We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. From The art of the mystery story (1946) edited by Howard Haycraft The Great Detective Stories (1927) By Willard Huntington Wright. THERE IS a tendency among modern. Born: Joseph Wilson Swan 31 October 1828 Bishopwearmouth, Sunderland England: Died: (aged 85) Warlingham, Surrey England: Nationality: British. Murder by Gaslight: Vamp of New Orleans. James Walkup, successful businessman and politician from Emporia, Kansas met Minnie Wallace on a trip to New Orleans in December 1. He was 4. 8 years old, she was 1. A year and a half later they were married and a month after that James Walkup was dead from arsenic poisoning. During her murder trial Minnie would have help from other prominent, successful men. The same was true in 1. What power did this New Orleans vamp have over middle- aged men? Bruce Haack: Musician: The Electric Lucifer: 04-May-1932: 26-Sep-1988: Haakon I Adalsteinsfostre: Royalty: King of Norway, 946-61 AD: c. 920 AD: 961 AD: Haakon IV. Victorian & Edwardian Services (Houses) 1850-1914 Contents. 2 1850s - Middle Class. 3 1850s - Working Class. 4 Late 19th century - Middle Class. Date: August 2. 2, 1. Location: Emporia Kansas. Victim: James Reeves Walkup. Cause of Death: Poisoning. Accused: Minnie Wallace Walkup. Synopsis. James Reeves Walkup was successful at everything he did. He was a Civil War veteran from West Virginia who made money on coal mines before moving to Kansas where he took up farming, railroad contracting and buying and selling grocery stores. There are many interpretations to the internet for this web marketing or similar terms such as: online marketing, internet marketing, e-marketing and others. 33000+ free ebooks online. Did you know that you can help us produce ebooks by proof-reading just one page a day? In Emporia be became a city councilman and was elected president of the council, making him acting mayor when the elected mayor was away. In 1. 88. 4 he had outlived two wives and had three grown children. Walkup was a man with hearty appetites, especially prone to sexual excess. Throughout his marriages he visited prostitutes and had a mistress fifteen years his junior. Two Emporia physicians would later testify that they had treated him for gonorrhea and that he had hired them to treat prostitutes as well. In December 1. 88. Walkup traveled to New Orleans with his friend Eben Baldwin, ostensibly to attend a world’s fair—The New Orleans World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition—but also to visit the city’s famed bordellos. On the recommendation of a man they had met in Baton Rouge, Walkup and Baldwin stayed at a boarding house on Canal Street run by Mrs. Elizabeth Wallace. Mrs. Wallace, divorced, had two daughters, Dora and Minnie, who played piano and sang in New Orlean’s red- light district, Storyville. The Wallace girls were famous for their beauty and had caught the eye of Judge William T. He tried to persuade Mrs. Wallace to let Minnie live with him and his wife saying, “She’s too beautiful to be stuck in a boarding house.” Judge Houston escorted Dora Wallace to a Mardi Gras ball, though she was married to someone else. He would later kill a newspaper man who criticized in print his public affection for the Wallace girls. Wallace’s boardinghouse James Walkup met 1. Minnie Wallace and became hopelessly infatuated with her. He spent the evening chatting with her and listening to her play the piano while her sister sang. The next morning Walkup told Mrs. Wallace that he was in love with her daughter and wanted to marry her. Wallace laughed and said “Minnie has many such admirers.” Walkup would not be dissuaded and for the rest of the trip spent as much time as he could with Minnie. Chain of theatres showing both arthouse and commercial movies. Find theatre locations, movie information, session times and mailing list.He asked if he could write to her when he returned to Emporia and Mrs. Wallace finally agreed provided the letters were addressed to her rather than to her daughter. After a couple of token letters to her mother, Walkup began writing directly to Minnie. He remained so obsessed with her that he could not concentrate on his business. The following April Walkup took his daughter Libbie to see the fair and they stayed at Mrs. Walkup spent the week showering Minnie with attention. He finally offered her mother $4. Minnie. Wallace refused the money and left the decision to Minnie. Then Walkup made offers to Minnie herself. He promised to buy her mother a house and support her, he would give Dora’s husband a job in one of his enterprises, and he would see that her cousin Willie had a good education. Minnie said maybe. In May, Walkup was in New Orleans again, pleading with Minnie and this time she relented. She agreed to an October wedding in New Orleans but first she and her mother would visit Emporia and see if they approved of where Minne would be living. They decided to travel to Emporia in July then go to Cincinnati to visit Mrs. When Minnie, her mother and her nephew Milton came to Emporia in July, Minnie liked what she saw. Walkup couldn’t wait and wanted to get married immediately. Wallace finally agreed provided they were married in Cincinnati so her sister could attend the ceremony. Since neither was a citizen of Ohio, they were married in Covington, Kentucky. They hurried back to Emporia so Walkup could show off his 1. Walkup kept his promises and in Emporia Minnie lived a life of ease spending most of her time shopping. She began buying clothing and