The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-06-27
LOVE LETTERS READ
In Court to Save the Neck of
a Man
ON TRIAL FOR MURDER
He Hopes to Establish His
Plea of SeIf-DefenSe.

New YORK. June ZoT1Ae Jourh4l says
In Richmond. Va. a sensitive girl is be-
ing submitted to torture worse than
death.
The secrets of her heart, the sweet
words of love that were meant only for
the eyes Of the man to whom she had
plighted her troth. have been laid bare to
| thousands of people
| Isabel Turner'S love letters to Andrew
| Carter Gilligan, the murderer of her
father, have been submitted in testimony
! by the accused.
They have been submitted. young Gill;
gan declares, because in no other way he
may hope to prove absolutely that he
fired in self-defence.
This startling and unique evidence in
the murder trial now agita1ing all Vir-
ginia 1>onsosts Of numerous impassioined
letters, the letters of a girl who loved in
spite OF the commands and entreaties of
her fable
They Avere written secretly, some of
them at boarding school and some late
at night in her own home after the fam
in the holA wv of tree in the old Turner
orchard in the little town OF Windsor
To corresl 'ond with her lover the young
gfrl used to creep out in the dark IN all
sorts; Of weather to the post Office which
love. and ing enuity had found Neither
fear Of detection nor filial duty deferred
her.
She loved Every line other letters bear
testimony to tho sincerity of her Itterar-
ces She wrote them for the eyes of only
one man in the wotld. and all Virginia
now scornn that one nan for submitting
them to tury ts~en to Save his own rcck
Young GEIigan, and IsaGoel Turner grew
un together. Probably they can not re-
member the time when they we're not
sweethearts. Their romance began way
back in the days when they played at
making mud pies together.
Mick" as young Ginigan IS comb only
ca lied, was the son of Beverly Turner'S
heA d overseerer. Isabel was youngest
dau, liter, the beauty Of me family and
the uple OF his eye.
As Il abel Turner g1sew into. young wcm-
anbood she realized that her father would
never cuunteuance q match between her
self and her beloved Mick" The aristo-
cratic solnhern4r looked upon young GIL
ligan as a farm hand-nothing more.
For some time he suspected nothing of
the loven1zzing that was going on under
his very eyes. Then suddenly something
revealed it to him A stormy scene en-
sued. The girl was dispatched to school,
and the boy ordered off the plantation.
That was over two years ago. Isabel
Turner was then not quite eighteen, and
young Ginigan barely twenty-one.
Mr.. Turner kept them separated a con-
siderable length OF time and then, be
neving that his daughter had come to her
senses, as he expressed it, he recalled
her.
The courtship began anew. Again and,
more ardentIy the postofice was brought
into requisition. 1t served, too, as a
trysting place.
Somehow once again Isabers father dis
covered that his daughter was meeting
her lover. On the night of December q,
by the testimony of the murderer, he fol-
lowed her, and, seeing her with her
lovers arm about her, raised his gun to
shoot.
at was his life or mine" cried Gilpgan.
Il shot only in self-defence."
In her testimony Isabel Turner has
given her former lover the lie. She
swears that she was in the house with her
mother when her father was shot
And now her love letters have been,pro-
duced to show how ardent was her pas
sion and how great an influence It must
have had upon young Gillgan's life.
The correspondence, begun two years
! ago, only ended on September Is last. by
command of her mother. Ginigan sub
mits it to show that Isabel Turner loved
him when he killed her father.
MISS TURNER'S LOVE LETTERS
Dear Heart: Oh, dear one, my heart is
breaking; I am going crazy. If yon leave
it viii kill me. 1 have forgiven you. 1t
was my fault, anyway; It was all my
fault. 1 have forgiven you, and, oh, I
| beg your forgiveness. Oh, dear one, don't
60 away. 1 beg you for the sake Of my
| parents Don't kill me by doing this
| Please don't so away. Will so crazy I
| have been half-crazy all day today, and
it viii finish me if you go away, and that
Will kill my parents. Yours as ever,
| ISABEL