Hniffil

 
 STURLATA STILES
 
 Stela-Stiles Tragedy, 
 
 BY 
 
 O. E. TURNER, 
 
 AUTHOU OF 
 
 INTEGRAL EDUCATION," "LOVE VS. FASCINATION," ETC. 
 
 WITH POKTHAITS OF 
 
 STURLATA STILES, CHARLES STILES, Hon. L. L. 
 MILLS AND A. S. TRUDE. 
 
 CHICAGO : 
 
 PUBLISHED BY O. E. HAMMOND. 
 1883.
 
 Copyrighted 
 
 O. E. HAMMOND. 
 
 1883.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PART FIRST. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. Birth and Early Childhood of Car- 
 
 lotta Theressa Sturalatta 13 
 
 CHAPTER H. Birth and Early Childhood of Charles 
 
 Stiles 18 
 
 CHAPTER in. The Owl Club 27 
 
 CHAPTER TV. Theressa Sturla and Charles Stiles 
 The Beginning of Their Acqniant- 
 ance 30 
 
 PART SECOND. 
 
 CHAPTER I. Particulars of The Trial 71) 
 
 CHAPTER H. The Trial Continued 83 
 
 CHAPTER III The Trial Continued 87 
 
 CHAPTER IV. The Trial Continued 98 
 
 CHAPTER V. The Trial Continued 103 
 
 CHAPTER VI The Trial Continued 118 
 
 CHAPTER VH. The Trial Mr. Mills' Hypothetical 
 
 Question 123 
 
 CHAPTER TELL The Trial Testimony of Theressa 
 
 Sturla.. . 143
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 CHAPTER IX.- The Trial Continued 169 
 
 CHAPTER X. The Trial The Closing Speeches. 182 
 CHAPTER XL The Trial The Closing Speeches 
 
 Concluded 212 
 
 PART THIRD. 
 CONCLUSIONS BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
 CHAPTER I Crimes and Corruptions Resulting 
 
 from Desecration of Marriage 229 
 
 CHAPTER II Early Influences and Education as 
 
 Affecting Character 241 
 
 CHAPTER III Social and Moral Inequality of the 
 Sexes Encourages Libertinism 
 Man and Woman 246 
 
 CHAPTER IV. Degredation of Labor and Extrava- 
 gance in Dress as Causes of Pros- 
 titution 253 
 
 CHAPTER V. Intemperance a Cause of Crime 
 
 Theressa Sturla and Charles Stiles . 258
 
 INTBODUCTOBY. 
 
 THE great interest which the Sturla-Stiles tragedy has 
 awakened, and the fact that it is replete with developments 
 of character and phases of life which invite the attention 
 not only of members of th<6 Bar, but, equally of physicians 
 and all thinking minds, has induced me to gather and pre- 
 pare the following items of biography for publication; also 
 to give a report of the trial and such thoughts in conclu- 
 sion as have suggested themselves to my mind, not only in 
 view of the tragedy detailed, but by a general survey of 
 the corruptions existing in society at large. 
 
 The trial as herein given was taken by an official 
 reporter, on the occasion. The physicians who testified on 
 both sides of the case are men of distinction pre-eminently 
 high in their profession. 
 
 Doctors Brower and Lyman have been practitioners for 
 more tlum thirty years. Both have been, and still are, 
 connected with institutions where the insane are treated, 
 and stand equal in their profession with any physicians in 
 the country. Their views on the question involved in the 
 case and the medical and scientific authorities collected by 
 them and cited herein, on the subject of insanity and 
 irresponsibility, will be valuable both to the legal and 
 medical profession. 
 
 The hypothetical questions in the case are not only of 
 interest to* the professions, but are in themselves a romance 
 The one used in the defense is not only the longest, but 
 one of the most interesting ever introduced. 
 
 In presenting these pages to the urgus eye of the public 
 I would not coine forth with brain and pen, merely to
 
 10 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 address myself to the grosser instincts of an idle and per- 
 verted curiosity which feeds and fattens upon sensational 
 tales of tragedy and over-drawn fiction. I would, if possi- 
 ble, come with the keen steel of reason, and with it probe 
 to the bottom of the mass of corruption which like a 
 festering sore is eating to the very hearts-core of society. 
 I would penetrate the wide-spread moral miasma which 
 rests upon us like a very pestilence, find its cause and apply 
 the remedy. But it would be preposterous egotism in me 
 to fancy that I could with my humble efforts accomplish so 
 gigantic a work. It would require the concentrated efforts 
 of all good men and women and. all the hosts of Heaven to 
 wipe out all the evils which have come as results of corrupt 
 and perverted social relations. 
 
 In giving the biographical portion of this work I have 
 aimed at correctness and have labored to obtain a true 
 history, representing the characters as they were and only 
 incorporating such facts as I could gather, which seemed 
 to have influenced the lives of the individuals whose his- 
 tory I have attempted to outline; and have endeavored at 
 the same time, to avoid the error of coloring any part of it 
 with my own conception of right or wrong, false or true, 
 hoping the facts in themselves may incite thought and 
 subserve a moral purpose. 
 
 Indeed, the case can be regarded as nothing less than a 
 tragical and psychological wonder. 
 
 Very few dramatic or tragic compositions have equaled 
 the real life scenes and incidents in the career of Theressa 
 Sturla and Charles Stiles. While poetry and imagery 
 clothe the story of Macbeth, the Countess of Blessington, 
 King Lear and the Cenci with a charm which softens the 
 keen edge of horror which they incite, we have here in our 
 very midst an actualization of suffering as keen, of passion as 
 fierce, of love as blind, revenge as deep and crime as dread-
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 11 
 
 ful as that pictured by Shakespeare or Shelley, and are not 
 left to speculate upon the possibility that human nature 
 could be goaded to such extremes. And what is more, it is 
 a matter that conus ho KO to us as a nation, inasmuch as 
 the parties, or at least one of them, was born and reared 
 under the tuition of our own social, religious, political and 
 educational institutions, had fellowship with our kin- 
 dred and through his veins was transmitted the blood of 
 one of our respected and prominent citizens. Fact must 
 in this instance throw down the gauntlet to fiction and 
 theory content herself to deal with stubborn realities. 
 
 The highest purpose of fiction is to teach the human 
 heart through its sympathies and antipathies, a knowledge 
 of itself, and as every human being is wise, just, sincere, 
 tolerant and kind in proportion as it possesses a knowledge 
 of itself, it would seem that the history of a real exper- 
 ience would make this purpose doubly effectual, and that 
 this history can not fail to be as a light which shall make 
 apparent the dark and secret recesses of unhallowed 
 passion: 
 
 I fully realize the extreme delicacy of my subject and the 
 unyielding prejudices which exist for and against the two 
 individuals whose history is inseparable, the one from the 
 other, and whose lives were under a perpetual contamina- 
 tion of body and mind. But, notwithstanding the violent 
 extremes and deserved censure of the sins of both, \vhilo 
 I would condemn the sin, I would be just toward the in- 
 dividuals, and so far as in me lies, consider all mitigating 
 circumstances, and trace effects to their causes. And in 
 view of the whole matter I can but exclaim with the im- 
 mortal Mrs. Browning: 
 
 " Because I have power to see and hate 
 The foul tiling done within the social gate, 
 
 To curve- choose men; 
 For I, a woman, luivu only known 
 How the heart melts and the tears run down."
 
 PART I. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. * 
 
 BIRTH AND EAELY CHILDHOOD OF THERESSA 
 CARLOTTA STURALATTA. 
 
 Theressa Carlotta Sturalatta was born in Italy, near 
 Genoa, in the year 1862, and naturally inherited the pas- 
 sions and peculiarities of the Itilian people. 
 
 For hundreds of years cathedrals, monasteries and nun- 
 cries have swallowed up the wealth of Italy, and have been 
 the fruitful parents of priests, nuns, monks and friars, and 
 her capitol is the home of the Pope. 
 
 The Roman Empire, of which Italy is an important factor, 
 is the seat of oriental philosophy and the birth place of the 
 greatest philosophers, the greatest libertines and the great- 
 est tyrants the world has ever known the Ciceroes, De- 
 mosthenes, Pythagoi-as, Aristotle, Plato, Andromcus, Nero 
 and others too numerous to name. 
 
 It seems that every extreme which human passion if 
 capable of reaching, is found in Italy, and that nature not 
 only fosters the growth of these extremes, but pays a royalty 
 on them by bestowing her choicest gifts. 
 
 Italy is the fabled land of the gods, of nymphs and fairies, 
 of charms and incantations, of imaginations, of music and 
 art. " Her soil is a perpetual blessing and her sky an 
 eternal smile." She is the land of fiery, restless souls, 
 whose passions run rank and rampant like the vines, fruits 
 and flowers that palpitate on her warm, sunny hill-sides
 
 ^4 STTJRLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 and fill her valleys and bowers with perpetual verdure, 
 blossom and odor. 
 
 "Beautiful Italy! golden amber, 
 
 Warm with the kiss of lover and traitor." 
 
 This was the birth place of the girl, who, at the age of 
 23 with her own hand, murders the man she loves. Her 
 childhood days were spent in roaming, unrestrainedly, over 
 vine-clad hills and flower-gemmed valleys and in mingling 
 her song with that of the birds of her native clime, and she 
 knew but little of the world aside from these. No one 
 would have believed that thoughts of murder could ever 
 be kindled in her heart. 
 
 The parents of Theressa were Italian Catholics of the 
 Patrician class, a religion which makes God a tyrant, man 
 a criminal, and the Pope and priests God's authorized 
 agents, whose mission is to hold over the people the terror 
 of eternal wrath, and to usurp all freedom of thought, and 
 incarcerate the human mind in the dungeon of fear and 
 superstition. And, as a natural accompaniment of this, 
 the social standard in Italy makes women the inferior and 
 slave of man; virtue and purity having no foundation in 
 principle, being only a condition which the superior power 
 of man enforces upon woman that he may better gratify 
 his own selfish and lustful passions. Man makes the stand- 
 ard for woman and for himself. Hence he has a broad 
 license, and is not noted for his purity, while if she step 
 aside from the path of rectitude and purity prescribed by 
 him, she is cast out, ostracised by society and kindred. 
 
 These religious and social ideas and customs were inter- 
 woven with the entire fabric of Theressa's early childhood, 
 and colored, to a great extent, her entire life. 
 
 Her education was limited. The routine of school was 
 distasteful to her, and being allowed to follow her own 
 inclination, her time was spent mostly with her birds and
 
 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 15 
 
 flowers and iu the practice of music, which was the ruling 
 passion of her life, and she only acquired a desultory 
 knowledge of the r'udimental branches. 
 
 To escape the political troubles in Italy, the father of 
 Theressa took his family and emigrated to the United 
 States of America in the year 1867, and settled in Balti- 
 more, Md. Theressa was at this time an uncultured child 
 of one of the most passionate races on the globe. 
 
 Her voice, whose richness and capacity was beyond that 
 of the canary bird or nightingale; her large, dark eyes 
 flashing beneath the dark silken lashes and heavy arching 
 brows; her abundant waving hair, whose gloss and beauty 
 outrivalled that of the oft-quoted raven's wing; her lithe 
 and graceful form, and ardent, impulsive ways were her 
 attractions. 
 
 The guitar and harp were her favorite instruments, but 
 she had practiced them merely for pastime, and her voice 
 had not been trained. But after coming to this country 
 she began learning the piano, and soon became a fine 
 player, as well as a most enchanting contralto singer. She, 
 also, soon acquired sufficient knowledge of our language to 
 speak broken English. The father of Theressa had some 
 property, and aside from taking care of this he devoted his 
 time to his favorite marine pursuits. Her mother was a 
 good woman, but like other women of her race, her mis- 
 sion was one of labor and quiet submission. Besides 
 Theressa, there were two sons, both pilots or sea-faring 
 men. 
 
 There was a young Italian whose name was Gregaio 
 (i;ilvenio, who came to America and settled in Baltimore- 
 He was a playmate of Theressa in her childhood and soon 
 found her in her new home. He being like her, a pas- 
 sionate lover of music, a fine singer and a proficient at the 
 harp and guitar, they were strongly attached to each other
 
 STUKIA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 and spent much of their time together in their musical 
 pursuits. The attachment of childhood grew with their 
 years and soon resulted in a fervent passion, Theressa 
 loved Galvenio with the abandon of a passionate and child- 
 like credulity; Galvenio was drawn to her with a reckless, 
 selfish and fiery passion. He led her parents to believe 
 (hat he would marry her, and instead of having the watchful 
 care of a discreet and loving mother and a wise father, the 
 child Theressa unschooled in a knowledge of her own nature 
 and the insidious leadings of passion, was left to the society 
 of Galvenio and a subject to his Will and caprices. On 
 Christmas day, 1876, a night which followed a round of 
 Bacchanalian revelries, he accomplished her ruin. Theressa 
 was at this time only fourteen and one-half years of age 
 a mere child in years and experience, but as is usual with 
 the Italian female was precocious in physical development. 
 Her lover, fearing the wrath of Theressa's father should 
 lie ascertain the relations existing between them, and not 
 having sufficient opportunities at her home for the indul- 
 gence of his base passions, persuaded her to leave the 
 parental roof and take apartments at the house of one 
 Madame Fay, for the ostensible purpose of having instruc- 
 tions in music. A portion of this house was used for assig- 
 nation purposes and a suite of furnished rooms were given 
 Theressa and an instructor hired to teach her in music. 
 Her rare voice and musical talent, as well as her ardent, 
 childish ways soon made her a favorite with those who'fre- 
 qnented the place. But she devoted herself to Galvenio, 
 her music, birds and flowers with which he had surrounded 
 her. In the meantime her father hunted her out, and learn- 
 ing her relations with Gregaio Galvenio, came down upon 
 his erring, defenseless child with all the unmerciful and 
 fiery wrath of an enraged Italian drove her out of his 
 heart, blotted her from his memory, bade her never again
 
 8TUBLA-ST1LES TRAGEDY. 17 
 
 to enter the door of her home or dare to approach father 
 or mother. Her brothers were not less cruel than the 
 father; they even threatened to take the life of their sister 
 should she ever dare return to the precincts of home. 
 Thus at the tender age of fourteen or fifteen the girl 
 was ostracised blotted out of the hearts and memory of 
 her parents and brothers in a strange land, left to take 
 her own way through the snares and temptations which be- 
 set the pathway even of those who have the constant pro- 
 tection of parents and home. 
 
 Let her sin be what it would, in consideration of the ten- 
 derness and inexperience of her years, the indiscretion and 
 final cruelty of her parents, can there be a mother in all 
 the land whose heart would not reach out toward her in 
 commiseration and a desire to rescue rather than condemn 
 her? 
 
 Galvenio's passion for Theressa was not the kind that 
 endures. It was the kind that feeds upon sensuality and 
 soon burns itself out. In a few weeks or months his ardor 
 began to cool, and Theressa (or Italian Effie, as she was 
 now called,) was neglected and left to herself.
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 BIRTH AND EAELY HISTORY OF CHAS. STILES. 
 
 Charles Stiles was born in Dixon, 111., in the year 1850. 
 He was the son of Gen. E. B. Stiles, who was a prominent 
 citizen, banker and politician, and who once ran against 
 Hon E B. Washburn for Congress, and who was als 
 respected member of the Presbyterian Church. Th, 
 lowing extract from the discourse of Rev. W. E. Meloy, 
 pastor of the United Presbyterian Church, also of 
 Williamson, will show to the reader the view which that 
 faction of society took of the case under consideration; 
 also the early religious experiences of Charles, 
 course of the reverend gentleman treated of the growing 
 wickedness of Chicago. Referring to the murder 
 Charles Stiles, he said: 
 
 ' "Immediately after the murder a deep interest centers 
 on the vile person who has done the wrong. She is pomte 
 out to us as a very interesting person, pleasing m address 
 who has lavished her money and affection on the partner of 
 her misfortune. True, she has taken his -life, but it may 
 have been an accident, and then by her own statement t 
 had been deeply wronged. He was such a dissolute, cruel 
 man, who spent his own money and hers at the virtuous 
 race course and innocent gambling table. An attorney-at- 
 law, a sworn officer of justice, understanding how to work 
 on the popular sympathy, is summoned to her side. 1 
 cruel cell is too rough a place for so fair a prisoner 
 exotics, sweet flowers, to cheer her, and although she may 
 be indicted for murder, let bonds be secured for her
 
 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 19 
 
 lease, since there is no probability of her conviction. Let 
 no eulogy be offered in behalf of the dead ; no tears but 
 those of kindred be shed over his bier; no flowers be strewn 
 on his dishonored grave. He sowed the wind, and reaped 
 the whirlwind. He was, with all the splendid powers of his 
 nature, the companion of fools, and is destroyed. But 
 there are pleas to offer in behalf of society, and order, and 
 decency. The law, even though disobeyed, has still a 
 majesty to be maintained. Life, though it be wasted in 
 riot, is stamped with the image of God, and although that 
 image be defaced, yet the old law still stands, 'Whoso 
 sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.' It 
 is not a bloody fiend, with lowering brow and brawny arm, 
 that comes to do his work, but a cool, calculating woman, 
 who has bartered away the chastity of her womanhood, 
 and whose testimony as to the cruelty of her victim is to be 
 believed. She does not hasten in the night on her errand, 
 but comes in the pure light of the morning, rouses her 
 victim from his slumber, and in an hour he. stands before 
 his Judge, while the adulteress and murderer repeats the 
 story of wrong and self-defense in credulous ears, and im- 
 mediately the public are informed that conviction is not 
 probable. We are becoming familiarized with stories of 
 blood; it is the constant cry of the newsboy on the street. 
 No man feels his life secure, or knows at what hour he may 
 be summoned to his home by the record of a tragedy." 
 
 The speaker also referred to the growing evils of intemper- 
 ance and gambling. Concerning the latter, it was enough 
 to bring the blush of shame to the cheek of every upright 
 citizen to see the Mayor of Chicago associated with and 
 personally connected with the worst gamblers in the city. 
 The remedy was with the church in properly educating tha 
 future generations, and in voting for only good and pure 
 men for office.
 
 20 STURLA-ST1LES TRAGEDY. 
 
 EARLY RELIGIOUS LIFE OF CHARLEY STILES. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Williamson yesterday morning preached his 
 annual missionary sermon, in which he appealed for liberal 
 aid in forwarding the work in foreign lands. Preceding the 
 sermon proper he spoke of Charles Stiles and his early 
 Christian life. He said: "A few days since the people were 
 shocked by the announcement of the sudden death of 
 Charles Stiles. The circumstances of the shooting were 
 familiar to all. There was apersonal and pastoral acquaint- 
 ance and familiarity with the young man. Eleven years 
 since he was ordained a minister, and was appointed to the 
 pastorate at Dixou. There he met the father and mother 
 of Charles Stiles, and saw and knew him also well. In the 
 winter of 1872-3, during a great revival, Charles and his 
 mother came to church and sought religion. They knelt 
 at the altar and were converted. Mrs. Stiles was a woman 
 of culture, and had a high education. Mrs. Stiles had 
 since then been a consistent Christian. Charles was ad- 
 mitted to probation for six months, according to the church 
 rules. He remained in probation for two months. He had 
 a fine team and a good sleigh, and with his pastor visited 
 the neighboring towns, and was very enthusiastic in revival 
 work, doing immense good in his way. At the end of the 
 two months he came to Chicago, and before going was 
 warned by the pastor of the dangers to himself. His feel- 
 ings and his education were such that he acquired with 
 facility certain kinds of knowledge. In Chicago he met a 
 certain class of associates who took him from church, and 
 he lost his love of Christ and never came back, though his 
 pastor, on coming here, often tried to induce him to do so. 
 When he was shot, it was to be hoped most deeply that as 
 he lay there flying, with that evil woman near him, he be- 
 came sincerely penitent, and his mind was filled with the 
 recollection of his Christian life, and it was sweet to think
 
 8TDRLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 21 
 
 that ere he died, he embraced Christ and died in Christ's 
 love and forgiveness." 
 
 No comments are necessary upon the logic of these 
 divines. The reader's intelligence must be the standard by 
 which it is estimated. 
 
