The Monmouth inquirer., 1923-02-22
SLAP UNSEALS
SECRET MURDER
so YEARS Old
Angry Father Of Punished Girl
Reveals Confession That Con-
yiCts Wife Slayer.
SLEW WOMAN WITH MATTOCK
Only Person Who Knew Truth Gets
Religion and After 80 Years Of
Silence Tells the Story
of Crime.


Raleigh, N. C.-If old John Shep-
herds boy hadn't slapped three teeth
out of old Yes Wingler's daughter
month. and If old John Shepherd
hadn't got religion at the hands OF
wandering mountain evangelist, OLD
man Wingler might have rounded out
his allotted threescore years and ten
with his second wife and their numer-
GUS children in his cabin on the banks
of Reddys creek, high up in the Blue
Ridge. and the old theory that STAY
ing viii out would have stood dis
credited.
Or If old Yes Wingler had been
little more discreet IN his use OF
grubbing hoe 80 years ago, it would
not have come to pass that, now in
his sixty-first year. he finds himself
grasping mattock provided by the
North Carolina state prison with the
certainty that as soon as he wears ii
out on the roads of the state another
will be provided for him.
II old man Wingler had been con-
tent with the buxom, easy-going and
altogether seryiceable wife Of his
youth. 1t wouldn't have mattered
whether his daughter lost her teeth
at the hands of a somewhat primitive
sutton, and old man Shepherd could
have had all the pangs Of newly ac-
quired religion his soul craved, with
no trouble TO anybody
Tired of His Wife.
But it didn't happen that way
Wingler got tired of his wife two
years and seven days after ne brought
her to his one-room log cabin. He
took his mattock in hand and crushed
her skull with it. There was nobody
there to see it save their five-months-
old daughter, and the nearest neighbor
lived a mile down the creek. They
heard the wife screaming.
The time between the suppression
of the dying wife's screams and the
arrival of the first of the contingent
of neighbors was employed by Win
gler in deep meditation on means of
explaining that his wife had suffered
an accident, and that he had taken
none but a husbandly part in the
event. He put on the habiliments of
woe, lifted up his voice in heart
broken lamentation, and stirred his
imagination with his fears.
First came the people of his own
blood his mother, and regiment of
sisters who lived nearest the little
cabin. Entering the room, they be-
held the young wife lying ON the floor,
with her head toward the fireplace.
Accused Of Killing.
Eyes. you killed her." charged his
mother
II know 1t, but tell 'em that she
fell out of the loft and hit her head
on the pot on the hearth there"
pleaded Yes.
There's no place in the loft where
she could have fallen out, observed
the canny mountain woman.
"Well, make one" pleaded the dis
tracted husband.
Wingler turned toward the door to
see John Shepherd standing there,
hesitating between a grin at what he
had overheard and blanched horror at
what he saw lying on the bed. The
two men stared at each other. Win
gler was a powerful man. Shepherd
was a man Of lesser caliber, and he
quailed before the terrible look that
he had seen in the eyes Of the master
of the cabin. Wingler crossed over
toward him.
-killed-her, he said, slowly
but -you-breathe a word of it, /
---will-kilI-you."
Framing the Defence.
That was all that was ever said be
tween them Shepherd watched the
mother and sisters open a hole in the
low ceiling over the hearth, widen it
big enough for heavy woman to fall
through, and then turn to minister to
the stricken wife, Other neighbors
came and looked on darkly. Through
the night the mother and sisters of the
husband watched the ebbing tide of
life drift out. Dawn and death en-
tered the cabin hand-in-hand, and the
neighbors prepared the body for burial
But dawn brought Wingler almost
TO the disaster that he afterward
STAYED off for 30 years. Sudden and
bloody death is not unusual in the
mountains of North Carolina, where
mems passions run without restraint,
but here was a woman dead. 1t was
unusual. and the thoughts that flashed
to the mind of the mans mother were
reflected in the minds of everybody.
Coming by ones and twos from
their fair eoves in the mountains, to
watch beside the woman, dozen
women gathered there And women
are naturally more observant than
men. One had seen the marks of
struggle before the door of the house.
blood on thp ground a trail leading