The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-10-10
! WEB TICHTENS.
Mrs. WhitlOw Tells Pitiful
Story to the Jury.
Relates Of the Discovery of a
Blood Stained Vest.
WAS HER HUSBANDS.
He Wore 1t the Night That
May Sapp Was Killed.
Firm That Sold the Razor Can.
not Name Purchaser.
Father of the Dead Girl Says
WhitlOw Must Be Tried.

lola, Kan, Oct. 1o.-The coroner's
investigation into the mysterious death
of May Sapp will be resumed here
early this afternoon, the jury having
been brought back to lola late yester-
day from Moran, the scene of the
tragedy. John Haynor, a neighbor of
the Sapps, who is credited with having
stated that conversations he had had
with Miss Sapp indicated to him that
she was not in possession of all her
mental faculties, has been subpoenaed
and is expected to be the most import
ant witness at the examination today.
Samuel F. Whitlow. who told the
jury Tuesday that Miss Sapp killed
herself for love of him, may be re-
called before the jury retires to con-
slider the evidence. Whitlow is still
being held here.
upon the razor with which Miss Sapp
was killed, and by means of which it
was hoped to find the murderer, re-
ported today that they were unable to
discover to whom the razor was sold.
. Moran, Kan, Oct. 10.-Mrs. Samuel F.
Whitlow, wife of the man who has con-
fessed that he was present the night
May Sapp killed herself, testified before
the coroner's jury late Wednesday that
the day after the tragedy she sat in her
home in a nervous fright for fear the
bloodhounds which were seeking a trail
of the murderer would come to her
house and discover the bloody jacket
her husband wore the night Miss Sapp
destroyed herself
She had found the blood stairs in the
after her husband had gone to
work without the jacket which he al
ways wore. Without specific knowl-
edge of the occurrence, but knowing
that her husband had gone to the Sapp
home Friday night to tell the girl that
he had given his wife a complete his
tory of the wretched affair, she suspect
ed that those te11taie blood spots were
received on the night Miss Sapp met
her death. She shrank back in the dark
of her own room that Saturday morn
ing, momentariiy expecting the barking
of the dogs outside her house.
At noon when her husband came home
and told her that the dogs had left
town without securing a trace, her
anxiety was relieved, but she knew that
it was but brief respite, for her hus-
band soon confessed to her his part In
the affair and that he saw May Sapp
kill herself.
Mrs. Whit1ow was the star witness
before the coroner's jury. She was pale
and almost proStrated when she entered
the jury room to do what she could to
free her husbsand from the suspicious
that rested on him. She told her story
in a simple, straightforward manner
that carried conviction. During the two
years of her husbands intimacy with
Miss Sapp she had suspected nothing.
She knew nothing Of their secret meet
Ings, of their talks outside her own
door and was surprised when told that
Miss Sapp was involved. Not until the
Tuesday night before the tragedy did
she begin to look at all the suspicious
things that had gone before and view
hem in the light of their relation to her
husband and the girl.
One thing that she could not get off
her mind was the locks of hair that
to time. Once they were wrapped to a
screen door knob, once they were put
On the handle of her washing machine,
and once laid on the table in her room.
"They looked she said, like comb |
ngs from a women's hair. 1 kept
hem for long time, but as nothing
'urther developed I destroyed them |
and never told my husband of finding |
hem until after the tragedy" |
In answer to questions by the jury, |
she said the hair was of a brownish- |
black color, the same as that of Miss |
Sapp. But at the time she said Miss |
sapps connection with them never en-
cred her mind. She slept in a differ |
ent part of the house from her hus-
,and. which accounted for the fact |
hat she knew nothing of his leaving |
he house at night. On the Tuesday |
light before the tragedy her husband |
aid he was out until about o'clock |
With Miss Sapp. Miss Sapp was very |
Lngry and once when she f1ourished the |
'azor too close to him gave him a Sc
,ere cut across the hand which he had |
he doctor dress the next morning.
That night Mrs. Whitlow slept fit
u1ly, and she thought she heard some-
hing going on outside of the house.
,he heard Frank Reese come to her
husbands door and call him out, and |
when he returned she asked him about |
t. He told her that Reese had seen
omeone about the place and come to
six him if he had seen them.
In explanation of the deep cash, he |
old her that Reese had cut it on a
cythe in the barn. The talking in the
Hey he accounted for by the fact that
elf For the time being this satisfied
Ter, but the next morning Mrs. Reese,
Who had first discovered the quarrel
ng couple near Whitlow's barn, told
Ter the circumstances. Mrs. Reese att
he time suspected that the man was
but she never voiced this
uspicion to Mrs. Whitlow. But Mrs.
Vhitlow could not dismiss this from
Ter mind, as he had done so many
ther suspicious things. She brooded
yer it all day. and on Wednesday and
thursday she cried all day, she said.
Her husband noticed that she was
Unhappy and he asked her what the
sked him to confide in her and she
vould do all she could for him. She
old him she knew he was in deep
rouble of some kind.
''I can not believe that the cut on
our hand was done by that dull
cythe It is too clean and sharp for
hat sort of an instrument" she told
i'm. "And then he sent the children
rom the room and told me of the af-
ir with the girl He went over their