Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1885-11-12
A CELEBRATED CASE.
MRS. wALKUP NOT GUILTY.
A Murder Triaf1hat Involved the Young
and Beautiful Wife Of a Kansas
M~ayor-The Story Of the Trial.

ENPoRIA, Kan, Nov. 8.-The jury in
the trial of Minnie Wallace Walkup for
the murder by poison OF her husband,
Mayor ]. r. Walkup, came into court
this afternoon with a verdict Of not gull
ty, after having been out nearly forty
eight hours. The courtroom was throng-
ed, and, as the foreman spoke the words
which set her free, the young and hand
some defendant rose from her seat and
prettily thanked the jurymen for their
verdict. She was as cool and calm as she
has been during the long trial and even
under the fire Of the cross-examination Of
the counsel for the prosecution. The
great crowd heartily applauded her and
her mother, Mrs. Wallace, made her way
through the throng. The two embraced
and shed tears of JOY. "lnnocentg,.
Historically exclaimed the mother; II
knew they would not take you frommc."
Mrs. Walkup answered in avoicc that
could be heard oil over the room. Yes,
mother, they say l am innocent" Then
they embraced, and ~fervently kissed
again and again. This was followed by.
Mrs. Walkup shaking hands with friends
for half an hour and holding an informal
reception. Mrs. Wallace grasped Mr..
Jay, Mrs. Walkup's guardian, around
the neck and kissed him as fondly rs she
did the daughter. Then she shook the
hand Of each juryman and thanked them,
and, ascending to the Judges stand, said
to him: "Lct me shake your hand; God
bless you" Mrs. Walkup left the court
with Mr.. Jay and a Mr.. Anderson, and
took a carriage to the residence of Mr..
Jay, where she is holding a reception to-
night, thousands of people visited her to
extend congratulations. She will make
her future home in New Orleans.
Mrs. Minnie Wallace Walkup is the
daughter of Mrs. Wallace, who kept a
boarding-hous in New Orleans, where
Walkup, the mayor OF Emporia, first met
her when he went to the Exposition in
that city last Winter. She will not be II
years old until next January, and is a
most charming type of the Southern
beauty. She is tall and graceful, with
jet black hair and eyes, and a demeanor
of the most winning description. Her
mother had been involved in a scandal
only a short time before. A sensational
weekly newspaper had accused Judge
Houston, of one of the city courts, of un-
due intimacy with her, and, as Houston
felt that some action was necessary, he
sent his brother and a friend, named
Brewster, around to see the editor of the
paper. The result was a quarrel and a
shooting ARRAY, in which Brewster was
killed by the editor.
The girl never professed any love for
Walkup, who came three times within a
few months to New Orleans to see her,
but, on his representations OF his wealth
and his promise to provide her mother
with a home, she agreed to marry him.
On July % she met him at Cincinnati
and they were welded at Covington, XIV.
A month afterward he was dead at his
home in Emporia and she was under ar
rest for having poisoned him with arsenic.
He was AZ years old, had been twice mar
ried before he met Minnie Wallace, and
his children by his previous. wives were
hot in %instigating the prosecution, adj
vancing the theory that she murdered
him for the sake of obtaining his money.
1t was shown On the trial that she had
made a purchase of %strychnine the day
before her husband was taken sick and
two purchases Of arsenic between that
time and his death. Heavily as this tes-
timony bore against her, the testimony
for the defense proved that she had got
the strychnine to take stains out Of a silk
dress and that she had used the arsenic
to remove blotches from her face that
had only come upon it since her union
with Walkup.
Yet the analysis of Walkup's vitals de
monstrated that he did die of a~r.enical
poisoning, and therein laid the greatest
danger of the conviction of his Young
wife, But her friends procured evidence
that he had for years been using the drug
in solution and in pills for chronic dis.
ease, and the experts summoned for the
defense testified that his death was caused
by the release of the poison that had be.
come encysted in his stomach. 1t was
also in evidence that he had led an abom.
inably filthy life, and had on several &C.
casions been near to death on account of
his excuses and his habitual use of arsen-
ic. When these facts were developed,
public opinion in Emporia, which had
been strongly against Mrs. Walkup,
turned in her favor, and she received the
kindest attentions. Her self-possessed
demeanor in court, the girlish honesty
with which she gave her testimony and
her beauty acted powerfully in her behalf.
No such interest in q murder trial was
ever before known in Kansas.