elliott. Tex., is mak
ing dairying pay. He sells $50 worth
of butter a month from four cows.
C. C. Cornelius’ red hen at Cole
man has adopted a litter of puppies
Texas master barbers have named
an educational committee.
SAN BENITO. July 22.—Out
come of the present dispute between
Russia and China is being awaited
by H. P. Bovd, local cotton mar
and sport enthusiast, before he de
cides what to do with the fane*
Russian fishing worms sent him in
a bottle several weeks ago.
"If they settle it without war
f will catch some fish with them.’
Bovd said. “If they go to war I
will throw them away and get
some Chinese worms.”
Pupils Taught by Man 50
Years Ago Hold Reunion
PEACHTREE VILLAGE, Tyler
County, Texas. July 22.—(JP)—Sur
viving pupils of the country school
conducted in this commurdty 50
years ago by F. F. Crow, of Hous
ton, have returned their homes
after a thre.-day golden anni
versary celebration at which their
old schoolmaste was the guest of
honor.
John Henry Krby, miLionaire
Houston lumberman, was the host
for the occasion. Crow’ could not
be here for the opening of the six
months school in 1879 and young
Kirby, a little in advance of his
cronies in the matter of schooling,
took the teacher's place and gave
out the lesson.
Kirby, w’ho is still in business in
Houston though ' 3 years old, spoke
in an improvised canvass-covered
^ auditorium in a beautiful oak
j grove. Nearby war a log corn crib,
j .1. that remained of the old Bu::
| ton house, which served as the
| school building a hajf a century ago.
| The crib was built of logs from the
I old cchoolhouse.
About three -lousand persons,
j "v ~
one from as far away as -ns An
geles, attended *he celebration.
Among them were scores of i hlldren
and grandchildren of Crow’s stu
dents. About 20 persons who learned
heir three “r’s” under Crow min
gled with the crowd in •* old fa
miliar surroundings.
Descendants of the Indians who
gave this village its name joined
in tne celebration. Tiie Indians
now live near Livingston in Polk
county. There‘ speechmaking,
singing, preaching, feastin • and
dancing.
Bill Johnson. 97-yea.-old ex-slave,
who has lived in this section all of
his life, had charge of the barlateue
pits. f
SPEE DBOAT IN RIVER
RACE AT NATCHEZ
NATCHEZ, Miss., July 22.—<*>)—
The speed boat “Bogie" piloted by
Dr. Louis Leroy of Memphis reached
Natchez at 6 a. m.. today, and left
at 7:10 in its race to St. Louis with
the expres cruiser yacht, “Martha
Jane,” owned by George M. Cox, of
New Orleans, which had not reached
here at 9 o'clock.
1
Should You Fail to
Make a Will —
—the cost of administering your estate may
* be greater.
It is the rule and not the exception that es
tates left without a will suffer more delays and
more expense in administration than those dis
tributed under a will.
i ' , I
|
Our officers will be pissed to discuss this
vital subject with you.
This bank is authorized to act as Executor
and Administrator of Estates. We invite you to
name us your Executor.
t
You may leave your Will with us for safe
keeping.
Capital, Surplus and Profit*
over $500,000.00
!
MERCHANTS
NATIONAL BANK
3R.OW N S VILLE ••TEXAS.
- i
*‘Be sure to see it** i
Th e New 1
BUICK
with New Shock Absorbers 1
that check both bound and rebound S
SATURDAY
Jilly*VJ I