Los Angeles herald., 1907-07-07
.HADDOCK HEIRS
WIN THEIR SUIT
PROBATE OF WILL I'm SPOOK
CASE SET ASIDE
Estate viii Be Distributed Among
Riehtfu Claimants Trial Discloses
Machiavelian Methods of
Ghoulish Grafters

vac u oelNi bely lOI SpOOhuOIl. <AlbSl
listening for fourteen days to weird
tales of the antics of the departed
friends of Charles G.. Haddock, the
jury yesterday decided each of the
thirteen specific counts mentioned by
Judge Conrey in his instructions in
favor of the contestants.
By the verdict. the probate of Mrs.
Cynthia Haddock's will is set aside,
and in due course of time the property
left by the aged financier to the wife
that he was enticed by spook messages
to marry will be redistributed among
the rightful heirs by the superior
court.
Considerable Importance attaches to
the finding of the jury yesterday and
once again is the practice of inveigling
innocent and credulous persons to
spend good money in communicating
with the supposed spirits of their de-
parted loved ones brought under the
ban of exposure in open court
The present suit was in the nature of
a petition brought by Frank +. Had
dock and his sister, Mrs. Sara Haddock
Whitsett, to set aside the probate of
will by the terms of which they were
cut off with meager portion of their
grandfathers immense fortune.
Bereaved Meets Spookist
Charles e. Haddock, the grandfather,
was a wealthy abstracter who came to
Los Angeles from Chicago about ten
years ago for the benefit of his health.
He was accompanied by his first wife,
Sadie, and until the death of Mrs.
Haddock the aged couple tnjoyed a
second honeymoon amid the orange
blossoms and under the sunny skies of
Southern California.
Mr.. Haddock was much attached to
his first wife, and after her death in
1899 ne grieved so bitterly that fears
were entertained for his sanity. About
this time he became acquainted with
one Harry Finley, who, preponder-
ance of evidence introduced in the
present trial showed masquera led un-
der the imposing title of Prof. Dono-
van," spiritualist.
Finley or Donovan as he is better
known, represented to the grief
stricken widower, the grandchildren
claimed, that he could get messages
from the departed spirit of Mrs. Had
dock through a wonderful power of
which he, Donovan, was by some in
explicable means a medium or receiv-
ing operator.
To such an extent did his influence
over Mr.. Haddock extend, that the
supposed communications with sadie"
became of almost daily occurrence.
Lays Diabolic Plot
Not satisfied with the easy living
he derived through the gullibility of
his aged patron, Donovan, by his own
testimony on the witness stand, grew
ambitious to possess the old mans en-
tire fortune. 1t was an easy matter to
make Haddock believe that his dead
wife desired that he should marry
again, and that the spooks would des-
ignate the woman that Sadie" wanted
as her successor.
At this point Mrs. Lee Nelson, a
confederate of Donovan's, appeared on
the scene, and Immediately the spooks
brought daily messages urging Had
dock, if he would have his beloved
Sadie rest in piece in spirit land, to
make love to the friendless widow.
When Haddock's relatives protested
against the turn affairs were taking,
the spooks insisted that the grand
children were selfish and warted all
of the old mans estate for their own
Mindful of the long years of content
ment that he had shared with Sadie
and not wanting to deny her slightest
wish even after death, Haddock
listened to the voice of the siren and
in course of time proposed marriage to
Lee Nelson.
Here was DonoVanS chance to OBJ
tain at once a large slice of Haddock's s
riches and by what attorneys for the
plaintiffs characterized as the most
diabolical plot ever conceived by a
y ,scheming brain, he induced the old
man to settle 100000 upon his pros
pectiye bride. At first Haddock re-
fused to consider the proposition, but
his mania for the. spirit messages
from his first wife gave him no rest.
Faker Joins Wedding Party
At every sitting the spooks insisted
on the marriage portion, producing on
the old ans mind a condition of fear
that no language can describe By
some means, which perhaps psycholog-
ical students can explain, Donovan
contrived to disturb the slumbers of
his henefactor with hallucinations, by
which he was made to believe that his
beloved Sadie actually appeared.
Grandfather told me- said Frank
Haddock on the witness stand, that
one night he awoke to find Sadie in
bed with him. She told him if he
valued her love to accede to the de-
mands of the spooks and make her
happy by giving Lee Nelson the mar
riage portion and making her his
wife,
How much of the money extorted by
this means that Donovan received he
would not admit, but neither did he
deny that he profited by the tranSac-
ton. After the couple were married
they started on a wedding tour
through Mexico, but got only as far
as El Paso, Texas, when the desire
for more spirit messages became so
s'rong that Haddock wired Donovan
to join them. For several months the
party sojourned in Mexico and Central
America, Donovan giving daily Sc
ances, for which he admitted receivA
ing enormous sums from the capital
ist. Eventually they went to Chicago,
where .~Haddock's granddaughter, Mrs.
Whitsett, one of the plaintiffs in the
suit just ended. visited him at his
hotel
Mrs. Whitsett testified that on this
occasion she had asked her grand
father for $4,000, which he refused to
give her, saying that the spirits did
not approve of it. The next day. Dom
ovan called on Mrs. Whitsett and de-
nounced her for asking for the money,
saying that she was no relation to
Haddock and had no right to expect it.
on the way home from Chicago,
Haddock became acquainted with Mrs
cynthia Willetts, dressmaker. Here
again the spooks got busy, and con-
cocted scheme whereby Haddock
was to strike his wife, in the pres