The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1934-03-07
WOMAN PHYSICIAN
IS FOUND GUILTY
BY CHICAGO JURY
Sentence Fixed at Is Years in
Prison; Defense Will Ask
New Trial
DEFENDANT IS UNM0vED

Tells Children to Go Home and
Sleep; Your Mother Is
Not Guilty
Chicago. March 7.-(P-Only a
higher court, or death itself, can save
Dr.. Alice Wynekoop from the peni-
Tertiary now.
A jury convicted her Tuesday night
Of Staying her daughter law, Rheta.
In the operating table" murder that
Mortified the nation. It fixed her
sentence at Is years Imprisonment
in the penitentiary. Only two bal
lots were taken.
The murder drama that began
when Rheta's body was found, bull
let in the back. on DR.. Wynekoop's
operating table last Nov. 81, kept its
interest in rushing crescendo to the
last.
With the jury in its place. ready to
report its verdict, Judge Harry B.
Miller summoned the Jail physician
to stand by the 63-year-old woman
and be ready to administer strong
heart stimulants, lest the shock Of
the verdict strike her dead.
She did not need his ministratio-s
She heard the verdict as she sat In
her wheel chair without sign Of q
CULVER. She turned to two Of her
children, Walker and DR.. Catherine
Wynekoop, and said:
Go home now, children, and sleep.
Your mother Is not guilty. No. No.
Not guilty"
VIII Ask New Trial
Arguments for new trial have
been set for March "A. If they are
denied an appeal to the state supreme
court is planned.
The verdict was regarded by many
as tantamount to death penalty for
DR.. Wynekoop, who had collapsed
time and time again during the L.
day ordeal Of this-her second trial.
The first of the two ballots taken
by the jury Monday night was re-
ported to have been IL to for con-
viction. Two jurors were reported to
have voted on the first ballot for the
extreme penalty-death in the cleo
trio chair-whicn Prosecutor Charles
s. Dougherty indirectly demanded in
his closing arguments.
Several hundred murder fans"
heard the verdict.
When the verdict was. read by Fore
man Fred Oviatt. oldest member Of
the jury, there was murmur of ap-
parent protest from some Of the spec
tatorS.
DR.. Wynekoop stared straight
ahead-inert. A moment later she
was wheeled away to an anteroom
where DR.. Catherine and Walker
chafed her hands and whispered to
her, but it was the mother and not
the children who did the consoling-
striving to reaSSure them that It was
not she who chloroformed and shot
Rheta.
Calls It Dirty Stab
Walker Wynekoop called the verdict
dirty stab, adding that he was
getting q 5000 loan on some prop
erty to finance an appeal.
Prosecutor Dougherty, who had
ridiculed the defense suggestions that
q prowler might have slain Rheta or
that the girl had killed herself to
spite" her "in-laws' was accosted
by the defendants sister, Mrs. Mable
Fairclo, who ran up to him, crying:
"She's innocent. You know she's
innocent"
II know in my heart that she's
guilty" he replied, but I do feel
sorry for her.
Attorney Smith, who implied In hts
closing arguments that the doctors
son, Earle, might have committed the
crime and might have used an air.
plane to preserve the alibi that he
Was miles from the scene, said he
couldn't understand how such YER
dict could have been reached In so
short q time. w. w. Smith, his as
sociate, professed to be amazed
Bar Manslaughter Verdict
The jury received the case at 6:l4
~ u4s 0AVGA q nay Va V4OOnA& 0A4A~
ments and after Prosecutor Dougher-
ty had attempted in vain to submit
manslaughter form Of verdict for
the jurymen's consideration. He was
opposed by DR.. Wynekoop's attorneys.
VINO were sustained by the court.
ITS either murder or acquittal,"
Judge Miller ruled in permitting the
submission Of but four forms of YER
dict. They were: Murder with the
death penalty. murder with life i'm
prisonment, murder with any prison
term over II years, and acquittal.
In his closing argument, Prosecutor
Dougherty claimed that DR.. Wyne-
koop had convicted herself by per
hitting her attorneys to try to pin
the killing on Earle, the widower OF
Rheta.
Summing up for Or. Alice, her It
torney, w. w. Smith, pounded the
counsel table. snapped the pistol that
killed Rheta. gulped some 10 tumblera
Of water and denounced the states
case 8 nothing less than = BASTARD
Y double-crossing outrage" Mean.
whiIe Prosecutor Dougherty merely
yawned. He spoke Of mother love
and whipped out handkerchief X
apply It TO the corners Of his eyes.
"Hotchai" exclaimed akaptic L
the Guidance. Z