The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1923-09-20
POISON VICTIM
SEEKS DIVORCE
Wanda Ell a g b erg, Who
Drank Poison, Now In
Divorce Action.
VAUDEVILLE ACTRESS
Wife Tells Of New Years Party
at Lodge where Husband
"spat at Her..

"Iron-iAw woman" and actress of
vaudeville fame and more recently
would-be suicide, Wanda Hagberg, has
recovered from her recent attempt to
end all by drinking carbolic acid and
is plaintiff in the divorce action Of
Hagberg VS.. Hagberg. which has just
been commenced in circuit court by
the filing of complaint by Mrs. Hag-
berg's attorney, Oscar Dean.
+ Wanda Wendt sounds like the kind
of musical and odd name that stage
folk like, but this is said to be the
."realY name Of the plaintiff previous
to her marriage, and the name of
"Frahces& the wife of Ned Hagberg,
under which she is listed in the city
directory as the stage nom de plume.
At any rate Wanda Hagberg'' was the
name used by the plaintiff in signing
the necessary legal papers in the di-
voice action.
Married in Waukegan.
Wanda Wendt and Ned Hagberg were
married in Waukegan, March %, 1915.
They have no children. Tragedy has
stalked the days of their married life.
Two years ago Hagberg's father, Eric
Hagberg, was killed instantly in an
elevator accident at the Nash plant,
and the terrible end cast shadow
over the entire family. Then Red and
his wife became estrangeds due 70 some
teIn1 CRANE ii taf~-rrf5 Misunderstanding Mrs.
Hagberg returned to the stage, where
she performed dangerous acrobatic
feats and was sometimes known as the
"ironiaw woman" for her feature in
which she Swung through the area over
the footlights supporting herself by
clampipg her strong teeth on ring in
mid-air.
On August 18th, just two or three
weeks ago, tragedy again nearly
swamped the little family circle when
Mrs. Wanda Hagberg swallowed a
drink of carbolic acid in an apparent
desire to put the 'dance macabre"
among grisly facts and do the death
step with light toes while the skeleton
Of the Reaper looked on through his
grinning mask.
Receivers from Death Cup.
A neighbor to whose house Mrs. Hag-
berg ran after swallowing the bitter
drink called Ned Hagberg and it was
the estranged husband who summoned
the physician and assisted in restoring
the victim to life and senses.
Recovery came but there was no re.
turn to domestic happiness. Mrs.
Wanda Hagberg alleges instances of
cruelty on the part of her husband and
maintains that upon occasions he has
cruelty and murderously assaulted
and hit her" Hagberg is employed in
one of the local factories and he and
his wife own. about $4,000 worth of
property, the complaint states.
Tells of New Years Party.
Mrs Hagberg insists in her com
plant that her husband treated her
more like kitchen slave than any
thing else and indicated in his beha-
vior that he thought "she was fit for
nothing else than to be kitchen me-
chanic."
An episode which took place at a
New Years ball at which Mrs. Hagberg
alleges her husband insulted her is
narrated in the complaint as follows:
She had just finished dance with
one Of her husbands friends when her
husband came forward. "She noticed
from his manner of walking and from
his flushed face" the complaint reads,
"that something was up. Her thoughts
however were rudely interrupted for
without the least warning her husband
spat in her face in front of the people
there assembled. From shame and
humiliation she was compelled to leave
the ball and retire to her sisters home.
The next morning her husband would
not let her in and she was compelled
to use force to gain admission to her
own home"