Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1922-10-21
WOMAN IN DOLL
CASE IS FREED
AF TER HEARING
Mrs. Hazel Mentally Was
Accused by Her Husband
of Staying Twins He Says
Were Born Last Year.

Hammond, Ind, Oct. 20 (by the
Associated Press.) Mrs. Hazel
lIcNally, declared by her 55-year-
old husband to be the mother of
doll baby twins, was freed Of
a charge OF murder this afternoon
when Judge Henry C. Cleveland
ruled the state had failed to prove
the infants are not still alive.
The 26-year-old wife, who has
grinned and giggled through fouf
days of the preliminary hearing
while witnesses attempted to fas-
ten on her the charge Of double
murder, collapsed and fell FAINT
ing to the floor, as the cheers ana
applause of $50 women court room
fans rang in her ears.
BY strange paradox of the law,
the defense, which maintained the
twins "born" to Mrs. McNally last
December were but inanimate
creations of china and straw
dressed in baby clothes, won It's
victory because the state was una
BILE to prove that the mystery pa
.bies were not at the present mo-
ment, living, breathing human be-
ings, with actual flesh and blood.
Missing Corpus Deficit.
The missing corpus delicti-law-
yers' phraseology for the body OF
the crime"-proved stumbling
block to the state and because OIL
it, the mystery of the McNaily
twins, whether they ever existed
whether they were only dressed-up
dolls, or whether, as the state con-
tended, they were first real BABIES
and then dolls remains unsolved:
Sustaining the motion of Samuel
Swartz of South Bend, attorney
for Mrs. McNally, for dismissal or
the charge, Judge Cleveland ruled
that all legal decisions maintained
that some proof of dead BODY
actually existed, that it came to us
death by violence, and that the
person charged with the crime was
lin some way connected with us
commission, was necessary before
n charge of murder could be sup
ported.
Hundreds of women and a few
men pushed and struggled up the
dark stairs to IIammonds city
council chamber an hour peIore
the door was thrown open on th9
final chapter of the doll papy
case. A barrier of stout oak desks
-four feet high had been erectei
across the room to block the rush
of front row fans when the door
was finally opened. Behind II,
women iammed in a solid mass SO
dense as to make movement I'M
possible. and stood for two hours
and a half while three lawyers
argued the merits of the corpus
deficit.
Long Wait Rewarded.
Their long wait was rewarded,
however. by thrilling movie eli
max when Judge Cleveland sol
EMMY pronounced his decision TO
the boom of a flash light barrage
and the cheers of the audience, the
defendant, who looks more nearly
10 than the 26 years she confessed
TO. rose to her feet. smiled ana
then fell to the floor.
LAWYERS and newspaper men
lifted her to the table and fanned
her with law books. while photog-
raphers on the one side and spec
tators on the other fought for want !.
age points. while on the fringe of
the crowd. standing first on one
foot and then on the other, hover
ed Frank McNally. the 55-year-old
husband who testified yesterday
his wife had fooled him for weeks.
having him carry doll around
under the belief that it was one of
his children.
A half hour later the mystery
mother of the mystery twins, dis
heveled but smiling. was helped