Brought to Book

When one Beatrice Davis denied the theft of $200 from a Charleston, S.C. restaurant last week, Magistrate Gene Herron fell back on a medieval judicial device. He called in the jailer, ordered him and Beatrice to extend their forefingers, placed a Bible on their outstretched fingers. As it balanced there, he intoned:

By Saint Peter, by Saint Paul By the grace of God who made us all, If this woman took the money, Let the Bible fall

The Bible wavered and fell to the flc -. Forthwith, Beatrice confessed and, after a search, revealed the missing $200 in her house, was hustled into jail.

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