State Closes
In Wynekoop Murder Trial.
State Closes
In Wynekoop
Murder Trial
_____
"Eye for an Eye" Is Final
Plea; Defense Will
End Today.
Chicago, March 5 (AP).--With a demand that the jury "do unto this defendant as she did unto Rheta Wynekoop" the prosecution of Dr. Alice L. Wynekoop, charged with the murder of her daughter-in-law, was ended tonight.
With those words, Prosecutor Charles S. Dougherty contented himself in recommending punishment. He made no direct demand for the death penalty.
Only a matter of hours remained before the jury will begin deliberating. Defense Attorney W. W. Smith will begin his closing arguments tomorrow, finishing in about three hours. Then the prosecution will be allowed rebuttal arguments.
Woman Hurt In Faint.
Slumped low in her chair, the 63-year-old defendant sat motionless as Dougherty denounced her as a "cold-blooded murderess." Twice during the day she had fainted. Her face was bruised from the earlier fainting spell, in which she fell to the jail floor.
As he pleaded for a conviction, Dougherty arranged before the jurors on Dr. Wynekoop's operating table the blood-stained sheets and blankets as they were found last November 21, around Rheta's body.
Repeating the testimony of police during the trial, Dougherty said Dr. Wynekoop was calm, collected, and interested only in establishing an alibi for herself when police arrived. He questioned why, if her story of knowing nothing of Rheta's death were true, Dr. Wynekoop did not attempt to revive the girl upon finding the body in the basement surgical room of the Wynekoop home.
Denies Suicide.
Dougherty made much of what he said was a long conversation between Dr. Wynekoop and her daughter, Dr. Catherine, before the undertaker was called.
They decided to call an undertaker, he said "without even going to the basement to see if Rheta was really dead."
"From the position of the blanket around her we know that Rheta did not commit suicide.
"People don't shoot themselves, then lie down, tuck a blanket around them, put the gun at their head and cover it with a piece of gauze.
Dougherty's plea occupied three hours. At the conclusion, Dr. Wynekoop managed a faint smile to her children and was wheeled from the room.
Source:
Unknown, "State Closes In Wynekoop Murder Trial," The Washington Post, Washington, D.C., Tuesday, 6 March, 1934, p. 2.
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