The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1907-04-25
Woodstock Church Choir Scandal
in Court Ends with Sentence
Of ConkIin to Prison
SHAMEFUL STORY TOLD
Attorneys in Bitter Argument Lay
Bare the Story of the Life Of Mrs.
Clara d. Murphy and Her
Coachman Paramour

Woodstock, ILL.,, washed its dirty
linen OF scandal in the Circuit Court
Tor kenosha county Thursday after
noon when Edwin Conk1in, formerly
enc choir master of one of the prin-
c1pal churches in the little city,
pleaded guilty to a charge of adultery
and was sentenced to spend a year
and half at hard labor in the state
prison at Waupun. The defendant
ia the action was willing enough to
end the whole thing by pleading
guilty and taking his medicine, but
the attorneys who appeared for him
and those who appeared on behalf of
the state insisted that the court
should be advised of all the history of
the case before Conklin was SEN
fenced to prison and they laid before
the court such story of shame and
perndy as had seldom been heard in
Kenosha court before. Fortunately
under the ruling of the court women
and children were excluded from the
court room during the recital Of the
story of the illicit loves of Mrs.
Murphy, the woman in the case, and
Conklin but there was more than once
when the staid old officials of the
court blushed at the terms used by
the attorneys.
Mrs. Murphy was not in court. She
had come to Kenosha at midnight
Wednesday night and it was admitted
that she had been met by Conklin at
the station, but it is stated that there
was reason to believe that she might
be arrested on similar charge and
for this reason she left Kenosha early
Thursday morning.
Not once during the hearing did
Conklin open his mouth to cry out for
mercy or to answer any of the sting
ing arguments made by the attorneys
on the part of the state. Attorneys
Baker and Fisher, who represented
the state and the accused man,
limited their arguments to bare
statement Of facts, but Attorneys
James Casey and B. S. Lum1y, who
came from Woodstock to take part in
the trial, made fierce personal on
slaughts in which they revealed the
bitter feeling of the two factions in
| Woodstock. Casey represented the
defendant and in half hours argu-
ment at most times decidedly tire
some, he pleaded with the court for
mercy on the grounds that Conklin
had wife and daughter who had
been extremely loyal to him and on
the further grounds that the charge
against Conk1in was one that might
be brought against many better men.
Lumly, in the most bitter TRADE ever
heard in court in this county, de-
nounced the defendant and all con-
nected with him and demanded that
the court sentence the defendant to
long term in prison.
In his final speech to the court
Lumley worked himself into a frenzy,
and when he sat down he was COM
p1etely exhausted. 1t is evident that
there was great feeling between the
two attorneys, ard while it was just
as evident that their fierce onslaughts
were not taken kindly by the court
1 1AOy WCAC d1AOWCO ~ Au1SUs 4NOL OuC
of the witnesses who had come from
Woodstock to give evidence in the
case was called to the stand, as the
attorneys were given free rein in re-
lating the story of the unlawful rela-
tons between Mrs. Murphy and Conk-
lin. The troubles in the church choir
were frequently referred to, and it
was claimed that the couple had used
the church as rendezvous.
In connection with the hearing it
was brought out that Mrs. Murphy
had been tried by the Church Council
but that sentence had been suspended
pending the outcome of this trial. It
is not thought that she will return to
| Woodstock.
The woman in the Conklin case is
woman with history. It is stated,
that she is the most beautiful woman
in Woodstock. She was formerly Miss
Clara DeHaven Clement, a member
of one of the old families in st. Louis.
When mere girl she was married to
John G. Policy, the son of the late
Chicago jurist by the same name, aud
I after her divorce from Policy she was