The Topeka state journal., 1911-09-13
Detective Ed Voiles Named in
Dying Statement.
Assert He Was Responsible for
Cora VOiIes' Death.
DIED FROM POISONING.
Said That Topeka Man Gave Her
Fatal Tablets.
Girl Was Employed at State Re-
form School.

When ]. H. Herrod, a Kansas City
attorney, went before the coroners jury
| late Tuesday afternoon in Kansas City,
he produced the death statement of
| Cora VOileS, in which the woman de-
clared that Ellsworth Voiles, her sec
ond cousin and a Topeka detective,
| gave her rnercurial tablets that result
ed in her death. Voiles denies that
he is the man in the case and county
officials have heSltated to take action
in the matter
After the young woman's death, rel
atives made an effort to suppress the
facts in the case. They refused to
prosecute the man in the case and this
condition of affairs aroused the first
suspicion against the Topeka man.
Then Herrod came here and talked with
Voiles and his attorney. County At
tOrney Simon went to Kansas City and
read the death statement. Nothing was
done. For four days the county officials
have pointed to alleged loop holes in
Miss Voiles statement and made ex-
cuses why they hesitated to act.
The story of the young Woman's
tragic death is told in her dying state
ment and is verified in a dozen details
by persons who knew her intimately.
In this network of circumstances only
Detective Voiles is found to have en-
tered the wOman's life.
1t was last July when Cora Voiles
came to Topeka She had taught SchOOl
at Tonganoxie and her life experience
had been limited to the society of the
rural districts and country school room.
Perhaps it was the glare of the cleo
tric lights and the rattle of the street
cars that helped to put new pitfalls
in Miss Voiles' life.
Out at the Industrial school life was
simple enough. Miss Voiles was at
tractive, energetic and capable and her
services in the school never raised
question. Once every two weeks Cora
Voiles was given a holiday. Then It
was that she came to Topeka, visited
the theaters and rode the street cars
Sometimes late at night people saw
Miss Voiles sitting on the school
ground near a clump of trees. There
was a man at her side and the man
was always Ed Voiles, cousin and de-
tective. Not until after the woman's
sickness in Topeka did these people be
gin to suspect and surmise before Cora
Voiles' deathbed statement was made
public.
It is said that to a girl companion
Miss Voiles once admitted her init
macy with the detective and declared
that somehow she just couldn't resist
her cousin. Then a few weeks later
Miss Voiles left the Industrial school
and her few friends here heard little
OF her until the state Journal printed
a dispatch from Kansas City that toid
of her horrible death in a sanitarlum.
In July this year the intimacy be-
tween Miss Voiles and her cousin
reached a climax. 1t was after buggy
ride one warm July night, the girl said,
that her cousin gave her the fatal
mercurial tablet. Ignorant of the ways
of the world and with no instructions
as to the use of this tablet, the woman
made the move that cost her life
Physicians under whose care MISS
Voiles had been from July 20, until
her death September s. told how the
ablets gradually ate her life until It
became only a question of hours and
give up the terrible struggle 1t was IN
these last hours, when Miss Voiles re-
allied that her misplaced confidence
was to cost her life that an attorney
was called to take her dying statement
In that statement she told the story
of her sorrow and humiliation and la1d
the blame at the door of the Topekan-
Ed Voiles did not attend the funeral
While the coroner's jury was placing
the blame for a crime that promises
to equal the famous Peters case, De
tective Voiles was at the fair GROUNDS
the races. When a reporter
him concerning the state |
ments made by his cousin, Voiles' ex-
hardly changed. He looked /
his INQUIRER squaTely in the eyes as ne |
denounced every material alIegatlon
and declared he had no fear for @ lne
outcome of the case if a warrant was
issued for his arrest. Voiles also de-
MED that he had employed an attorney |
the day following his cousins s death, or
that he ana the attorney WStS IL CoAA-
ference with Herrod last Friday. When |
asked as to the last time he saw Miss
Voiles, the detective declined to an
swer the question. Neither would ne
saw whether he had visited the woman
since her sickness.
None of the Shawnee county officials
attended the hearing in Kansas City.
They have successfully lodged every in
JURY as to their probable future attiz !
-ude in the case and when informed
yesterday afternoon by the State Jour
1aI that Herrod would name the man
n the case within the next three hours,
Simon still refused the secrets of the
statement No action was taken last
hight following the DEVELOPMENTS at the
nouest and very little satisfaction IS
yiven the public as to future results
Since Miss Voiles was given the mer-
.urial tablets IN Shawnee county, the
,ase would naturally be in the hands
ieath after the crime was committed,
would not affect the jurisdiction in the
;ase-