Winchester Journal-Herald
March 26, 1942, 77 years ago.
A long standing Winchester family feud between two neighbor women went beyond the verbal and rock throwing stage about 5 p.m. yesterday, with the result that one woman is in the Randolph County Hospital and the other is behind bars in the county jail.
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| Mrs. Lucy Weese (unidentified man) |
Critically injured, with a gashing hole in her abdomen, is Martha Laisure, 39, wife of Wesley Laisure, a veteran of World War I and holder of the Purple Heart award for injuries received in battle.
In jail is Lucy Weese, 60, wife of Goldie Weese, who carries mail from the railroad depots to the Winchester post office.
Mrs. Laisure was given a blood transfusion last night in an effort to save her life.
Having argued verbally in the morning, neighbors say the two women have quarreled off and on for the past year-the argument went into the rock throwing stage later in the day, with the result that Mrs. Weese, after allegedly having been struck by three rocks thrown by Mrs. Laisure, brought a 12-gauge, double-barreled shotgun from the house, put the gun to her shoulder and fired one round into Mrs. Laisure's abdomen from a distance of about 12 feet.
Mrs. Laisure was felled beneath a small tree in the backyard of her home, 638 North Meridian street, the house faces west toward the Pennsylvania railroad tracks-and lay there in a semi-conscious state until removed to the hospital in the Summers ambulance. The shot was fired over a wire fence separating the two homes, Mrs. Weese firing north.
Accused by Mrs. Laisure, Mrs. Weese readily admitted the attack, expressing her pleasure at having fired the shot, would do it again and hoped that her victim would die.
The Weese home, 634 North Meridian street, is an unpainted, forlorn dwelling just south of the Laisure residence.
Mrs. Weese was arrested by Sheriff Kora E. Davis and accompanied in the sheriff's car by Deputy Lester Puterbaugh and Winchester Officer Ray Gettinger, was taken to jail. She did not resist arrest, showed no reticence in detailing the shooting incidents leading up to it and made a statement to Prosecuting Attorney Meeks Cockerill at the jail.
Sheriff Davis told of the affair:
Mrs. Laisure was lying on the ground under a tree when the officers arrived. Asked who shot her, the victim of the attack said: "Mrs. Weese shot me. That woman standing over there."
Mrs. Weese at that time was standing in the door of the kitchen in the rear of her home. Sheriff Davis climbed over the fence, about six or eight feet from Mrs. Laisure, went to the Weese home and told Mrs. Weese she was under arrest. Going into the house, the sheriff confiscated the shotgun where it had been placed in the dining room.
It was loaded with one shell in the left barrel, the empty shell from the right barrel being found in the backyard.
Enroute to jail, Mrs. Weese said;
"I shot her and hope to God she dies."
Mrs. Weese, the sheriff said, detailed how she had left her back door to go to the outside toilet, Mrs. Laisure calling her vile names, the throwing three well-sized rocks at her, all three hitting their mark, one on the forehead, another on the shoulder and the third in the abdomen.
. While Mrs. Laisure was still picking up rocks and throwing at her, Mrs. Weese said she put the shotgun to her shoulder and fired.
Mrs. Harry Newman, 639 North Main street, just a lot east of the Laisure home, heard the shot and said she was first to reach the prostrate woman. She heard the shot from her kitchen, which faces the Laisure home to the west. Mrs. Newman said that Mrs. Laisures first words were to call the police and that "I'm dying now, I know I am."
Mr. Newman arrived shortly afterward and verified his wife's statement. Mrs. Newman declared that Mrs. Weese, who was standing across the fence less than 20 feet away said:
"I did it and I'm glad of it. I've taken enough off of her."
Frank White, an eyewitness to the shooting, who lives the first house south of the Weese residence, told Prosecutor Cockerill that the women had quarreled in the morning and that Mrs. Laisure had thrown three rocks which hit their target. Mrs. Weese, he said, was sitting on a tree stump in her backyard, holding the shotgun in her hands and fired without aiming-not putting the gun to her shoulder.
Mr. White said he heard Mrs. Laisure shout, he was about 50 yards away- "I'll kill you, you damned old _______." Mrs. Weese, he said, answered: "You will like hell."
Then Mrs. Weese, he said, pulled the trigger, firing from "the hip" as it were.
