Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 August 1909 — MOTHER SAW HER SON IN A VISION [ARTICLE]

MOTHER SAW HER SON IN A VISION

Mrs. Sutton Sold Dead Boy Conversed With Ker. HE SAID "ADAMS KILLED ME” "They Beat Me to Death and Adams Shot Me to Hide Crime.” —Spirit Told Mother That Trap Was Laid For Him and He Walked Into It. Wanted His Name Cleared of Sill* tide. .'LL. Aug. 10. —At the re- ' the court of inquiry into ; l.i utenant Janies N. Suti- ■: -trine corps, who was de- < • ; ide by an earlier board of inq.uiy. judge ■ advocate, • Major llehry L . erd, moved that the letters read i t Ibe closed session, when Mrs. Sutti n. the mother of the dead lieutenant, was on the. stand, be made public. The court ruled that the motion be acceded to. The reading showed that Mrs. Sutton Identified a number of letters as having been written by her. The first of these was to Harry M. Swartz, paymaster’s office. United States marine corps, Washington, and asked If he was a friend of her son, to whom she could write with confidence as to his sympathy. A second letter to Swartz gave a version of what occurred on the night of Lieutenant Sutton’s death and also told of numerous wounds on the face and head of her son. She referred frequently tn those who were with Lieutenant Sutton when he wa? shot as “wild beasts." Faces Would Convict Them. In one letter Lieutenant Adams was accused ol firing the shot which killed Sutton. In a letter written in answer to Swartz, Mrs. Sutton says that "after killed Captain Marlx and Lieutenant Utley took his keys and went through his trunk and everything. Can you tell me if they had a right to touch anything? “Jimmie was beaten to death. That shot was fired to hide the crime. His forehead was crushed, nose broken, lip cut open, teeth knocked out and an incision in the head half an inch long." In letters to Swartz Mrs. Sutton said: “Just get a copy of the A. and N. Journal of Oct. 19, and see the expression on Potts’ face." "Adams, -Utley and Osterman’s faces will be enough to convict them. The night those beasts were laying their plans for ’Jimmie’ an awful fear came over me and my two daughters; we could not talk and each kept away from the other for fear of betraying our feelings. The next day Mr. Sutton came in and asked if I could stand some awful news. He told he that ‘Jimmie” was reported to have killed himself.

Dead Son Appears to Mother. “Oh, Cod! Mr. Swartz,” the writer exclaims, '‘if ‘Jimmie’ had not spoken to me I would have died. Thon ‘Jimmie' came up to me and said: ‘Mother, dear, don’t believe it; 1 never killed myself. Adams killed me; they beat me to death and then Adams shot me to hide the crime. He told me how they laid a trap for him. how he walked into it; how Utley grabbed him to pull him out of the automobile; how they held him and Osterman beat him; about his forehead being broken, his teeth knocked out and the lump under his jaw, mid how when he was lying on the ground someone kicked him in tin side and smashed his watch. He begged me not to die. but to live and clear his name. Well, after three weeks, I proved some things he told me were true, and after repeatedly demanding the evidence after four months I got it, and within the last month I have proven everything he told me. “Nothing could separate 'Jimmie" from me, not even death, and Adams, Utley, Potts and Osterman will never know a moment’s rest on earth. Why should they?”