CHAPTER
VIII
Mrs.
Susie Hayward's Deposition
HICAGO, ILL., July 20. -
Big Chicago knows nothing about the excitement that has stirred several strange
hearts within her midst to-day. The
interested parties were Dr. J. C. Hearne and wife and R. H. Stillwell and Mrs.
Susie Hayward, the latter being the star actress in the part of the
Hearne-DeYoung engagement played in this city this afternoon.
It will be remembered that in his deposition taken at Hannibal, R. H.
Stillwell testified that he believed, from information received during the past
few weeks, that Dr. Hearne and his (Stillwell’s) step-mother, now Mrs. Hearne,
murdered his father in Hannibal in December, 1888.
He testified that a large part of that information was secured from Mrs.
Susie Hayward, whose home is in this city.
The interested parties came here for the purpose of taking Mrs.
Hayward’s deposition, and at 1:30 this afternoon an interesting scene was presented in a little room in the law office of
Moran, Kraus &
Meyer, 79 Dearborn street. There were present Notary Austrain, Nat C. Dryden, of St.
Louis and Judge Hendrick, of San Diego, attorney for Dr. Hearne; Geo. A. Mahan,
of Hannibal, attorney for Mr. DeYoung, Dr. and Mrs. J. C. Hearne, R. H.
Stillwell, Mrs. Susie Hayward and two stenographers.
Awaiting in an adjoining room were a number of newspaper representatives,
eager to be admitted to the inner chambers.
They were not, however, kept in suspense very long.
A. L. Clarke, Mr. DeYoung’s personal representative, as tenderly as
possible, informed the press “gang” that Mrs. Hayward had stated positively
that she would consent to giving her deposition only upon his solemn promise
that newspaper men would be excluded and that her testimony would not be
published. Dr. Hearne made a
vigorous kick. He said that the
doors were thrown open to the press during the examinations at
Hannibal and he saw no reason why there should be a change in the programme
here. But no
change was made and the press was excluded.
The witness was in a shiver of excitement when she commenced her story,
evidently being apprehensive of bodily harm at the hands of Dr. Hearne and wife,
whose secrets she was about to give to the world.
Close to her sat R. H. Stillwell; in fact, so close that the right foot
of the pretty witness, encased in a dainty oxford, was on his chair during the
entire examination; she felt that her life was temporarily in his keeping and he
seemed to realize the responsibility of the situation and was willing to assume
it regardless of what the emergency might be.
Mr. Mahan conducted the examination in chief.
He realized the extreme
nervous condition of his witness and governed himself accordingly.
Soft of voice and unassuming in manner, he plied the questions, and
sentence by sentence, slowly but surely the witness drew from her inner soul
important secrets seriously affecting two lives that had been buried for years.
During the recital Mrs. Hearne sat only a few feet away, with nothing to
obstruct her view of the witness, with her features as if cut in marble,
listening to every word, and within her being a veritable cyclone of rage was
placing her rapidly beyond self control. When
the witness was in the middle of one of the most damaging sentences of her
story, Mrs. Hearne, with nerves strung to the tightest tension, her face wearing
almost a death pallor and resentment depicted in her large, fierce eyes,
involuntarily began to leave her chair as if to leap forward and devour her
enemy with the ferocity of a tigress. The
notary observed the agitation and expressed the hope that there would not be a
scene. During the examination Mrs. Hearne sank back into her chair
and remained quiet during the remainder of the proceedings.
Witness stated that her age was forty-five; that she lived in Chicago
four years; that she lived in Hannibal, but left there prior to 1888; that she
knew Amos J. Stillwell and wife; that she knew Dr. J. C. Hearne by sight and had
met him once or twice.
Mr. Mahan: Did you ever
talk with Dr. Hearne?
Just state what was said by either of them.
Just state what you saw by accident.
Mr. Mahan: What did Mrs.
Stillwell say to you about Dr. Hearne prior to the murder of her husband?
Did you hear anything about something that transpired at Mrs.
Stillwell’s home one night when Mr. Stillwell returned from St. Louis?
When you said to Dr. Hearne that Mrs. Stillwell could not get a divorce
and could not get alimony, what reply did he make?
Did Mrs. Stillwell ever write you in regard to a divorce?
Did you meet Mrs. Stillwell after the murder in Hannibal?
What did she say to you?
In the talk you had with Dr. Hearne what was said about the
discontinuance of his visits to Mrs. Stillwell?
How came you to meet at Mrs. Stillwell’s? Did you send for him?
Did you know the relationship between Dr. Hearne and Mrs. Stillwell?
Dr. Hearne retained additional counsel in the person of Nat C. Dryden,
one of the most noted criminal lawyers in the state. The doctor seems to realize that he will be indicted.