 Hon. E. B. Stiles died but a few weeks previous to the 
 murder of his son Charles. He, as well as the mother 
 were active members of the church. Mrs. Stiles was a 
 woman of irreproachable character, of more than ordinary 
 culture and education, but inclined toward intolerance and 
 severity toward erring mortals. But she was extremely 
 fond of her son, and like other mothers was inclined to 
 throw the mantle of charity over his faults, and to hope 
 against hope for some miraculous intervention of Provi- 
 dence to regenerate and cleanse him from sin. She un- 
 doubtedly made her best efforts in his behalf and suffered 
 all the bitterness of disappointment at his wayward career, 
 and as a woman and mother we would gladly bring balm 
 for her wounded and stricken heart, and with the hand of 
 sympathy strew flowers upon the grave of the father whose 
 ashes are mingling with those of their murdered bo} r . 
 Whatever was the cause of his sins, none could suffer more 
 than the widowed mother who beholds her son the idol of 
 her heart a mangled corpse murdered by the hand of a 
 woman, whom he had folded to his heart and in whose ears 
 he had whispered love's fondest and sweetest words, and 
 who to say the least he had wronged and abused. "What- 
 ever reproof there is in this terrible lesson whatever 
 punishment follows as a legitimate and unavoidable result 
 let fallible men and women judge mercifully, and especially 
 toward the mother of the wayward man, let the hand of 
 sympathy be extended. 
 
 "If every child might live the life predestined in the 
 mother's heart, all the way from the cradle to the coffin.
 
 22 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 they would walk on beams of light and shine in glory. 
 Alas ! some are born like the dandelion glowing bright in 
 the beginning but soon changing to a fancy globe and by 
 the first wind dashed out and gone. Paint the man as the 
 mother's thoughts do; then paint him as he really lived ! 
 Hang the two pictures side by side and write. What he was 
 to be! and then, What he was! Life has no sadder con- 
 trasts." It has been said that Charles was an unusually 
 affectionate son, and, that, notwithstanding his profligacy 
 he was always kind and tender to his mother, and that he 
 gave substantial evidence of his regard for her by purchas- 
 ing a home for her and otherwise ministering to her tem- 
 poral comfort. This fact shows that with all his wicked- 
 ness he had some lovable traits of character. There was 
 no fault in his early education so far as books and schools 
 serve the purpose of educating. He was sent to school at 
 an early age, was precocious as a scholar, and soon became 
 master of the rudimental branches. His earlier career can 
 not be more truthfully given than by quoting a journalist 
 of the " Chicago Times:" 
 
 "REAPING THE WHIRL-WIND." 
 
 He says, " In the thirty-two years he passed on earth, 
 Charlie Stiles lived a hundred years, measured by gas light 
 experience. He was the typical 'man about town' and 
 probably the best representative in the city of Chicago, of 
 that adventurous untamable class of men who feed on ex- 
 citement, and to whom existence would be, unbearable if 
 they could not go on the keen gallop at all times. Nothing 
 is too rapid for them, and when they go to bed it is with 
 the assurance that they have missed nothing in the whole 
 world they could reach escaped no experience they could 
 compass. 
 
 " When only 14 years old Charles fell in with a company
 
 STURLA STILES TRAGEDY. 23 
 
 of fast young men who were going to Europe. He was at 
 once possessed with a violent desire to go too, and begged 
 his father to let him make the trip. Thinking the best way 
 to cure the lad of his ambition for foreign travel would be 
 to consent, Gen. Stiles said yes, not dreaming that his son 
 really intended starting. He was mistaken, for Charlie, 
 even at that early age, was feverishly bent on seeing the 
 world. He spent nearly two years abroad and he did see a 
 great deal of the fast side of life in that time, visiting all 
 the capitals of Europe and travelling at an exceedingly 
 rapid gait. This was about the close of the war and 
 though his father had failed in the banking business, he 
 became a successful army contractor, and kept his ' young 
 hopeful' plentifully supplied with money. Charles also 
 spent several years at the universities of Dresden, Heidel- 
 .burg and Geneva, Europe, and became familiar with the 
 German and French languages, and acquired some knowl- 
 edge of Italian. 
 
 " A Chicago man who was in Munich at the time young 
 Stiles was 'in Europe, tells of a visit paid at a beer garden. 
 The first object that attracted his attention on entering the 
 place, was an American boy of tender years, elevated on a 
 beer barrel haranguing a lot of German students, talking 
 in the most impassioned way and with the greatest volu- 
 bility in the language of the country. This juvenile orator 
 was Charles Stiles, who took this way to 'spout' patriotism 
 at his German friends. On his return from Europe young 
 Stiles found himself quite a hero and was taken into 
 society. He spent several months with the Ogdens, and 
 flourished like a green bay tree, as a society young man. 
 He soon drifted into a different path of life, however, and 
 found gratification for his craving for excitement by specu- 
 lating on the board of trade. Being gifted with a ready 
 tongue, a bright intellect and a genial disposition, he soon
 
 24: STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 became popular among men of his kind and no party was 
 complete without him. He speculated heavily and made 
 and lost large sums of money, both individually and with 
 his father, and for fifteen years before his death, was 
 recognized as one of the quickest winners and losers who 
 ever played at the hazardous game of speculation. 
 
 " By the time he was 23 years old, Charlie was a confirmed 
 gamester and as fast a man as there was in town. He had 
 a perfect mania for gambling, in every conceivable form, 
 and to him one way of risking money was as legitimate as 
 another. He could not see the difference between betting 
 $10,000 on the turn of a market, or $100 on the turn of a 
 card, or $1,000 on the result of a horse race. His most 
 distinctive trait of character was a hatred of shams. Pro- 
 claiming himself a social outcast and a man without prin- 
 ciple, he was loth to give anybody credit for purity of 
 conduct or disinterestedness. To him the world was a 
 cesspool of hypocrisy and deceit, and it gave him delight 
 to bathe in the pool of wickedness in the open glare of 
 sunlight; and there was nothing he would not do to show 
 his contempt for the usages of society. For several years 
 after his return from Europe he dabbled about the board 
 of trade with varying success, sometimes having plenty of 
 money, and again being reduced to desperate straits. As 
 the years wore away he developed a love for horse-flesh, and 
 at one time owned several ' fleet flyers.' Seven years ago he 
 started on the grand eastern circuit as ' pool seller,' making 
 quite a name for himself in that line and developing an apti- 
 tude for that sort of thing, which subsequently gave him 
 the reputation of being the best 'caller in the United States.' 
 He was known in the board of trade circles as the ' lightning 
 caller/ and the sound of his clear, ringing voice was heard 
 for years in its spacious halls, and its echo will not die out 
 of the memory of its members for many years to come.
 
 8TURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 25 
 
 " His salary varied from $2,500 to $5,000 as ' caller,' be- 
 sides what he gained in other ways. But his ungovernable 
 propensity for gambling and profligate habits absorbed all 
 this and much more, and it is said that he was head over 
 heels in debt ten mouths out of the twelve. When he was 
 in funds he paid his debts, provided he happened to think 
 of it, but generally speaking he was a hard man to collect 
 money from. He was careful to pay his board and tailor 
 bills, and always had credit in those directions. He had no 
 social standing as a natural consequence of his open indu- 
 cencies; but as he was witty and companionable he was 
 always the centre of a crowd when he chose to exert him- 
 self to be entertaining. Among the demi monde he WHS 
 quite popular, and generally occupied the seat of honor at 
 the head of the table on banquet occasions in ' palaces of 
 beautiful sin ' around town. His value as a ' caller ' gave 
 him a standing on the board of trade he could not have 
 obtained in any other way, but there was little in common 
 between him and a great majority of the members of either 
 board. Everybody knew him and he knew everybody, but 
 there was no fellowship, and his death aroused very little 
 sympathy in Gamblers' Alley. The prevailing sentiment 
 on ' Change ' may be summed up in the laconic remark of a 
 broker, who was moved to say: "It is pretty rough, I 
 must admit; but when a man will run with desperate people 
 he carries his life in his hands and must take his chances. 
 I wonder he was not killed before." 
 
 He established a reputation for illicit intercourse with 
 more than one ' fallen angel,' and was said to boast of his 
 liaisons to the woman who at last took his life. This fact 
 was well known to his acquaintances. One of them once 
 asked him how he could endure such a vixen as his acknowl- 
 edged mistress. 'I like her,' he replied, 'because she is so 
 devilish ugly. I like to see her rave; and I half believe
 
 26 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 she will kill me sometime.' The notorious May Willard was 
 one of his favorites, and he delighted in taunting her with 
 rehearsals of his revels with other 'sisters of sin.' A little 
 anecdote is told of him, which illustrates his tendencies in 
 this direction: "While carrying on his liaison with May 
 Willard, he invited he.r to ride out one afternoon and see 
 how he looked riding with his 'good girl;' which 'good 
 girl ' was a cousin and highly respected lady, who has since 
 died. Taking him at his word, she drove out, and as the 
 sleighs met on Michigan Ave., the ' Dago,' as the Willard 
 strumpet was called, threw a bag of flour at Stiles, covering 
 him from head to foot with a coating of white." 
 
 Charles Stiles was for many years a member of the Owl 
 Club, and was an officer of that organization for two or 
 three terms. He joined at the same time that Al. Bruce 
 did, who was notorious for his efforts to seduce young 
 girls, and who was kicked out of the Palmer House for it. 
 Stiles was also a member of the Elk Club. Up to the time 
 of his assassination he was an esteemed member of both 
 these organizations. 
 
 After his death, the Owl Club sent a magnificent floral 
 cross and crown, and the call board a pillow of flowers, 
 bearing the legend 'AT BEST,' for the head of the murdered 
 man to be laid upon in its last repose. 
 
 The members of the Owl and Elk Clubs both passed 
 appropriate resolutions on his death, which were accom- 
 panied with touching words of condolence and forwarded 
 to his family in Dixon.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 THE OWL CLUB. 
 
 Only a brief notice of the organization denominated Owl 
 Club is here necessary, inasmuch as the counsel for the 
 defense has amply set forth its distinctive features, in the 
 following pages. As predicted by him in the course of the 
 trial, the Owl Club has ceased to exist. 
 
 The probable reason for the name Owl Club was that the 
 meetings were mostly held out of business hours and in the 
 evenings. 
 
 The original purpose being to organize a fraternity and 
 furnish apartments which would afford a pleasant and con- 
 venient retreat for festivity and sociality, where single gen- 
 tlemen and others whose business called them to the city 
 and away from home, could find a pleasant substitute for the 
 parlor or drawing-room of their own house, and the organ- 
 ization was celebrated for their elegant and pleasant apart- 
 ments and for the culture and hospitality of its members. 
 
 It was organized about five years ago by good substantial 
 men. Indeed, among its members were persons who 
 ranked high for their literary attainments and moral excel- 
 lence and worth, but who were of a social and convivial 
 turn of mind. At that time Charles Stiles figured con- 
 spicuously as a member. 
 
 The rooms occupied by the club were in McVicker's 
 theatre building and comprised a large portion of the same. 
 Indeed, the building was about equally divided between the 
 theatre proper and the rooms of the Owl Club.
 
 28 STURLA- STILES TKAGEDY. 
 
 At the time of its existence we find on entering the first 
 floor of the Club rooms an elegaut reception room. The 
 moment we cross its threshhold our feet sink ankle deep 
 in the rich Turkish carpet which covers its floor. Its fur- 
 niture is upholstered with the richest of crimson velvet, 
 and its mirrored walls repeat and magnify its elegance, 
 and, if our vanity is not gratified by beholding in every 
 direction a full reflection of ourself, we can only find relief 
 by turning our eyes toward the ceiling from which hangs 
 a chandalier embellished by crystal of the most magnificent 
 description, and of such quality and so arranged that its 
 fine prismatic effect is never lost to the beholder. The 
 nest room is set apart for social entertainment of a collo- 
 quial character. The carpet of this room is scarcely less 
 rich or its furniture less elegant, though of a more sober 
 hue. Upon the walls of this room are hung magnificent 
 original paintings of the old masters; resting conspicuously 
 in the fore-ground, upon an easel, is a portrait of George 
 Washington. In the rear is a store-room for cigars, wine 
 closets, etc. Up stairs are billiard, pool, card and poker 
 rooms. In this club, from time to time during the first 
 and second years of its existence, the sons of rich men 
 enrolled their names as members. They were men who 
 conscrted with prostitutes, gambled, wore diamonds and 
 drank champagne. From this time, the reputable element 
 diminished in numbers, and the hiatus thus made in the 
 club was filled with men with whom the organizers of the 
 club would not associate in darkness and much less in day- 
 light. Thus about two years ago a large number of the 
 dissipated and abandoned class of men, without heads to 
 understand or hearts to feel or appreciate the difference 
 between virtue and prostitution, had become members of 
 the club. This class of men soon attracted another class 
 who were further advanced than themselves in the quali-
 
 STUfcLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 29 
 
 ties, which distinguish the libertine and debauchee. 
 These persons were, in the main, sons of rich men, promi- 
 nent lawyers, and others of national reputation; twenty 
 were sons of well-known and opulent members of the Board 
 of Trade. 
 
 The first president of the club was a man possessed of 
 great moral worth and high qualities of head and heart, 
 and the Owl Club was an organization in which there was 
 a mutual exchange of thought between able-minded men 
 on the subject of religion, politics, commerce and science. 
 But it seems to have degenerated i'nto a place where per- 
 sons discuss the qualities of some prostitute and tell how 
 much wine they saw poured down the back of som. 
 cyprian, how much was lost at poker or won at a horse 
 race, and who are found in the companionship of the scarlet- 
 robed cyprian of the stamp of Madame Gee, and others of 
 her class. 
 
 The Elk Club stands better than the Owl Club. It is 
 composed of managers of theatres who are usually honor- 
 ary members, and actors, who are more or less gay. There 
 are also a few -orofessional gamblers and a few professional 
 politicians.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THERESSA STURLA AND CHARLES STILES THE 
 BEGINNING OF THEIR ACQUAINTANCE. 
 
 We will now drop the Italian name and use the name, 
 Theressa Sturla as it is Americanized, and after relating 
 the incidents connected with her early acquaintance with 
 Stiles, leave the remainder to be developed through the 
 trial in which the details of their life together, appears 
 more fully than it would be given in any other way. 
 
 In 1875 or 1876, Charles Stiles quit the turf to become 
 manager of the 'Mites,' and during the Centennial is said to 
 have run a faro bank in Philadelphia. It was while follow- 
 ing the races from city to city on the round of their 
 eastern circuit, as 'pool seller,' betting on horses, etc., or 
 as in horse parlance ' gambling on the green ' that he went 
 to Baltimore, and being the guest of Madame Fay, made 
 the acquaintance of Theressa Sturla. 
 
 He was now twenty-seven years of age, and an adept in 
 all the qualifications of an expert gambler and heartless 
 rake. 
 
 Hearing the voice of Theressa in her apartments, he was 
 charmed with its rare melody and at once determined to 
 make her acquaintance. 
 
 She was at the piano in the midst of a piece of operatic 
 music which gave full scope to her talent in that direction, 
 when Madame Fay entered with young Stiles, for the pur- 
 pose of introducing him. The time was opportune. 
 Theressa never appeared to better advantage. Charles 
 Stiles was charmed not only with her music but with the
 
 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 31 
 
 girl. He was gay, fascinating and brilliant, and was 
 greeted by her in the same spirit. Theressa's knowledge of 
 English was at this time about the same as Stile's knowl- 
 edge of Italian. The broken English of the one and the 
 imperfect Italian of the other added to the novelty of their 
 interview, and, as Stiles remarked, made her singing per- 
 fectly enchanting. He was enamored with her playing and 
 her singing; with her dark eyes that could flash with 
 fervor in the rendering of an operatic piece ; twinkle with 
 mirth in the comic ballad or melt with sweet sentiment in 
 the love song. These attractions combined with her child- 
 like abandon to whatever mood happened to possess her, 
 and her utter disregard or rather her ignorance of the con- 
 ventionalities of society made her a novelty to Stiles. She 
 was a creature of sentiment and emotion. Every feeling 
 and shade of feeling came, unchecked, to the surface. In 
 a word she was transparent. And this artificial and artful 
 man of the world would not have been more delighted and 
 surprised if a veritable nymph or fairy had made its ap- 
 pearance harp in hand. With no thought beyond that of 
 present selfish gratification, he set himself to work at the 
 (to him) delightful task of winning her confidence and 
 affections. He availed himself of every possible oppor- 
 tunity to be with her and every moment was filled with 
 enthusiasm. He studied her tastes, praised her singing 
 and soon won her entire confidence. Galvenio had at this 
 time almost entirely forsaken her. She missed his society 
 and in her childish loneliness was glad to beguile the wrary 
 hours by singing and playing for the amusement of the 
 brilliant Chicagoean, and his words of praise were always 
 sufficient to recompense her. That Theressa was ignorant 
 of his intentions and innocent of any impure inclinations 
 in the outset of her attachment for Stiles, we have every 
 reason to believe.
 
 32 STTTRLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 One evening Galvenio came to pay Theressa a visit at 
 her rooms. He found her singing and playing at the 
 piano, Stiles standing by her side turning the leaves of her 
 music and evidently enthused by her performance. 
 Though Galvenio now cared but little for the girl, himself, 
 and had treated her with neglect and contempt, he was 
 immediately fired with jealousy at seeing her receive 
 the attentions of any one else, and as self-appoint* d 
 master and tyrant exacted from her the mo^t abject 
 obedience and homage. With an exhibition of passion 
 and rage peculiar to his nationality he accused and quar- 
 relled with her and left her forever. Theressa was grieved 
 and angry. Stiles immediately took in the situation and 
 seized it as his opportunity to ingratiate himself into her 
 favor. Galvenio was disparaged and she extolled. "With 
 assumed sympathy and indignation, he told her it was 
 shameful for one as gifted as she to be so treated by such a 
 wretch. If she would come under his protection he would 
 place her where she would shine as a star on the stage and 
 in the province of lyric art. She had powers which would 
 command the homage of the world. These words of 
 flattery were accompanied by the most extravagant expres- 
 sions of undying love, all of which had their desired effect. 
 Music was the ruling passion of Theressa's life. She was 
 also extravagantly imaginative, sensitive and impressible, 
 and she yeilded soul and body to the keeping of a man, 
 who from his habits of dissipation, selfishness and sensu- 
 ality, placed no value upon her love except so far as it con- 
 tributed to his lustful nature. From that hour the high 
 spirited Italian girl clung to him with a devotion, self- 
 sacrifice and submission which amounted to a dog-like 
 servility. Both' being alike subjects of caprice rather than 
 a well founded and rational attachment, their life together 
 was a scene of tempest and sunshine. The two extremes
 
 CHARLES STILES.
 
 TRAGEDY. 33 
 
 of intense love and violent hatred alternating, yet being 
 held together by a strange and inexplicable fascination. 
 
 Soon after the quarrel between Theressa and her Italian 
 lover, young Stiles moved his trunk to her apartments and 
 remained during his stay in Baltimore. In the mean time 
 he obtained $200 of her, which she had obtained by selling 
 her jewelry. This he gambled and spent in the races. 
 
 When the horses left for Chicago, Stiles accompanied 
 them, but before leaving Theressa he gave her a glowing 
 account of Chicago represented himself as one of Chi- 
 cago's most prominent men, told her he had great influence 
 with the dramatic press, and that he could by the wave of 
 the hand raise her to great prominence on the stage, and 
 as a shining star in the high circles in which he was a dis- 
 tinguished character. 
 
 After leaving her he wrote her from the different cities 
 on his route. His letters were full of expressions of the 
 most ardent love and were frequently accompanied with 
 solicitations for money. On reaching Chicago his determi- 
 nation to bring Theressa to that city seemed to take a still 
 firmer hold of him. He gave her glowing descriptions of 
 the attractions of the city, and, especially, of the lyrical and 
 theatrical department, and enthused her brain with high 
 expectations in that direction, and in June, 1878, she went 
 to Chicago and was taken to Eldridge Court as the wife of 
 Charles Stiles. 
 
 The remainder of their career together can be best por- 
 trayed through the trial of the murderess. 
 
