MURDER TRIAL

Evening Star, Issue 18979, 29 June 1925, Page 5

MURDER TRIAL

DEATH OF MILLIONAIRE WILLIAM SHEPHERD ACQUITTED SCENES IH COURT Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. NEW YORK, June 27, William Shepherd was acquitted at Chicago on a charge of murdering his foster son, William M'C'lintock, and the charge of murdering M'CHntock’s mother was withdrawn. Shepherd was then set free. All the evidence during the trial, which lasted six weeks, was only circumstantial, and the prosecution admitted that the testimony of its chief witness, Faiman, was unreliable. During tho deliberations, lasting five and a-half hours, only one juror favored the minimum murder punishment. Others advocated acquittal. Nine cousins of M’Clintock will contest tho bestowal of tho miilion-dollar estate on Shepherd, alleging that he used undue influence in the preparation of tho will, which ho drew up. At the trial, Mrs Isabelle Pope, M'Clintock’s fiancee, testified that Shepherd delayed the marriage ceremony for fear of losing the settlement. She admitted that M'Clintock’s cousins agreed to split tho benefits if the will were upset.

When the verdict was announced the court became a bedlam of congratulations to Shepherd, and flashlights ,wcro thrown over (ho gesticulating, shouting crowd.— A. and N.Z. Cable.

"William Shepherd and Charles Faiman were arrested and charged with murder by inoculation with typhoid germs in connection with tho death last December of William APClintock, an orphan millionaire, aged twenty-one. Shepherd was the foster father and chief heir of M'Clintock. Faiman, who is a bacteriologist, confessed (hat ho conspired with Shepherd to introduce typhoid germs into tho deceased, as the victim had made a will leaving his fortune to Shepherd. Faiman’s confession gave full details of how lie instructed Shepherd in bacteriology and the use of germs, etc. This knowledge, it was alleged, Shepherd successfully applied, and APClintock died of typhoid. Faiman said he was promised 100,000 dollars. The revelations were tho result of the persistency of Judge Olson, whoso brother also died suddenly after warning M'Clintock against Shepherd. The authorities had stopped previous investigations into the cause of APClintock’s death, and apologised to Shepherd. A second charge of murder was laid against Shepherd. Mercury in sufficient quantities to kill two persons was found in the body of M'Clintock’s mother, Mrs Emma APClintock, who died in 1909. The coroner declared he was positive that she was murdered, because the evidence was of such a nature that the theories of suicide or accidental poisoning were not acceptable. Judge Olson claimed that Shepherd murdered the woman as a first step in a plot to gain control of an estate worth 1,000,000 dollars; that he then killed Dr Olson, the judge’s brother, when the latter threatened to balk his plans; and that finally ho poisoned M Clmtoek, when the boy’s impending mauiage threatened to deprive him of the money. Mercury was also found in Dr Olson’s body after it had been three years in the grave. The physician who attended Mr M'Clintock declared that he never prescribed mercury.