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Henry Beatty was driving the car with his wife Louise and slowed down when he saw a man walking in the middle of the Midlothian turnpike near Providence Road, directly in front of him.

As he put on his brakes, the man said, you'd better run over me.

You've got all the road, Mr. Beatty responded, and putting on power, he started to pass on one side.

The man raised a shotgun he was carrying and fired point-blank at short range at the couple in the car.

The entire load entered Mrs. Louise Beatty's face, literally blowing off the top of her head.

Mr. Beatty jumped from the car and grappled with the man, who gave him a smashing blow across the face with the barrel of his gun, leaving an ugly surface wound.

The two struggled for a moment, and Mr. Beatty rested the gun from the man, who ran into the bushes at the other side of the road and disappeared.

Springing back into the car, Mr. Beatty was horrified to find the bleeding body of his wife lying across the seat. Throwing the gun on the rear

seat, he started the car and with almost unexampled nerve drove at high speed for nearly five miles with one hand,

while his other arm held the body of the wife to whom he had been married only 15 months.

For several weeks passed, in fact, since the birth of her boy baby five weeks ago,

Mrs. Beatty had been staying at the Owens Place on North Street, about half a mile from Forest Hill.

Mr. Beatty, detained in South Richmond on business, motored out each evening and took his wife for a drive with the baby.

Last night was their first drive on which the baby was left at home.

Mr. Owen, Dr. Mercer and others were seated at the Owens' front yard shortly after 11 o'clock

when they heard a voice calling and the motor car took a sharp drive in front and circled up the driveway at high speed,

the brake crashing on just beside them.

Stardled by Henry Beatty's inartic calls, they hurried forward only to lift the body of Louise Beatty from his arms

as the husband staggered from the car, broken and exhausted

by the terrible strain. Neighbors were notified. Magistrate Jacob, who lives nearby, and county

officers Harold and Flynn were soon on the scene, and a general alarm was set out. The True Crime Historian presents an eye for an eye, a special edition of yesterday's news exploring the criminal justice system at its most extreme, inflicting the death penalty.

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