The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1895-09-13
WILKIE TALKS.
Gives His Side Of the DoWney
Suicide Case.

a representative of The Expositor
visited Constable Wilkie of Brown City
for the purpose of getting his statement
with reference to his connection with
the suicide of Mrs. Fanny Downey.
Mr.. Wilkes statement was ,in sub
stance as follows:
The day before Mrs. Downey, former
| ly known as Mrs. Benning, took the
poison which ended her life, | was
down to Yale to look after service of
a summons for b. r.. Noble d Co. on a
man who lives three miles north and
about mile east of Yale. While
| there | met Joe Scott who had come to
! \ ale TO take his mother TO Brown City
The statement that | or Mr.. Scott had
come to Yale to look up, scare, or annoy
Mrs. Downey is absolutely untrue.
When | met Mr. Scott / said to him,
that had heard that Mrs. Benning
(DoWney) was IL the village. and asked
! him to go with me TO look her up, as /
wanted her TO come to my place and
take away her child.
! Scott and / went together and called
at the house Of Mrs. Bell. | inquired
! of Mrs. Bell for Mrs. Benning, the
name had known the woman by. and
! she first asked me ii either / or Scott
/ were her relatives. | told her that we
were not, but that ! wanted to see her
a minute. She then stated that she
would 20 upstairs and tell her. When
she came back Mrs. Bell reported that
| the woman was not in, and then told
us that Mrs. Benning had been mar
ried to a man by the name of DoWney.
told Mrs. Bell that it would make no
difference about her being away, and
asked her to be sure TO tell her to come
and take the child away, and said that |
had written her several times to do this.
| did tell her that had been advised
by an attorney that l could commence
proceedings against Mrs. Downey to
compel her to take and support her
child, but ] made no threats that l
would lock her up or send her over the
road as has been stated.
MIR. Scott, who was with Mr.. Wilkie
at the time also corroberated Wilkes
statements in every particular and said
that he was within few feet of Wilkie
during all of the time they were at
Bells place, so that he overheard
everything that was said.
Continuing Mr.. Wilkie stated:
| took this child intending to
adopt and raise her as his own; that he
sent her to school constantly during
the time she was with him, except a
single week when she was sick: that he
also kept her in Sunday school and
tried to make something of her.
He also stated that both he and his
wife found the child to be what might
justly be termed IA natural born liar" =;
that she would tell falsehood after
falsehood without any cause whatever,
and that it was impossible to know
when the child told the truth.
1t was because of this and other
faults he wished Mrs. Downey to come
and take the child away, Us she had
agreed to do.
Mr.. Wilkie emphatically denies that
there was any indecent conduct toward
the child in any manner or degree
while she lived with him, and that if
she made statements rejecting upon
him or his family in this regard it was
simply because of the child's natural
tendency TO lie to persons who paid
attention to her statements.
In addition to the above statements
made by Mr.. Wilkie we desire to say
that upon careful inquiry among con-
servative persons who have known Mr..
Wilkie long time we are informed by
them that such q thing as indecent
conduct on his part toward the child is
simply out of the question; that it is
entirely foreign to his nature or con-
duct. Further investigation upon
facts not known at the time the report
Of the inquest was held would tend to
corroborate statements of Mr.. Wilkie
TO the effect that the child has strong
inclination to mlsrepresent matters
with which she is connected. It seems
to us that these facts throw a new
light upon the matter, and we gladly
publish them as being due to Mr.. viii
kie whom we have no desire to injure
or misrepresent i'm any manner.
LotsoahAIA NaDaaoffU