It will be recalled that Mrs. Laisure and Mrs. Weese were hailed into the justice of the peace court of Albert King last fall, each promising not to speak or molest each other.
March 27, 1942.
Shotgun Blast Victim Dies:
With Mrs. Martha Laisure, 39, dead, her assailant, Mrs. Lucy Weese, 60, faces possible indictment for murder when the Randolph county grand jury begins next Monday at 9 a.m. it's investigation of the Wednesday evening killing on North Meridian street in Winchester.
At the request of Prosecuting Attorney Meeks Cockerill, Judge John W. Macy ordered the grand jury into session and directed the clerk of the court to issue to Sheriff Davis a venire for the following persons: William H. Sadgebury, Wayne Township, Harry Wright, Stoney Creek, Birch Shroyer, Green, Eva T. Wysong, Washington, Emerson Meeks, Green, and W. Rollie Harper, West River Township.
Mrs. Laisure died at 7:16 a.m. Thursday at the Randolph County hospital.
Causes of the friction between the two neighbor women began to unravel yesterday, each new argument and quarrel adding fuel to the smouldering fire of hatred between the two.
One of their disagreements concerned some shrubbery growing along the fence separating the two lots. Claiming that the bushes grew through the wire, over which Mrs. Weese fired her shotgun blast into Mrs. Laisure, one of the women cut them off, causing a quarrel.
Another disagreement pertaining to chipping off of a new curb running on North Meridian street in front of both homes. Mrs. Weese said yesterday that they also disagreed on which was to clean up after boys in the neighborhood who had "done their business" on the curb and sidewalk, not explaining what she meant by this.
March 27, 1942.
The Signed Statement By Mrs. Weese Given To Dr. Lowell W. Painter, Randolph County Coroner:
"On the afternoon of March 25th, 1942, I went out to the street with my husband at 2:30 to 3: p.m.
My husband got into the mail truck and drove away and I turned around and started back to the house. I had my cane and my dog was with me and wanted to play. I pushed my cane at him and told him to hurry up and repeated it.
Mrs. Laisure was raking her yard and she said 'Hurry up-yes hurry up you ______ you ______ old _____ you." I walked on into the house and did not answer her. I sat down and stayed there quite awhile. Then I started out to the toilet back of the house and Mrs. Laisure was spading in her back yard. She laid her spade down and she said 'you ___________, I'm going to kill you."
She picked up an object about as big as my thumb. It was as long as a broom handle. She folded it and reported that she would kill me.
She said the next time I catch you out I'm going to beat you up. I told her she should be able to, that she was strong and I had been crippled for years and that she should be able to do that thing. I turned around and went back to my house. She followed me and called me all sorts of names and cussed and said that Mr. Daly and Meeks Cockerill told her to knock my _______head off if I didn't stay in the house and let her alone.
I stopped and said I have as good a right in the yard as you have. She said that I wasn't fit to talk to and I said why don't you stop talking then.
She wanted me to go out in the road and fight. She kept on. I stopped by a block of wood and she ran into the street in front and came running back.
I said, I'm not fighting with you or anyone else, that I wouldn't put my hands on you.
When she said I was too cowardly to fight, I told her, Martha if you don't stop and behave I will do something you won't like.
She said you're too cowardly to do anything and she said some very vile and nasty things and called me names. I just looked at her. She called to Mrs. Cash to come out and see the old______ standing there and not answering. She picked up a rock and threw it at me and it hit me in the stomach. I walked in the house, picked up the shotgun and went back out there.
She threw another rock which hit my left shoulder and said bring your shotgun out on me you____worn out old _____ and kept throwing rocks. I dodged several and I shot her as I sat on a block. I am not sure whether I put the gun on my shoulder or not, but it kicks like fury and my shoulder wasn't hurt. I fired the gun once and she was in her yard and I was in mine with a fence between us, probably about 15 to 20 feet.
She fell down and hollered that she was shot, she was going to die and she knowed she was. I got up and walked the width of our house after setting the gun down by the rain barrel and just looked at her.
Mrs. Alec Newman came over and asked Martha what happened and she said 'That woman shot me.' She (Mrs. Newman) asked me and I said yes, I did. She asked Mrs. Laisure what to do and she said call the police and I said yes that would be a good thing to do.
