Virginia State Penitentiary by Dale Brumfield

Author:Dale Brumfield [Brumfield, Dale]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, United States, State & Local, South (AL; AR; FL; GA; KY; LA; MS; NC; SC; TN; VA; WV), Social Science, Penology
ISBN: 9781467137638
Google: LaIxDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Published: 2017-10-30T00:27:24+00:00

In anger, Belote threw a ceramic cuspidor (a spittoon) at Virginia, hitting her on the shoulder. It fell and broke, and then Mrs. Belote began throwing the broken pieces. Christian then rushed to protect herself, and the altercation escalated when Christian and Belote both ran for two broom handles used to prop up bedroom windows. Christian grabbed one of the broom handles and struck Belote on the forehead, knocking her to the floor. In an attempt to stifle Belote’s screams, Christian stuffed a towel in the woman’s mouth and, with the broom handle, forced it down her throat. The woman died of suffocation.

Christian dragged Mrs. Belote’s body to a back room. She then returned home, busying herself with housework and saying nothing of the affair.

Eight-year-old Sadie and thirteen-year-old Harriet Belote later discovered their mother’s bloody body on the floor. When Sheriff Curtis and Hampton police arrived at the Belote home, they found a trail of blood across the lower floor. Overturned furniture and the broken spittoon showed that there had been a horrific struggle.

Neighbors reported hearing no noise from the house, nor did they see anyone leave during the day.

Elizabeth City County coroner Dr. George Vanderslice arrived at the crime scene and reported on the condition of the body:

A bloody towel was rolled and stuffed tightly down the throat, pushing in the hair, pushing down the tongue, and inverting the lower lip. Bruises around the neck, a large cut and bruise, and black above and below one eye about the right eye, the left eye bruised swollen stuck together, finger marks around side of neck beneath the jaw and below the ear. In addition, there is a large cut three inches long down to the bone, just above the left ear.

Christian was immediately suspected. Police searched her home, and when they found a bloody waistcoat under her bed, they arrested and charged her with capital murder. During questioning (without legal counsel present), she admitted to hitting Belote but was shocked that the woman was dead. A pocketbook, ring and other valuables belonging to Mrs. Belote were reportedly found on Virginia after her arrest.

While confined in jail awaiting trial, she called her pastor, the Reverend J.W. Patterson, and subsequently made a full confession to him, Elder T.H. Shorts and Sheriff R.K. Curtis. The full text was printed verbatim and in plantation dialect a week later in the April 11 edition of the Times-Herald newspaper:

She [Mrs. Belote] come to mammer’s house dat morning an’ say she want me to come an’ do some washin’. When I come home mammer say miss Belote want me an’ I went ’roun’ to de house. I wen’ in de back way an’ when she see me she asked me about a gold locket she missed. I told her I ain’t seen it an’ don’t know nuthin’ about it. She also say sumthin’ about a skirt but de main thing was the locket. She say “yes you got it an’ if you don’t bring it back, I’m goin’ to have you put in jail.

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