The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1919-06-06
ON TRIAL FOR HER LIFE.
MRS. KISER PLEADS INSANITY - JEAL-
0USLY CAUSED HER TO SLAY HUS-
BAND-MANY WITNESSES TESTIFY.
CASE STILL ON TRIAL.

With the courtroom packed to the
doors and standing room at a
premium, Mrs. Alice r. Kiser, 60 years
old, went on trial here yesterday
morning for the murder Of her hus-
band, ]. Frank Kiser, at Harvey,
few miles from Westminster on
February ~ last
Immediately after the arraignment
of Mrs. Kiser the impaneling of the
jury began and was completed at
11.15. The jury il a. follows:
Jacob III. Crumrine, Jr., foreman;
John w. Smith, James E. G. Slasman,
George S. Stoffie, William E. Markell,
William T.. Grumbine, Claude T..
Conover, Sterling G. Bixler, Bradford
H. Owings, George F. Morelock, Frank
Ward, Samuel T. Caltrider.
Proceedings moved swiftly and it j.
fully expected that it will be finished
by tonight Following the closing of
the States brief case, the defense
put on Dr. Adolf Meyer, Of the Phlpps
Psychiatric Clinic, of Johns Hopkins
Hospital, Baltimore; DR.. John Oliver,
of the State Lunacy Commission, and
other scientists and built up for
midable defense of insanity. The
court took "a recess from O'Clock
until s.
Mrs. Ida Reever, the woman in the
case, herself only four years younger
than the woman on trial. sat through
the whole proceedings this afternoon
displaying an unusual interest i'm the
case. She is not a witness for either
side and her presence and the ire-
quent mention of her name with that
Of the dead man caused not few
heads to turn in her direction now
and then. She is of the average type
OF country woman, rather we'll. pre-
served for her age. 1t was this
woman, according to witnesses, who
was responsible for Mrs. Kiser's i'm
paired mental condition which caused
her to shoot her husband at their
home on February IL, causing his
death 26 hours later.
There was no great surprise ex-
pressed when the counsel for the de-
fense, Attorneys E. o. Weant and
Francis Neal Parke, announced thaC
\ they would offer a plea of insanity
instead of the unwritten law. The
: probable defense had been the gossip
of Westminster, as it was known that
the woman had been suffering with
chronic organic diseases that would
bring on insanity. The State had
very little to offer, except the rou-
tine testimony OF the doctors who at
tended the dying husband and the
neighbors who went in after the
shooting. Three neighbors, Mrs. Mar
tin Valentine, Billy Mort and John
Snyder, testified that they found the
ho Hnor onH hof
Mrs. Kiser had told them of her
husbands alleged intimacy with the
Reever woman.
/ DR.. c. M. Benner, one of the States
witnesses, was converted into valu
able witness for the defense. He had
been the woman's physician and he
testified that he had treated her for
hardening of the arteries, gall stones
and cancer of the liver. He testified
on cross-eXamination that she fire.
quently suffered lapses of memory
and was subject to crying spells. He
also testified that he had taken her to
Frederick upon one occasion for an
operation, but that DR.. Thomas John
son, surgeon, who also cOrrOborated
this statement, refused to operate on
account of her condition.
He said that her peculiar mental
condition was noticed when she first
heard of her husbands alleged at
tentions to the Reever woman. He
testified that her mental conii ion
was SO bad at times that she could
not count eggs when she went TO the
markets in Baltimore with he- farm
products He also testified as to the
story of the first shooting affair,
when Mrs. kiSer shot her husband
with a pistol, the bullet from which
glanced off a collar button. This
was the time the witness testified that
she became deranged because Gf an
accusati0 lnade against her by her
husband.
DR.. Benner recounted at length the
story of Kiser's acquaintance with
Mrs. Reever, telling how the two met
i'm the cemetery, to which Kiser had
gone to place flowers on the grave Of
his first wife. Mrs. Reever was
similarly decorating grave and they
fell into conversation and left the
place together. DR. Benner said that
Kiser had told him that as they
talked it had seemed as if heads were
popping up from behind every tomb
SLOuC WdLCAIIS LACL1 ciHu LAdt DClOA
Kiser reached home some one had in
formed Mrs. Kiser of the incident by
telephone. He related that on an
other occasion, when Mrs. Kiser came
to him for treatment, she had laid
bare to him the sorrow of her life
and had confined that, acting on the
advice Of neighbor who had told her
that if she were to turn the horse
loose it would 60 straight to the tryst-
ing place of her husband and Mrs.
Reever, she had followed the animal
to a schoolhouse, where she found
them together On another occasion,
Dr. Benner said, Mrs Kiser placed in
his care three Liberty bonds, saying
she feared her husband would disin-
herit his soldier son and turn over his
property to Mrs. Reever. She said
she suspected him OF bestowing large
sums for fnery upon Mrs. Reever.
Later on, according to the same VII
ness, Kiser consented to cease his at
tentions to the woman after he had
been told that his conduct was having
a deIeterious effect upon his wife's
already serious condition.
G. Hill, Of Mount Hope Asylum,
testified for the State that, in his
opinion, the woman's mental cOndi-
ticn was sound at the time OF the
shooting