A man came and said, 'oh my, my, what kind of thing would make you do that, what would be bad enough.' I said I was tired of hearing her call me all sorts of names and if she tried it again, I'd give her the other barrel, or implied that. The police and sheriff came and took me to jail.
We have had trouble since the fall of 1940." LUCY WEESE.
Mrs. Weese was charged with second murder by the county grand jury on Apr. 3, 1942, she entered a plea of not guilty on Apr. 9 and her trial started on June 22nd where she was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter on the 27th and received a 1-10 year sentence at the Indiana Women's Prison in Indianapolis.
Inasmuch as she had been continually confined in the county jail since March 25th, it was the judgement of the court that when she has served nine months in prison, providing her record is exemplary, the remainder of her sentence will be suspended, but she will be under probation for five years.
Due to the fact that she has no property, the court relieved her of paying any court costs involved in the trial.
Judge Macy allowed Malcolm V. Skinner of Portland, her chief defense counsel, $375 attorney fees from public funds.
______________________
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It was loaded with one shell in the left barrel, the empty shell from the right barrel being found in the backyard.
Enroute to jail, Mrs. Weese said;
"I shot her and hope to God she dies."
Mrs. Weese, the sheriff said, detailed how she had left her back door to go to the outside toilet, Mrs. Laisure calling her vile names, the throwing three well-sized rocks at her, all three hitting their mark, one on the forehead, another on the shoulder and the third in the abdomen.
. While Mrs. Laisure was still picking up rocks and throwing at her, Mrs. Weese said she put the shotgun to her shoulder and fired.
Mrs. Harry Newman, 639 North Main street, just a lot east of the Laisure home, heard the shot and said she was first to reach the prostrate woman. She heard the shot from her kitchen, which faces the Laisure home to the west. Mrs. Newman said that Mrs. Laisures first words were to call the police and that "I'm dying now, I know I am."
Mr. Newman arrived shortly afterward and verified his wife's statement. Mrs. Newman declared that Mrs. Weese, who was standing across the fence less than 20 feet away said:
"I did it and I'm glad of it. I've taken enough off of her."
Frank White, an eyewitness to the shooting, who lives the first house south of the Weese residence, told Prosecutor Cockerill that the women had quarreled in the morning and that Mrs. Laisure had thrown three rocks which hit their target. Mrs. Weese, he said, was sitting on a tree stump in her backyard, holding the shotgun in her hands and fired without aiming-not putting the gun to her shoulder.
Mr. White said he heard Mrs. Laisure shout, he was about 50 yards away- "I'll kill you, you damned old _______." Mrs. Weese, he said, answered: "You will like hell."
Then Mrs. Weese, he said, pulled the trigger, firing from "the hip" as it were.
It will be recalled that Mrs. Laisure and Mrs. Weese were hailed into the justice of the peace court of Albert King last fall, each promising not to speak or molest each other.
March 27, 1942.
Shotgun Blast Victim Dies:
With Mrs. Martha Laisure, 39, dead, her assailant, Mrs. Lucy Weese, 60, faces possible indictment for murder when the Randolph county grand jury begins next Monday at 9 a.m. it's investigation of the Wednesday evening killing on North Meridian street in Winchester.
At the request of Prosecuting Attorney Meeks Cockerill, Judge John W. Macy ordered the grand jury into session and directed the clerk of the court to issue to Sheriff Davis a venire for the following persons: William H. Sadgebury, Wayne Township, Harry Wright, Stoney Creek, Birch Shroyer, Green, Eva T. Wysong, Washington, Emerson Meeks, Green, and W. Rollie Harper, West River Township.
Mrs. Laisure died at 7:16 a.m. Thursday at the Randolph County hospital.
Causes of the friction between the two neighbor women began to unravel yesterday, each new argument and quarrel adding fuel to the smouldering fire of hatred between the two.
One of their disagreements concerned some shrubbery growing along the fence separating the two lots. Claiming that the bushes grew through the wire, over which Mrs. Weese fired her shotgun blast into Mrs. Laisure, one of the women cut them off, causing a quarrel.
Another disagreement pertaining to chipping off of a new curb running on North Meridian street in front of both homes. Mrs. Weese said yesterday that they also disagreed on which was to clean up after boys in the neighborhood who had "done their business" on the curb and sidewalk, not explaining what she meant by this.
March 27, 1942.
