QUICK VERDICT.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20280, 14 April 1934, Page 22 (Supplement)

QUICK VERDICT.

CHICAGO SENSATION. MURDER BY WOMAN DOCTOR.' 25 YEARS’ IMPRISONMENT. Dr. Alice Lindsay Wynckoop, 63-year-old matriarch of a prominent Chicago medical family', faces spending the rest of her life in prison for the murder by chloroform and revolver shot of her daughter-in-law, Rheta. A criminal court jury' of young men, selected under tlie woman physician’s ow n direction, brought in a verdict of guilty after less thau two hours’ deliberation. Its recommendation of a 25-y.ear sentence was the same as life imprisonment for the aged and ailing woman, whose repeated collapses from heart disease interrupted her trial. Shock to Defence. The jury’s quick .verdict cauio ; as a shock tp the defence forces after a day' of closing arguments which verged on religious fervour. Attorneys _ for the defence, W. W. and Milton Smith, were partaking of a late supper when the jury’s report of an agreement came. Fearing that the shock of the guilty verdict might be too much for the frail defendant, Judge Miller ordered a physician to remain at her side with a heart stimulant during the reading of the verdict. Dr. Wynekoop’s daughter, Dr. Catherine, also was close at hand. Walker Wynekoop, a sou, was in the courtroom, but Earle, the younger son, for whom the State contended the murder was committed, was not present. Dr. Wynekoop received the verdict with the same calm that characterised her conduct throughout the strange case from the time that police were called into the family mansion last November 21 to view tlie dead girl’s body, through her appearance on the witness stand to deny that she had killed her daughter-in-law on an operating table to collect 12,000 dollars insurance and free her son of an estranged wife. Walker, however, was indignant. He labelled tlie verdict a miscarriage of Justice. Catherine, too, was indignant. They wheeled their mother into an anteroom and sought to console her. Dr. Wynekoop needed little consoling, however. “I’m innocent,” she said. Don t worry, children. It’s all right.”