Los Angeles herald., 1907-01-21
CRESSEY CASE IS
TO Be RESUMED
DECISION IS EXPECTED EARLY
THIS WEEK
Neighbors Feel Bitter Against Fourth
Husband of Fourth Wife and
Demand Guardian for
Woman

In department eight of the superior
court to ~ one of the most remark
able cases in the history of local courts,
the fight of Capt. Fred J. Cressey to
prevent the appointment of a guardian
for his wife's property, will be re-
sumed
For weeks past the attorneys have
~ been warning through the case, and
the first days of this week will mark
the finish and the judges decision for
or against the battling captain.
Cressey is a Cival War veteran, but
unusually well preserved. He has been
married four times and in each case
his wife died Mrs. Nellie e. Cressey,
the present wife, has also had many
affairs in the marital line, and Cressey
is her fourth husband.
They were married last January in
Los Angeles, after Capt. Cressey had
conducted an ardent wooing for seven
teen days and following the wedding
they went to live in a beautiful home
provided by Mrs. Cressey. Since that
time gossip has been rife in the neigh
borhood and as last resort neighbors
filed a case in the superior court ask
ing that a guardian be appointed to
take charge of Mrs. Cressey's affairs.
The neighborS have maintained that
Cressey gave his wife drugs to cause
her to become seriously ill, whereupon
he took advantage of her condition to
get her to sign away her property to
him, amounting to $4,000 in real es-
tate and about $4,000 more in cash.
At that time Mrs. Cressey was dan
gerously i'll and the neighbors and the
womans relatives interfered and filed
suit for the appointment of guardian.
Returns Property
That started litigation which may
tn, tha
months to come. Cressey, after the
filing of the suit against him, returned
the deeds to the property to his wife
and settled up everything in the coun-
ty records.
The case, however, was taken to
court and a postponement asked and
denied. Several times the case was
batted from one court room to another
and Judge Wilbur was finally called
upon to decide. That has been the
condition of the past two weeks, and
Judge Wilbur has not yet had chance
to decide the case so bitter is the feel
ing existing between Cressey and his
neighbors that not a single witness
will leave the stand without telling
everything possible in connection with
the suit.
Last Monday Judge Wilbur held
court at Mrs. Cressey's home and there
questioned the woman as to her feel
ing in the case. To the surprise of her
neighbors she said that her husband
should have charge of her property.
When Judge Wilbur returned to court
he announced that the woman's condi-
tion was such that she ought to be in
court to listen to the trial, but her at
torneys pleaded illness for her.
AS to her competency, that question
is to be settled within the next two
days. Judge Wilbur has given no sign
from the bench as to whether or not
he deemed Mrs. Cressey competent to
handle her own estate, and attorneys
for both sides are using every inch OF
the law to advance the interests OF
their clients.
On the last day of trial Cressey
testified that he had decided his wife's
property to himself because she told
him to do that in case she died. and
at that time he thought she was going
to die. He further testified that he
had transferred the property back to
her when she recovered but was forced
to admit that he sent for no physician
during the greater part of her illness.
Capt Cressey will again take the
stand today under cross-eXamination
at the mercy OF attorneys representing
his wife's neighbors.