The Signed Statement By Mrs. Weese Given To Dr. Lowell W. Painter, Randolph County Coroner:
"On the afternoon of March 25th, 1942, I went out to the street with my husband at 2:30 to 3: p.m.
My husband got into the mail truck and drove away and I turned around and started back to the house. I had my cane and my dog was with me and wanted to play. I pushed my cane at him and told him to hurry up and repeated it.
Mrs. Laisure was raking her yard and she said 'Hurry up-yes hurry up you ______ you ______ old _____ you." I walked on into the house and did not answer her. I sat down and stayed there quite awhile. Then I started out to the toilet back of the house and Mrs. Laisure was spading in her back yard. She laid her spade down and she said 'you ___________, I'm going to kill you."
She picked up an object about as big as my thumb. It was as long as a broom handle. She folded it and reported that she would kill me.
She said the next time I catch you out I'm going to beat you up. I told her she should be able to, that she was strong and I had been crippled for years and that she should be able to do that thing. I turned around and went back to my house. She followed me and called me all sorts of names and cussed and said that Mr. Daly and Meeks Cockerill told her to knock my _______head off if I didn't stay in the house and let her alone.
I stopped and said I have as good a right in the yard as you have. She said that I wasn't fit to talk to and I said why don't you stop talking then.
She wanted me to go out in the road and fight. She kept on. I stopped by a block of wood and she ran into the street in front and came running back.
I said, I'm not fighting with you or anyone else, that I wouldn't put my hands on you.
When she said I was too cowardly to fight, I told her, Martha if you don't stop and behave I will do something you won't like.
She said you're too cowardly to do anything and she said some very vile and nasty things and called me names. I just looked at her. She called to Mrs. Cash to come out and see the old______ standing there and not answering. She picked up a rock and threw it at me and it hit me in the stomach. I walked in the house, picked up the shotgun and went back out there.
She threw another rock which hit my left shoulder and said bring your shotgun out on me you____worn out old _____ and kept throwing rocks. I dodged several and I shot her as I sat on a block. I am not sure whether I put the gun on my shoulder or not, but it kicks like fury and my shoulder wasn't hurt. I fired the gun once and she was in her yard and I was in mine with a fence between us, probably about 15 to 20 feet.
She fell down and hollered that she was shot, she was going to die and she knowed she was. I got up and walked the width of our house after setting the gun down by the rain barrel and just looked at her.
Mrs. Alec Newman came over and asked Martha what happened and she said 'That woman shot me.' She (Mrs. Newman) asked me and I said yes, I did. She asked Mrs. Laisure what to do and she said call the police and I said yes that would be a good thing to do.
A man came and said, 'oh my, my, what kind of thing would make you do that, what would be bad enough.' I said I was tired of hearing her call me all sorts of names and if she tried it again, I'd give her the other barrel, or implied that. The police and sheriff came and took me to jail.
We have had trouble since the fall of 1940." LUCY WEESE.
Mrs. Weese was charged with second murder by the county grand jury on Apr. 3, 1942, she entered a plea of not guilty on Apr. 9 and her trial started on June 22nd where she was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter on the 27th and received a 1-10 year sentence at the Indiana Women's Prison in Indianapolis.
Inasmuch as she had been continually confined in the county jail since March 25th, it was the judgement of the court that when she has served nine months in prison, providing her record is exemplary, the remainder of her sentence will be suspended, but she will be under probation for five years.
Due to the fact that she has no property, the court relieved her of paying any court costs involved in the trial.
Judge Macy allowed Malcolm V. Skinner of Portland, her chief defense counsel, $375 attorney fees from public funds.
______________________
Want to learn more?
Visit The Museum.
Hours vary with volunteer availability. Check the website or Facebook for current open to the public hours or call/message/email to arrange an appointment.
Facebook group: Randolph County Indiana Historical and Genealogical Society
Visit the website.
Here is a link to the cemetery database. https://rchsmuseum.org/cemeteries-database
Follow the blog.
Scroll to the right or below the article to click "FOLLOW" to get email updates as soon as a blog is uploaded. This is a great feature to share with family and friends who are not active on social media.
The man in the picture with Mrs. Weese is her attorney, Maurice Skinner.
ReplyDeleteCorrection: Her attorney was Malcolm Skinner.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the information. :)
Delete