 The details of the tragedy we clip from the Chicago Times 
 of July 11, 1882, as follows: 
 
 " Charles Stiles, caller of the call board, was shot through 
 
 the heart and instantly killed, in his room at the Palmer 
 
 House, at 7 o'clock yesterday morning, by his mistress, 
 
 Madeline Stiles. There were no witnesses to the shooting 
 
 3
 
 34 8TURLA-STILE8 TRAGEDY.. 
 
 but several gentlemen heard the two people quarreling; 
 heard them struggling, and saw them both the instant that 
 the man fell dead in the hall. Stiles, his brother, and 
 another gentleman occupied rooms No. 660 and No. 661 in 
 the hotel, the former being their sleeping apartment. The 
 two rooms are at the extreme end of a hall whose end win- 
 dow opens on the court in the center of the hotel. Oppo- 
 site room No. 661 is No. 662, which was occupied by Mr. 
 Edward B. Strong, of the firm of Foss, Strong & Co. 
 Opposite the door of No. 660 is a short hall, at the end of 
 which is the door of No. 664, which was occupied by Mr. 
 Young, a clerk for Matson & Co. Both these gentlemen 
 heard some one rap at the door of No. 661, and the person 
 outside say, as if in answer to an inquiry: "Messenger, 
 messenger." Mr. Young had just looked at his watch and 
 it indicated 6:53 o'clock. They heard the door open and 
 close, and then there was the sound of loud talking, but 
 the words were indistinguishable. In one or two minutes 
 afterward they heard the sound of a pistol shot, and then 
 of another, followed by the sound of an opening door and 
 Mr. Stiles' voice crying "Murder! Murder!" Mr. Young 
 was standing upon his bed 3 looking over the transom and 
 down the hall, and saw Stiles fall in the hallway with his 
 head opposite the door of his bedroom. The next instant 
 a woman kneeled beside him, took his head in her arms, 
 and kissed him. The report of the pistol shots had caused 
 several men occupying adjoining rooms to ring their bells, 
 and the boy whose business it is to answer them had 
 rushed down stairs and notified the office that something 
 was wrong. Willis Howe, the manager of the house, Frank 
 Poobst, his assistant, a clerk, and the chief bell-boy went 
 up to the room, after turning in the police alarm. They 
 found Stiles lying on the floor in the hall, with his face 
 turned upward, and Madeline sitting on the floor beside
 
 8TURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 35 
 
 him, bending over and looking in his face. Stiles wore 
 nothing but his night shirt, and the front of it was stained 
 with blood, which also soaked the carpet about him. On 
 the white wall opposite the door out of which Stiles had 
 coine were four long, curved streaks of blood, reaching 
 from the height of a man's head to the floor. He had evi- 
 dently fallen against this wall as he staggered from the 
 room, and with the hand with which he had tried to stop 
 the blood he steadied himself, and as he was falling his 
 fingers swept down and left their bloody trail. 
 
 The girl was completely dressed for the street wore a 
 dark straw hat and a long blue pelisse. When the hotel 
 men approached her, one of them said: "It's Stiles." 
 
 " Yes," said she, " it's Charlie Stiles, and I've killed him." 
 
 Her voice, they said, was perfectly even, and there was 
 no trace of excitement in her manner; but her face was 
 colorless and looked as if it might have been of stone. She 
 bent over and kissed the dead man's lips, and said: 
 
 " If he had brought me home last night this would not 
 have happened. He took me eight miles in the country 
 last night, and left me out there to walk home alone." 
 
 Someone brought out a sheet and covered the dead man's 
 body, and she sat by it, the least excited person of the 
 score who surrounded it, until the policemen arrived. 
 Then she arose and stood leaning against the wall watching 
 them without a sign of emotion even of curiosity in her 
 face, while they arranged his body on a stretcher and started 
 to carry it toward the elevator. To the hotel clerk, who 
 was locking up the room, she pointed out the pistol, which 
 was lying on the floor, and told him he had better take 
 care of it. It was handed to Sergt. Bohan. It is a five- 
 shooter, Forehand & Wadsworth, self-cocking revolver, and 
 two of its chambers were still loaded. Two shots had been 
 fired from it. One bullet, the first fired, had entered Stiles'
 
 36 STUKLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 heart; the other, fired at him while he was opening the 
 door, had gone over his head, through the panel of the 
 door, and penetrated the plastering of the wall on the oppo- 
 site side of the hall. Sergt. Bohan turned to the girl after 
 he had found that Stiles was dead, and said: 
 
 " You ought to be taken out and strung up for this." 
 
 She merely answered that the law could take its course. 
 He asked her if she was sorry. Said she : 
 
 "It's done now, and its no use to be sorry." 
 
 Mr. Young says that he heard her say: "I killed him; 
 I intended to do it, and I'm glad of it;" but the others do 
 not seem to have heard this. When the men went down 
 the hall, bearing the body on the stretcher, she followed 
 them, quietly pulling on her kid gloves as she went. 
 
 The body was put in the Central station police patrol- 
 wagon and taken to the morgue. Madeline, accompanied 
 by Sergt. Bohan, followed it on foot. At the morgue the 
 keeper objected to her going in, but she paid no attention 
 whatever to his protest, but walked up to the stretcher, 
 pushed the dead man's hair back from his forehead with 
 her hand, and kissed his lips several times. Then she 
 looked steadily at the face for a moment without a tear or 
 a quiver of the lip, turned away, and climbed into the 
 patrol-wagon, in which she was taken to the Harrison 
 street police station. The station-keeper asked her- name 
 and age. She answered: 
 
 " Madeline Stiles; 21 years." 
 
 Sergt. Bohan said she had killed her husband, and the 
 word " murder " was added to the station-keeper's memo- 
 randa. He said that the prisoner appeared as unconcerned 
 as a man who had been brought in for violating a building 
 ordinance. She was locked up in one of the row of better 
 cells which are kept for witnesses and murderers. .During 
 their walk to the morgue she told the sergeant that she
 
 8TUBLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 37 
 
 and Stiles had driven to Downing's the previous evening 
 and they had quarreled on the way out. When they 
 reached the place they had been drinking, and quarreled 
 again. He had driven away and left her there. A little 
 boy had walked with her through the rain and mud to the 
 dummy train, and she did not get to her room, at No. 291 
 Wabash avenue, until after midnight. She remained in 
 her room the rest of the night. She went to Charlie's 
 room in the morning to make up with him. He called 
 her a d d b , she said and ordered her out. Then he 
 took her by the throat, choked her, and threw her dowi:, 
 That was the time she shot him. She always carried a 
 revolver, she added, and had owned the one with which 
 she shot Stiles for several years. She showed the officer 
 the blue marks on her neck where she said Stiles's fingers 
 had bruised the flesh. 
 
 BEHIND THE BARS. 
 
 It was the face of a Madonna, rather than that of a mur- 
 deress, behind the bars. It was a sad, Italian face, but 
 not without its suggestions of fierceness and sensuality. 
 The oval features were pale; her coal black hair rippled 
 to her waist, and there was a wild, frightened look in the 
 dangerous dark eyes. She was richly dressed in black 
 silk, with lace at the throat and wrists, and she had cast 
 aside a fashionable pelisse of blue. When she had become 
 somewhat calm and collected, a reporter for The Times was 
 closeted with her in the cell. Then she told this story of a 
 courtesan's life a life overshadowed by sin and crowned 
 with a crime. It rivals in horror the romance of a Zola: 
 
 DOMESTIC RELATIONS. 
 
 The Times reporter who called at No. 291 Wabash avenue, 
 to learn something regarding the victim and his slayer 
 during their stay there, was kindly received by Mrs. Harvey,
 
 38 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 a rather comely matron past the middle age, who was will- 
 ing to impart any intelligence in her possession respecting 
 the couple. "You will understand," said the lady, "my 
 peculiar and unfortunate position in this matter is some- 
 thing for which I am in nowise responsible, as, until ' Mrs. 
 Stiles ' asserted to the contrary, I firmly believed they were 
 husband and wife. About the middle of April Mr. Stiles 
 called at my house and asked if I had a vacant apartment 
 that I thought would be suitable for himself and wife. I 
 replied that I had, and showed him suite No. 5, on the 
 second floor, just adjoining my room. He was favorably 
 impressed with the rooms, and said he would engage them 
 at the price named $30 per month. As I always do, I 
 asked him for references, and he said that he had been 
 married six years and referred me to several Evanston 
 people whom I knew well. His seeming honesty and frank- 
 ness led me to close the lease of the rooms without further 
 inquiry. Mr. Stiles and the woman I supposed to be his 
 wife came with their baggage and some small articles of 
 furniture, and took possession of the rooms. They lived 
 in good style and were, to all outward appearance, as happy 
 a pair as I have ever seen. ' Mrs. Stiles ' was particularly 
 lady-like in her deportment, and was discreet to a fault, 
 and the ladies in the house with whom she became ac- 
 quainted soon learned to love her dearly. She never had 
 any gentlemen callers, and when Mr. Stiles was out of town, 
 as he generally was from Friday until Monday, being at his 
 home at Dixon, she never went out of the house. At those 
 times she cooked her meals on an oil-stove and contented 
 herself in-doors. Thus their lives passed apparently with- 
 out a jar. About 1 o'clock each day she would meet him 
 at some down-town restaurant and have dinner with him, 
 and then at 6 o'clock would again meet him and go to sup- 
 per, and the pair would return to the house at 9 or 10
 
 STURLA-STILES TEAGEDY. 39 
 
 o'clock. had never noticed anything peculiar about them 
 until the Fourth of July, when, without stating where she 
 was going, ' Mrs. Stiles ' packed her trunk and left the house. 
 On Wednesday afternoon, between 4 and 5 o'clock, Mr. 
 Stiles came to the house and asked where ' Effie ' was. I 
 replied that she had gone and taken her trunk. He be- 
 came almost frantic at the aunouncement, and, gesticula- 
 ting in a wild sort of way, said : ' My God ! my God ! If 
 this goes on I'll lose my mind, I am sure I will. Mother is 
 responsible. She has tried so often to separate us. Had 
 father lived, all would be different.' I left him in that state 
 of mind, and he soon went away. Later in the evening he 
 and his wife returned, and about noon on Thursday her 
 trunk and the things she had taken away with her on the 
 4th came back. 
 
 "From that time until Sunday all went well; they went 
 to their meals regularly, and in the evening Mr. Stiles re- 
 turned home with her. On Sunday morning, between 9 
 and 10 o'clock, I was sitting in the hall, when Mr. Stiles 
 came out of his room, and, bidding me good morning, went 
 down stairs. Near 11 o'clock a messenger came to my room 
 with a note addressed to me. I recognized Mr. Stiles' 
 handwriting on the address, and as I had received several 
 of the same kind before I turned it over to his wife without 
 opening it, being convinced it was for her. She broke the 
 seal hurriedly, and as I was leaving the room she called me 
 back, saying: 'See here, Mrs. Harvey.' Hooked over the 
 note hastily and saw it directed me to say to ' Effie ' that he 
 could not take care of her as he would like, so they must 
 separate forever. ' Mrs. Stiles ' was considerably agitated 
 over the note, but said very little save that it was terrible 
 that she should be so treated. The day passed slowly to 
 me, as I momentarily expected something. I knew not 
 what. Finally, about 5 o'clock, I saw them in the hall, and
 
 40 STUELA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 I heard Mr. Stiles say in a rather cheerful tone : ' Now, my 
 dear, get on your things, and we will take a ride,' where- 
 upon they both entered their rooms. A few minutes later 
 they passed down the stairs, and that was the last time I 
 saw Mr. Stiles alive. I felt solicitous for the welfare of the 
 couple, and that fact kept me up until nearly 12 o'clock 
 Sunday night, awaiting their return; but as they did not 
 come I retired. I had been in bed about an hour when I 
 heard an impatient rap at my door, and I asked who was 
 there. A voice replied : ' Mrs. Stiles. I want to see you, 
 quick, please.' I arose and opened the door, and she asked 
 me to come into her room. I said I was in my night- 
 clothes, and could not. She said: ' Oh, Charley isn't in 
 there. It's all right. Come in.' So I followed her to her 
 room. She turned up the gas, and I beheld one of the 
 most forlorn pictures I have ever seen. The young woman 
 was dripping with rain, and her dress was bedraggled with 
 mud and dirt. I looked at her in utter bewilderment, and 
 she said: 'What do you suppose Charley did last night? ' 
 I replied that I did not know. Continuing, she said: ' He 
 took me out to Downing's, or Sunnyside, after we left here. 
 On the way out he asked me for money, and I said I had 
 none. This made him very angry, and he choked me and 
 said he would put me out of the buggy. But we got to 
 Downiiig's and got some supper, for which he did not pay. 
 After we had finished eating he lit a cigar and stepped out- 
 side. A few minutes later a boy came in and told me Mr. 
 Stiles had gone to exercise the horse. I thought it strange, 
 but said nothing. I waited until near 11 o'clock, when I 
 concluded that he had run away from me, and I started 
 home. The rain was falling very fast, but I could not stay 
 there, so I walked all the way to the cars through it. It is 
 terrible. I can't understand it.' The poor woman broke 
 down entirely, and sobbed piteously. At length, I turned
 
 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 41 
 
 to go to my room, but she insisted that I should stay, being 
 apparently afraid to remain alone. I said I could not, but 
 she would not hear to my going, so I staid. I laid on the 
 bed and soon dropped to sleep, as I was quite tired. Two 
 or three times I awoke, and I heard her moving nervously 
 about the room and shuffling papers. Once I asked her 
 what she was doing, and she replied that she was just 
 arranging some^papers and things. I dropped asleep again, 
 and was awakened by ' Mrs. Stiles ' at 6 o'clock, the hour at 
 which she had promised me I should be awakened if I 
 would remain in the room. I went back to my own room 
 to awaken my son and do some work. A few minutes after 
 I heard ' Mrs. Stiles ' close the door and pass down stairs. 
 The next time I saw her was behind the bars at the Har- 
 rison street station, where I visited her a few minutes be- 
 fore you came." 
 
 "Did the woman make any threats against Mr. Stiles 
 while you were in the room ? " inquired the reporter. 
 
 "No, sir; she said nothing against him, except that she 
 thought he had treated her shamefully." 
 
 " Did she intimate that she intended looking him up and 
 demanding an explanation of his conduct the previous 
 night?" 
 
 "No, sir; she said nothing, save that she loved him 
 dearly, and that she could not understand why he should 
 thus abuse her." 
 
 "Did you ever know them to have any trouble before 
 while living in your house ? " 
 
 "No, sir; I never had the slightest suspicion that any- 
 thing was wrong. She seemed like a good, pure woman, 
 and I had always thought that if every man treated his 
 wife as well as he did her there would be many more happy 
 women in the world. As near as I am able to judge, he 
 was a model husband, and I can not tell you how sur-
 
 42 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 prised I was when I heard her confess she was not mar- 
 ried." 
 
 " Did they pay their rent promptly ? " 
 
 "Yes, sir; very. 'Mrs. Stiles' always handed me the 
 money at the end of the month." 
 
 " Did she ever say anything about the money being hers 
 and not his ? " 
 
 "No, sir; I always supposed he gave it to her to hand to 
 me." 
 
 " Where did they come from to your house? " 
 
 " Mr. Stiles said that his wife had kept furnished rooms at 
 No. 311 Wabash avenue, and that his brother, uncle, and 
 father, and several Board of Trade men lived with them. 
 Also, that his father had died in the house which she kept." 
 
 " Did any of Mr. Stiles' relatives ever visit them since 
 they have lived here?" 
 
 "I think not." 
 
 It is but just to say that Mrs. Harvey bears an excellent 
 reputation among all who know her, and that she was de- 
 ceived by Mr. Stiles and the woman there is no doubt. 
 
 MAD MADELINE. 
 
 As near as can be learned, Theressa Sturla, or Madeline, 
 as she was familiarly called, was a very general favorite 
 among the abandoned women with whom she cast her lot 
 at a very early age, as well as those of the other sex who 
 sought her favors. "Women found her kind, generous, and 
 loving, and men deemed her peculiarly beautiful and en- 
 chanting, and in the opinion of both she invariably won a 
 high place. Notwithstanding these facts, and the further 
 fact that she found little difficulty in accumulating riches, 
 those who knew her well say that she hated a shameful life, 
 and was happiest when enabled to live in peace and quiet, 
 away from the world, along with the man she loved. It
 
 6TURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 43 
 
 seems that the first public house of ill-repute which the girl 
 entered in Chicago was Carrie Watson's, Sept. 2, 1881. At 
 that time she had quarreled with Stiles, and had refused 
 longer to live with him. However, they soon " made up," 
 and, after visiting her almost nightly at Miss Watson's, 
 Stiles took her to live on Wabash avenue. Not long after 
 another separation occurred, and again she returned to 
 Watson's, and again she was taken out by her avowed lover. 
 Then another quarrel sent her back to her old haunts, 
 where she lived until she went to live with Stiles at No. 
 291 Wabash avenue, about the middle of April. It seems 
 that they lived quite happily until July 4 last, when Made- 
 line, for the fourth time, put in an appearance at Miss Wat- 
 son's establishment, and was given apartments. She re- 
 mained there until the evening of the 5th, when she was 
 called to the front door, and suddenly disappeared. She 
 did not return until the next morning, when the landlady 
 asked where she had been. She said that Stiles had drag- 
 ged her from the door to a hack, and had threatened her 
 with arrest and imprisonment if she did not go with him. 
 Fearful lest he might harm her, she went with him, and 
 had consented to return to live with him, and she repacked 
 her trunk and took it away. The next heard of her she 
 was in the station charged with murder. 
 
 Miss Watson says she has no doubt the girl was shame- 
 fully abused by Stiles. She knows that he took nearly 
 every cent she could make, which was nearly always in 
 excess of the income of any other of her boarders. Stiles 
 made her life miserable in many other ways. He would 
 enter the house at the most unseemly hours, and proceed 
 at once to her room and insist upon entering, no matter 
 what the surroundings were. Miss Watson says, also, that 
 on several occasions Stiles' brother appeared at the house 
 and demanded money from the girl, and abused her roundly
 
 44 STUKLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 when she refused it. Whenever she was away from the 
 house any length of time*with Stiles, she would return al- 
 most without decent clothing, and without jewelry, which 
 she said Stiles pawned. 
 
 When asked whether the girl had ever shown signs of 
 insanity, Miss Watson said she had noticed some very 
 peculiar acts by her. About a year ago, while she was with 
 her, Madeline purchased a bottle-green silk dress, and, 
 taking it to an artist, ordered him to cover it with skulls 
 and cross-bones, coffins with human heads peeping from 
 them, lizards, snakes, and various other horrible designs. 
 The artist dissuaded her from such a purpose, but she 
 finally insisted and succeeded in having him decorate the 
 dress with a boa constrictor, nine feet in length, the head 
 of which rested on her shoulder. She then gave it dia- 
 mond eyes, as she did several rattlesnakes and lizards on 
 the waist and front of the skirt. At times, when she would 
 be talking with people, she would suddenly change her lan- 
 guage from English, which she spoke well, to Italian, and 
 chatter away until her attention was called to the fact, 
 when she would appear deeply chagrined. 
 
 In the afternoon Miss Watson called upon the prisoner 
 at the station and asked her if she did not want something 
 to eat. She replied no, but she wanted a bottle of Bando- 
 line. Those who know her best think that the unhappy 
 life she has led has affected her brain, and that she was un- 
 able to control herself when she did the shooting. 
 
 Miss Watson says that she always carried a pistol in her 
 pocket, whether in or out of the house, when she lived with 
 her, and she does not think she put it in her pocket with 
 the view of shooting Stiles. 
 
 My right name, she said, " is Theressa Sturla. I speak 
 it now for the first time in years. My parents brought me 
 from Italy to Baltimore when I was a little girl. No; you
 
 8TURLA-8TILES TRAGEDY. 45 
 
 must not ask me about them, for my mother is good and I 
 will not shame her. Charlie Stiles picked me up when I 
 was 15 years old. He was following the races as a pool- 
 seller at that time." 
 
 " Did he ruin you ?" 
 
 " I cannot say that. It is enough to tell you that I loved 
 him, and have loved him ever since. I was glad to go 
 with him. We traveled through different cities New 
 York, Philadelphia, and others, and he treated me as his 
 wife. Often he promised to marry me, but he never did. 
 Oh, if he had he could have made a good woman of me, 
 for when I lived with him I was as faithful as ever a wife 
 could be. Well, he left me in the east, and went to settle 
 in Chicago. He wrote for me to come to him, such kind 
 letters, and,I came. We lived at the hotels as man and 
 wife, but he soon began to ill-use me, and made my life 
 miserable. I thought him crazy at times. He would pet 
 me, and the next moment would be ready to cut my throat. 
 It must have been more than four years ago when we first 
 parted. I was a lost, ignorant girl. What could I do ? I 
 did what nearly all women do in such cases." 
 
