Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1913-11-25
DR., Craig Will
face Trial FOR
MURDER FRIDAY
Evidence Points to
Physician as Slayer Of
Dr.. Helen knabe

ueIGu nu0u6
indianapolis, Ind, Nov. 24.-Dr
William B. Craig, president of the In
diana Veterinary college, will DC
placed on trial at %Shelbyville neX1
Friday for the murder of DR.. Helen
Knabe, who was n of the mos,
prominent women in Indiana
On the mroning Of October "a, 1911
DR.. Knabe was found dead in hel
apartment with a deep wound in heI
throat. Life APPARENTLY had been ex'
tinct for several hours when the doc
tors office girl, Miss Katherine Nc
Pherson, made the discovery.
The police made a number of ar
rests but in the absence of any
known motive for the crime, all the
suspects were released. The public
was not satisfied with the police the
DRY of suicide and the case was pre-
scented to two Marion county grand
juries, both of which failed to take
action. In the meantime, Coroner
Durham had been conducting an in.
vestigation of his own, and he reach.
ed a decision that DR.. Knabe had
been murdered 'by unknown per.
sons.
Various rewards were offered for
information leading to the arrest of
slayer or slayers, but these failed to
bring results. Friends of the woman
finally induced the Local Council of
Women of Indianapolis to raise a
fund with which to conduct a further
investigation of the mysterious case.
Harry C. Webster, a private detective
employed by the Council. worked for
nearly a year on the case, and in De-
cember, 1912, he presented before the
grand jury information On which the
indictment against DR.. Craig was
based. A. NJ. Ragsdale, an under
taker, also was indicted as an ac-
cessory after the fact.
Craig's attorneys asked for a
change of venue, and the case was
sent to Shelby county, where the
trial was set to begin November %.
The date for Ragsdale's trial has not
been set. III.
After the indictments were re-
turned, Webster admitted that the
case he had constructed was entirely
circumstantial and that he had no
witnesses to testify that either DR..
Craig or Ragsdale were in DR..
Knabe's apartment during the night
on which the woman met her death.
In the alleged relations of DR.. Knabe
and DR.. Craig, however, he claimed
to have found a motive for the crime.
In his report to the Council OF
women, Webster reviewed the friend
ship between the two physicians,
which began in 1908, when DR.. Knabe
was assistant p%athologist in the labor
atory of the State Board of Health.
In support of his lesser circumstan.
tial evidence, Webster made the fol-
lowing disclosures: "
A bitter quarrel is alleged to have
followed alleged attempts of DR..
Craig to end a relationship which
had become Objectionable to him.
DR.. Craig is alleged to have been
positively identified by Harry ".
Haskell as a man he met coming out
of the areaway between the Ven
dome flats and the Delaware apart
ments, where DR.. Knabe lived, shortly
after II o'clock on the night of DC.
tober %.
DR.. Craig is alleged to have known
of the death of DR.. Knabe on the
morning of October "a, before any
one outside the apartment had been
informed of the finding of the body.
Late OF the night of October %,
1 Nv rroip Sc cold IN lovo ro<,yr~ "a 70
his home and to have made a com.
plete change of clothing. Webster
said this information was furnished
him by DR.. Eva B. Templeton, who
claimed to have been told by Mrs.
Lydia Tenant, ~housekeeper for DR..
Craig.
The wound in DR.. Knabe's throat
could have been inflicted only by a
person familiar with the human anat-
omy and with a wound known to
butchers as the sheep nick" and de-
scribed medically as being IAN in
cision in the throat which insures
death by bleeding without the squirt
ing of blood" according to Webster.
Ragsdale is charged with visiting
the Knabe apartment at the instance
Of the slayer and removing a silk
kimono from the body. This kimono,
worn by DR.. Knabe when she an
swered professional calls in her Of
flee on the night Of October %, was
produced by Ragsdale, who was ap-
pointed administrator of the Knabe
estate, on the order of the grand
jury. Ragsdale claimed to have
found the kimono among other ef-
fects while cleaning up the fiat.
Against this convention, Webster said
he could produce witnesses who
would swear that there was no such
garment in the fiat after the body
was found, as careful search had been
made for it. A chemical analysis of
a piece of silk from the hem OF the
garment showed, it is alleged, that it
had been stained with human blood
and afterwards washed withza strong
chemical solution.
In his report, Webster told how
DR.. Craig mad given Dr.. Knabe a
place in the faculty of the Indiana
Veterinary college after she had left
the State Board Of Health and was
making poor Roadway in establishing
q private practice. DR.. Knabe began
lecturing at the college in the fall OF
1909 and continued to do SO until the