Bloody Clothes
At Trial Shake
Dr. Wynekoop
_____

    Chicago, Jan. 16 (AP).--An array of evidence--antique appearing operating table, blood-stained garments, a small-caliber pistol--caused Dr. Alice L. Wynekoop to pale and ask for medical stimulants today at her trial on a charge of murdering her daughter-in-law.
    The elderly defendant buried her head in her hands on the counsel table as if to shut out the sight of the reminders of the tragedy.
    Her daughter, comely young Dr. Catherine Wynekoop, shook medicine into a glass of water, and Dr. Alice drank deeply. A five-minute recess was called, and the defendant soon appeared to regain her strength.
    The recess was taken shortly after Charles S. Dougherty had advanced across the courtroom, holding aloft a silk shirt, stained as if by blood, for the witness, Policeman Arthur R. March to identify as having been taken from Rheta's body.

    "Mother's attack in court was in no way a collapse," said Dr. Catherine.
    Nevertheless, Dr. Wynekoop's pulse was disclosed by another physician, Dr. James Whitney Hall, to have reached 106 at the time of the attack, compared with a normal for her of 60.
    The State won the right to display the undergarments after a long argument.
    During the argument Dougherty disclosed that the State expects to prove Rheta, 23, wife of Dr. Alice's son, Earle, died of a bullet wound in the heart inflicted by her mother-in-law--and not from chloroform.
    Shortly after Rheta's death, Dr. Wynekoop signed an admission that she shot Rheta after inadvertently causing death by chloroform during a physical examination. She explained the shot as a desire to make death appear to have been at the hands of a prowler.

    Dougherty said the amount of blood on the garments, the operating table and a blanket and sheet covering the girl's body, would be of utmost importance in proving Rheta still lived when the shot was fired; the theory being the victim would have bled little if she already had been dead.
    Dr. Wynekoop has retracted the admission and embarked on a defense that she knew nothing about Rheta's death before finding her body the night of November 21.
    Policeman March, a State witness, identified 50 articles of evidence, many of them bearing alleged blood stains and connected intimately with Rheta's death.
    His testimony for the first time placed the name of Earle Wynekoop, husband of the slain girl, into the court record. Earle has not entered the courtroom in four days of trial. The defense is expected to call him as a climactic witness.

    March said Dr. Alice told him at the Fillmore Street Police Station that the pistol found near Rheta's body had been given her by Earle. Previous testimony was that Earle had taken the weapon to a gunsmith for repairs a short time before.
    The other two witnesses of the day--Miss Enid Hennessey, school teacher roomer in the Wynekoop home for ten years, and Mrs. Vera Duncan, neighbor and last known person to see Rheta alive--testified about Rheta's last day of life.
    Both said they believed Rheta had gone downtown in mid-afternoon and that Dr. Alice appeared worried when the girl did not return for dinner.

Source:

Unknown, "Bloody Clothes At Trial Shake Dr. Wynekoop," The Washington Post, Washington, D.C., Wednesday, 17 January, 1934, p. 4.