 She paused, as if what was to come "was too shameful to 
 tell, and then went on : 
 
 "I applied for admission to a house of ill-fame at No. 10 
 South Clark street. I saved the money that I made, and 
 in less than nine months was able to buy out the place. 
 That surprises you. Well, I could sing and play, and I 
 knew how to make myself agreeable. I could entertain 
 visitors, and I attended to business. When I was mistress 
 of the place I continued to make money. A great many 
 men on the board of trade know me. Charlie constantly 
 visited me. He spent my money and I never tried to keep 
 it from him. At last he began to entreat me to return to 
 the old life. I supposed that he loved me; I was still fond
 
 46 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 of him, and I could not resist. Well, I sold out the busi- 
 ness. It brought me more than $6.000. He took the 
 money and lost every cent of it." 
 
 "Did not someone else's money help you to buy that 
 business in the first place?" 
 
 "Yes; it is true that Jim Baxter, the match-bond man, 
 spent a great deal on me. That was the time when he was 
 flush. He gave me diamond ear-rings worth $2.500, but 
 Charlie made me return them. Baxter offered me $10.000 
 to skip to Canada with him, but I refused. The govern- 
 ment detectives tried to get me to follow him and entice 
 him over the line again into this country. They knew I 
 could do it, but I refused. 
 
 "From the Clark street place Charlie took me to board 
 at the Palmer house, and he booked me as Mrs. Taylor. 
 This was the first time he refused to give me his own name. 
 I had always been known as Madeline Stiles, even when I 
 was a member of the demi-monde. We only lived at the 
 Palmer house a week, but there was a terrible scene there 
 before we left it. He took $500 from my room one day. 
 When he showed up again, his eyes were bloodshot from 
 the effects of a spree. When I asked for the money, he 
 laughed in my face and called me a fool. Then he grew 
 mad, and struck me, kicking me when I was half insensible 
 on the floor. Oh, that was an awful week ! 
 
 "I longed to have a home of my own, and I gave 
 Charlie $600 to furnish a flat for me at No. 371 Wabash 
 avenue. I kept gentlemen boarders there, but I led a 
 respectable life. His father came to town, and staid with 
 us for awhile. I liked the old man, for he was good- 
 hearted and kind. Once he said to me : ' Effie, be patient 
 with my boy. Charlie hasn't treated you right, but one of 
 these days he will marry you. Then we will all go east 
 and live there together.' Ah, if he v hadn't died everything
 
 STUBLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 47 
 
 would be well to-day. But old Mrs. Stiles came on, and 
 her ways excited Charlie's father, who was dying of heart 
 disease. One afternoon last August I will never forget it 
 the old man was stricken with paralysis of the heart. 
 He died in my arms. 
 
 " Then it was I lost my only friend, for after the funeral 
 the relatives ordered me to leave the flat that had been 
 bought with my own money. Charlie said: 'Erne, make 
 it over to my aunt, and I'll pay you back some time. One 
 of these days I'll make a big stake, and you'll get a good 
 share.' That's the way he talked, but when he did win 
 money he spent it on himself. I would not give up the 
 furniture, but last August I stored it away, and went to 
 live at Carrie Watson's. Even then he would not let me 
 alone. One night he burst into my room and caught me 
 in his arms. I had been thinking of the old man's death 
 at that moment and I screamed with fright. He hushed 
 me, and told me that I must go with him to the Palmer 
 house. Once in his room, he began packing his valise, and 
 told me that I was to see him to the train and bid him 
 good-by forever. But when we reached the depot he 
 forced me into the train, and took me with him to Gales- 
 burg. My God, how he treated me ! I'll tell you what he 
 did to me once. We were di'iving between Aurora and 
 Batavia, when he began choking me in the buggy. He 
 stopped the horse and threw me out. Perhaps he thought 
 I would follow him, but I ran in an opposite direction. 
 Then he turned about and chased me. I would have 
 jumped into the river, but I didn't know how to swim. As 
 it was, I tried to climb a fence to escape him. I had my 
 pistol in my dress pocket, and I held it all the time. I fell 
 from the top of the fence, striking my head on the ground. 
 Then I forgot everything until I found myself in the next 
 town. He had picked me up insensible and taken me 
 there in the buggy."
 
 48 STURLA-STILES TRA.GED?. 
 
 "Did he treat you more kindly afterward?" 
 
 " More kindly? Why he used to strike me on the head 
 tfhere I had been hurt. He often said that he would like 
 to drive me into an insane asylum. He was crazy to be 
 talked about, and told me that he would some time make a 
 great sensation by killing me. But that horrible drive was 
 not as bad as another that we had while I was still staying 
 at Watson's. I met him by appointment that time, got 
 into the buggy and drove off with him. There was a 
 thunder-storm that night, and the rain was pouring down 
 just like it was last night when he left me at Downing's. I 
 never knew where he was taking me until we were on the 
 lake shore near the South park. Then he dragged me out 
 of the buggy by the hair and choked me. ' I love you,' he 
 said, while his fingers were about my throat; 'I love you, 
 but you are a fast woman, and that makes me hate you. 
 I will kill you here, and when your body is found in the 
 morning, no one will know who did it. I left the livery- 
 stable alone, and I will never be suspected.' Those were 
 his words. I was never so scared in my life, but I begged 
 him on my knees to spare me. Then he made "me take an 
 oath that I would be faithful to him. I swore that I would 
 be true to him. Yes, and before God, I kept that oath, 
 but I have never seen the lighting flash since without 
 shuddering." 
 
 " Then you went to live with him again?" 
 
 "Yes, it was three months ago. I went with him to 
 room at No. 291 Wabash avenue, and I lived straight and 
 nice. He lived with me, but he kept a room at the Palmer 
 house as a 'blind,' to deceive his mother. Now and then 
 he would run down to Dixon, to see the old lady, and when 
 he was gone I lived quietly alone. My only amusement 
 was to play with two little children. I wanted to be a 
 good wife to him. I never wronged him in my life. He
 
 8TURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 49 
 
 was welcome to all I had. But the more I loved him the 
 more he beat me, the more he threatened to kill me. And 
 how he used to talk of me ! In the old days he used to 
 tell his friends: 'I've got an Italian woman, who will stab 
 me to death one of these days unless I kill her first.' Men 
 believed him until they saw how he treated me, and then 
 they knew that I was not to blame." 
 
 " What led to the last of all your quarrels ?" 
 " I'll tell you everything. I left him on the Fourth of 
 July and begged Carrie Watson to take me in again. But 
 Charlie came the next day, and it was the old story over 
 again. I went off with him. He promised to pay me 
 everything he owed me, and that was more than $5,000. 
 I told him: 'Charlie, you will get crazy and choke me to 
 death.' But he said he would never treat me badly again." 
 "This is how I came to kill him. Sunday afternoon we 
 Went out to the South park together on the cable cars. 
 We returned early, hired a horse and buggy, and went to 
 spend the evening at Downing's hotel at Sunnyside. He 
 stopped on the way to drink beer. ' I am going to drink 
 lots of it,' he said, ' for I want to get up a fight with you. 
 Of course I thought he was joking. When we were eating 
 our chicken at Downing's, he said : ' Do you know, I feel 
 like killing you ?' I laughed so hard I nearly choked, and 
 when Mrs. Downing entered the room, Charlie began to 
 laugh too. He wanted me to drink beer, but I wouldn't. 
 He took it himself and then asked me for $500. I said I 
 couldn't let him have it, but if he was broke I would pay 
 for the supper. You know I always paid for his meals 
 when we used to go to Kinsley's. I remember that I put 
 my arms about his neck, and kissed him and pulled his 
 hair, just in fun, you know. At 9:30 o'clock he ran out of 
 the room, saying 'he would leave me, and he jumped into 
 the buggy and drove off. Just think of it ! He left me 
 4
 
 50 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 alone there left me to walk back through the mud and 
 rain. I had to go three miles through the storm on foot 
 before I reached the street-cars. ' My God !' I said to my- 
 self, ' I will never go without a revolver again !' " 
 
 " You were afraid of tramps," said the visitor. 
 
 " Yes," she said, catching at the suggestion. " I was afraid 
 of tramps. God knows what might have happened to me. 
 Well, when I reached home I said to myself: I will leave him 
 forever in the morning. I will go to him and say: Charlie, 
 we must seperate. Remember, I've been a good woman to 
 you. You will have one picture in your mind as long as 
 you live the picture of your father dying in my arms !" 
 
 "That's what I intended to say to him. So I got up 
 this morning early and started for the Palmer house. I 
 took my pistol with me a pistol that I have had for many 
 years. But I didn't intend to kill him ; I wanted to kiss 
 him good-by. I knocked at the door, and I heard him ask: 
 ' Who's there?' ' A- messenger boy with a letter,' I said. 
 He opened the door, and I said: 'It's me.' He let me in, 
 and I said: 'Charlie, we've got to separate; I'm going 
 back to Carrie's.' 'D you/ he said, 'you'll never go 
 back,' and he pushed me on the sofa. I broke away from 
 him and he knocked me down, and kicked me in the side, 
 'here near the heart. I was blinded and dazed when I got 
 up, and then he choked me. Look at my neck " 
 
 She took the lace from her throat and" disclosed the 
 purple marks apparently of a man's nails. 
 
 " He threw me back on the table," she went on, " and I 
 pulled the revolver out of my pocket. * Look out, Charlie,' 
 said I, ' I've got a pistol pointed at you.' He still choked 
 me, and then and then I don't know how, but the 
 pistol went off." 
 
 She said the last words with hesitating horror. She 
 could not say " I shot him."
 
 STURLA-S'TILES TRAGEDY. 51 
 
 " They tell me I followed him and fired again," she con- 
 tinued. " I don't remember ; sometimes I can't remember 
 anything; my head troubles me. And they say I took his 
 head in my lap and kissed him when he was lying dead in 
 the hall. But I don't remember; I don't, indeed." 
 
 She stopped, and leaned back on the rude prison bed 
 exhausted. 
 
 "How do I feel?" repeating the last question of the 
 reporter. " Well, I can't realize it now. I can't believe 
 that it happened at all. I wish I could cry, but I don't 
 know how " and her lips parted slowly into a smile, and 
 she laughed musically. 
 
 In telling the story as it is given above, she had swept 
 the whole gamut of passion, shame, fear, love, hatred, 
 revenge, and it seemed like a ghastly climax to the tale 
 that she should end it with a laugh. 
 
 Another journalist gives the following: 
 
 It goes without saying that the name Madeline Stiles, 
 which the woman chose to assume, is not authentic, but, 
 as is always the case with women of her sort, her real name 
 remains a matter of mere conjecture so long as she chooses 
 to conceal it. It is known definitely of this girl, however, 
 that she received letters addressed to Teresa Sterling. 
 The letters were supposed by her associates to come from 
 her mother, and they were dated from Baltimore. It was 
 understood, also, that the young woman came here from 
 Baltimore, and that she met Stiles in that city. Her father 
 and mother, for whom she has expressed the deepest con- 
 cern since the tragedy, are believed to be still residents of 
 that place, although she refuses to admit it. 
 
 Teresa Sterling, for so she may now be called, is of Ital- 
 ian birth, as her cast of features, dark eyes and olive skin, 
 clearly show. She spoki- the language of the Sunny Penin- 
 sula, and sang the songs of her Fatherland in a beautiful
 
 62 STTJRLA STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 contralto, accompanying herself on a piano or guitar. Her 
 life "on the town" must have been begun at a tender age, 
 for she lived in a bagnio of a certain Mrs. Fay, in Baltimore, 
 before she came to Chicago. Her manners and personal 
 beauty always secured for her an eager following. Con- 
 trary to the habits of her class, however, she saved her 
 earnings hoarded them, in fact, to the dollar, and never 
 drank or caroused. 
 
 The murderess, as seen in her cell this forenoon, appeared 
 to be a remarkably pretty girl of perhaps twenty-five years, 
 with dark, splendid eyes, heavy black hair, and has the air 
 of a lady about her. She was dressed in a black waist and 
 skirt, light-colored jacket and a dark straw hat tied down 
 with a blue veil. Her hands clasped and unclasped nerv- 
 ously, and the muscles in her face twitched with pain 
 
 " Will you tell the story of the shooting and the motives 
 leading to it ?" asked the reporter. 
 
 "I presume I might as well," she answered, clasping her 
 hands and sobbing as if her heart would break. " My 
 name is Mrs. Madeline Stiles at least that .is the name I 
 am known by in Chicago and my right name I will not 
 tell. I met Charlie Stiles first about six years ago, in the 
 East, when he was following a horse-racing circuit. I was 
 respectable then, but went to live with him as his wife, and 
 took his name; but we have never been married. About 
 five years ago I joined him here in Chicago, and then began 
 my trouble. Oh, my God in heaven, have mercy on a 
 miserable woman's broken heart ! Oh ! what will my father 
 and mother do ? What will Charlie's mother do ? My God ! 
 My God !" 
 
 The prisoner broke into a flood of piteous tears. Kegain- 
 ing her composure, she continued: 
 
 " I left him July 4th, and went to Miss Carrie Watson's 
 to live, because he abused me so; but he came after me in
 
 8TUELA-STLLES TRAGEDY. 53 
 
 a carriage and made me go back to 291 Wabash avenue, 
 where we lived as man and wife, he having a room at the 
 Palmer House merely as a blind. He ill-used me again. 
 Last night he took me to ride out to Downing's, and 
 because I told him I had no more money to give him, he 
 deserted me there and left me to come home alone, which 
 I did, getting wet through. I determined then never to 
 have any more to do with him, and this morning I went to 
 his room to say good-bye. As soon as I got in the room, 
 I said: 'What made you leave me out at Downing's last 
 night ?' and he told me in reply to leave the room or he 
 would have me put out. I said to him : ' I am going back 
 to Miss Carrie's to live, and you must never see me again.' 
 I felt bad, and I said to him: 'Charlie, kiss me good-bye 
 just one kiss for the old love's sake.' Then he got mad, 
 and said: 'G d you, I'll kill you yet. You ain't going 
 back to Carrie's.' And then he grabbed me by the throat 
 a favorite trick of his. I had the pistol in my hand, and I 
 said to him: 'Look out, Charlie; this might go off.' But 
 he didn't stop, and kept struggling with me. I pushed 
 the pistol toward him, and before I knew it the shot was 
 fired. I don't remember any more, I was so faint and 
 frightened. Then a number of men came, and the police 
 brought me here." 
 
 " You say you didn't mean to shoot him ?" 
 " Oh, yes. I didn't mean to, but he drove me to any 
 thing. Several times when he has taken my money and 
 then abused me, I warned him that he would drive me to 
 something desperate yet. But he paid no attention to me. 
 OL, my God ! this world is filled with grief and shame ! 
 What shall I do?" 
 
 " Did Mr. Stiles acknowledge you as his wife ?" 
 " Yes, always. He introduced me as Mrs. Stiles to his 
 friends. Why, his father died in my arms, at my rooms,
 
 54 STURLA-STILES TEAGKDY. 
 
 371 "Wabash avenue, on August 26th last. I was keeping 
 house then in a flat, and had a lovely home, which Charlie 
 shared with me. We were so happy for a time ! I had 
 reformed I had become respectable once more, and could 
 hold up my head and look at people. I went to church. I 
 tried to get my heart right, and so live that I might not be 
 lost at the last. Charlie's father was very good to me, and 
 often came to our home, and I thought the world of him. 
 As I said, he died in my arms on that August afternoon, 
 and I could not have felt worse if he had been my own 
 father. Well, soon after that Charlie began abusing me 
 again, and finally his brother came and ordered me out of 
 the flat out of my own home. I knew how the world and 
 society looked upon a woman like me, and I knew I should 
 not get sympathy or aid if I asked for them. So, to save 
 further trouble, I stored my furniture and left the flat. 
 Afterward I sold the furniture and went to Miss Carrie's to 
 live. All my bright dreams were shattered, and again I 
 was down to the common level of a lost and forsaken 
 woman. But Charlie wouldn't let me alone. He was con- 
 tinually hunting me out and making me go back to him. 
 Then we got the room at 291 Wabash avenue, where his 
 trunk and other things are. In February he abused me 
 kicked me and choked me and I had him arrested. He 
 was brought to this (Harrison street) station, and gave the 
 name of Ben Shaw. I relented, of course, and got him out 
 of the station. 
 
 " A year ago last April I had a room at the Palmer at 
 the same time he did, and he went into my room and took 
 every thing I had in the shape of money. It was his one 
 cry money, money, all the time; and I gave him every 
 thing I had in the world. I even went back to that miser- 
 able life in order to earn money for him ; and he gambled 
 it away, together with speculating in grain and provisions,
 
 STUELA-STILES TRAGEDY. 55 
 
 and, of course, his salary went the same way. I never 
 remember the day, within five years, that he has not asked 
 me for money. I told him not to do so it made me feel 
 bad to think that he only cared for me for the money I 
 could give him. Then he choked and kicked me. He led 
 me a dog's life. Every two or three weeks he would send 
 me a letter bidding me farewell forever. I felt sad enough; 
 but, if it was for his good to give me up, I was satisfied. I 
 had given my honor and girlhood to him; it was not much 
 more to stand by and let him desert me. But just as I 
 would begin to feel resigned to our parting, he would come 
 back to me. When I "refused him money he always re- 
 proached me. I tried to get along once by keeping a house 
 at 10 South Clark street, renting rooms, but he made me 
 give it up." 
 
 " Didn't you go over to the Palmer House this morning 
 with the set idea of killing Mr. Stiles ? " 
 
 " No, nothing of the kind. I felt hurt at his desertion of 
 me in the rain last night, and simply went to bid him good- 
 by and ask him to leave me alone at Miss Carrie's. When 
 I asked him to kiss me good-by, he kicked me." 
 
 " Did he support you as his wife '? " 
 
 " No. Rather did I support him. We frequently went 
 to Kinsley's to dinner and to lunch, and my money in- 
 variably paid the bills. I tell you again, he never did any 
 thing lor me but spend every cent I could rake and scrape 
 together. And now he is dead. Oh, isn't it awful, and I 
 didn't mean to kill him ! I never fired off a pistol in my 
 life, but I have carried a pistol a long time. Oh, if he had 
 only treated me decent this morning all might have been 
 well with us! Now, all is gloom and sorrow. Charlie's 
 poor mother how awful she will feel ! Poor heart ! poor 
 heart! I almost forget my own grief when I think of her. 
 No, I won't give you my right name. No one knows it
 
 56 STTJELA STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 here. Charlie always called me Effie. Oh, if he had only 
 kissed me good-by ! " 
 
 Again the prisoner broke down in tears, and the reporter 
 left her to her grief. At the Palmer House the story runs 
 that the woman avowed her intention to kill Mr. Stiles, 
 when the police arrested her. 
 
 In the Board of Trade alley. the feeling at noon ran 
 high, and for a time the excitement over grain and stocks 
 seemed to lull. Secretary Henneberry, of the Call Board, 
 who visited the murderess in her cell, said: 
 
 " I was very much impressed with the story. I looked 
 at her throat and saw the marks of a struggle, and I also 
 saw scratches on Charlie's face as he rested in the casket 
 at the morgue; and these facts seem to bear out the story 
 she tells of the struggle in the room during which he was 
 shot. But it in no degree excuses her for the murder. 
 She had no business going to his room at all, much less 
 with a pistol in her hand." 
 
 " Will the Call Board take any action in the matter ? " 
 
 " The Board of Directors has already done so, though 
 Mr. Stiles was merely an employe of the Board, and not a 
 member. At a meeting held this morning the Directors 
 instructed me to draw up a series of resolutions, which 
 will be presented to the Call Board at two o'clock to- 
 morrow." 
 
 The woman's statements to various interviewers have 
 been framed with a great deal of intelligence and craft, in 
 spite of her apparent deep feeling; but her assertion that 
 she had no deliberately-formed purpose of murdering Stiles 
 is not generally credited. The dead man, though leading a 
 fast and dissolute life outside of business hours, was by no 
 means a drunkard. He was in receipt of a salary of $5,000 
 per year from the Call Board, where his services as caller 
 were deemed indispensable. He had hosts of friends and
 
 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 57 
 
 no enemies, and the feeling among even the sober commer- 
 cial men who knew and liked him is that, while his sad end 
 was not surprising, he was nevertheless the victim of a foul 
 and deliberate murder. 
 
 AT THE MORGUE. 
 
 The remains were placed in the same ice-chest, on the 
 same spot, by the same undertaker, and will be hauled to 
 the same depot, in the same hearse, as was the body of 
 Stiles' father, Gen. Elias B. Stiles, on Aug. 29, last year. 
 Around the dead body the scene was a peculiar one, and 
 lasted from early morning until late at night. At a season- 
 able hour, the uncle of the dead man, R. D. Stiles, of No. 
 2,719 Indiana avenue, came to the spot, and later returned, 
 accompanied by Eugene Stiles, a brother of Charles, who 
 worked with him on the call boacd. The latter, a young 
 man, not quite 21 years of age, cried bitterly, and was 
 entirely broken down. His grief was so thoroughly sincere 
 and his reference to " What will mother say ? " so touching, 
 that for a few moments the boy was left alone with his tears 
 and the corpse of his brother. 
 
