WOMAN WHO SLEW A MAN WON JUDGE WITH HER PLEA Dec 2, 1904 news

Not as a prisoner to a judge, but as a woman on trial for her life telling her story to a man upon whose honor she could rely. Gertrude Langley told the story of the killing of Jack Jeffries to Judge Spiegel Thursday morning. It occurred some months ago, Jeffries had first won her from her husband and her home. He deserted his own wife for her, but later, won over by his wife's pleas, he in turn deserted Mrs. Langley and returned to his wife.

When Mrs. Langley visited him in his rooms at 1632 Pleasant street, an altercation occurred, and in the course of it Mrs. Langley shot her former lover. She has always maintained that she fired the first shot while they were struggling together and while he was seeking for a knife with his he threatened to kill her. At first she pleaded guilty to manslaughter at the instance of her attorney. Then she changed her mind and insisted upon a trial.

Judge Spiegel sent for her Thursday afternoon and asked her to tell him her story. Her attorney was not present, nor was any other friend. The woman clad in black sat before the bar of the court and told the tale of her love, her wrongs and her crime in a manner which gained in intensity and force by the very quiet of her methods.

At no time did he permit her voice to rise, except when she told of the actual killing of Jeffries. Then she rose from her seat, and with swaying body and impassioned gestures, her face alight with the fire of that unforgotten scene, she re-enacted the tragedy before the court. "I did not go to his room to kill him, judge," she said, "I had no such intention. I took a revolver with me because he was a brute, who had beaten me before. He had threatened to kill me if I bothered him, and I feared for my life. But I loved him, I had given up all for him, and I did not want to be cast aside.

"I knew that he proposed to go back to his wife, and I did not want him to do so. I went to his room that day to plead with him. Not, so help me God, to kill him. I opened the door and walked in. He was lying on the bed. We talked matters over, and he laughed at me. He said that he was tired of me, that he would not live with me longer, but that he would return to his wife. I begged of him, and he laughed at me. Then I sprang up"—and she suited the action to the word—"and denounced him. I told him what a cur he was and he got up from the bed and came over toward me as though he were going to beat me again. I was not afraid of him. I was just mad with anger at his heartless treatment and of the laugh with which he had declared our relations ended.

"He grappled with me and while holding me with one hand, searched about in his clothing and on the bed for a knife. He said he would kill me. Then I drew a revolver, and in the struggle it was discharged. I do not know whether I pressed the trigger or not. It exploded, and then I fired again. We were still grappled, and I do not know whether I fired that shot voluntarily. Then he fell and died."

At the conclusion of her statement, Judge Spiegel stated that he would permit her to withdraw her plea of guilty of manslaughter, and would advise her to stand a trial, pleading self defense.