The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-03-09
KANSAS NEWS.
The Strange Case of William
Mack, of Wichita.
Says He is Under the Spiritual
Control Of Two Women.
MAY BE HYPNOTISM.
Once Killed a Man But Says 1t
Was Accidental.
Spirits of the Two Women
Guide His Every Move.

Winfield, March Son a Fourth OF
July night three or four years ago in
Wichita, William Mack, a harness
maker Of that city shot and killed Pete
Pixley, of Winfield. Mack always claim
ed the shooting was an accident and
made that his defense when he was
arrested and tried charged with murder.
Mack was declared insane the other day
and his friends claim that he has never
been the same man since the tragedy
that he was before.
He is laboring under a strange hal
Inclination which borders on the theory
of hypnotism but it is possible his
present condition is the result or
drunkenness induced by a guilty con-
science.
At his trial in probate court the 9TH
er day he calmly told the jury that he
was wholly in the control of two wo-
men who were alive and in good bodily
health. No spirits bother him with their
weird and ghostly advances, but these
two women, he says, have him COM
pletely in their power. One of these
women is an elderly lady whom he met
when in Portland, Oregon, about a year
ago. She is about "a years old and very
impression on him. 1t was afterwards
learned that he was in her company
a great deal and her disposition towards
him was that of a loving friend. w hen
he left there this woman pursued him
with her strange and superhuman
power. She was ever in his mind and
thoughts and he seemed in the grasp
of her hypnotic influence. He spent
his wages she bid him, and he follow
ed the dictates of her will in almost
every particular. Suddenly one day he
was struck by a curious sensation as if
something had lodged on his brain.
Then another woman appeared to him
and exhibited her power. The other
woman he had met personally, but he
would not tell her name. This Wichita
woman he had never seen except in his
fancy, but her power was even greater
than that of the other. He described
her as q f1eshy. heavy set woman of
about % years of age. and of queenly
beauty. She is dark cOmplexioned. The
two women had him so completely in
their grasp that he could not remain
there, and one day he packed up his
kit of tools and went away.
He worked at several little towns in
the vicinity of Wichita but everywhere
he went the same mysterious influence
followed him. The last place he worked
was at Mulvane-
while at Mulvane didn't you start
to Oklahoma, Mr.. Mack?" asked Pro-
bate Judge Haymaker at the trial.
Yes, sir"
''Why did you not go?"
''Well, couldn't. Every time I got
to Udall the women would tell me to
stop, and 1 couldn't break loose. I just
had to sit down.
"How often did you try to go to the
territory?"
1.-TWO or three times"
''DO you think you could go back to
work and earn a living az you could be
free of these women?''
The man frightened up as If in hope
and said:
Yes. If I had some medicine and
could get rid of the power of these wo-
men L could assume my trade and be
all right"
Mack told the jury that he had been
a very hard drinker and had taken the
Kelley cure from four physicians in
that city about four years ago. but it
did not cure him. He resumed drinking
within nine months after quitting the
treatment, and was ION a tear about
four weeks ago.