merchandise and shipping them to her family in New Orleans. She also began a series of visits to drug stores. First she had a druggist analyze some powder she had purchased in Cincinnati. She told him it was a remedy given to her by a friend and she wanted to be certain what it was. He told her it was quinine. She had, in fact, purchased strychnine in Cincinnati but the druggist had given her quinine by mistake. At another drugstore Minnie bought eight grains of strychnine—half a grain is enough to kill a person. He had her sign the “poison book,” a legal requirement when buying strychnine, but did not notice that she had left the purpose blank. At another drugstore she was refused strychnine because she would not state the purpose. On Saturday, August 1. James Walkup had returned from a trip to Topeka and that evening was taken ill. The symptoms were nausea, diarrhea, and a tightening is his leg muscles—classic symptoms of strychnine poisoning. Luther Jacobs treated Walkup for what he thought was either indigestion or cholera. Walkup recovered on Sunday morning. Sunday Minnie went downtown and purchased some arsenic. This was much easier to purchase because it was common for women to use arsenic to lighten their complexion. Though Minnie’s complexion was naturally quite pale, she had no trouble buying arsenic stating complexion lightening as the reason. On Tuesday Walkup was deathly ill again with similar symptoms. Jacobs was surprised, though, that there was no fever. He began treating Walkup with morphine and by Thursday Walkup was well enough to be eating canned oysters and drinking soda pop. Shortly after eating he began vomiting again and Minnie blamed the oysters. Dr. Jacobs was beginning to suspect arsenic poisoning and wanted to take a urine sample but Walkup’s kidneys had ceased functioning. The doctor had confided his suspicions with Dwight Bill, Walkup’s business partner, who went to see Walkup. He told his partner that the doctor suspected arsenic poising and it was known that Minnie had recently purchased arsenic. Walkup, on his deathbed, was ready to have his wife arrested. On Saturday August 2. James Walkup was dead. Minnie Wallace Walkup was placed under house arrest. Trial: October 1. On hearing the news of Minnie’s arrest, Judge William T. Houston hurried from New Orleans to Emporia to help with the defense. Wallace, worried that Judge Houston would try to marry her daughter if she were acquitted, proposed that, since Minnie was a minor, a legal guardian be appointed by the court. The judge said, nonsense, her marriage had made her an emancipated minor and he was perfectly capable of handling her affairs. In the end, the court appointed 6. Emporia, William Jay, as Minnie’s guardian. Judge Houston left in a huff. An inquest was held and Minnie Wallace Walkup was indicted for the murder of her husband. One witness at the inquest signaled what would be the defense’s strategy at the trial. Scott of Kansas City testified that in the fall of 1. James Walkup had visited him complaining of abdominal pains. Walkup volunteered that he was taking prescribed pills that were a combination of arsenic and opium. He took them for two reasons: treatment for a chronic disease (for which he was also taking mercury) and he believed that arsenic was a male enhancement drug. The implication was that Walkup was a chronic user of arsenic and was being treated for syphilis. An autopsy was performed which revealed what everyone knew; James Walkup had died of arsenic poisoning. However, a thorough examination showed no sign of syphilis and no indication of chronic arsenic use. For Minnie’s trial, the largest courtroom in Emporia was modified to seat 3. At times as many as two thirds of the spectators were women. When the trial started the public was evenly divided, for and against Minnie. Newspapers cautioned against rushing to judgment and seemed to relish any news that might exonerate the poor teenager. Between the medical testimony and the testimony of druggists who sold Minnie strychnine and arsenic, the prosecution had a fairly tight circumstantial case against her. The defense contended that Walkup’s chronic arsenic use had caught up with him. In what the New Orleans Daily Picayune called “a carnival of filth,” James Walkup’s prodigious sex life was paraded before the court. Pimps, fellow cavorters, and doctors who treated Walkup and his whores for sexually transmitted diseases told all. Dr. Scott and others testified to Walkup taking arsenic as treatment for disease and to “keep up.” The problem for the defense was that all of these witnesses were from out of town. There is no record Walkup buying arsenic—which as Minnie’s experience showed would have required signing the poison book—and no local doctor had prescribed it. The solution to this came with the testimony of William Jay, Minnie’s new guardian. William Jay was Minnie Walkup’s most ardent supporter. As she did with all older men, Minnie had thoroughly charmed him—so much so that the testimony he gave was almost certainly perjury. Jay testified that in July 1. Walkup had come to his office to transact business. He claimed he was not feeling well and asked Jay for a knife and a glass of water. He put some white powder on the knife the poured it into the water then drank it. He told Jay he had better wipe off the knife because the powder was arsenic. The most controversial claim of the defense was that arsenic that Walkup had taken in Toledo killed him nearly a week later.
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