State v. Beal

• Citation: 154 S.E. 604,199 N.C. 278
• Decision Date: 20 August 1930
• Docket Number: 456.
• Parties: STATE v. BEAL et al.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

154 S.E. 604

199 N.C. 278

STATE v. BEAL et al.

No. 456.

Supreme Court of North Carolina

August 20, 1930

Appeal from Superior Court, Mecklenburg County; Barnhill, Judge.

Fred Erwin Beal and others were convicted of murder in the second degree and felonious secret assault, and they appeal.

No error.

Cross-examining defense witness, regarding her teachings to strikers' children, held admissible in trial for murder of police officer growing out of alleged conspiracy.Criminal prosecution tried upon indictments charging the defendants pursuant to an unlawful conspiracy or confederation, with (1) the murder of O. F. Aderholt; (2) felonious secret assault upon T. A. Gilbert; (3) felonious secret assault upon A. J Roach; and (4) felonious secret assault upon C. M. Ferguson.

Statement of the Case.

The case grows out of a strike begun April 1, 1929, and conducted by the local branch of the National Textile Workers' Union at the Manville-Jenkes Company's Loray Mill in Gastonia, N.C. Headquarters of the union were first established on West Franklin avenue, and a few doors away the Workers' International Relief, an organization designed to care for strikers and their families, had its headquarters. These union and relief headquarters were demolished on the night of April 18 by persons unknown, or at least not disclosed by the record. Members of the union then proceeded to construct new headquarters on North Loray street on a lot leased for the purpose by the National Textile Workers' Union. Here they erected a hall and a number of tents for storing supplies and housing strikers and their families.

Fearing a repetition of what had happened to their headquarters on Franklin avenue, and not being willing to trust to the protection of the "one-sided Manville-Jenkes law," as was stated in a letter to Governor Gardner by a member of the strike committee, under date of May 16 (written with the approval of the defendant Beal), the strikers and members of the union supplied themselves with firearms, shotguns pistols, etc., established a voluntary system of patrol, and in this way, "determined to defend the new union headquarters at all costs." Holes were cut in the front wall of the building through which guns could be fired without disclosing the identity of the gunners to any one on the outside.

Meetings were held in the front yard of the premises from time to time, in fact nearly every evening, at which the progress of the strike and the condition of the workers were discussed by different speakers, and, after the close of the meetings five or six guards, armed with shotguns, usually remained to patrol the property.

The evidence tends to show that at one of the meetings, probably during the latter part of May, the defendant Beal, in an address to the workers, advised them that they were going to "pull a strike" at the Loray Mill; that he had sent a delegation to Washington to straighten the matter out with the government; that the bosses, thugs from the mill, and officers of the town were trying to tear up their union and break up their meetings, but "they were a fighting union--not dreading the police at all--let them come when they wish;" that he had instructed the guards to be constantly on the alert and to protect everything against all comers, police, mill thugs or bosses; and that the only way to win the strike was to shut down the Loray Mill.

On the night of June 7, 1929, an encounter took place between police officers of the city of Gastonia and those in charge of the union premises which resulted in the killing of O. F. Aderholt, chief of police, the wounding of Officers Gilbert and Ferguson, and A. J. Roach, who came with the police, and Joseph Harrison, one of the strikers.

Of the seven defendants tried and convicted, three came to Gastonia in connection with the strike, Fred Erwin Beal, age 33, of Lawrence, Mass., as Southern organizer for the National Textile Workers' Union, Clarence Miller, of New York, as organizer of the youths' section of the union, with his wife, age 20, who organized the children's section, and George Carter, age 23, of Mispah, N. J., who read about the strike and came because he was interested in strikes. The remaining four, W. M. McGinnis, Louis McLaughlin, Joseph Harrison, and K. Y. Hendricks, age 24, are residents of Gastonia.

True bills were returned by the grand jury of Gaston county against the defendants and nine others, and, at the instance of those indicted, the cases were removed to Mecklenburg county for trial.

August Special Term, Mecklenburg Superior Court, Barnhill, J., Presiding.

