The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1933-11-24
CONFESSES Staying
OF SONS wife IN
OFFICE AT CHICAGO
Gave Girl Overdose OF ChIoro.
form While Examining
Her for Pains
ATTEMPTED TO REVIVE HEh
Desperate When Efforts Failed,
She Finally Got Gun and
Fired Fatal Shot

Chicago, Nov. 24.-(R-Confession
BY Or. Alice Lindsay Wynekoop that
she fired bullet into the heart Of
her daughter-in-law while the girl
was unconscious was announced Fri
day by Capt. John Siege.
Breaking down at last, after nearly
three days Of exhausting examination,
the 62-year-old woman physician ac-
knowledged she had administered
chloroform to Rheta, her sons a.
year-old wife. in examining her for 4
pelvic pain Of which the girl had com.
planned.
Friday afternoon Or. Wynekoo,
took the stand before coroner,s fury
and affirmed the confession she pre-.
viously signed earlier in the day.
She had gone to her surgical OFFICES
in the basement Of the Monroe Street
house Of death last Tuesday afternoon
to find Rheta partly undressed
Weighing herself.
Rheta complained of severe pains,
DR.. Wynekoop said, and she placed
the young woman on her operating
table and began to administer chlor-
oform to ease the pain and facilitate
examination.
DR.. Wynekoop told Capt. Siege she
kept asking Rheta II she could feel
the pain and that her daughter-in-
law continued to answer affirmative
~. Finally, the physician explained,
Rheta lost consciousness and for Is
minutes she tried strenuously to re-
vive her.
Became Panic-S Stricken
When she realized she was losing
ground, DIR. Alice said, she became
panic-stricken.
"All the events Of my life flashed
through my mind" DR.. Wynekoop was
quoted. and ! thought Of . pistol
IN an adjoining ROOM"
Fearful Of blame for killing the girl
with the auaesthetic. she said, she
obtained the pistol and, holding IL
five inches from the bare back Of the
unconscious girl. fired q single shot.
That shot penetrated the shoulder
blade and passed through Rheta's
heart
Capt. Siege placed the time of the
killing between 2:3O and D. m.
Tuesday. time when DR.. Wynekoop
had said she was absent from the Is
room mansion.
For the first time since the mys-
FERROUS killing DR.. Alice and her son
Earle had met in the police quarters
where both had been subjected to
night-long questioning, separately.
Near the breaking point but always
protesting his innocence. the 28-year-
old widower had said he knew Of
motive, and wanted to see his mother.
Pleads for Truth
On her shoulder he sobbed q pies
that she admit her guilt II she had
done 1t because Of her great love for
him.
Looking solemnly into hts reddened
eyes. she spoke: II didn't do it,"
/, Earle had told the police hts wife
had been termed by q physician
slightly deranged." and had put iron
filings and drugs In food at their
home.
After their two-hour meeting, Earle
was led away to lunch. Then began
the final questioning that resulted
in the doctors full statement, with
which Police Capt. Siege still pro-
fessed to be unsatisfied.
Siege said he had found q blood.
stained blanket in the house and had
concealed this discovery from Dr..
Alice.
| Capt. Siege asserted that the large
amount Of blood soaked In the
blanket led him to disbelieve that
Rheta had been chloroformed before
she was shot, and that physicians
had sustained his theory.
Father Il vengeful
! When Burdine H. Gardner, father
Of the slain woman, was informed Of
the mother-in-lAws statement, he
said:
| "All can say, u give her the lin.
It,"
The coroner's inquest was recon.
vened at $50 p. n. to hear the new
evidence.
Shortly after announcement Of the
confession. three police officers raced
to the Wynekoop mansion and return
ed with waste basket contain!:la
some object. Miss Enid Henucsser
roomer 1t the home, also was takar
into the room where DR.. Alice wa
under examination.
For hours Dr.. Wynekoop had mel
g..