Five years have passed since she was first stricken Dr. Burger Took the snake with him when he drove back to town that night. He placed it in a square glass jar, poured in some alcohol and sealed it tightly with wax. Afterwards he sat down and wrote a careful record of the case. It was well that he did. As it was, the good doctor was called every kind of liar in the book.
Newspapers spread the story far and wide, some doubting and some defending the doctor.
County and state medical groups sent investigating committees to gather evidence at the scene. Kin of Miss Taylor, county magistrates, neighbors, ministers, made affidavits in support of Dr. Burger. In a little bungalow at 701 East Street, Murfreesboro, Mrs Lena Burger Woodley Rogers, formerly of Mcminnville has the old water snake for all to see in the same jar in which her grandfather preserved it. Mrs. Rogers is the wife of Rece Rogers, a Church of Christ minister and a teacher in the Rutherford county high school. Along with these things she has affidavits of numerous people, who testified as witnesses to one phase or another of it.