The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1907-10-18
Florence Dugan Goes Free.

After long imprisonment of six
months and dramatic climax of a trial
lasting several days, Florence Dugan
was made free woman in GAINESVILLE on
Saturday last by jury of twelve men
Following is the verdict of the jury:
1--WE, the jury, find that the defendant
was insane at the time of the commits
sion OF the alleged offense, and for that
reason not guilty. We further fiDd that
the defendant has recovered from such
insanity and is of sound mind at this
time"
The trial has been going on since
Tuesday, Oct s, and has caused more
interest than any other case for many
years in Evansville. The sympathy OF
the people has been with the girl and 8
purse of money to defray the expenses
OF the trial and to engage legal talent to
defend her was raised among the bust
ness men of the city. The case was bit.
terly fought by the district attorney and
has proved to be one OF the foulest ever
heard in GAINESVILLE.
Judge Fifield, in his charge to the
jury, did not 60 into the evidence to any
great extent and in his citing of the law
was fair and impartial to both sides. For
the guidance of the jurors on the main
question at issue. he said:
Insanity which will relieve person
of responsibility for criminal act is
such perverted and deranged condition
of the mental and moral faculties as to
render the person incapable of distin-
gushing between right and wrong = or
conscious at the time of the nature of
the act the person is committing-or
otherwise and also condition that al
though the person may be conscious of
the act and capable of distinguishing
between right and wrong, yet his or her
has been, otherwise than voluntary, so
completely destroyed by mental disease
that the persons actions are not subject
to his or her control or to their will, but
are, by reason of such disease, beyond
his or her control.
In his closing address to the jury
District Attorney John L. Fisher said it
was not question as to whether or not
George Schumacher ruined the girl and
took all her earnings for three or four
years, or whether or not the only clothes
she had to wear were provided by heI
sisters. But emphasis had been laid on
these alleged conditions by the defense
in order to lay foundation for state
of mind which might relieve the defend
ant Of responsibility for her crime. He
asked the Jurors to 60 back to the be-
ginning and examine her story to see il
it was reasonable, probable and every
day sense. The testimony had shown
that she had sufficient warning to put
any decent, respectable woman on her
guard against surrendering herself Ito a
married man. 1t had shown that long
before, the tragedy she had made up her
mind to be revenged-to have George
Schumacher or his life. Nothing had
been produced to show that the pro-
cesses of her mind moved along grooves
other than normal. Physicians who had
made study of insanity were unable to
find in the evidence anything more than
the mental processes and acts of a jeal-
Gus woman. One of her first remarks
after the shooting was an inquiry as to
what her punishment was likely to be,
showing tt at she had not surrendered
her mind to single idea, regardless and
oblivious of what might be the conse-
quences of the deed.
Attorney for defendant, L. S. Nolan, in
his closing plea drew picture for the
jury of weak country girl meeting a
man from the city and unable to resist
his Establishments. After she learned
that he was married, her only recourse
under the circumstances was to cling to
him. 1t was we'll enough to say that
the law should take it's course, but when
she learned that he was not going to
keep his promise, what recourse was
there for woman who had surrendered
everything? She might have sued him
for money and the judgement would
have been utterly worthless. Could she
sue him for her virtue? The episode of
the wine room demonstrated to the
speaker to what depths of degradation a
man of Schumaker's character could
drag aewoman. If the woman had really
been of such character as the prosecu-
ton had tried to show, would not the
people with whom she worked at Darien
and Clinton have been brought here to
testify?
The test of insanity, he again main
tanned. was mott the ability to discri mi
nate between right and wrong, out pos
session of the power to control the will.
1--WE claim that she was impelled by a
force she could not resist and that she
was mentally irresponsible; that her un-
doing and the sudden knowledge that
the man was going to desert her and
marry another unhinged her mind. In
my opinion, George Schumacher got just
what he deserved. God sometimes works
in mysterious ways, gentlemen. When
I saw that fresh faced girl here on the
witness stand yesterday, engaged to
marry this man just three days before
the shooting occurred. wondered if she
thought of the fate she had escaped.
Perhaps she would have shot him and
perhaps she would have suffered in 81
lence. The law has no compensation for
a woman who has suffered as Florence
Dugan has. There was nothing left for
her. She was desperate. God knows
what thoughts were with her when she
travelled from office to Office trying to
find some way to compel him to keep his
promise and marry her. When you de-