The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1919-10-15
THWARTED DREAMS LED
SOUTH DAKOTA GIRL TO
POISON HER LITTLE ONES
Mrs. Hazel Luikart Had Visions
of a ''Career" and Her Baby
Girls Stood in the Way-Born
in Sister State, Disseminated
With Farm and Village Life,
She Married Man Who Prom
ised Her City Home and Found
DisillusiOnment.

Pontiac, Mich, Oct. 15.-The slow
poison of discomfort ravaged the mind
of a young woman with dreams of a
career"
And Mrs. Hazel Luikart poisoned
her two little girls.
While specialists are fighting the
effects Of the deadly drug she admin
istered to her daughters, Shirley and
Edna, alienists are endeavoring to
analyze the toxic force that trans
formed mother-love into the cool de-
liberation to destroy the lives that
meant most to her.
The case is arousing equally the
interest Of psychiatrists and experts
in the treatment of poison cases.
! DR.. Thomas A. Carter heads the staff
of physicians in Columbus Hospital,
Chicago, who are striving-in the face
Of all the lore of medical authorities
TO call Shirley Luikart and Edna,
her younger sister, back from the
doom meted to, them by the woman
who now means and prays for my
babies"
Psychologists are gently questioning
the prisoner-patient trying to get at
the tangled motives which led her to
give her little girls repeated doses
of the deadly drugs, then to summon
a doctor and do all in her power to
save them, after it was seemingly to
late w.
Behind this inexplicable crime is the
life-history of Hazel Zorba Luikart.
Alienists think that in her story may
be found the motive.
/, She was born in South Dakota, and
as a child was discontented with the
surroundings Of village and farm. She
married Roy E. Luikart because he
promised her a city home,
Luikart is a real estate dealer, and
the Luikart home, between Detroit and
Pontiac, is on lonely side road.
! Mrs. Luikart beautiful and accom-
p, plished, wanted to go on the stage,
she wanted to write songs, she want
ed to take vocal lessons, she wanted
to travel.
J None of her dreams came true.
Husband Baked Ideas of "Career."
For three years we were happy"
said Luikart, then my wife got dis
contented. She was stage struck.
didn't take her to shows any more,
because l didn't want any foolish ideas
to get in her mind. She wanted to
take vocal lessons a little while ago,
but | refused to permit her. l told
her she wasn't fitted for any such
thing.
"She began to neglect her house
work, and the children. She hasn't
cared for me as she once did. She
has been moody and irritable"
Lukart does not blame his wife.
ut is all largely my own fault" he
says. ri should have known how to
treat Hazel so this wouldn't have hap.
pencd. She is high.strung and sensi.
tive. | am a plain man, and tried to
be a good husband and father, but l
guess l didn't understand her."
Mrs. Luikart inherited $1,000. Half
of it she gave to her husband to use
in business, the other is in the savings
bank. She wanted to use this money
to give her little girls the education
she had craved for herself in vain.
She wrote a song recently and has
been awaiting word from the publisher
to whom she sent it.
TO quiet Mrs. Luikart the sheriff
informs her that Shirley and Edna
are recovering.>
"They must get well-I loved them
too much for them to die," says Mrs.
Luikart, who sobs and laughs hys-
terically except when under the in
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