 During the hours between noon and night the b )dy lay 
 in a large ice-box, the face only being visible through a 
 glass plate when a wooden lid was raised. The features 
 were natural, save a line of scratches extending from the 
 roots of the hair, at the left side of the forehead, down to 
 the cheek-bone, with a particularly vicious " dig " along the 
 nose. On the left temple, also, there was an abrasion and 
 lump, which were probably caused by the fall in the hall- 
 way after the shooting. Further than these there was not 
 a mark on the body, so the undertaker stated, save the 
 bullet-wound through the left arm and the hole over the 
 heart. As to the time when he thought the scratches on 
 the face were made, the undertaker asserted that they un-
 
 58 STUELA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 doubtedly were " plowed " on Sunday, during the alleged 
 trouble at Downing's. He gave as a reason for this belief 
 that he assisted in taking care of the corpse an hour after 
 it was brought to his place in the patrol-wagon, and there 
 was then no blood on the face. He also noticed that a 
 film had formed over the scratches, which could not have 
 been the case if they had been recent. He further ex- 
 pressed the opinion, from the appearance of the body and 
 the amount of blood evidently lost, that the autopsy would 
 develop the fact that the main artery of the heart was 
 severed, and that death, therefore, must have been almost 
 instantaneous. 
 
 Owing to the large number of inquests made necessary 
 by the tragic events of Saturday night and Sunday, the 
 coroner found it impossible, with all the assistance at his 
 command, to reach even the post mortem yesterday. This 
 will be held this morning at 10 o'clock, and a hearing of 
 testimony at 2 o'clock. In the meantime the body will 
 remain in its present place. 
 
 All day long a ceaseless stream of visitors poured down 
 into the basement of the Harrison street station and filed 
 up to the cell of the heroine of the tragedy. A reporter 
 for the Times had to be locked in with the woman in order 
 to interview her without interruption. Members of the 
 demi-monde kissed the handsome Italian through the bars, 
 and sent her heaps of fruit, flowers, and soft robes upon 
 which to rest. Justice Wallace ran down stairs, peeped in, 
 and offered some gratuitous advice. Men from the Board of 
 Trade looked in in open-mouthed wonder at the girl who 
 had " called " Charlie and beaten him at the game of life 
 and death. Ex-Commissioner Coburn was among the first 
 to rush down. " Move out of the way," he said sternly to 
 the hungry reporters, who were hovering about. " I want 
 to speak with her." And then, in a tender and confidential
 
 STURLA-ST1LES TRAGEDY. 59 
 
 manner, he approached the prisoner, addressd her as 
 " Effie," and carried on a conversation with her in whispers. 
 
 THE POST-MORTEM AND INQUEST. 
 
 Dr. T. J. Bluthardt, County Physician, and Dr. Joseph 
 Krost, his assistant, made a post-mortem examination of 
 the body of Charles Stiles, at the morgue, yesterday morn- 
 ing. Their report was that they found the two gun-shot 
 wounds in the body one in the left arm and the other in 
 the chest, both evidently made by the same ball, as, when 
 the arm was laid against the body, the wounds correspond- 
 ed exactly. The bullet entered the arm between the 
 anterior and lateral surfaces, passed through it, entered the 
 chest about two inches in a straight line to the left of the 
 left nipple, passed between the fifth and sixth ribs, passed 
 through a portion of the lower lobe of the left lung, enter- 
 ed the pericardium and passed through the apex of the 
 heart, opening the left ventricle, then continued downward 
 through the diaphragm and through the aesophegal end of 
 the stomach and lodged against the spinal column, between 
 the eleventh and twelfth dorsal vertebrae. There were no 
 other marks of violence upon him, and death resulted from 
 hemorrhage, caused by the bullet wounds. 
 
 Coroner Matson arrived at the morgue at 11 o'clock, 
 but a jury was not impaneled until 1 o'clock. A num- 
 ber of women of the class to which the Sturla woman 
 belonged came to the morgue during the morning to see 
 the body, but their curiosity was not gratified. The dead 
 man's brother, Eugene, and his uncle, Richard Stiles, were 
 at the morgue all the morning. At noon Judge John V. 
 Eustice, of Dixon, the present circuit judge at that place, 
 and formerly the business partner of E. B. Stiles, the 
 father of Charles, arrived at noon, and went to view the 
 body. To a reporter for the Times he said that every in-
 
 60 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 sinuation that Charlie's mother was at all responsible or to 
 blame for the life he led was untrue. Her influence over 
 him had always been for good. He had inherited an irre- 
 sistible gambling tendency from his father, and this had 
 brought him into trouble. 
 
 At 1 o'clock in the afternoon a jury was impaneled, con- 
 sisting of Thomas J. Wells, foreman ; L. H. Wilson, James 
 A. Philips, C. S. Squiers, Thomas F. Swan, and George B. 
 Perham. The jury viewed the body of the deceased, and 
 the Palmer house employes and the officer who arrested 
 Madeline identified the body, when the inquest was ad- 
 journed to the Harrison street police station. In the 
 patrolmen's room the coroner's jury and witnesses were 
 seated, when the fair prisoner, accompanied by her attor- 
 ney, A. S. Trude, came in. She was dressed in black silk 
 and wore a black hat, with a large black plume, and black 
 crepe veil. She was very quiet during the examination 
 and showed but little interest in anything said by the wit- 
 nesses. Her large black eyes looked heavy, as if she had 
 been long without sleep almost as if she were under the 
 influence of some narcotic. The eyelids were nevtr fully 
 opened nor closed, but were never perfectly still. Her 
 black hair was banged over the forehead and bandolined at 
 the sides. 
 
 Dr. Joseph Krost, assistant county physician, was the 
 first witness. He gave the result of the post-mortem ex- 
 amination. Frank A. Livingston, clerk at the Palmer 
 house, testified that he was in the hotel office when a bell- 
 boy came down and said there was a man shot in the sixth 
 floor hall. It was about ten minutes to 7 o'clock, Monday 
 morning. He went up and found Mr. Stiles lying in the 
 center of the hall, on the floor, on his back, about ten feet 
 from the door of his room No. 661. He saw the prisoner 
 kneeling by his side. He saw Stiles gasp three or four
 
 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 61 
 
 times, and thought he was dead. Then he went down and 
 signaled for the patrol wagon. There were several gentle- 
 men who had rooms near the place, who were in the hall, 
 and Quelch, who went up with the witness, was there. He 
 heard Quelch say: " He's dead," and the lady said : "Yes, 
 I've shot him." In reply to a question by Mr. Trude, the 
 witness said as they were about to take the body away the 
 lady lifted the sheet and kissed the dead man's face once. 
 She staid with the body until it was taken away, and then 
 followed it. Her face was calm and showed neither anger 
 nor hatred; it had no particular expression. 
 
 Frank A. Brobst, a Palmer house clerk, said that when 
 Mr. Livingston told him there was a man shot, he rang for 
 the patrol-wagon, and, waiting till it came, took the officers 
 up to Mr. Stiles' room. He described the position of the 
 body as the previous witness had. The prisoner was then 
 leaning against the wall and at first said nothing ; then she 
 spoke to the officer, and she, the witness, and the officer 
 went into room No. 661, which was Mr. Stiles' room. She 
 said either to the witness or to the officer : " There is the 
 revolver on the floor." The witness picked it up and gave 
 it to the officer. After that the body was put on a stretcher 
 and carried down by the baggage elevator, while the pris- 
 oner, the officer, and the witness went down together in 
 the passenger elevator. The officer was talking to her in 
 the hall and in the elevator, and the witness heard her say 
 to him : " He had no business to try and put me out of 
 the room." Mr. Trude asked if the witness had looked in 
 the room since to see if there was any money or pocket- 
 book lying on the floor. Witness said there was nothing 
 on the floor but a lady's glove. Witness had charge of the 
 room and had locked it. Scrub women had been called in 
 to clean up the blood, and he had been with them. He had 
 also gone up with Eugene Stiles, who went after clean
 
 62 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 clothes. He had been with him all the time. Mr. Stanley 
 had gone up in the afternoon with some one else to get 
 clean clothes. Other persons might have gone in, as the 
 key was in the office. 
 
 Benjamin P. Quelch, head bell-boy at the Palmer house, 
 gave the same testimony as the preceding witnesses. 
 
 William Bohan, signal sergeant of the Central Police 
 Patrol, said he was called to the Palmer house about G :45 
 o'clock Monday morning ; was informed that a man had 
 been shot ; went up stairs and found Stiles lying on the 
 floor with a sheet oyer him. Saw the prisoner there. Mr. 
 Howe said to him : "Take this woman in charge; she has 
 shot this man." Witness told her she was a cool-appearing 
 person. He did not remember her answer. They went in- 
 to the bedroom and Brobst picked up the revolver. Wit- 
 ness asked her if she admitted that was the revolver with 
 which she shot the man, and she admitted that it was. 
 Witness here exhibited the revolver and the two cartridges 
 which he took from it. The< prisoner told witness- about 
 Stiles taking her by the throat to put her out of the room. 
 She said she came to kiss him "good-bye," and he caught 
 her by the throat. She said they went out to Downing's 
 the night before and had supper, and he left her to come 
 home alone. She met a boy, who went with her to the 
 " dummy." She spoke of Charlie being on the board of 
 trade and losing a great deal of her money. She did not 
 know how far out Downing's was, nor where it was, nor 
 what road she came in on. 
 
 One of the jurymen asked the witness if she said any- 
 thing about the kind of a night it was. The witness heard 
 her say that it was dark, rainy, and muddy. She said they 
 had had some difficulty about his spending her money. Be- 
 fore the body was removed from the hotel she took the 
 sheet off the face and kissed the dead man. Witness asked
 
 BTURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 63 
 
 her if she was sorry, and she said it was no use to be 
 sorry then, for it was done. 
 
 Mr. Trude asked if she showed witness the marks on her 
 throat where Stiles had choked her, and if the marks were 
 fresh. The witness answered "yes." 
 
 Mr. Trude asked if she didn't tell him that Charlie Stiles 
 wouldn't let her live with him or without him, and that he 
 went with her to get her money and use her, and that she 
 had resolved to go to him and give him all the money she 
 had, and then have nothing more to do with him .again. 
 The witness said that she so told him. In reply to another 
 question the witness said that she showed him the bottom 
 of her dress covered with mud, and told him about how 
 she had caused Stiles to be arrested once for abusing 
 her. 
 
 Coroner Matson asked the prisoner if she had any state- 
 ment to make. 
 
 "No, sir, I have no statement to make; I am acting 
 under the advice of my attorney, Mr. Trude, and have 
 nothing to say." 
 
 The coroner asked her name, and Mr. Trude said that 
 she declined to say anything. He then immediately asked 
 her how long she had known Stiles, and she answered " six 
 years." He asked whether she had not been giving him 
 money, and she said "yes." The coroner then objected, and 
 Mr. Trude said that was all. The coroner told the jury 
 that if they found that she killed the man it would be 
 proper to hold her to the grand jury. The jury were then 
 left alone and in ten minutes had prepared the following 
 verdict: 
 
 We find that the said Charles Stiles came to his death on 
 the 10th day of July, A. D. 1882, in the hall on the sixth 
 floor, in front of room No. 6G1, of the Palmer house, from 
 hemorrhage and shock, resulting from a wound in the left
 
 64 BTURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 side of the body and through the heart, made by a bullet 
 fired from a revolver in the hand of Madeline Stiles, or 
 known as such. We. the jury, therefore, recommend that 
 the said Madeline Stiles be held in custody to await the 
 action of the grand jury of Cook county. 
 
 Mr. Starkey, stenographer for the state's attorney, 
 was present during the inquest, and took the testimony. 
 
 After the inquest Madeline went back to her cell in the 
 station-house with a female friend, who had come in while 
 the examination was going on. She remained there during 
 the night, and will be transferred to the county jail to-day. 
 .The verdict of the jury will keep her confined there until 
 the grand jury either indicts or fails to find a bill against 
 her, unless application is made to a judge of the criminal 
 court that she be admitted to bail. Madeline says that in 
 her last interview with Stiles she threw at him her pocket- 
 book, containing all the money she had left. The pocket- 
 book has not yet been found. 
 
 The remains of Charles Stiles were shipped by the 
 Northwestern railway to Dixon for interment in the after- 
 noon. The coffin reached the depot quite late, and was 
 placed on board the 3 :45 train. The brother of the deceas- 
 ed and only a few friends were present. The coffin, covered 
 with black broadcloth, with silver mountings, carried a sil- 
 ver plate bearing the simple inscription : 
 Died July 10, 1882, 
 
 Charles Stiles, 
 Aged 32 Years. 
 
 THE MANTLE OF CHARITY. 
 
 The Call Board yesterday afternoon adopted the follow- 
 ing preamble and resolutions relative to the death of 
 Charles Stiles 
 
 Having learned with deep regret of the tragic death of
 
 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 65 
 
 Our late caller, Charles Stiles, we desire to cast the mantle 
 of charity over the past, and leave to silence what we can 
 not commend; and, 
 
 WHEREAS, "We wish to recognize his pre-eminent ability 
 and usefulness in the profession he had chosen; to express 
 our sense of the heavy blow we receive in his loss; 
 
 Resolved, That the members of the Board deeply deplore 
 his untimely death, and sincerely sympathize with the 
 heart-stricken mother and brothers of the deceased. 
 
 Resolved, That the resolutions be spread upon the records 
 of this association, and that a copy be forwarded to the 
 bereaved family. 
 
 At a recent meeting of the Owl Club the following reso- 
 lutions were unanimously adopted : 
 
 WHEREAS, That in the death of Charles Stiles we have 
 lost a friend who had endeared himself to us not only by 
 brilliant and fascinating mental gifts, but by conduct which 
 in all his relations to us we found amiable, courteous, and 
 honorable; therefore, be it 
 
 Resolved, That it is with sincere and genuine grief that 
 we place on the records of the Owl Club this expression of 
 sorrow at parting with a comrade of whom each one of us 
 can remember acts of unusual generosity and self-sacrifi- 
 cing friendship. 
 
 Resolved, That we tender our sympathy to his relatives, 
 and especially to his mother, the depth of whose grief we 
 can partly appreciate from knowing what all of his friends 
 who knew him well must have remarked, the exceptional 
 and devoted affection and respect which he bore her. 
 
 The following letter has been sent to Mrs. Stiles: 
 
 CHICAGO, July 11. Mrs. Stiles Dear Madame: The 
 
 committee appointed by the Benevolent and Protective 
 
 Order of Elks to attend the remains of your son from here 
 
 to Dixion, 111., and to further extend to yourself and your 
 
 5
 
 66 STURLA-ST1LES TRAGEDY. 
 
 family the heartfelt sympathy of the entire order at the 
 terrible manner in which your son met his death, were late 
 in arriving at the depot and unfortunately missed the train. 
 We are empowered to represent the order and to extend to 
 you any assistance in the power of the committee. If not 
 too late, advise us promptly if we can be of any service to 
 yourself and family in this dire extremity. We sincerely 
 mourn the loss of our late brother. He was respected and 
 loved by all. May he rest in peace. Very respectfully, 
 
 JOSEPH MACKIN, 
 JOHN WALPOLE, 
 HENRY S. BARNETTE, 
 LEE WILSON, 
 EDWARD LAKE, 
 
 Committee. 
 
 THE OTHER MEN IN THE CASE. 
 
 The purcnase by the girl, Sunday night, or rather at an 
 early hour Monday morning, of the revolver with which 
 she sent Stiles' soul into eternity, proved an important clew 
 to the systematic manner in which she apparently premedi- 
 tated the deed, as well as suggested that she was urged on 
 by some one, possibly a rival of her victim. The late hour, 
 Monday night, at which this particular thread of the case 
 was reached, precluded a very careful following up of the 
 girl's movements from the time she reached the corner of 
 Madison and Clark streets, a few minutes after 11 o'clock, 
 on her return from Sunnyside, until she called Mrs. Harvey, 
 her landlady at No. 291 Wabash avenue, into the hall of the 
 building, after 1 o'clock, and related her troubles of the 
 previous few hours. 
 
 Two young men, one of whom knows the girl, noticed 
 her walking south on State street, between Madison and 
 Jackson streets, at a brisk rate, after she had left the street
 
 STDBLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 67 
 
 cars. This was about fifteen minutes after 11 o'clock. The 
 same persons also noticed that she turned west on Jackson 
 street, and entered the building at the southwest corner. 
 At that time she carried a bundle wrapped up in a news- 
 paper, and was protected from the storm by a waterpoof 
 cloak and hood. Less than thirty minutes after, she made 
 her appearance at the pawnbroker's establishment, in com- 
 pany with a boy, whom she said she had paid to accompany 
 her from the corner of Van Buren and State streets, and a 
 young man supposed to be an inmate of the building at the 
 corner of State and Jackson streets. The prisoner refuses 
 to reveal the identity of this companion, and, in referring 
 to her movements with him, is contradictory and ill at ease. 
 Mrs. Joacquin, proprietress of the pawnshop, says that she 
 conducted negotiations for the revolver and showed her 
 how to handle it. " I'll never be able to fire this thing," 
 said the girl, as she handled the revolver, " without shoot- 
 ing myself." Then her male companion showed her how 
 to hold it, and, handing it back, instructed her to go 
 through the motions of firing, which she did, evidently to 
 her own satisfaction. At the request of the man, Mrs. 
 Joacquin handed over four or five cartridges, which were 
 placed in the chambers of the weapon. In explanation of 
 this untimely proceeding, the pair stated that they con- 
 templated a trip to South Chicago, and wished to go pre- 
 pared. Leaving the store, the two proceeded north on 
 State street, but the girl shortly afterward returned and 
 said she had an elegant silk dress for sale or to pawn. A 
 young man, who formerly occupied a room above the pawn- 
 broker's establishment, this time entered with her, and at 
 her solicitation, he states, accompanied her to the room at 
 No. 291 Wabash avenue, where she got the dress and re- 
 turned again to the store. It was then after 1 o'clock Mon- 
 day morning. Where ehe went after leaving the pawnshop
 
 68 STTJRLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 the last time is not known, as she refused the company of 
 her last escort, who evinced a very earnest desire not to be 
 identified with the present case. 
 
 JAILED THERESSA STURLA WAS SURRENDERED TO THE SHERIFF YES- 
 TERDAY, FOR A LITTLE WHILE. 
 
 Theressa Sturla, alias Madeline Stiles, having been kept 
 over night at the Armory, was taken to jail yesterday. It 
 was 3 o'clock in the afternoon when a rapidly driven hack 
 was stopped at the nearest point to the jail steps, and a 
 moment later the inmates of the vehicle descended. The 
 party consisted of police officer William Bohan, the pris- 
 oner, the keeper of the Clark street bagnio, whose respect- 
 able patrons are putting up for the defense, and the neat- 
 handed mulatto maidservant who waited on the prisoner 
 while she was at the Armory. The prisoner was dressed in 
 the same somber garments she wore at the trial, the upper 
 part of her form, from her head to her waist, being 
 shrouded in crepe. 
 
 She looked thin, and her swarthy face was pale, bat the 
 eyes were as luminous as ever. The maid was loaded down 
 with bundles and parcels. The quartet on entering the 
 grated door separated. The officer's work was done when 
 he had handed over his charge. The three women were 
 shown to the female quarters, whence two of them, the 
 landlady and the maid, emerged after a brief stay 
 
 Madeline got extra good quarters, on the floor above the 
 second tier in the female department, being alone, and 
 further reveling in the luxury of a camp-bedstead. She 
 was seen, but had nothing to say, excepting that she had 
 been nearly " talked to death," probably as truthful a re- 
 mark as she has made since she has come into such unsavory 
 notoriety. By the way, the last murderess that occupied 
 these special quarters was A la Robert, who killed Weber
 
 BTURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 69 
 
 Sympathy put her there, for she had suffered and was 
 crazed with grief at the tragic death of her young son. Out- 
 side of these two the common cell has been plenty good 
 enough for the ordinary herd. 
 
 Some people who profess to know, say that the woman 
 will be allowed to remain some weeks behind the bars, to let 
 the effacing hand of time smooth away the rough edges of 
 the tragedy; but this is looked upon as improbable, for 
 efforts looking toward release on bail by means of a writ of 
 habeas corpus have already been made. 
 
