The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1911-10-19
TRIAL OF MRS. RUSH
For the Murder of her Husband, W.
A. Rush, is In Progress at
Hampton, Iowa.

The sensational trial of Mrs. Will
lard A. Rush, of Sheffield, Iowa,
who shot and killed her husband in
the depot at Sheffield few months
ago, was commenced at Hampton,
Iowa, last Wednesday, and ia still in
progress at the time The Reporter
| went to press on Wednesday. 1t 10
expected that the case will go to the
| jury this evening or tomorrow, and
the friends of Mrs. Rush confidently
expect her acQuittal.
Judging from the press reports of
the trial published in the daily pa
pers public sentiment is very strong
in Mrs. Rush's favor. The evidence
submitted in the case bears out the
| details of the shooting as reported
in The Reporter at the time. For
some time previous to the shooting
there had been trouble between Mr..
Rush and his wife over his alleged
attentions to Miss Lulu Warner,
telephone operator in the exchange
at Sheffield. The fatal shooting oc-
Cured in the depot at Sheffield on
the evening of August 4th, and the
immediate trouble which led to the
shooting was a post card mailed by
the telephone girl to Mr.. Rush,
which was found by Mrs. Rush.
There were no witnesses to the shoot
ing, which occurred in the Office of
the depot. Rush, who was agent at
Sheffield, lived with his wife in the
second story Of the depot, and ac-
cording to the story told by Mrs.
Rush at the time of the shooting and
again on the witness stand the past
11 k011 l.
chickens into the Office to show her
husband, when he commenced abus-
ing her, and finally started toward
her with terrible look on his face,
threatening to kill her. 1t was then
that Mrs. Rush drew revolver
which she had purchased a few days
before and shot her husband. There
has been quite contention between
the prosecution and the defense,
the state claiming that Rush was
shot while he was sitting at his desk,
and introduced the testimony. of sew
eral doctors who said that Rush was
either sitting down or in a lower po-
sition than the person who held the
revolver, judging from the course of
the bullet, while the defense had an
equal number of physicians who tes-
titled that Rush was not sitting
down when he was shot. There was
also testimony introduced by parties
who claimed to have heard Rush ad-
NIT to his wife that there had been
an intimacy between him and the
Warner girl and that he was going
to continue it. Just a few days be-
fore the shooting Mrs. Rush went to
the telephone office and had trouble
with the girl over the mailing of
postcards, and her being with her
husband. And on the witness stand
the Warner girl admitted that her
mother had written a letter to Rush
asking him to cease paying atten-
tions to her daughter. The manager
of the telephone company also
testified that he had written a letter
to Rush in regard to the same mat
ter.
Mr.. and Mrs. Rush were former
residents of Decatur county, for
some years residing at Leroy, where
Mr.. Rush was station agent, and
several parties from Leroy were
called to Hampton as witnesses in
the case.
Since the shooting Mrs. Rush has
been out on $4,000 bonds which
were furnished by friends at Shelf
field, and has been staying at the
home of her father, who lives in
Clarke county, near JamiSOn.