The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-06-29
INSANITY IS PLEA
OF Ships SLAYER

State Rests It's Case at Wheaton
Against the Alleged Child
Mrrderess.
Wheaton, Mimi, June 29.-Detailing
the piteous pleadings of the wounded
child as he found her shortly after the
tragedy, DR.. Healy was put on the
stand today for the state, following
Mrs. Deal, who saw the shooting Of
young Shipp by Antoinette Seidenstick-
er. e
Dr. asa t told ln how W the girl begged
the two shots that she had fired into
her body in the futile attempt to take
her life, as she claimed she had prom
Used her lover to do on the day Of the
shooting. It was a tale of desperation,
showing the child the possessor of alb
normal nerve and determination and
laboring under a mental strain and pas
sion hard to realize or appreciate.
After telling of how he had found
the l3-year-old defendant lying on the
bed at the Deal home the doctor went
into detailed account of the facts
concerning the location Of the shots in
the girl s body and also what he had
found upon the postmortem examina-
ton Of the body of Herman Shipp, the
dead man. He gave it as his oponion
shot having penetrated the aeorta and
passing thru portions of the left lung,
lodging about two inches from the
spine: It was his impression that the
shot had entered the body at an angle
of about so degrees and a little down
ward.
The bullets in the child he said had
entered just below the left breast,
struck the ribs on the inside and ,,
lowed around the backbone, coming out
near the surface and between the ribs.
Belng, young and in good health, the
wound had proved merely superficial
and healed quickly and easily.
Healy. is deputy coroner and went
down with the sheriff on the day of the
tragedy and had attended the girl while
4, Said She Shot Him.
E. II. .Boley followed DR.. Healy. He
was at the scene Of the tragedy and saw
the dead body Of a man hanging from
the buggy, which was caught in the
fence. He found the girl in the house
on the bed She begged to have her
clothes loosened and her corsets I'M.
hooked, stating she was in pain. He
asked her if she shot Shipp and she an
sWered that she did. She called the
! aead man Herman and said he was her
.Boley had brought the dead body to
MS undertaklng rooms in Wheaton and
ne said that Healy and Ames were the
doctors at the postmortem that disclosed
the cause of death as pistol shot.
| Cross examination brought ont the
fact that the left hand Of Ship was
| badly burned nv DowHar =
county Attorney Edward Rustad was
snerlH and coroner and arrived there
at 2 pm. He also saw the body of Ship
as 1t hung from the buggy with the hand
gfasping the side of the seat. The de.
| house. 0'''
+ha nD GdL,5 you talk with the defendant
Eyes, I asked her who had done the
shootlng and who the man was. She
had replied, Tt is Herman, my lover,
and. killed him. I asked her if Her,
man had not done the shooting, and
why she did it, and she said, HE did
something to me year ago. but she
would not say what it had been. ]
+ said to her, Did he do something to
i you?' and she replied, mo, T don i
mean that. / asked her if she had any
cause for doing the shooting, and she
said, Eyes, he promised to marry me a
week ago. She told me she was Is. );
| !" Mr.. Rustad, is that all she said9''
| = Agreed to Die Together.
"No; she said she and the man Her
man had agreed to die together; she
| had kissed him and shot him I asked
| her how, and she replied, Il think ]
shot him thru the heart. - ......T
I'll
then IN the capacity of an officer OF
the county?'
Eyes; I told her not to tell anything
she did not want to, as I was the county
attorney. She said she did not care;
she wanted to be let alone, and kept re-
peat1ng she wanted to die.''
Did you hold out any inducements
to her to get these answers?' "
mo; they were voluntary entirely,
( Carl Satterbak, the landman who haG
passed by the scene Of the murder a few
moments after the shooting, was re-
Called and told Of finding of a body
IN the buggy by the road.
!" Mr.: Satterbak, where did you fine
the girl on that dayq'
road al ,, found her lying on her face by the
tlWhat condition was she in7'' 81"
=. Dazed and bleeding, her eyes wer,
opened and she wanted me to unbutto1
her dress, which I did. + She told m
she would soon de-
\ Was that aU9'
mo; the man at the farm came run
ming over and told me not to touc]
them. as the coroner was coming down
l. told him the girl was in bad shap
1 and it would do no harm to take he
{ in the house, as it was a cold, bad day
He brought me blanket and role,
= her in, but afterward we took her t.
the house, ~.
u elbow did she act9' ...
"She would not tell me anything
:; just, nodded her head and moaned
2 good deal.'
l Vern Smith was recalled to give ful
Their testimony about May Martin, VIII
had worked for him, and in substanc
!. said she had been around with harves
{ hands in, June and July. There was n
7 one but Shipp on the place.
The State Rests.
At II am. today the state rested il
case and F. W. Murphy, the defend
ant IS attorney, at once outlined til
IDlicy Of the defense for the child .mul
! deress He showed long line Of SUI
: cides and insane members in the tamil
at least four uncles and cousins VIII
:, had died in the insane asylum, Will
, on her mother 8 side the family ha
! all died of consumption, as did he
! mother.
I At the time of the shocking erin
l she had been in intense dread and d
pressed believing she had cOnSumptlC