 TAKEN TO THE JAIL. 
 
 Madeline Stiles was taken to the county jail from the 
 Harrison street police station at 3 o'clock yesterday after- 
 noon. Tom Barrett and " Saul," the lock-up keepers, ex- 
 pressed themselves as delighted with the change. They 
 have grown tired of the constant stream of silk-attired fe- 
 males who had come to visit her. Saul says it was a " holy 
 terror " to him to see these women " take on " about Made- 
 line. They never stopped coming day or night. Carrie 
 Watson was the last visitor, and remained with the pris- 
 oner until she was transferred. An elegant carriage was 
 the vehicle in which Madeline and Sergt. Bohan made the 
 journey to the jail, whither the Watson accompanied them 
 in her own turnout. Arriving at the jail at half-past 3 
 o'clock, the prisoner was at once ushered up-stairs into the 
 third tier of the woman's department, where she will re- 
 main for the present. Half an hour after her arrival she 
 was seen reclining on a lounge in the corridor, surrounded 
 by a bevy of curious and sentimental female visitors, whom 
 Jailor Folz had not the nerve to refuse admittance. As she 
 reclined wearily on the couch, resting her sallow cheek on 
 her hand, she appeared listless and worn, and her restless 
 eyes took no notice of the morbid, middle-aged females,
 
 70 STUBLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 who were old enough to have some feeling, but who sat and 
 stared stolidly, and sighed significantly, and chewed gum. 
 The prisoner excused herself from talking, saying that she 
 was just beginning to feel the effects of the strain upon her 
 nerves, and that she was utterly broken down by the inces- 
 sant crowd who had tormented her by endeavors to obtain 
 interviews ever since she arrived at the station, some of 
 them treating her more like a wild animal than like a 
 woman. She expressed herself as pleased at the change 
 from the station to the jail, where she hoped to obtain some 
 rest. The reporter humanely took the hint and left, but 
 the remorseless sight-seers of her own sex remained in evi- 
 dent enjoyment of the situation. 
 
 SISTERS IN SIN. 
 
 The fallen angels on the " Levee " are making a heroine 
 of the murderess Madeline. The landlady of the South 
 Clark street bagnio where the girl last lived has undertaken 
 to raise a fund for her benefit. She has headed the list 
 with a subscription for $500, and up to last night about $500 
 additional had been pledged. An effort is soon to be made 
 to secure the prisoner's release on bail, a friend having sig- 
 nified a willingness to go on her bond for any reasonable 
 amount. 
 
 Madeline's effects and a trunk belonging to Stiles were 
 removed from Wabash avenue to the place on South Clark 
 street above referred to, yesterday. The locks had been 
 pried off and the contents of the trunks overhauled, but so 
 far as is known nothing excepting the correspondence was 
 stolen. There was nothing in Madeline's Saratoga except- 
 ing articles of wearing apparel, a few toilet pieces, and a 
 large and varied assortment of bibles and prayer-books. 
 The killer was a devout Catholic. In Stiles' trunk there 
 was little to be seen. His entire wardrobe was thrown in
 
 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY 71 
 
 loosely, and a scant one it was, too, for a fashionable man 
 about town, who was supposed to have the best of every- 
 thing. It had been " pawed over " and was in confusion 
 when seen by the reporter last evening, and bad been sub- 
 jected to all sorts of unkind and cruel criticism. The cover 
 and sides of the trunk were covered with penciled memor- 
 anda, the writer apparently having adopted that as the 
 easiest way to keep books. On a page of a book found in 
 Madeline's trunk were scribbled the following lines : 
 
 EFFIE : My Own Darling : I love you better than my 
 life and the world besides. I love, I love, I love you. 
 Come to me. I lo^e you. Don't stay away from me, for I 
 love you. You are my life and I your CHARLIE. 
 
 Among the demi-monde the murder is still the all-absorb- 
 ing theme of conversation. The women of the town discuss 
 the details of the tragedy and relate incidents in connection 
 with the lives of the victim and his murderess with morbid 
 pleasure. 
 
 A CHANGING SENTIMENT. 
 
 The conviction is creeping into the minds of a good many 
 people who have carefully read her many contradictory 
 stories, that Madeline is a very rabid liar. At all favorable 
 occasions she has laid stress on the statement that she paid 
 the bill of expenses at the hotel at Suunyside on the night 
 preceding the murder, while the truth of the matter is that 
 the bill remains unpaid. Mr. and Mrs. Downing, the pro- 
 prietors of the hotel, and their bartender, who are the only 
 persons in charge of the business of the concern, all testi- 
 fied to the fact that both parties had taken departure with- 
 out settling the bill, amounting to $2.40. She has also re- 
 peatedly assured the reporters that on the morning of the 
 shooting, on entering her victim's roo;u, she threw at him a 
 purso containing $50, which has not since been discovered.
 
 72 STUBLA-STILES TRAGEDY 
 
 She was in the pawn-shop on State street about 1 o'clock 
 that same morning, and then made a piteous appeal for the 
 loan of $20 on her dress, assuring the person in charge that 
 she needed the money and hadn't a cent in the world. She 
 received $10 on her dress, and this amount was found en 
 her person after the arrest. In addition to the very reason- 
 able belief that the girl has been persistently misrepresent- 
 ing the facts, it is established that she borrowed some 
 change from the person who accompanied her to the pawn 
 shop when she first entered it after her return from Sunny- 
 side, to make up the amount necessary to pay for the re- 
 volver she had purchased with which she murdered her 
 lover. In the early stages of her trouble, she laid particu- 
 lar stress on the statement that she had carried the pistol 
 with which she shot Charlie for several years. There are 
 many other points advanced by the girl in mitigation of her 
 offense, that are entirely at varience with the truth. Now 
 that the excitement attending the murder is subsiding, 
 some people are veering around to the opinion that it is 
 hardly the right thing to pamper the woman in picturing 
 the memory of the dead man blacker than it really is. 
 
 From the varied articles which at this time appeared for 
 and against the assasinated and the assassin, we have 
 clipped the following, leaving the reader to judge of the 
 justice or injustice of the same. 
 
 KINDRED'S ESTIMATE. 
 
 The relatives of Charlie Stiles are confident that he was 
 endeavoring, under the influence of his mother, to get rid 
 of the woman who shot him, and was intending to settle 
 down in Dixon and lead a better life. As a son they say 
 he was all that could be desired, and he invested the $4,000 
 that he got for his board of trade membership in a farm 
 adjoining that of his mother, and was making all his
 
 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 73 
 
 arrangements to go there to live. The theory of his rela- 
 tives is that the woman understood this and shot him for 
 that reason. That the father of the murdered man died 
 in the arms of the woman is vigorously denied, and it is 
 stated that she did not arrive at the house until after death 
 had occurred. Mrs. Stiles had been sent for, and was with 
 her husband when he died. As for Stiles' alleged maltreat- 
 ment of the woman on the Fourth of July, it is replied 
 that he was not with her then, having been in Dixon from 
 Decoration day till July 5. In explanation of his letters to 
 her asking for money, the relatives say that they can prove 
 that she had large amounts of his money, and that he only 
 called on her for his own ; they say they are ready to pro- 
 duce a witness whom Madeliue told on one occasion that 
 she had as much as $7,000 of Stiles' money. Mrs. Stiles is 
 said to be in possession of various letters sent her by 
 Madeline threatening to kill her and Charlie and to dis- 
 grace the whole family. Instead of Charlie pursuing the 
 woman, they 'say he was trying to get rid of her, and she 
 has been hanging onto him. Repeatedly when he has gone 
 to Dixon she has followed him out there, and has even 
 telegraphed to Mrs. Stiles that she was coming. She has, 
 as they say, insisted on going to Mrs. Stiles' house, and 
 Charlie had to resort to all sorts of devices to keep her 
 away from his mother. Mrs. Stiles received from her son 
 after his death a letter announcing that Madeline had 
 promised to go to Baltimore in ten days, and that then he 
 should be rid of her and should go to Dixon. The rela- 
 tives also wish it stated that several members of the Owl 
 club intended to go the funeral, but missed the train owing 
 to a misunderstanding as to the time at which it left, and 
 then telegraphed to Dixon that if the funeral could be 
 postponed they would be out on a later train. 
 The funeral services were held Wednesday afternoon in
 
 74 STURIA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 the Methodist church at Dixon, being conducted by the 
 Rev. Mr. Sides, a Presbyterian minister. They were at- 
 tended by a large number of sympathizing friends of the 
 bereaved family. The Owl club sent a large floral cross 
 and crown, and the call board sent a pillow of flowers 
 bearing the legend " At Rest." 
 
 The members of the Owl club and the Elks, both of 
 which organizations Mr. Stiles was a member, have passed 
 appropriate resolutions on his death, and have forwarded 
 the same to his family at Dixon. 
 
 "RAMPANT HARLOTRY." 
 
 To THE EDITOR: There appeared in a morning paper, 
 July 13, an editorial under the above heading, on the 
 recent death of a young man at the hands of a woman. 
 This is the first article I have seen which attacked the 
 woman, and it seems so unfair that I feel called on to enter 
 the lists in behalf of one who can not speak for herself. 
 The editorial says that since the awful deed the fallen 
 women have come out on the streets in force ; that they 
 appear in bright colors and seem to feel triumphant over 
 the matter. 
 
 Now all this seems to me very unjust. Have not these 
 women a right to appear on the streets? One would think 
 to hear the remarks of men about this class of women that 
 the women alone are guilty of sin, and all men " sans peur 
 et sans reproche." Why should these women not wear 
 bright colors if they want to ? The men who have sinned 
 with them do not wear mourning. I pity those women, 
 and I am a happy wife ; but it seems . to me the more is 
 my compassion yes, and my love drawn out toward 
 those whom men have set beyond the pale of home and 
 sheltered love. Toward those poor creatures my heart 
 goes out in prayer and pity, and so does every noble
 
 8TURLA-8TILES TRAGEDY. 75 
 
 woman 's. I tell you of late years we women nave been 
 thinking, and we are not going to let you men mold our 
 thoughts and opinions any more. You have made us cold, 
 and hard, and suspicious, and jealous, long enough. We 
 think for ourselves now, and we intend to keep on doing 
 it. These words of mine will be echoed in the heart of 
 every grand woman that reads them, and the gathering of 
 waters of years will pour out in a tide that will make a 
 crevasse in public opinion on all subjects pertaining to 
 woman. God forgive me if I talk in an unchristian tone, 
 but it seems to me that that young woman did the natural, 
 if not the right, thing when she shot her oppressor. Think 
 of it ! That a man should bet and pay bills on the earn- 
 ings of a woman's body ! Isn't it horrible ? And his rela- 
 tives too ; his uncle, and his brothers, for so she states, if 
 the reporters are correct in the printed accoimts. It is a 
 depth of degradation almost incomprehensible. And that 
 she should, like George Eliot's Gwendoline, have grown so 
 to loathe her vampire leech as at last in a time of frenzy to 
 have gone and taken his life, and rid herself of him, is it 
 to be .wondered at ? 
 
 If Madeline Stiles were to be tried before a jury of her 
 peers, a jury of women, we would not be long in render- 
 ing our verdict; only I think we would desire, with femi- 
 nine irrelevancy to tack on to our verdict some kind of a 
 provision for her. 
 
 I want to call particular attention to the closing para- 
 graph in this editorial to which I refer. After citing the 
 various indications of a sp'irit of triumph among the demi- 
 monde, the writer attempts to contrast Madeline Stiles with 
 the mother of the deceased, in these pathetic sentences : 
 " Down in a town by a quiet river there is an old woman 
 the light of whose life has gone out, wiiose fountains of tears 
 have run themselves dry, and who at the moment when the
 
 76 8TUKLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 champagne is gurgling most musically, and when the con- 
 gratulations at the jail are the most effusive and the most 
 gushing, hears the horrible fall of clods which cover the 
 last hope of her exhausted life." 
 
 Well, we are a sentimental people, we Americans ; but 
 that last gush does astonish me a little. That the mother 
 of a man like Stiles should be breaking her heart over the 
 very end she ought to have expected, is somewhat puzzling. 
 Why did she not raise him better ? Why were these tears 
 not shed over his sinning life instead of his, as it seems to 
 an outsider, very fitting end ? The mothers of such men 
 are often the explanation of them. I hope it is not so in 
 this case, and the fact that the father died in the woman 
 Stiles' house, and, as she states, "in her arms," would seem 
 to convey the idea that the wife and mother, who is por- 
 trayed as having wept the fountain of tears dry, has had 
 many years of sorrow in which to do it. I hope that that 
 father was the only parent who mistrusted the son. I hope 
 that the wife, deserted for a house of ill-repute, is better, 
 and grander, and nobler than these dreadful male members 
 of her family. God pity her if she is not. I am sorry for 
 these two blighted, miserable women, made miserable by 
 wicked men. But why did not that mother influence her 
 son to a better life ? If he had been mine it seems to me I 
 would have wearied heaven with petitions, I would have 
 knelt at his feet, I'd have followed him day and night, I'd 
 have gone to the woman, and got them married, and tried 
 to make her good too. Oh, I could not let matters drift on 
 so to an awful conclusion like this. How can mothers sit 
 so still, when their sons are going down to death and des- 
 truction? 
 
 And now that poor young woman, with the stain of mur- 
 der on her soul, albeit driven or tempted to it by the cruel 
 and brutal usage she received, ' Think of what her life is I
 
 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY 77 
 
 There is a chance for the mother of young Stiles. If 
 women were heroines, and she was grand in her being and 
 development, as I could imagine seme women, would it not 
 be the only beautiful solution to such a tragedy, if she would 
 come and help the poor girl now in her trouble, and say : 
 " I know, poor child, that you killed my son in a moment 
 of passion, but I regard you as his wife, notwithstanding!" 
 and if she would take her in her arms, and to her heart, and 
 her home, and the two women would follow a path of 
 righteousness together ! 
 
 Doubtless with all his sin the young man had some lov- 
 able traits, or the woman would have cast him off long ago. 
 She doubtless loved him, and so did the mother in a cold 
 kind of way, perhaps, for she seems to have let him go his 
 own gait pretty much. 
 
 It is an " ever sad tale." But my heart goes out more to 
 the living in her prison cell than to the dead in his Maker's 
 hands. She may have callers and champagne, but oh ! what 
 has she beside ? Remorse and the spectre of her dead un- 
 worthy love ; an empty, hopeless life ; the doors shut before 
 and behind her ; never a husband's honoring touch, never 
 the tender caress of a baby hand, none of life's sweet and 
 sacred cares ! Shut out ! outcast ! 
 
 So my lips can frame no harsher words for such women 
 than my heart can feel. I would gather them all, if I could, 
 into happy homes of their own, but oh, who could bear the 
 balm of Lethe's waters to their heartp ; and because they 
 can never forget, so they can never be happy. 
 
 It is not this sort of women that wives dread most. It is 
 the respectable, smooth-tongued woman, of false heart, of 
 hypocritical pretensions, that we view with most dread ; 
 the woman who has drawn over her native infidelity the 
 mantle of wife's name and religion's cloak, and who, under 
 these, lures off the love and faith of the man who meets her
 
 78 STUKIA-STILES TKAGEDY. 
 
 amid virtuous surroundings, where, like Satan in paradise, 
 she does her deadly work. 
 
 Some day a change will come, and all the world will re- 
 cognize the force and truth of those words of Christ to the 
 hypocrites of His day : "Ye shall see the publicans and 
 harlots passing into the kingdom of heaven, and yourselves 
 shut out." 
 
 Christ can give these women not merely the cup of Lethe, 
 not merely forgetfulness, but he can pour into them such a 
 new life that they can live right, and can attain such a 
 sweet and beautiful peace and rest that victory shall shine 
 out more grandly than innocence, triumph over sinful ten- 
 dencies prove greater than untempted conditions. 
 
 MES. W. P. BLACK. 
 
 [Mrs. Black is the wife of a prominent lawyer in Chicago, 
 and is an active member of temperance and other reform 
 movements.]
 
 PART II. 
 CHAPTEK I. 
 
 PAETICULAES OF THE TRIAL. 
 
 On the 21st day of November, A. D. 1882, the trial of 
 the case entitled, The People of the State of Illinois 
 against Madeline Stiles, otherwise called Theressa Sturla, 
 was begun before Honorable George Gardner and a jury 
 in the Criminal Court of Cook County. 
 
 Judge Gardner was elevated to the bench about two 
 years ago. As a member of the bar he never had any 
 practice or experience in defending persons charged with 
 crime. He was, however, a chancery lawyer of distinction, 
 a gentleman of rare culture, and a man of strong religious 
 convictions. 
 
 While the following pages are to be devoted to the giving 
 of the trial as it actually occurred, as shown by the notes of 
 the short-hand reporter, a brief notice of the two lawyers 
 who appeared in the case may not be out of place. It 
 may serve to satisfy the curious as they are both remark- 
 able men. 
 
 Hon. L. L. Mills is not now over thirty-five years of age. 
 He has twice been elected to the high office of States 
 Attorney, now held by him. He has three assistants in 
 his office and tries only the most important cases himself. 
 These cases he makes his especial study, and before he 
 undertakes to engage in the actual trial of a case, he be-
 
 80 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 comes conversant with all the facts connected therewith, 
 and knows the strength of his case as well as the weakness 
 of that of his adversary, and visits the scene of every 
 murder case he tries. 
 
 Mr. Mills is a hard worker and well versed in the law, is 
 a fine scholar and thorough gentleman, and an unflinching 
 defender of what his clear and honest intelligence tells 
 him is law and justice. And by all who know him as a 
 practitioner and citizen, is conceded to be not only one of 
 the most eloquent, but one of the noblest and best men in 
 the West. 
 
 Before he was attorney for the State he defended several 
 persons charged with murder and other crimes. 
 
 He was attorney for the Pinker ton detective agency 
 until his election to the office he now fills so ably and well. 
 
 Mr. A. S. Trude is about the same age as Mr. Mills, and 
 the two men in their methods and practice, are so near 
 alike, that one would be inclined to think that they gradu- 
 ated out of the same school. Like Mr. Mills, Mr. Trude 
 never tries a murder case without first visiting the scene of 
 the homicide. He has defended thirty-four men and 
 women for murder, and all but five of them were acquitted, 
 and none of them were hung. Among the most desperate 
 of his cases wherein verdicts of not guilty were rendered, 
 are: 
 
 First. The People, etc., vs. Joseph Tausey alias Wm. 
 Johnson, indicted for killing Albert Goetz, by cutting his 
 throat at a dance, in the fall of 1874. Tried and acquitted 
 March Term, Criminal Court, 1875. 
 
 Second. People, etc., vs. George Martin alias "White 
 Pine," indicted for killing St. James on Clark St., in 
 broad daylight, with a bowie knife, in summer of 1875, 
 and tried and acquitted at Sept. Term 1875. 
 
 Third. People, etc., vs. Henry Seller, indicted for kill-
 
 8TURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 81 
 
 ing J. Kohn, with pistol, tried and acquitted, March Term, 
 1880. 
 
 Fourth. People, etc., vs. Dr. Thomas Cream, indicted 
 for killing of Mary Faulkner, by means of instruments 
 intended to procure abortion. Tried and acquitted, Nov. 
 Term, 1881. The most notable case ever tried in Cook 
 County, aside from murder cases, was that of B. K. and 
 Robert Turner, charged with land forgeries, in which over 
 three million dollars worth of land and property was in- 
 volved. Mr. Trude defended with U. S. Senator Brown- 
 ing. Howard Turner was acquitted; disagreed as to R. K. 
 Turner, who was subsequently discharged. 
 
 He defended successfully the County Commissioners, 
 and Clement Periolat, of the so-called Court House ring. 
 He has appeared for Michael C. McDonald in many stormy 
 legal conflicts, during the many years he has been his 
 attorney. Within the last four years, he has been getting 
 gradually out of criminal practice, and is now entirely out 
 of it so far as defending is concerned, unless something 
 extraordinary should occur. For eight years he has been 
 attorney for "W. F. Storey and the Chicago Times, and it 
 was while defending him in the celebrated case of the 
 State of Wisconsin, on the information of William Beck, 
 Chief of Police against W. F. Storey, that he made a 
 record for himself for sagacity and eloquence of high 
 order. He is a good judge of human nature, knows how 
 to work upon the sympathies of a jury, and in the line of 
 pathetic oratory he is unrivalled. For two years he has 
 been the attorney for the Chicago Tribune, and during his 
 connection with the two papers referred to, as legal repre- 
 sentative, he has not had a single adverse verdict. At one 
 time there were pending against the Chicago Times thirty- 
 six libel suits, and seven indictments. At the present time 
 there are no indictments, and but three libel suits pending. 
 6
 
 82 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 He is a positive man, warm and enduring in his friend- 
 ships, and bitter in his hates. 
 
