The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-07-02

case of Mrs. Kopp of San Francisco,
who the other day killed her husband,
had no hesitation in answering in the
negative. 1t found that Mrs. Kopp
shot and killed Charles Kopp that she
admitted the killing and made no con-
| cealment or defense of it. But the jury
declared that she was justified.
OF course. no such verdict could be
| tolerated in a court of law. Justifiable
homicide is defined by the law; and
unfaithfulness is not one of the
! grounds for pleading it. But the YER
| dict of the Coroner's jury will be prac
tically the verdict of any jury of
American citizens impanelled to
| try the unfortunate woman. 1t
is the verdict of the people
of the State who have read the
| story Of the case. 1t is and will be the
unreversable Judgment of mankind.
that this woman shall go free of her
crime. This woman in the Kopp case
is given the same measure of sympathy
and approval that man invariably re-
ceives when he is actuated by the
same motive that neTved the arm of
| Mrs. Kopp.
1 Her story is pitiful one. A simple,
| happy person, content with humble liv-
ing with those sha loved Nineteen
years ago this woman gave her youth
/ in, 20 v.lo TOT fy1l
to him in all things; loving him as a
! wife should love a husband; bearing
him children; laboring to aid him IN
accommodating, the two were evidently
happy in their relation. The wife final
ly failed in health. She lost her youth
full attractiveness, a fatal disease fast
ened upon her, and her days she and
he knew were numbered.
| At this juncture the husband met
another woman, not worn and dying,
but fresh in youth and high health.
and to her he transferred the love and
the duty he owed his wife and daugh-
ter. He boosted of his new love to the
stricken wife and mother He in
stalled his mistress in his home in his
wife's absence. 1t is said that he
decided property to his mistress which
the wife had labored to acquire and
had transferred to him that he might
have less legal trouble in holding it
for their child when she should pass
away.
When the wife besought him not to
cast her off, he boosted of his new
love, told the wife that she was often
sive to him, laid violent hands upon
her as if he were jealous of the few
months she had to live. He scorned
and abused her. Then the wife went
in all humility to the destroyer of her
happiness and besought her to give her
back the infatuated husband. 1t does
not appear that she met with any sue
cess in that quarter and the intimacy
between the two offenders was re-
newed.
Herself without means, leading her
child in the street, the broken hearted
wife saw the husband and father with
his Mistress feasting in a restaurant.
She followed him home, and asked him
once more if he intended in her old age
and sickness to cast her off. He re-
piled brutally and then she shot him;
and mercifully, for her aim was so
Coroner's jury of the largest COM
munity in the State says guilty but
justified, guilty Of murder, but ''go
free" So will say any jury Of men that
A jury and society will approve this
woman as they have these ages ap-
proved men, when they slew the de-
filers of the family
The greater significance OF this YER
diet will be found in the fact that Mrs.
kopp is poor, f1iendless, broken, I'M
attractive. She has neither money nor
powerful friends to aid her; she has
neither beauty nor health to sustain
her. Her environment is of the hum
blest kind, but society has raised up a
wall Of defense about her and forbid
den her punishment. The fact of the
brutal unfaithfulness Of her husband
cannot go to the trial jury legally.
The courts will forbid the telling of
the womans unhappy story to the
panel But it will reach the jurors and
they will assert the power with which
invested, and bid the murderess go
free. If, indeed, she lives long enough
to be brought to trial.
Thu iratrcd,1a4icx 1,f