The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1922-03-09
MRS. 0BENCHAIN
TAKES WITNESS
STAND FOR SELF
Said She Had Waited For Seven
Months to Tell Her Story
To The Jury
APPEARS COMPOSED
Smiles at Jury as She Begins to
Unfold Her Love Story to
California Jury

~ Aae|i I'll y. lie STORY or
Maaalynne Obencaain, of Chicago,
which she said she had waited seven
| months to tell concerning J. Belton
! hennedy, local broker for whose mur.
der she is on trial, began today when
she was called to the stand as a wit.
ness In her own behalf.
| She smiled at the clerk as she was
sworn as witness. Her opening, tes.
tlmony was that she had been in the
county Jail for seven months since the
! morning Of August 6 last when sho
was arrested following the shooting
OF Kennedy at his Beverly Glen bun
galoW. She said she was not allowed
access, to her letters or property in
that time.
She was pale and spoke in a quite
how tone, although appearing compos-
ed and not hesitating in her answers
to questions but it was necessary for
her attorney to speak in a higher
pitch. Her eyes were upon jurors
most of the time.
Kept Diary.
Saying that she kept diary of her
activities in 1921 she referred to 1t
frequently to refresh her mind.
II arrived in Los Angeles, JAM .,
1921, she said. l did not meet MIR.
Kennedy for sometim4eA although I
saw him once or twice on the street.
On January N telephoned him ask
ing he return my letters. He refused
until l consented to see him. re-
fused to see him. On my second tele-
phone conversation, Jan. "a, he said he
world never return them unless l saw
lim that night. l consented to see
him that night and waited for aim
sometime in the streets and then saw
him approach, accompanied by his
father. We talked some two hours
She continually asked him for the
return of her letters Saying that she
wanted everything ended, believing
that would make it better for every
body.
Kennedy wanted to continue their
relations pleading with her to bear
further.
Kennedy told her that owing to her
mothers illness he could not do what
his heart asks him to do, she testified.
On one occasion, she said, he followed
her in a taxicab and another wahG&'
for her outside her abode.
Mrs. Obenclain's first tear as she
took the stand came when her coun'
sci read what purported to be a letter
from Kennedy to her, as it appeared
in a local newspaper and which was
not produced by a district attorney
when he offered other correspondence.
The letter was read as written by
Kennedy to Mrs Obenchain just after
she had left suddenly for Chicago
without informing Kennedy Of her in
tention.
Obenchain on Stand
The love and tenderness which
Ralph Obenchain gave his wife, Mad
alynne, were not sufficient to make
her happy or make her forget her for
mer sweetheart, J. Belton Kennedy,
Obenchain testified yesterday in the
trial. Because of his failure to make
her forget Kennedy, as he had proni'
ised her before marriage, the couple
separated after but three months OF
married life, Obenchain testified. Lat
er they. were divorced.
Madalynne Obenchain was not
woman scorned," as contended by
the state, according to Mrs. Mary c.
Demond, another witness. When Mad
alynne told Kennedy that all was over
between them and that she was going
away, the witness said, that Kennedy
pleaded with her not to leave and that
he could not live without her.
Married in January, 1919
Ralph Obenchain told Of his college
life at an Illinois university and of
his former,wife, who was then NADIA
lynne Connor and a student at the
same college, Arthur G. Burch, CO.
defendant with Mrs. Obenchain, also
was a student there at that time. His
first meeting, the witness said, was
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