The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-03-31
That Seems to Be Condition O
Mrs. VOllstedt.
Neighbor Tells of Her Queer
Actions When Girl.
THOUGHT OF SUICIDE.
Woman Says She Kept
Rat Poison.
Does Not Want to Live if She
Can't Be Happy.

"She is crazy. She is man crazy.
have always said she was crazy or
one subject said Mrs. Mccoy in the
lunacy trial of Mrs. Mary Vollstedt
lie charged with the shooting of Lee
Il Daniels, a street car conductor. Mrs
Mccoy has been neighbor of the
girls family for many years and has
known Mary Kirby-Vollstedt since hel
/ infancy.
"Once she even tried to e1ope with
a low and vulgar character who was
| running the engine In a saw mill. She
would run from school to meet him
i and declare when caught that she
lloved him ard would kill herself if
she could not go to him.
! zone day she came to my house
| from school when she was about 16
Years old and wanted to know if I had
a bed. / told her I did and asked her
| if she was sick. Then 1 fixed up the
room and made fire. for it was cold
weather She went in. took off her
shoes and laid down. A little later
she wanted some paper and wrote two
| big pages and put them in an envelope.
Then she got up, put her shoes on and
went back to school L never knew
what she did with the letter nor to
whom it was addressed.
"She always acted queerly and
talked to no one. She had few
friends, though. and would talk to
them, but for the most part she went
nefSeII. Wn6n even a cnlI0. sIn6n
| she began to go with some of the boys.
| She had a severe illness, typhoid ma
| larial fever. After that she never did
| act right
''she was ill with the fever for six
weeks when she was about IA years
| old. Her hair all came out and she
was dreadfulIy Sick said her mother,
Mrs. Carrie Kirby, half in tears. she
always seemed to think she was not
treated as we'll the rest of the chill
dren. But I treated her the same or
tried to- had eight children to take
care of. She was next to the Oldest"
Was Like Child.
Herman Vollstedt, her husband who
married her three years ago, 10 years
her senior he 81 and she 81, testified
that he discovered even in his brief
courtship of three months that she was
almost a child and that he would have
to care for her. He testified that he
used to instruct her carefully how to
do things, often having to repeat them
to get her to comprehend. If she went
to the store he told her what to get, yet
she often forgot part of the things,
when she went to town he cautioned
her to watch out for the street cars.
He said he felt he had to do it she
looked so cfildlike and helpless.
When he saw a letter she had written
to Daniels, he promptly told her she
would have to go to her folks awhile.
He did not open the Letter and does not
know what was in it, but said he
thought the best thing she could do
would be to get out of the same town
with a man to whom she wrote letters.
Mrs. Vollstedt said to the doctors that
those careful instructions of her hus-
band bothered her.
Mary Vollstedt in the court room has
appeared listless. Occasionally she
looks up from the floor and casts her
glance around the group of examiners.
She is fair complexioned and pretty.
One might think from her demeanor in
the court room that there was no
charge whatever against her. Appar
emily her nerves are dead. At times
she drops her head onto the table, roll
ing it from side to side. Last evening
she kept it most of the time on County
Attorney Schenck's shoulder, seeming
ly not realizing what she was doing.
She. herself, was examined this
morning. The procedure was very Ia
borious, the answers coming seldom and
very low. Asked if she shot Daniels,
she slowly looked up, her big blue eyes
duly scratching the attorney, and asked,
"Is he dead?' Answered that he was
not she evidenced no relief, neither any
sorrow. Obviously. his death or recov-
cry seemed of as small consequence as
everything else.
'I didn't know what to do she fin
ally gave as her reason for shooting |
the conductor. Then she said she took |
the gun to scare him. and later ex-
planned she thought she would make |
him talk and tell her what to do.
She maintains that she loved him at |
the time. that she loved him before |
she learned he was married. Then it |
was she didn't know what to do. She
said she explained her love for him
in a letter to him but he did not an
swer. She was not satisfied at home |
and wanted to know what to do.
Il was SO dissatisfied at home she I
slowly said.
Now she seems to have learned that |
her husband has been very good to her, I
L. ~ ~,t,,1 Love
him. She further says she now cares
nothing for Daniels.
81 want to 20 away off," she replied |
to a question of what she thought she
would like to do.
Asked if she thought she was insane, /
she said. II am partly. sometimes
"Can you control yourself?'
Sometimes. I am too weak
Were you angry at Daniels?'
But you loved him?'
Yes"
Did you ever try to kill yourself?"
YES" II
Thinks of Suicide.
ever buy any poison for the purpose
If committing suicide?"
81 had some III
What kind?''
RAT poison" III
Have you, ever wanted to die?" II
Yes, many times-now, if can't DE
happy"
Asked if she was now sorry she shot 4
Daniels she said she was. She admitted /
he was jealous because he talked TO
,ther women on the street car but |
would not speak to her. In answering II
whether she thought she ought to oe |
urned loose, she said she didn't know |
hat it would be best but rather |
bought she ought to be placed in an III
sylum.
The trial could not be completed to-
lay on account of the absence of Dr. Z
lowell who is wanted to testify to an
peration he had performed upon the '
defendant. Shortly after the marriage