The Bismarck tribune., 1919-03-31
TRIED And CONVICTED OF MURDER; SENTENCED FOR
LIFE In PRISON. INNOCENT AS A NEW BORN BABE
Almost Unbelievable Story of
Man "Found Guilty" of MUIR
dering Wife and Baby Who
Still Live. ST..
TARDY JUSTICE COMES TO
BILL WILSON


Oneonto, Ala
Have you ever served on mur
der jury? ..
Have you ever held the life of al
accused murderer in the hollow Of
your hand? ..... ,......
Have you ever found guilty o.
premeditatcd murder a fellow human
being?
Some day you may be called upor
to do this.
And when you are, beg of yor
that you will remember the case OF
Bill Wilson.
This is the testimony ip his case
Suppose for the moment that you
are the jury. So weigh this evidence
w. Z. Wilson, better known as
"Bill Wilson, lived with his wife
Jennie, and three children. They
were happy and contented. Then
another man entered the home and
stole into the wife's heart.
OTHER MAN
STEALS LOVE
The husband, later on, learned
that he had lost his wife's affec
tions and that the other man had
gained them. .
Il thought of the children, the
home, and still loved her." Wilson
testified. $50 I took her away from
there, thinking that distance might
make difference. But the other
man followed. They met again, and
often. Then I knew that there was
nothing else to do. ! did that"
Now the evidence goes to show
that Wilson and his two older child
rem moved to Onenoto, staying with
his brother on farm. He said
nothing to neighbors about his wife
and the baby.
To him that was closed chapter
of life. ...
He did, however, go to the county
seat and file suit for. divorce, alleg-
ing desertion. Thrae years after
the divorce was granted him Will
son married another woman.
FIND BONES
HALF BURIED
Two boys were rowing the woods
near Onenoto., They came upon two
half-hidden skeletons, one that of an
adult, the other of small child.
Running to town the boys told Of
their discovery, and everybody flock
ed through the woods.
Hurriedly the old citizens went over
the rollcall of missing persons.
Murdered" they cried in unison;
\ "of course; If they hadn't been buried
! in the graveyard.
An dthen they remembered that
Bill Wilson's first wife hadn't been
seen since the night in 1909 when
she and the baby disappeared and
Bill took the two other children to
his brothers home. Suspicion widen
cd and deepened.
IL Bill Wilson's honeymoon was inter-
! rupted by his arrest on charge of
wilful and premeditated murder. That
was three years after his first wife's
disappearance.
"She went away" he said. II
don't know where. am sure that
she went with her lover"
'Then why didn't you take the
other child ~ he was asked.
Because she said it wasn't mine;
that the other man was its father
IDENTIFY
SKELETONS.
The trial proceeded. The boys
told of finding of the skeletons. Doc
tors said they were bones Ola wo
man and baby Folks who knew
said the missing wife and child were
of the heights indicated by the skele-
tons.
Bill Wilson said he hadn't heard
of his first wife and that child since
that night.
Folks insisted it was impossible for
a woman and baby to leave town
without being seen. -... -,
) The prosecutor closed the case with
brilliant plea for justice demanding
punishment in its most severe form
for the murder Of the wife and child.
eve, the jury, find the defendant
guilty of murder in the first degree"
and the Judge sentenced Bill Wilson to
the penitentiary for life.
TAKEN TO
PRISON CELL
Appeals to higher courts failed to
change the course Of law, and Bill
Wilson was thrust into prison stripes,
. and alternated from convict camps to
life cell. That lasted II months.
Then one day a relative of the
"other man." missing too, got let
ter from Jennie, the missing woman.
Wilson's sister heard about it, and
finally located Jenny at Britland, Ind.
The murdered" woman hadn't heard
that Wilson was in prison for her
"death." She came back to Oneonto
and the machinery Of the law re-
yersed itself, gradually and slowly,
ending with the release from prison
stripes and cells of Bill Will
son. The law also wiped the "mur-
der stain" from his name, and thought
to square accounts with him by hand
ing him few paltry dollars.
But while bearing the false brand
of Cain, Wilson's second wife turned
against him. She too, believed that
he was q murderer, the slayer Of
wife and baby. She divorced him.
That's the story Of Bill Wilson, con-
victed on the strongest case Of circum-
staf,tial evidence ever presented to
any American court. There was abb
soiutely no loophole in the chain OF
testimony against him. Jury, Judge
and supreme court said 10.
Guilty beyond reasonable doubt.