The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-12-16
Mother Believes Eva Kreiter
Innocent of Crime.
Convicted of Murder of Her
Young Husband.
LONGS FOR OLD HOME
Anxious to Return to Parents
on East Side.
Denies She Was Too Friendly
With Other Men.

When she completes a four-year term
in the South Dakota penitentiary for
the murder of her husband, Eva May
II eiter will return to her mother in
Topeka-never to marry. again. In a
letter to her mother this week, the for
mer Topeka girl told of her heartaches
for the old home on the East side and
how when her prison term is ended. she
+ will never, never leave it again.
! Few if any Kansas brides have ex-
perienced such events as have marked
the II months in which the pretty To-
peka girl has been in the spotlight of
the Aberdeen courts In less than a
year Eva Gracey, an attractive 16-year-
old girl, gave her love to Phillip Krei-
ter, became his wife, stabbed her lover
leath, was tried, convicted and be-
gan serving a - in the South Da-
kota prison for manslaughter.
In Topeka today is a mother who
hung fervently on every word of the
testimony and argument in the sensa-
onal case With Puritan faith the
mother still believes her daughter in
nocent, that the court was prejudiced
and that the all but defenseless girl in
the court a thousand miles from home
and friends was not given the same
fair and impartial hearing that the
laws contemplate Not in the slightest
degree is the mother faith of a year
ago shaken or moved. Even the cal
endar days until the girl returns to hec
home have been counted by the moth
CT and a thousand details of the recep
ton have been planned for the Eva
Kreiter HON ecoming.
''All Of the sunshine went out of the
home when Eva went away" Mrs Ora
Cev told a reporter at her home ? {
Fourth and Mulvane streets, "and
since that day it hasn't been the same
cheerful place. Eva liked friends. She
liked to be with other people and re-
srccted her elders She was cheerful
ard kind and loved her home and her
parents
Says Charges Are False.
.'AIl those horried things that the
newspapers said about the girl we're
not true and the things that the state
sought to drag into the case were IN
true They were false and malicious
and sometimes I have laid awake all
night thinking of those awful things
that cut like knife. They said Eva I,
was intimate with other men, They I
said she sought her husbands money.
It was false-every word of it-and
would be less a mother II d1dn /
Mrs. Gracey denied the reports that
Kreiter had a large sum of money |
She said he never bought the farm in
South Dakota where he lived with his /
bride at the time of the killing. Only
500 had been paid on the land, she
said, and the bridegroom was not a
man of means. That her daughter is
being punished uniustly is the deep
conviction which Mrs. Gracey will not
surrender. Any person under the
same conditions would have defended
herself Just as Eva Kreiter did. the
mother insists and the verdict of the
jury was unjust and unwarranted.
Kreiter Was Drunk.
witnesses said that Eva's face was
bruised and bleeding after the kill
ing" Mrs. Gracey said, and that her
screams for help were heard by peo-
pie in the adjoining room. Kreiter
was drunk. He had knocked her
down, choked her and was trying to
kill her when she grabbed a knife
After the killing, Mrs. Gracey
continued 1.-The county attorney forced
her to make a statement. The child
did not know the law. The next day
the prosecutor told her the jury would
never believe her story and compelled
her to make another statement Then
the contradictory statements were
used against her in the trial of the
case. At the time the statements
were made, Eva had not seen law
yer and did not know her rights nor
what to do"
The Topeka girl began serving her
sentence this week. With a record
for good behavior. she will serve a
little less than three years in the
penitentiary. Then, she declares. she
will return to her home in Topeka
and will never, never leave it again