My Father and Atticus Finch by Joseph Madison Beck

Author:Joseph Madison Beck
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Chapter 22

MUCH OF THE TESTIMONY by the next witness called by the prosecution, Mance Scarbrough, concerned Miss Liger’s interest in fortune-telling.

“If anybody mentions fortune-telling or marrying,” Mance said, “she is a maniac on that subject, if that is the right word to use—”

The record shows that the defendant objected to the word “maniac” and that the objection was sustained.

The witness continued, “Having her fortune told and getting married is practically all her main talk. I mean, she talks it constantly and anybody that claims to be a fortune-teller could—”

The defendant objected and the objection was sustained.

The State then asked the following question: “Well, if there was a fortune-teller in the neighborhood, would she make efforts to go and see him?”

“No, sir, she doesn’t make any effort to go; she goes,” Mance Scarbrough testified, continuing when the objection was overruled, “I have known her to go three times a week to my knowing . . . Outside of this peculiarity of fortune-telling, getting married, and this paralysis of her right hand, I know that we have to watch Elizabeth about the cash and all that sort of thing. She has no idea of the value of a dollar. She will go in the cash drawer and get whatever she wanted. She will tote it out and throw it away.”

At this point it may have occurred to Mance Scarbrough that his employer—Elizabeth’s brother—might not have wanted the whole county to know that his sister stole money from the cash drawer, for he added, “That, of course, is more or less amongst the family,” as the audience chuckled and elbowed and winked.

On cross-examination, Mance Scarbrough acknowledged that Elizabeth Liger could read and write and he contradicted her testimony that she told him about seeing Charles White on Monday.

Two neighbors were called by the State and testified about Elizabeth Liger’s persistent interest in fortune-telling, and a father and son who had been sitting on their porch on the day of the alleged rape said she looked like she was crying when she walked back from Mary Etta’s.

A third doctor was then called by the prosecution. Troy doctor W. P. Stewart, a graduate of Tulane Medical School, was the doctor who physically examined Elizabeth Liger on the day of the incident. Following a series of questions and objections about the possible effect of partial paralysis on the development of the brain, Dr. Stewart testified over objection that in his opinion Elizabeth Liger’s mental development was that of “about a ten-year-old child—maybe twelve—not over twelve.” But it was his description of Miss Liger’s private parts that held the attention of the courtroom.

“I was called to her house and I went there and examined her on the bed. With the help of her sisters we put her in the tub and gave her a douche. Upon examining her private parts on that occasion I found her hymen, commonly known as maidenhead, was very thick. That it had not been penetrated. It had not been broken.”

On cross-examination, Dr.

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