Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1922-06-21
FADED WOMAN
COUNTS DAYSN
CELLOF DEATH
Physicians Wife to Be Hanged
July 28-Patiently Awaits
Silent March.

ATLANTA, Ca, June 20.-In a small,
dimly lighted cell in death row. Of the
Fulton County Jail, a. frail, little woman
with a defiant look In her eyes, daily
tears a page from a calender-the only
object which decorate the four walls OF
her cramped quarters.
Apparently unmoved, she waits pa
tiently for the coming of July 2S-the
fateful day upon which her life is sched-
uled to be snuffed out by a hangman's
moose. She is Mrs. Cora Lou Vinson,
widow of one Of Atlanta's most promin-
ent physicians, and for whose murder
she is sentenced to forfeit her life.
Twelve men-Georgians by birth ard
breeding-after listening six days to tcs-
tlmony in the case, adjudged her guilty,
and despite the traditional courtesy of
the Southerner for his womankind, rem
dered their verdict without recommended
ton for mercy. Judge ]. d. HUMPHREYS
Immediately pronounced sentence of
death.
Such a verdict was not expected-the
prosecution had not even asked for it
and fell like a bombshell in the court
room. Solicitor General John Boykin
in his final arguments to the jury re-
quested only life Imprisonment.
The crime for which Mrs. Vinson
stands convicted is considered one Of the
most sensational ever enacted in Atlanta.
On March 81, Mrs. Vinson went to her
husbands office, and, while his attention
was directed elsewhere, calmly shot him
to death, the evidence purported to show.
chauffeur who drove Mrs. Vinson from
her homo to DR.. Wilson's office testified
that she had requested to be taken to her
husbands office 'in a closed car with all
curtains drawn" in order that Dr. Vim
son might not know she was coming.
There were no eyewitnesses to the
tragedy, but n petition for divorce fled
by DR.. Vinson several days before his
death and which was admitted as evil
dence during Mrs. Wilson's trial, tended
to show that the woman had threatened
his life an numerous occasions. and that
she had made several attempts to carry
out her threats. Heretofore she had
always been frustrated in her attempt.
In his petition for divorce, DR.. Vinson
alleged that the trouble arose over his
refusal to deed all of his property to
his wife. He asserted that Ms. Vim
son had Threatened she was going to
get all OF my property transferred into
her name and then kill ne"
During her trial Mrs. Vinson denied
the charge and said she had killed her
husband because he had threatened to
divorce her because she was in i'll health.
Attorneys scout the idea that the wom-
an will actually hang. II the eXtreme
penalty is inflicted, Mrs. Vinson Will be
the second woman to be egaliy executed
in the State Of Georgia and the third
upon whom the death sentence has been
passed.
The last white woman 70 be executed
was Mrs. Susan Ebe-hart. She paid the
death penalty in 1872. She was con-
victed Of eonspiring with Enoch F.
Spann to murder Spann's wife so that
he might marry Mrs. Eberhart. Spann
killed his wife by strangling her TO
death wit ha rope while she was asleep.
Mrs. Everhart held a handkerchief in
the woman's mouth to prevent her
alarming the neighbors, the evidence
showed.
Each was convicted and hanged The
Supreme Court declined to grant q new
trial and the case was then appPeled to
Governor Jmes NJ. Smith The executive
remained obdurate and refused to extend
clemency. So outraged were the people
OF GOrgla by the Governors action that
they overwhelmingly defeated him for
office when he ran for reelection the
following year.