A Grievous Outrage Perpetrated by the Officers
3 JAN 1886. Austin Daily Statesman.
THE FATHER SPEAKS. BRIEF INTERVIEW WITH MR. JAMES PHILLIPS. HE STOUTLY DENIES THE GUILT OF HIS WOUNDED SON.
Yesterday morning’s Statesman contained a report to the effect that James Phillips, Jr., husband of Mrs. Eula Phillips, who was murdered Christmas eve night, had been arrested on a warrant issued from Justice Von Rosenberg’s court. In this the reporter was incorrectly informed. The arrest was made upon a charge sworn out by a detective, that he committed the awful deed. The young man is in such physical condition from the effects of the wounds received on his head, the night of the murder that he cannot give any intelligent account of the affair. In his deliriums he sometimes says a peddler with a big pack did it. His father, James Phillips, Sr., who has lived here for thirty-four years, was seen yesterday by a reporter, and made the following statement, the first since the tragedy, because of his being a witness before the coroner’s inquest.
“Mr. Phillips,” said the reporter, “I desire to obtain all the information possible relative to the assassination of your daughter-in-law and the arrest of your son.”
“The death of my daughter was horrible and is familiar to the public, and the arrest of my son is a grievous outrage, perpetrated by the officers without a shadow of evidence, and I fear the shock is going to kill his old mother.”
“Is it true, as has been rumored, that she was out riding on the nigh of the murder, and that her husband was drunk and quarreled with her after her return home?”
“No, sir. There is not a word of truth in it. They were as happily mated as any young couple I know of, and always got along smoothly. Last year they farmed near Hutto, in Williamson county, but failed to make anything, and about two weeks before Christmas they came home and lived with me until they could fix up and furnish the rooms they occupied the night of the murder. A few days after their return my son got on a spree, and with my advice his wife went off and staid with an aunt until some three or four days before Christmas. In the meantime Jimmy sobered up and promised me never to drink again. He got work on the new fireman’s hall, and faithfully kept that promise, and gave all his wages to his wife on her return. On the night of the killing he and she were at home all the time, except exactly fifteen minute by the clock, when Jimmy went down town to buy additional toys for his child. I say fifteen minutes, because he and his mother made a bet as to how long it would take and she timed him.
All the day before Christmas I was assisting his wife to get their rooms in fix and arranged the new furniture which they had purchased. We worked all day, and at night she never even pulled off her work dress, nor did she leave the house during the night. They were in the parlor until after 10 o’clock, talking, while I mended a toy wagon which had been broken. They were in the best of humor and spirits, and made everything in readiness for going to Manchaca Springs, nine miles out of town, to spend Christmas Eve.
At 10 o’clock I retired, and my wife says shortly after they went to their room, where she carried them nuts, apples and other refreshments.
The tale that my daughter was out in a hack on that night if absolutely false, and it probably grew out of the fact that a hack, at about 11 o’clock, did bring two ladies, my neighbors, from a meeting of the lodge of the Knights and Ladies of Honor, and I am told the driver says one of the was my daughter.”
“Was your son drinking, at all, on the night of the murder?”
“Did the jury of inquest have any evidence at all tending to cast any reflection upon him?”
“So far as I know, none at all.”
In rebuttal of Mr. Phillips’ statements above, it is asserted that the detective had sufficient positive evidence to warrant him in swearing out the charge upon which the arrest was made. A preliminary examination of the accused will doubtless follow in a few days, at which time possibly all the facts now kept secret will be made public.
A rumor was generally circulated yesterday that young Phillips had made a full confession, but the Statesman was unable to trace it to any reliable source. Inquiry was made last night at his father’s residence, and the elder Philips said there was not a word of truth in the rumor. His son had done nothing to confess and it was simply outrageous to give any credence to such reports.
At a late hour last night Phillips was not doing so well as wished for. It was feared inflammation was setting in around the wounds.
