“MERCY KILLING”

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18255, 25 November 1933, Page 15

“MERCY KILLING”

UNITED STATES MURDER

SUSPECT CONFESSES

THREE DAYS’ EXAMINATION

(Elec. Tel. CoflWkrUnited Press Assn.) (Received niowmber 25, 3 p.m.) CHICAGO*, Nov. 24. The police announce that Dr. Alice Wynekoop to-day confessed that she bred a bullet into the heart of her daughter-in-law,, Rheta, while the latter was unconscious. , Breaking down after nearly three tU) s exhausting examination, tlie aged physician stated that she administered chloroform to Rheta while examining her for a pelvic pain, of which the girl complained. , . , , The doctor stated that she had gone to her surgical office in the basement of the house last Tuesday, finding Rheta partly unclad and weighing herself. The girl complained of severe pains. The doctoi placed her on the operating table and began to administer chloroform in order to ease the pain and facilitate an examination. Her daughter-in-law finally lost consciousness, and after 25 minutes the <lOOlOl tried to revive her. Realising that tho girl was losing ground. Dr. Alice Wynekoop became panic-stricken. “All tho events of. my life hashed ikfaugh my mind, and I thought of tho pistol in the adjoining room,” Dr. Wynekoop said. Fearful of being given the blame for killing the girl with an anaesthetic, she said she obtained the revolver and fired a shot into the shoulder-blade and through the girl’s heart. The police say that the confession is so worded to say that the doctor wishes the slaying to appear as a “mercy killing,” but they declare that new evidence indicates that the girl was chloroformed after the shot.

Another son telegraphed to his mother: “Keep up the fight like the brave soldier von have always been. God knows you did not do this.” Before the confession, Earle Wynekoop was confronted with his mother, wept, and hid his face on her shoulder. He cried: “For God's sake, mother, if you did this because of the love between us. go ahead and confess.”