Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 278, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 November 1912 — FAWLEY CONVICTED; BLUFFS AT SUICIDE [ARTICLE]

FAWLEY CONVICTED; BLUFFS AT SUICIDE

Jury Gave Stowers* Assailant Fine and Jail Sentence and He Drinks VermJne Poison. The Fawley trial was held Tuesday and the jury after being out for some time brought in a compromise verdict, assessing a fine of $250 arid a 90 days’ jail sentence. Fawley was greatly disappointed at the sentence and declared to Sheriff Hoover after being returned to the jail that he was Sorry he had not killed Stowers and that he now proposed to kill himself. Suiting his action to his words he grabbed a disinfectant spray, containing three-fourths of a pint of verniine poison and drank about a quarter of a pint. Then he bellowed for help and threw up everything he had on his stomach. The jail physician attended him and by half after nine o’clock he seejfied out of danger. His antics after taking the disinfectant, which seems to contain some benzine, a little arsenic and perhaps some chloride of zinc, frightened Harvey Jewell, the only other prisoner, half to death. Jewell is from Brook and was sent here for safe keeping. His charge is child desertion. He wrote a note about Fawley’s having taken the dope and got the attention of a member of the sheriff’s family and informed them about what had happened. After things were quieted down and all were asleep Fawley set up another big fuss. He moaned and groaned like a dying calf and the sheriff was compelled to come down at 1 o’clock at night and again call the jail physician. Fawley this time seemed to be in bad condition and for a time it was thought he was going to die. He drank some milk and vomited it up and. apparently had disposed of all the poison. He begged to see his wife, calling incessantly for Mary. Thinking he was going to die, the sheriff called for his wife, who is staying with her mother near Aix, and she came down to the jail, arriving at 2 o’clock in the morning. Fawley at once brightened up, and spent most of the remainder of the night quarreling with her. He held her hand and petted her and then almost cussed her in same breath. She told him that she was a Christian and had tried to do everything that was right and had tried to get him to and he told her jt was the devil that was working on her. She told him that he knew he had knocked her down many times and had kicked her and that she was afraid of him and then he petted her up and the sheriff put in an uncomfortable time listening to the parley. Finally he broke it up. Fawley’s attempt at suicide was evidently more of a bluff than anything else. He was too spectacular for a man that really plans self-destruction. Deputy Sheriff Gus Grant this morning offered him another drink of the disinfectant, but he declined it. While the state failed to show that Fawley’s assault was with the intention of murdering Stowers, thus eliminating that feature from the trial, Attorney Frank Davis, for the state, made a good case and a strong plea and a part of the jury are said to have favored a penitentiary sentence, but this was not possible unless the intent to kill was proven. The sentence is unfortunate in that it makes him an inmate of the jail for .540 days, at the expense of the county and to the menace of other prisoners and the annoyance of the sheriff. Fair Oaks people relate a number of escapades that Fawley has committed. He has attacked and beaten up several people since living there. He has had fights in years gone by and his body is frightfully scarred from cuts he has received. A great gash extends across his right jaw and the side of the neck. Another big scar across his back, a third is across one arm and there are several across his abdomen. /All were apparently razor or knife cuts. People in 'Fair Oaks fear him. Some think him insane, while others consider him simply mean. It is feared that he may return to Fair Oaks and go after those who testified against him. This he says he -frill not do, but will live in Rensselaer if he gets out. He talks still about suiciding and a number of things indicate that he is of unsound mind.