At the request of counsel for the defendants and under instruction from the court, a bill of particulars was filed by the solicitor, to which the defendants demurred. This was overruled, but, on suggestion from the court, the solicitor filed an additional bill of particulars, detailing facts tending to show a conspiracy on the part of the defendants to resist the officers and to prevent their entry on the union grounds upon which the state expected to rely for a conviction on the charge of murder. The defendants again demurred on the ground of duplicity in the bill and indefiniteness in the charge; overruled; exception.

All sixteen of the original defendants were then put on trial, presumably for the capital offense, under the indictment charging them with the murder of O. F. Aderholt. During the progress of this trial, and after a number of witnesses had been examined, one of the jurors suffered an acute attack of emotional insanity and became wholly incapacitated for further jury service; whereupon, on Monday, September 9, 1929, about the hour of 10 a. m., the court, as a matter of necessity, withdrew a juror and ordered a mistrial, remanded the defendants to the custody of the sheriff, continued the cause, and took a recess until 2:30 p. m. The defendants thereupon moved for their discharge; overruled; exception.

After entering the above order and before leaving the bench, but after the jury had been discharged, the court discovered that one of the defendants was not present in court when the order of mistrial was entered; whereupon the absent defendant was sent for and after learning that he was ill and had left the courtroom at his own request, in the custody of the sheriff, the court at 11 a. m. directed the clerk to strike out the entry, "recessed until 2:30," and, in the presence of all the defendants, the entire proceedings of the day were repeated, except the defendants declined to renew their motions. Objection to this procedure; overruled; exception.

September Special Term, Mecklenburg Superior Court, Barnhill, J., Presiding.

The defendants were again placed on trial at a special term of court which convened September 30, 1929. Immediately after the opening of court the defendants and each of them moved for their discharge upon the ground that they had once been put in jeopardy and ought not to be tried again on the same indictment; overruled; exception.

Announcement having been made in open court that the state would not ask for a first degree verdict on the murder charge, but for a verdict of second degree only, or manslaughter, as the evidence might disclose, the solicitor moved that the four bills of indictment be consolidated and tried as different counts in a single indictment, which motion was allowed, without objection so far as appears from the record proper; whereupon a nol pros with leave was taken as to all the defendants, save the seven above mentioned, who were ruled to trial over their renewed objections.

The Evidence.

On the evening of June 7, 1929, a largely attended meeting was held on the union grounds.

The gathering was addressed by Paul Shepherd, Vera Bush, and the defendant Beal, each in turn speaking from a platform in front of the building provided for the purpose. Although the strike had been in progress for a month or more, seven or eight hundred employees were still working in the Loray Mill, and it was the intention of the strikers to form a picket line and march to the mill that evening. Plans for the march were discussed by the speakers, and some of their remarks were quite extreme. A disturbance occurred while Vera Bush or Fred Beal was speaking, occasioned by some one throwing eggs or missiles at the speaker, followed by an effort on the part of some of the strikers to eject the intruder from the premises, during which a shot was fired by some unidentified person and several blows were struck. This created quite a bit of excitement and looked at first as if a riot might ensue, though no great harm resulted from it.

After the speaking, the picket line was formed and started towards the mill, but this was stopped and turned back by the police at the railroad crossing near Franklin avenue-- peaceably and by simple requests according to the testimony of the police; forcibly and by brutal assaults according to the evidence of the picketers. As the picket line, which never reached the mill, was returning between 9 and 9:30 p. m., Mrs. Walter Grigg telephoned police headquarters and said: "If we ever need your protection, we need it now on North Loray Street." In consequence of this call, four policemen, Chief Aderholt, Gilbert, Ferguson, Adam Hord, and with them A. J. Roach, got into a city car, a Ford sedan, and drove to the union headquarters.

The attitude of the crowd towards the officers as they arrived including those in charge of the union premises, was other than sympathetic, if not actually threatening. A number of guards with shotguns were patrolling the grounds; some stationed within the building and others on the lot outside. As the officers came up and started upon the premises, some girls from across the street were heard...