 The side of the defense in capital cases, is the unpopular 
 side, and the . more bitter the denunciations of the press, 
 of client and his or her cause, the closer clings the attorney 
 and the more defiant is he.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 FIRST DAY NOVEMBER 21st, 1882. 
 
 The Court, Judge Gardner, directed counsel to proceed 
 with the trial of the cause. 
 
 There were twenty-four jurors summoned according to 
 law on the regular venire. 
 
 James Doyle, the clerk, called twelve of them into the 
 jury box. 
 
 The examination of the jurors as to their qualifications 
 and belief in the infliction of the death penalty in proper 
 cases, was conducted by Mr. Mills. Twenty-two of the 
 twenty-four were excused by him. 
 
 He then asked the Court to issue a special venire for one 
 hundred jurors. When the Sheriff of the county, Gen. O. L. 
 Mann, was about to cause it to be served by detailing a 
 number of his deputies to go into the body of the county 
 and serve the summons, as was the custom, Mr. Mills 
 objected to the Sheriff either serving the writ himself or 
 directing who should serve it, and asked for the appoint- 
 ment of a special bailiff by the Court. To this Mr. Trude 
 said he had no objection, but claimed that the objection by 
 the States Attorney to the Sheriff included every person 
 under him, and that the Court should appoint some person 
 not known to either attorney. 
 
 As it was then 12:30 P. M., the Court stated that he 
 would adjourn to 2 P. M., and asked Mr. Mills if we would 
 suggest any person as special bailiff. Before he could an- 
 swer Mr. Trude stated that necessarily the States Attorney 
 was partisan, and that he most seriously objected to his
 
 84 STTJRLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 virtually uniting the functions of Sheriff with those of 
 States Attorney. The most important and vital step that 
 he, as counsel, was called upon to take in the progress of 
 the trial, was to see to it that his client be tried in the lan- 
 guage of the organic law, "by a fair and impartial jury." 
 A doubt, if not indeed a suspicion, would arise if either at- 
 torney had the power to name the man who was to sum- 
 mon the jury, which would be tantamount to naming the 
 jurors himself. Never but twice in the history of the Crim- 
 inal Court of Cook County had the arm of the Sheriff been 
 stricken down by objections like those made in the case at 
 bar, and those two cases arose in the election cases of 1874 
 and were purely of a political character. In this case there 
 are no political issues to be tried nor party feeling to en- 
 counter, and in the territory peopled by honest men no one 
 stands higher than the distinguished official against whom 
 the States Attorney has lodged his objection. There is but 
 one man in the office of the Sheriff against whom he would 
 lodge an objection to the service of the writ by him, and 
 that man has been conspicuous in rendering all the aid in 
 his power to the prosecution. I refer to Henry Severs, 
 continued Mr. Trude, who looks and acts as though he ex- 
 pected to serve the venire. He asked the Court to act up- 
 on the precedent established in the two cases referred to, 
 and appoint some person outside of the Criminal Court and 
 free from its influences. Any one or more of the bailiffs of 
 the other courts would not be objectionable to him. On 
 this motion Mr. Trude, in conclusion, said : " Your Honor 
 will pardon my apparent zeal, but that writ has often been 
 termed ' omnipotent process ;' never did I see before the 
 full force of the term or realize its full significance. The 
 man who has that within his control and engaged in exe- 
 cuting it, has the power to place before the prisoner at the 
 bar as her judges, in fact, twelve honest, just and true men;
 
 STUKLA. -STILES TUAGEDY. 85 
 
 he has equally the power to summon members of a certain 
 club or the friends of members of that club which is active- 
 ly engaged in prosecuting this defendant, which would 
 make this trial a burlesque on justice and a travesty on the 
 words found in the Constitution of the general government 
 and incorporated in our own, ' a fair and impartial trial.' 
 
 " It is our hope and the law's expectation that we have a 
 fair, honest, and intelligent jury in this case. Again I say 
 I protest against the States Attorney naming the man, and 
 particularly protest against Mr. Severs serving the venire." 
 
 Mr. Mills stated in reply that he was as anxious as op- 
 posing counsel to have the case tried before a fair and im- 
 partial jury. Mr. Severs was and is the chief bailiff of the 
 Criminal Court, and as such had never failed to do his duty 
 honestly and faithfully; that he did not procure for him 
 his position under the Sheriff-elect Hanchett, but had writ- 
 ten a letter advocating his cause to the Sheriff. Mr. Sev- 
 ers' character was so well known that it needed no defense. 
 
 The Court then stated that he had made up his mind to 
 appoint Mr. Severs, which the court then did. Mr. Trude 
 excepted. 
 
 The work of impanneling the jury then proceeded, and 
 up to the adjournment of the court but two jurors had been 
 accepted. 
 
 SECOND DAY NOVEMBER 22ND, 1882. 
 
 An exhaustive examination of the persons called into the 
 jury box was made by the States Attorney, particularly with 
 regard to their ability to give the case a fair hearing and 
 render an impartial verdict, and upon their willingness to 
 inflict the death penalty in cases of murder. An equally 
 exhaustive examination was gone into by Mr. Trude, who 
 enquired of each juror as to whether he was a member of 
 the Owl Club, or as to whether he was intimately acquaint-
 
 86 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 ed with any member of that club ; and having found sev- 
 eral such who had been summoned in the special venire, 
 among them the president of the club, himself, Thomas 
 Kirkwood, excused them promptly from service. He next 
 examined the persons summoned as to their views on* the 
 questions of diseases of the mind and insanity, and at the 
 adjournment of court eight jurors were taken by both 
 sides. 
 
 THIRD DAY NOVEMBER 23RD, 1882. 
 
 On the opening of court Mr. Trude asked, before the 
 jurors were brought in, to be allowed to excuse peremptor- 
 ily the juror Herman Tobias, as he had information as to 
 his prejudice against the defendant. That he had been 
 heard to say that ' she ought to be hung, etc.' 
 
 The Court ruled that as the juror had been accepted and 
 sworn in, he could not be excused. 
 
 Mr. Trude claimed under the law he had the right to ex- 
 cuse a juror peremptorily any time before the twelve were 
 accepted, and urged as another ground that as the juror 
 had said that he had read about the case, talked about it 
 and had formed an opinion, that it would take evidence to 
 remove it, though he further said he could give defendant a 
 fair trial notwithstanding such opinion, he ought to be ex- 
 cused, citing People vs. Weil, 40 California. 
 
 The Court declined to excuse him. 
 
 Mr. Trude excepted to the ruling.
 
 CHAPTEK III. 
 FOURTH DAY NOV. 24m, 1882. 
 
 The following jurors were sworn to try the case : 
 
 Herman Tobias, Andrew Forbes, John Sheehy, James 
 Dale, W. A. Jones, W. F. Wolf, Edward Wood, J. H. Cam- 
 eron, Henry W. Forbes, John Erickson, Henry Snyder, 
 Gustave Brucher. 
 
 Mr. Mills then opened for the prosecution as .follows : 
 Ma\j U please the Court and gentlemen of the jury : 
 
 I am glad that after several days of anxious toil we have 
 succeeded in obtaining from the body of this county twelve 
 good men to try this great case of the State of Illinois 
 agaiust Madeline Stiles alias Theressa Sturla. The investi- 
 gation of the important subjects to be brought lip in this 
 trial needed men of thought and fidelity. This case is im- 
 portant for many reasons. In this beautiful city of ours, 
 in the summer of this year, a young man was, without 
 warning, shot down and left cold and bleeding in a room in 
 the Palmer house. The appalling nature of the great 
 crime, the deliberation with which it was planned, the bold- 
 ness with which it was executed, the subtle cunning resort- 
 ed to by the murderess to get at her victim, her unfaltering 
 resolution to make his death certain, his prominence in 
 commercial circles, all, all explain why this great interest, 
 so plainly manifest by this great audience and yonder 
 thronged street. This fact of death made the inquiry im- 
 portant with a terrible impressiveness. In view, therefore, 
 of the importance of the case, I hope you will give it the 
 strictest attention in order that a just and fair conclusion
 
 88 STTJRIA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 may be reached. The indictment which I hold in my hand 
 charges this woman with murder, and by the statutes of 
 our State murder is thus denned. (Here the statutory 
 definition of the crime of murder was read to the jury.) 
 For violating that law this womau stands indicted. The 
 facts, gentlemen of the jury, briefly are these: In the 
 month of July there lived in this city one Charles Stiles, 
 caller of the Board of Trade, and Theressa Sturla, the 
 defendant in this case, who were acquaintances of some 
 years' standing. What their full relations were I will not 
 now state, except to say that from certain questions pro- 
 pounded to you by Mr. Trude when you were being exam- 
 ined as jurors, I should infer that they were not of a moral 
 nature. The exactitude of what they were would appear 
 in evidence. On the 10th of July this defendant was living 
 at No. 292 "Wabash Avenue, where Mr. Stiles also ' had an 
 apartment, as well as another one at the Palmer house. 
 On the 9th day of July, Stiles and the defendant took a ride 
 in a buggy, going to a suburban resort known as "Down- 
 ing's" or " Sunny side." Here they had supper in a private 
 room. "While there they quarreled. Stiles suddenly order- 
 ed his horse and came home to the Palmer house. After 
 he went to his room the bell in 660 was violently rung and 
 immediately afterwards there was another energetic ring at 
 the bell connected with room 661. When the bell-boy went 
 up he found Stiles dressed, with his hat on, and was told 
 that the watchman was wanted. The latter appeared in a 
 few minutes and held a conversation with Stiles, and with 
 other things there said by him, was a request that under no 
 circumstances was he to allow a woman to call at or come 
 to his room. The details of that conversation will be given 
 in evidence, as well as to what it led to. The woman be- 
 ing left to go home as she wished, and while she might have 
 hired a horse and buggy to take her home, preferred to
 
 STUELA-STILES TRAGEDY. 89 
 
 walk in, and hired the hostler at Downings to go with her 
 to the cars. Just before they reached the cars they went 
 into a saloon, and she asked the proprietor of the place 
 how far it was to the Palmer house. She looked cool and 
 was free from excitement. She got on the cars, came to 
 the city, and on State street she met a man, as though by 
 appointment; that she subsequently parted with him and 
 met another person, with whom she went to a pawn shop 
 and asked for a self-cocking revolver. I will also show 
 that on this same night she had pawned a dress for a sum 
 sufficient to purchase the revolver. She retired early and 
 at the unusual hour of five in the morning she arose and 
 went down to the Palmer house, arriving there at about 
 seven o'clock. Rapping at the door of Stiles' room, in a 
 boyish or child-like voice she said "messenger, messenger," 
 which must have deceived Stiles, for he opened the door. 
 Four minutes later a man in an adjoining room heard two 
 shots and cries of murder ! murder ! The people who 
 responded to this cry of agony and distress found Charles 
 Stiles stark and bleeding upon the floor, while the woman 
 stood by apparently cold and unmoved. When they asked 
 her why she killed him, she stooped down, kissed him, and 
 said: 'I told him I would do it," I came here to doit, 
 and have done it ; I am glad of it; let the law take its 
 course.' She was cool, and on her face was an expression 
 of determination. Only one of the shots struck him, and 
 that shot entered his body in such a way as to indicate that 
 he held up his arm to ward off the shot, for the bullet pass- 
 ed through his arm (indicating,) here, and into his body 
 here, (indicating.) This, then, gentlemen of the jury, is 
 the case of the people against the defendant. The defend- 
 ant was not, and is not insane; her every act indicated de- 
 liberation. It is true the defendant is a woman. But what 
 kind of a woman ? You will, as sworn jurors, stand by
 
 90 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 your oaths and be guided by the law and the evidence, and 
 not be diverted by any sentimentality. 
 
 Mr. Trude then opened for the defense as follows: 
 May it please your Honor and you gentlemen of the jury : 
 
 The States Attorney has presented to your view but one 
 page in the history of these two persons the prisoner and 
 her dead lover, and that one page is written in characters 
 of blood his blood. The rest of their history, beginning at 
 the time when they first met in the summer of 1377, is 
 written in tears and blood her tears and her blood. 
 
 For a full understanding of this case, and that you may 
 be in a position to do exact justice alike to the People of the 
 State of Illinois and the woman sitting yonder within full 
 view of you all, it becomes my duty to present to your con- 
 sideration facts which show the true relations of the dead 
 lover and his living victim. Victim, did I say ? Yes, she 
 was such. If five years of physical pain and mental an- 
 guish imposed by him upon her in the most ruthless man- 
 ner without fault on her part does not make her a victim, 
 then I have misunderstood the term. In 1877, when the 
 prisoner was but about fifteen years of age, she was be- 
 guiled from a home wherein she had lived for years in con- 
 tent and in happiness, by Charles Stiles. This took place 
 in Baltimore, where she lived with her parents. Stiles 
 visited that city on an expedition not disassociated with 
 gambling, horse-racing and kindred vices, in short he was 
 ' following the races ' and lived by betting on sure things 
 as it is termed in the parlance of the turf. While there he 
 saw the defendant and by arts and devices he of all otheis 
 knew so well how to employ, he gained complete control of 
 the Italian girl who at this time spoke English indifferently. 
 He saw in her an ardent, loving girl, of great natural musi- 
 cal qualities which he could turn to his monetary advan- 
 tages. He could speak the Italian language, and in her
 
 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 91 
 
 natal tongue lie conversed with her, told her that if she 
 would consent to go to Chicago and unite her lot with his, 
 that her life would be one of endless joy and pleasure ; that 
 he was well known in Chicago and acquainted with those 
 who controlled^the dramatic press ; that he would provide 
 for her a music teacher and as her voice was clear, power- 
 ful and rich, though somewhat crude, he would have it cul- 
 tivated. All this, and more, he promised her. Shortly 
 after this she came on to Chicago. He took her to a house 
 and under a promise of marriage they retired. In the 
 night time, at about 4 o'clock, sbe heard a noise in the 
 room like that made by a person softly closing a trunk ; 
 supposing it to be made by a burglar, she instinctively 
 reached out her hand toward her companion, to find him 
 gone. Acting upon an impulse she suddenly arose from 
 the bed and rushed toward a dark form that she saw 
 in the gloom moving towards the door in retreat; she 
 caught up to the supposed intruder at the head of the 
 stairs, when she received a violent blow in the face. This 
 was followed by a struggle, during which she recognized 
 her lover, Charles Stiles, and upon an examination of her 
 trunk she found that he had taken all her money and valu- 
 ables. On this discovery of his perfidy and with it a dis- 
 sipation of all her expectations, hopes and dreams, she 
 fainted, and on recovering became delirious. A few days 
 after this occurrence, and while she was arranging to go 
 back to Baltimore, he reappeared, talked love and Italian 
 to her; she with the fear that possessed her of meeting her 
 parents, and with the recollection that she had no place to 
 go, forgave him. He persuaded her to rent No. 10 Clark 
 street; that he was a member of the Board of Trade, in- 
 deed was a ' caller on the board,' was a member of the Owl 
 Club and society of Elks, and would bring to the house 
 plenty of customers, for wine, etc. She rented the house,
 
 92 STUBLA-STILES TKAGEDY. 
 
 where they lived quietly for some time. She entertained 
 him and his patrons by singing, playing on the harp, guitar, 
 and piano, and under the influences of music and song sold 
 large quantities of wine. Charles, in the meantime, dressed 
 with artistic style, gambled with money earned by the de- 
 fendant, and gambled with the proceeds of sales of wine 
 to members of the Owl Club. His drain on her re- 
 sources were so constant that in the beginning of 1880 she 
 was compelled to decline his request for money, when he 
 knocked her down and 'kicked her in the abdomen as she 
 lay on the floor. She fainted, and in her distress and 
 agony was cared for by two persons, both of whom will in 
 their own way narrate under the solemnity of their oaths 
 this brutal occurrence and its effect upon the prisoner's 
 health thereafter. About this time a little bootblack used 
 to visit the house and run errands for the prisoner. She 
 took an interest in him and gave shelter, food, clothing and 
 education to this little wandering waif. His custom was to 
 go to school at 8:30 A. M., take his dinner with him, and 
 return to the house at 4 P. M. About three weeks after 
 the assault just referied to, Stiles visited the house, apolo- 
 gized for his conduct and was forgiven. The next day he, 
 in the presence of the boy referred to, asked for money of 
 defendan t, and on her asking him as to what he was going 
 to do with it, was struck by him in the face. A woman who 
 was also present turned to rebuke Stiles, when the defend- 
 ant said : " I alone suffer, and I alone have the right to 
 complain; don't chide him." 
 
 I will not consume too much of your time by detailing 
 how, often in No. 10 Clark street, he kicked her, knocked 
 her down and ill-treated her, but will refer to one more in- 
 cident at No. 10 Clark street, and then go on to other scenes 
 no less brutal at subsequent times and at other places. 
 
 About a month after the above occurrence Stiles came
 
 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 93 
 
 home drunk; the defendant advanced to meet him when he 
 knocked her down and kicked her in the face. 
 
 From the time she emerged from girlhood into woman- 
 hood, she has been the victern of suppressed or difficult 
 menstruation, the seriousness of her condition was intensi- 
 fied by the brutal treatment she endured at the hands of 
 Stiles, and from the time she was kicked by him on the 
 abdomen, at such periods when she has her menses, she is 
 deranged. When he adds fresh acts of brutality upon her 
 when she is menstruating, she is wildly insane. This I 
 promise to show not by paid detectives, hiding spies or 
 persons of doubtful reputations, but by well known and 
 reputable persons. I will show acts of brutality, which is 
 a predisposing cause of insanity, from the time of the last 
 mentioned act up to about July 5th, 1882, by police officers, 
 citizens and carriage drivers. In my opening I will only 
 refer to such acts as will give character to the whole, such 
 acts as are conspicious for their hellish brutality. She left 
 No. 10 Clark St. about the 25th day of April, 1881, and on 
 the request of Stiles went to live at Watson's, where he 
 could turn her accomplishments or rather her musical 
 attainments to a better account for him. With an eye and 
 heart devoted to the best interests of the boy Frankie, she 
 committed him at tbis time to the care of a farmer. The 
 Watson house, gentlemen of the jury, is one frequented 
 by persons, who have forgotten or who never learned the 
 seventh commandment. Of its kind it stands highest and 
 often therein, may it be said to their disparagement, are 
 gathered the politician, congressman, statesman, judge and 
 possibly the lawyer. This defendant by singing and play- 
 ing on various instruments was enabled to make large 
 sums of money, and in this connection permit me to say, 
 Charles Stiles would wait in a closet in the Watson house 
 till his scarlet mistress had gathered together her funds for
 
 94 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 the night, when he would come forth from his retreat and 
 take from her hands the fruits of her weakness and shame, 
 and his perfidy and degradation. He would then go away, 
 gamble and return with a depleted pocket book for replen- 
 ishment. On some of these occasions the roof of this 
 crimson tinted house would shelter at the same time 
 Charles Stiles the son, Gren. E. B. Stiles the father, Eugene 
 Stiles the brother, and Chauncy Stiles the uncle, a highly 
 moral family surely, not one however- desired in such a 
 house even, for they more frequently went there to borrow 
 from the defendant than for any other purpose. The 
 States Attorney has often said during the progress of this 
 trial, that Charles Stiles dead, can not give his version of 
 the relations sustained by him with the defendant, and 
 intimated that she must have had large sums of his money 
 in her charge. Charles Stiles dead does speak, O! how 
 clearly on that subject, in letters written by him from time 
 to time in which he asks for money, admits he is a gambler 
 and libertine. These letters are written from the Owl 
 Club, and here let nie say, that his popularity with that 
 club is largely due to the fact that he spent large sums of 
 money on its members, and they knew not that behind the 
 liberal Stiles stood the scarlet robed Italian girl, with out- 
 stretched hand in which was held the money which en- 
 abled them to have what they term their good times. She 
 it was who provided money for the Salvini entertainment; 
 this will be also shown by one of his letters. 
 
