Lewiston evening teller. [volume] (Lewiston, Idaho) 1903-1911, 1907-11-01
STRANGE CASE OF Alleged
MURDER OF MISS MAY SAPP,
FOUND WITH THROAT SLASH
ED IN REAR OF HER HOME.
WHITLOW KNEW OF DEED
Says Girl Crazed by Infatuaton for
Him, Killed Herself Because He
Would Not Leave His Family to Fly
With Her.

lola, Kan, Nov. 1.-From center
to circumference Allen county con-
tinues stirred over the mystery at
tending the alleged murder of Miss
May Sapp, for which Samuel F. Whit
low, a business man of prominence
and high standing, has been arrested
and must stand trial.
Opinion is divided on the question
of the guilt or innocence of the accus-
ed man, and further developments in
the strange case are eagerly awaited
by the people. Whitlow continues to
declare his innocence, and his family
and many friends are standing by him.
1t is now more than four weeks
since the alleged murder occurred.
Miss May Sapp, the victim, was the
2O-year- old daughter of J. n. Sapp, a
prominent farmer of Moran, a village
on the eastern edge of this county On
the night of September 81 the girl
was found dead in the yard of her
fathers home. Her throat was slash
ed, presumably with razor that was
found close by. Her mother had reach
ed her side in response to the girls
screams, but she died without speak,
ing. The mother was unable to say
positively whether her daughter had
screamed Mother" or Murder"
For nearly two weeks the case re-
manned a mystery. Then the COM
munity was startled by the arrest of
Samuel F. Whitlow in connection with
the case. Whtlow, a grain and feed
merchant, is 40 years old and has a
wife and three children. Until involv-
ed in the present case he had always
borne good reputation.
Upon his arrest Whitlow made a
remarkable confession, the substance
of which was that Miss Sapp had
committed suicide because of her un-
requitted love for him. He formerly
was school teacher and Miss Sapp
was one of his pupils. They had been
friends for several years. He declared
that he and the girl had never been
intimate. He said that the girl had
become infatuated, with him and had
repeatedly urged him to leave his fam
lily and run away with sher He, said
that on the hight of the tragedy he
met her at the rear of her fathers
house and told her that their rela-
lions must cease, whereupon she drew
a razor across her throat
One of the remarkable features of
the case was a diary which he pur-
ported to have set. forth from day to
day the annoyances to which Miss
Sapp. had. subjected him -bA,ause he
did not return her love. He declared
that the girl was, in the habit of COM
ing to his house at night and leaving
locks of her hair on the doorknob and
disturbing things in the yard in order
that he would know that she had been
there. In his diary he set forth his
constant fear that his family or the
family of the girl might learn of her
mad infatuation.
The coroner's jury, however, did not
accept Whitlow's tale as wholly true
and the result of their investigation
was that he was held on the charge
of murder. The parents of the dead
girl testified that they ga not believe
their daughter had committed suicide.
and so far as they knSy she did not
possess the razor with which the deed
was committed. The suspicion
against Whitlow was further strength
ened by the testimony of his wife that
she knew he had gone to the Sapp
home on the night of the killing and
that on the following morning she had
found blood stains on her husbands
Jacket.