The Washington times., 1934-01-13
CRUX Of TRIAL
To Be DECIDED
ON MONDAY
Accused Slayer to Repudiate
All Previous Admissions;
Motive Not Clear
BY DOROTHY DUCAS

Cf11CAGO, Jan. 13 1.N.S.).
The most important step in the
trial Of DR.. Alice Lindsay Wyne-
koop for the Staying Of her
daughter-in-law, Rheta, on an op-
Grating table in her doctors Of
flee last November will be taken
within the first half hour of the
opening session Monday, it was
revealed today.
Defense attorneys will ask to
have the confession the 62-year-
old physician made to police and
then repudiated, suppressed at
the trial, they announced. That
means
If Judge Joseph B. David
grants the motion, the props
will have been knocked from
under the States case.
If he denies it. the defense
will have a lengthy, arduous
task to prove the document
was obtained under duress,
and that its specific informa-
W4OA WdS 4dASC.
Crime Admitted
In that confession, cautiously
worded at the end of three days
Of questioning by police, DR.. Wyn-
koop told how the wife of her
favorite son, Earle, had died from
an overdose of chloroform during
a physical examination and how
her mother-in-law fired shot into
her back "to ease the situation"
When she repudiated the con-
fesSion, the doctor said it had not
been obtained by force, but had
been signed because she thought
1t proper" She said;
'T would have stood by it, too,
If 1 had not felt another bar
Of justice must be faced, going
through no criminal court at
ALL"
The mystery of that confession
and its repudiation is the tight
est knot in the battling murder
drama to be enacted here next
week.
Attorneys for both sides know
that everything rests on the
courts acceptance of it.
Is Opening Shot
That is why w. w. Smith,
chief defense counsel, is ready to
fling down the gauntlet at the
outset, before Prosecutor Charles
S. Dougherty is permitted to
mention the document in his
opening.
There are seven major points
the defense must explain by their
secret surprise Defense"
First-The $4,000 life in
surance policy on Rheta, in her
mother-in-law's favor, for which
the mother-in-law paid the first
premium.
Second-Earle's unhappiness
with his wife, which he has ad-
mitted and demonstrated in his
relations with other Women.
Third-The presence of
Rheta'S body in her mother-in.
laws office, lying on the worn
operating table where DR.. Wyne-
koop always examined her pa.
tientS and no one else in the
house.
Fourth-The meeting between
DR.. Wynekoop and Earle the day
before the tragedy, when he had
come back from Kansas City for
q talk with his mother and did
not want to come to the house
to talk to her.
Fffth-The delay in notifying
the police of the crime.
Sixth-Dr. Wynekoop'S lack
Of emotion when the tragedy
was revealed. (She said: "Some
things are too deep for tears.")
Seventh-That confession and
its reputation.
The prosecution, on the other
hand, must prove that the motives
for the crime were sufficiently
strong to make a woman of edu.
cation, culture, brains and reli.
giouS training commit a cold
blooded crime.
The motives on which they pin
their case are the mothers un-
naturally great sympathy for her
son in his unhappiness with MS
wife and a pressing need for $10,-
900 at a time when the family'S
real estate holdings were not ne
gotiable.