Word: leas
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Although Luke Lea Jr.'s penalty was kept down in consideration of his youth and the fact that he had merely obeyed his father, Col. Lea offered to assume an other two years if his son's conviction might be set aside. Judge Barnhill offered to do so if Col. Lea would agree not to appeal, but the condition was too stiff. The case was closed. The Leas posted bonds and went off to Nashville, free pending their appeals...
...filled. The shades were drawn and many electric lights gave a dramatic atmosphere to the scene. When the jury came back they gave no verdict, merely asked for further instructions. The defendants grew restless. John Thrash, deputy sheriff, followed the jury out, went to the rest room. Col. Lea thought he had entered the jury room and told him so when he came back. For a moment it looked like a real fight; then Col. Lea settled back into his chair...
That afternoon Judge Barnhill, his pale face grave as the Law, his voice almost a whisper, his hands trembling, read his penalties. Col. Lea's wife gripped her husband's hand so tightly that her knuckles were white. Their daughter, Mary Louise, 7, who had spent the weeks romping through the court room, sat quietly next to him, looking scared. For Col. Lea the Judge ordered imprisonment for from six to ten years. The Colonel paled, then flushed, but his lips were motionless. His wife nearly sobbed. When Luke Lea Jr. heard he had been fined...
...Lea must face other trials. There are still the Federal and State matters of the Holston-Union National Bank in Knoxville. And there is still to be a trial in connection with the defunct Liberty Bank & Trust Co. of Nashville, whose president shot himself two weeks after it closed. But last week's sentence marked the complete deflation of a great southern hero, one who had attempted to build an empire on the pillars of politics, finance and the Press, who was once the youngest U. S. Senator (32), who was given the Distinguished Service Medal for his courageous actions...
With an Old Testament sonority the Chattanooga Times editorialized: "The label of criminality has been stamped upon the name of the once great Luke Lea. . . . Instead of serving the people who had honored him he elected to serve Mammon. His ambition for great riches led from the path of honor. And the day of reckoning is at hand...