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Surnames: HALL
Classification: Death
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/Si.2ADE/312
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Note: I am not related to this family.
from the Danville Gazette (Danville, Indiana)--issue of Thursday, October 10, 1918--page
1, column 5:
NOT GUILTY
Gladys Hall Acquitted of Infanticide After Seven Minutes' Deliberation by Jury
"We, the jury, find the defendant, Gladys Hall, not guilty."
With those words the Gladys Hall murder trial came to an end about eleven o'clock
Saturday morning, the jury being out only seven minutes. When the verdict was read, Miss
Hall clasped her arms about her mother's neck and wept most bitterly, and even two or
three of the jurymen slyly wiped away a few tears.
Miss Hall, with her father and mother, left for their home in Shoals at five o'clock
Saturday evening.
Several character witnesses were called by the defense Thursday morning, among them being
Mr. and Mrs. Yenne, of Shoals, parents of Mrs. Edward Courtney, of this place. Mrs.
Courtney, who has known Miss Hall all her life, was also called, and when asked of the
defendant's character, turned to the jury in her calm, cool manner, and said,
"Beyond reproach."
Drs. White, Armstrong and O'Brien were next called, whose testimonies proved that the
baby's body would not have been in the condition it was if it had been strangulated.
Wm. C. Hall, father of the defendant, took the stand and told of his daughter's
struggle for life, when she was two years old, and of the condition of her health since
that time. When asked to described the look on his daughter's face, when he first
came to Danville, after the babe was born to her, he broke down and it was several minutes
before Mr. Inman could proceed.
Mrs. Hall, mother of the defendant, said there was only one word to describe the look on
her daughter's face when she first came to her in Danville on June 20. Mr. Inman
asked for the word, and in the hush that followed she answered, "Death."
Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Hall were cross-examined.
Mr. Blessing was called as a witness and testified of Dr. Lawson saying to him that the
cloth around the child's neck was not tight enough to cause strangulation.
Gladys Hall, the defendant, was led to the witness chair by her father at 3:30 Thursday
afternoon. Her whole life history was made clear by her answers to Mr. Inman's
questions. Her sleeve was loosened and her arm shown to the jury, as it had withered away
and the awful scars that were left after falling into a kettle of hot soaps, when she was
two years old. The defendant testified her memory was not clear to anything that had
happened on June 20 and 21.
The defendant left the stand at five o'clock, very nervous and almost hysterical.
Both the defense and the state rested, and argument began Friday morning. Mr. Gaston
opening for the state, followed by Edgar Blessing, of the defense. John Hume, for the
state, spoke next and Mr. Inman, for the defendant spoke over four hours. Court adjourned
from 5:30 to 6:30 and held until nine o'clock Friday night.
Saturday morning, Thad Adams concluded the argument for the state, the case going to the
jury near eleven o'clock.