The Raymer enterprise., 1916-07-20
WAUKEGAN JURY
ACQU|TS ORPET
BOY ACCUSED AS MARION LAM.
BERT's SLAYER FREED ON
THIRD BALLOT.
JURY OUT FIVE HOURS
LAWYER DECLARES BOY WILL
TAKE LONG REST AND THEN
SETTLE DOWN.
Western Newspaper Union New, Service.

Western Newspaper Union News Service.
Naukegan, Ill.-Will Orpet is free.
It took the Lake county jury of farm
ere and railroad men Just five hours
to acquit the former University Of
Wisconsin student of the murder Of
Marion Lambert in Helms woods last
February. There were three ballots.
The first two stood IL to / for ac-
quittal, Edward ]. Book of Highland
Park holding out for prison SEN
tence. On the third ballot Book
yielded.
After moment viii stepped for
v'sM and shook hands with the Judge
and as many of the jurymen as ne
could reach. Then he turned to try
to get out of the courtroom. His
mother came along. and Mrs. Taylor,
and the three walked quickly to
wsiting automobile, which whirlei
them away toward the orpet home in
Lake Forest.
For the first time during the trial
tears sprang to Orpet's eyes as Judge
Donnelly read the verdict. He bit
his lip, though, and controlled him.
self heroically. He never looked so
much like small boy and it seemed
as II he had awakened gently from
some horrible dream. Mrs. Orpet, the
boys mother, sobbed quietly. Mrs.
Edwin Taylor, his Madison landlady,
who sat at his left through the last
week Of the trial, bit her lip and
managed to keep her composure.
Neither Edward Orpet, Wills ia
ther. nor Frank Lambert. the father
Of the dead girl, was In the court
room when the verdict was returned.
Both had been there in the afternoon,
but had disappeared and could not be
found in time to hear the verdict.
Orpet, according to Wilkerson, is
going into the country for long rest.
The boy himself would not talk.
Wilkerson told of the boys plans.
"Will is going away" he said II
don't know where. but somewhere in
the country, and he is going to take
a long rest. Then he is going to pre-
pare himself to take up his studies
again and get himself ready for a ca
reer of usefulness"
Mrs. orpet did not lose her self
possession for second. She received
the verdict as If it were a mere mat
ter of routine. She noted that a pho
tographer was trying to snap pic
ture OF her son and herself and
warned him, meanwhile shielding her
own face with a newspaper.
James H. Wilkerson, chief counsel
for the defense, was unable to keep
back the tears and they trickled from
his eyes while he, with his associates,
Ralph F. Potter and Leslie P. Hanna,
were receiving congratulations.
We'll go home now, William" said
Mrs. Orpet, and they made their way
down the back stairs and to the Jail.
Orpet's few belongings which he
had in his cell were already packed.
He had recovered his self-posses-
sion by this time and thanked Sheriff
Griffin for making his four months
stay in Jail as comfortable as pos
sible
The case of Marion Lambert and
William H. Orpet, in the course of
its development, became one of the
most perplexing in the annals of cJim.
inal history. Motive paralleled mo-
tive, action paralleled action, oppor-
tunity paralleled opportunity until the
marks OF murder and suicide became
substantially as one.
In the end the guilt or innocence Of
the defendant, SO far as the abduction
of actual facts was concerned, went to
the jury on the mystifying niceties
OF chemical anaylsis, and Orpet's own
compromising conduct. The mystery
attracted unusual interest in all parts
Of the United States and Canada.