 She stayed at the Watson house till May 1881, when she 
 on his request rented a suit of rooms No. 371 Wabash 
 avenue, whither went also his father and brother, the 
 former after a sickness of long duration, during which he 
 was waited upon by the prisoner, who used to sleep on the 
 f6ot of his bed, died, and with her night garment she tied 
 his stiffening limbs. During this sickness the dying man
 
 8TURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 95 
 
 often vainly calling for the presence of his wife, who came 
 not till too late, died in the arms of Madeline the Magda- 
 lane. On the heels of this death there came more mem- 
 bers of the Stiles family, who demanded the furniture of the 
 house; the defendant declined to surrender it, but sold it 
 and went back to the Watson house. This was in Septem- 
 ber, 1881, where she remained about seven months, when 
 she on the request of Stiles went to live at Mrs. Harvey's, 
 No. 291 Wabash avenue, as man and wife. Nothing un- 
 usual happened till about the 1st day of July, when she 
 received a letter in which he spoke of her in a heartless 
 manner; she read that letter to Mrs. Harvey, talked hysteri- 
 cally and incoherently; she was at the time suffering from 
 her old complaint, the details of which the witness Harvey 
 will give better than I can tell you. 
 
 FIFTH DAY NOVEMBER 25th, 1882. 
 
 Mr. Trade resumed his address to the jury. 
 
 I will, gentlemen of the jury, hurry on to the close of 
 my opening. The medical name for this condition of the 
 defendant described by me last night is Dysmennorrhea. 
 That we may proceed in light of correct information, I will 
 read from one or two recognized authorities a full defini- 
 tion of the term and description of the disease. (Here 
 counsel read from Blandiord on Insanity, pages 68-69, 
 also from Byford on Diseases of Women. ) 
 
 I will now refer to Stiles' last supper and his last ride. 
 On the 9th of July, 1882, at about 5 o'clock, Stiles and the 
 defendant started to go to Sunnyside; they reached that 
 place about 6:30 in the afternoon. 
 
 They went into the parlor ; she sat down, light hearted 
 and fancy free, and played on the piano and sang, after 
 which they went into the dining room and took their 
 supper. Stiles often on this trip asked her for money, and
 
 96 STURIA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 in the dining room was very urgent and pressing in his 
 demand; meeting with no compliance on her part he left 
 the room, called for his horse, and while waiting for it Mr. 
 Frederick Davis, a well and favorably known citizen drove 
 up, saw Stiles, with whom he had some acquaintance. 
 Stiles informed him that matters were not as bright as they 
 might be, his girl had money and would not give any to 
 him. Mr. Davis told him that he heard some ugly rumors 
 about his ill treatment of her, when Stiles replied that the 
 more he licked her the better she liked him, and much 
 more to the same effect ; when his horse arrived he 
 went away without the prisoner, to whom he had given no 
 notice of his sudden departure. When she learned that 
 she was abandoned by her lover, she was bewildered and 
 sick at heart and in great physical distress. Being at the 
 time menstruating, she was incapable of reasoning. In her 
 bewilderment she ^did not think that she could hire a 
 buggy to take her to the city for the same price paid by 
 her to the boy who escorted her through the rain and mud 
 to the street car. Of that memorable trip of more than 
 three miles, how her feet sank into the mud ankle deep; 
 how she fell several times while climbing over the logs that 
 encumbered her pathway; with the rain falling in torrents 
 upon her; her hair saturated with water and streaming 
 down her back; her clothes smeared with mud; how she 
 was affected when she passed the grave yard on her weary 
 journey ; what she said and did, had better be told by 
 other lips than mine. You will hear it from her and per- 
 haps from her companion, the hostler, Peter Ruffing. When 
 she arrived in the city, her acts were not controlled by will 
 or governed by reason; they were automatic. Remember- 
 ing doubtless past brutalities on his part, and having 
 deterred him often before from assulting her, by pointing a 
 pistol at him, as we will show by the person who gave her a
 
 STORLA- STILES TKAGEDY. 97 
 
 pistol for that purpose, she obtained the pistol referred to 
 by the States Attorney, and went to the rooms where they 
 lived and where she expected to meet him, for when she 
 arrived there she said to Mrs. Harvey, "is Charlie there? 
 if so tell him to keep away and not beat me for I have a 
 pistol and am sick." I prefer that Mrs. Harvey shall under 
 oath tell you how she spent the night; delirious and 
 wildly insane, she was beyond a doubt. 
 
 The circumstances attending her leaving Mrs. Harvey's 
 house and going to the Palmer house, her gaining admit- 
 tance to his room, meeting him, the firing of the shots, and 
 this woman now by my side bending over him with a face 
 of marble and lips of ice, kisses the lips of death, will be 
 given to you by the witnesses for the prosecution, for this 
 woman had and has no friends in that great hotel, but I 
 can safely say that those acts, instead of establishing malice, 
 prove her insane or irresponsible. 
 
 For four days you have witnessed a struggle without 
 parallel in an endeavor to secure men on this jury, with 
 iron heads and marble hearts, and in this connection we 
 are told by the State's Attorney not to be diverted by any 
 sentimentality. I ask for this woman only justice, iron- 
 ciad, iron-heeled ; ustice, and if she obtains that her acquit- 
 tal is assured.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 SIXTH DAY NOVEMBER 27th, 1882. 
 
 Dr. T. J. Bluthart, examined by Mr. Mills, State's Attor- 
 ney: "Am county physician. I saw body of Charles 
 Stiles at the morgue on July 11, and held a post-mortem 
 examination. Besides a few slight abrasions of the skin on 
 the face and knees there was a gun shot wound in the mid- 
 dle part of the left arm. The ball passed through the arm 
 and into the body an inch to left of the left nipple, tLen 
 down the lower part of the left ventricle of the heart, 
 through the diaphragm and lodged in the abdominal cavity. 
 That wound was the cause of death. The body was clothed 
 in a night shirt, which was burned considerably where the 
 ball entered, and powder marks surrounded the wound." 
 
 Cross-examined by Mr. Trude : 
 
 " Yes, the pistol must have been fired close to the body." 
 He then illustrated on Mr. Trude the course of the bullet. 
 
 Felix Puscheck, examined by Mr. Mills: "Am an archi- 
 tect; made diagram introduced in evidence, and in answer 
 to question, explained to the jury from the diagram the 
 situation of rooms 660, 661, 662, 664 and the halls upon 
 which the first three rooms front and the hall running to 
 H. B. Young's room, 664, and further testified to finding 
 a bullet mark on the wall in front of room No. 662, (which 
 was opposite room occupied by Charles Stiles,) six feet and 
 four inches from the floor on the east side of hall." 
 
 Cross-examination waived. 
 
 Frank A. Brobst, sworn, examined by Mr. Mills: "Am 
 clerk of Palmer house; was clerk on 10th July, 1882. Act-
 
 8TURIA-STILES TRAGEDY. 99 
 
 ing on report from bell-boy that a man was shot on sixth 
 floor, I started up stairs; saw the body of Charles Stiles; 
 his head seemed close to door No. 660 ; found revolver in 
 room 661, also a glove, (both identified by witness.) Saw 
 the prisoner; she acted cool, looked at the body, and said 
 to me, ' there lies the revolver; you had better take care of 
 it.' She further said to the officer who had been called, 
 ' he had no business to try to put me out of the room.' " 
 
 Cross-examined by A. S. Trude: 
 
 " She looked as though she did not realize what she had 
 done; her face was bloodless." 
 
 Willis Howe, sworn, examined by Mr. Mills. "I am 
 managing partner of the Palmer house with Potter Palmer. 
 On the morning of July 10th, 1882, was called up to sixth 
 floor. Saw body of Charles Stiles laying on the floor near 
 560; I saw Theressa Sturla there; she was kneeling at the 
 head of the body when I saw her first. She said in reply 
 to question that she had shot him. I heard her say she 
 came there to shoot him; that he left her on the North 
 side, and had walked home in the rain." 
 
 Cross-examined by Trude: 
 
 "Brobst and Livingston's opportunities for hearing what 
 was said were equally as good as my own. My memory is 
 taxed by weighty affairs that directly concern me, so that I 
 may not clearly remember just what was said. She was 
 deadly pale or very white; was excited. 
 
 Frank A. Livingston, sworn, examined by Mr. Mills: 
 "Am clerk in Palmer house; was called up to sixth floor. 
 Saw Charles Stiles bleeding on the floor; heard prisoner 
 say, 'if he had not tried to force me from the room this 
 thing would not have occurred.' She looked cool." 
 
 Cross-examined by Mr. Trude: 
 
 " She bent over him and kissed him; she looked dazed; did 
 not see Mr. Howe. When I first got there she looked pale,"
 
 100 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 Julia Joacheim, sworn, examined by Mr. Mills: "I keep 
 pawn-shop 398 State street; Theressa Sturla came to my 
 place on Sunday night, July 9th, 1882, and with an un- 
 known man purchased a revolver and cartridges; the man 
 said he had to go to South Chicago and wanted the revolver 
 to protect himself; she said she lived out there; she first 
 asked for a pistol; I said I would not sell a lady a pistol; 
 (pistol shown her) this looks like the one sold to them." 
 
 Cross-examined by Mr. Trude: 
 
 "The night was stormy; she was very wet, looked wild 
 and talked part of the time in English and part of the time 
 in Italian; the man did most of the talking; she rubbed her 
 hands and trembled; I never saw a person so excited; she 
 walked up and down in the store in a wild way; she sub- 
 sequently pawned a dress for ten dollars." 
 
 "William Bohan, examined by Mr. Mills: " I am a police 
 officer; I reached the body of Stiles about five minutes to 
 7 o'clock; I saw several gentlemen there, Mr. Howe, Liv- 
 ingston, Brobst, and two or three bell-boys; I saw defend- 
 ant, Theressa Sturla, there; she was standing against the 
 wall, very cool; I arrested her; went into room 660, picked 
 up the revolver, found two chambers empty; she said she 
 shot him with it; one shot hit Charles Stiles, and the other 
 shot went into the wall on the door opposite to No. 660; it 
 was aimed high; she said, ' I shot him, he had no business 
 to push or try to push me out of the room.' " 
 
 Cross-examined by Mr. Trude: 
 
 "I saw her bend over and kiss the lips of Stiles; she was 
 pale; she had a far-away look in her eyes and they seemed 
 to protrude from her head ; she might have said ' if he had 
 not choked me this would not have happened; her neck 
 bore the imprint of finger-marks; the marks were fresh; on 
 the way to the station she talked incoherently, part of the 
 time in English and part of the time in Italian; she asked
 
 STURIA-STILES TRAGEDY. 101 
 
 for a pistol on the way to station; complained of being 
 sick; at the morgue she insisted on going in, and forced 
 herself through the crowd to the body of Stiles; kissed it 
 again ; she looked unnatural and said as she gazed at his 
 body, 'he now lays where his father did about a year 
 ago.'" 
 
 H. B. Young, examined by Mr. Mills: 
 
 "Am an artist and designer, employed at Matson & Co.'s 
 establishment; boarded at the Palmer House; on July 10th 
 occupied room 664; I was up at six minutes to 7 o'clock; I 
 heard the voice of a person in the hall calling ' messenger ! 
 messenger ! it was like a boy's voice; I next heard the open- 
 ing and closing of the door of the room occupied by Stiles; 
 I heard no conversation till the shots were fired; I heard 
 two shots." 
 
 "What time was this ?" " Two minutes of 6." 
 
 " Four minutes after the calls of ' messenger ?' " " Yes^ 
 four minutes after." 
 
 " The second shot followed the first in about twenty sec- 
 onds; about the time of the second shot I heard a person 
 trying to open a door and a voice crying ' murder ! mur- 
 der!' the person fell on the floor in the hall, and I jumped 
 on the bed which stood near the transom and looked 
 through it; I saw a person and heard a voice say, 'It is 
 Charlie Stiles;' then I heard another voice say, 'I killed 
 him; he left me in the road last night; I haven't changed 
 my clothes nor been in bed." Some people came in the 
 hall, among them a man with white trousers and a straw 
 hat; there were not many people that I could see, at the 
 time the* defendant was kneeling on the floor by the body, 
 and I heard her say, ' I told him I would do it, and I have 
 done it.' She brushed his hair back and kissed him, and 
 then said, ' I have done it and I am glad of of; let the law 
 take its course, and I don't care if I swing for it.' I saw
 
 102 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 only the profile of her face; she was not excited; there was 
 no particular manner about her; she was like a statue.' 
 
 Witness then testified as to accuracy of diagram and des- 
 cribed on it how the body was lying and where and how 
 the prisoner knelt.' 
 
 Cross-examination, by A. S. Trude: 
 
 " I did not testify at Coroner's inquest; I did not appear 
 before Grand Jury; Mr. Mills visited me at my store with 
 Mr. Moneghan." 
 
 How do you manage to fix the time so exactly between 
 the call ' messenger! messenger!' and the firing of the shot 
 at just four minutes ? The first time I looked I did not 
 know whether I would shave or go back to bed. 
 
 What induced you to look the second time ? I heard the 
 shot and thought it was a suicide. 
 
 So you wanted to get the exact time so as to give cor- 
 rect testimony ? Yes, sir. 
 
 " What I have testified to is only a part of what was 
 said; it is a fragment, only, of what was said. If I could 
 give the whole of the conversation it might convey a differ- 
 ent idea."
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 SEVENTH DAY NOVEMBER 28th, 1882. 
 
 Baldus Ryerson, examined by Mr. Mills: "I am a mes- 
 senger boy, connected with American District Telegraph 
 Co. ; was working for the company on July 9th, 1882. I 
 was sent to 295 Wabash avenue; I went to Mrs. Harvey or 
 Mrs. Stiles; I got the message in the Palmer house; I do 
 not know the gentleman who gave it to me, but I took it to 
 Mrs. Harvey's, gave it to a boy, who gave it to Mrs. Har- 
 vey and she gave it to Mrs. Stiles, who opened it; she read 
 it aloud; I forget what was in it. Heard her say she would 
 take his life; she would rather be in jail than here. She 
 asked me if I was going back to the Palmer house; I said, 
 no. The colored lady signed the ticket. That is the 
 ticket." (A ticket is here shown witness upon which the 
 name of Mrs. Stiles appears.) 
 
 Cross-examined by Mr. Trude: 
 
 "Never saw Theressa before that day and never since till 
 I went into the jail with a person who gave her a box; this 
 was a few weeks after. Can not identify Mrs. Harvey; 
 will not swear this woman is not her; (here a lady, not 
 Mrs. H., is pointed out to witness.) Can not identify the 
 colored woman nor the boy. My opportunities for identi- 
 fying them were as good as those of identifying defendant. 
 I saw them as much and as long as I did the defendant. 
 While at the house I did not hear his name called, and the 
 first time I heard it called since was in the office down 
 stairs when he named him." (Indicating R. D. Stiles, uncle 
 of deceased.)
 
 104: STURLA-8TILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 Munroe Potter, examined by Mr. Mills: "Was book- 
 keeper at Downing's hotel at Sunnyside on July 9. Knew 
 Stiles and defendant by sight; saw them at that date at 
 Sunnyside; they arrived in a buggy and ordered supper; 
 waited upon them to the extent of giving them beer on the 
 porch. Entered the dining room, but did not remember 
 what they were saying, as part of the time they talked in 
 the Italian language. After supper Stiles came out, or- 
 dered his buggy and drove off; this was about 9 o'clock, at 
 which time it began to rain and was veiy dark; after he had 
 gone Sturla came out and enquired where he bad gone; on 
 being told that he had gone off but said he would be back 
 in a half of an hour, she said he would not; she did not 
 seem at all excited, but was resolute and had a determined 
 air; she asked if there was any one who would go to the 
 city limits with her; she told me her name was Madeline 
 Stiles and was the mistress of Charles Stiles, and that she 
 wanted to get to the Palmer House before the elevator 
 stopped running, so that she could shoot him; she left with 
 the hostler, going towards the city." 
 
 Cross-examined by Mr. Trude: 
 
 "Used to be a bar-keeper at Sunnyside; was once bar- 
 keeper at 9 and 11 East Adams street, Barney McNeil's 
 place; used to be a collector of bills; yes, I had conversa- 
 tion with Times reporter, but did not tell him all I knew, 
 nor about her threat to shoot Stiles or her apparent reso- 
 lution; Mr. Starkey, an official connected with the office of 
 the States Attorney, found me at woik at a lunch counter 
 in Milwaukee; we did not drink together, but he bought a 
 cigar; on the day or night of July 9 I only took four or five 
 drinks; yes, Sunday is a day when we usually do more 
 drinking than week days; was not drunk; was discharged 
 on account of drinking, perhaps; I may have said to re- 
 porters that I knew little about the case, and told no re- 
 porter about the threats,"
 
 STURLA-STILliS TRAGEDY.' 105 
 
 Mrs. Sophicmia Downing, examined by Mr. Mills: 
 
 " I remember having seen defendant with Charles Stiles 
 at our place on evening of July 9; she sat' down at the 
 piano, played and sang; nothing unusual occurred except 
 while at supper she was choked slightly by a chicken bone, 
 and he talked kindly to her and all seemed to be pleasant." 
 
 The cross-examination mostly consisted in an enquiry as 
 to where the hostler, Peter Ruffing, was. 
 
 The revolver was identified and introduced in evidence, 
 and left on the table. It was a self-cocking, five-barrelled 
 weapon, with two chambers empty. 
 
 Thomas "Walch, sworn, examined by Mr. Mills: 
 
 " Am bell-boy at Palmer House; went to room of Stiles 
 on night of July 9th, in response to ring coming from bells 
 of both rooms his, 660, and 661 ; wanted me to see that 
 no woman was permitted to call on him at his room." 
 
 Here a long argument was made by counsel pro. and con. 
 on the motion to strike out the evidence of the witness on 
 the ground of its general incompetency, and particularly on 
 the ground of the conversation taking place in absence of 
 prisoner. 
 
 The Court let the evidence stand and defendant excepted 
 to ruling of Court. 
 
 By Mr. Trude: 
 
 " If your honor please, I ask that the revolver be re- 
 moved from the room; it has been offered in evidence, 
 shown to the witness for the purpose of identification, and 
 exhibited to the jury. Its part has been more than played. 
 The States Attorney has the pistol in his hand, gesticulates 
 with it in such a way as to make a timid man apprehensive, 
 and the attention of the jury is diverted from the evidence 
 by having before their constant view this weapon. His 
 Honor, Judge Me Allister, now of the Appellate Court, and 
 formerly of the Supreme Court, when engaged as Judge in
 
 106 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 the trial of the People, etc., vs. Mrs. Mary McDonald, de- 
 cided that it was improper to exhibit and toy with a weapon 
 which was employed by the prisoner in the perpetration of 
 the alleged crime." 
 
 The Court suggested that it had better be described by 
 witnesses. 
 
 By Mr. Mills: 
 
 "It has been -the custom to introduce the weapon of 
 death in evidence, and I merely incidentally handled the 
 pistol. Mr. Trude has no right to rebuke me or call in 
 question my methods. The remarks of the gentleman were 
 designed for some ulterior purpose to make an impression 
 on the jury, perhaps. I might with equal force ask to have 
 the prisoner unveil her face." 
 
 By Mr. Trude: 
 
 " I was about to say, when interrupted by the States At- 
 torney, that that eminent jurist, McAllister, suggested that 
 the pistol or knife had better be described to the jury in- 
 stead of displayed before it. It could not be introduced in 
 the record or incorporated in a bill of exceptions. But in 
 this more than in any other case, Mr. Mills is constantly 
 handling it and giving the trial a sanguinary aspect. 
 And" 
 
 By Mr. Mills: 
 
 " I object to the counsel making such statements in the 
 hearing of the jury, and say that he is indulging in theatri- 
 cal effects. His client is acting in the court-room while 
 outside of it she is buoyant and gay." 
 
 By Mr. Trude: 
 
 " You are as untruthful as you are unfair, and the re- 
 marks of the States Attorney partake of the spirit of bar- 
 barism. The defendant while in the court-room sustains 
 herself by an effort that is almost heroic, while out of it and
 
 BTTJRLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 107 
 
 in her cell she is prostrated and the spy that says other^ 
 wise, lies" 
 
 The Court: 
 
 " This must stop, gentlemen." 
 
 By Mr. Trade: 
 
 " The pistol in constant view of the jury does not aid the 
 cause of public justice, I apprehend." 
 
 By Mr. Mills, removing the pistol: 
 
 " She is the heroine of constant receptions as soon as 
 court adjourns." 
 
 Mr. Trude objected to this remark. 
 
 ON THE PART OF THE DEFENDANT. 
 
 Officer Bohn (who was on the stand in behalf of the Peo- 
 ple) was sworn, and examined by Mr. Trude: 
 
 "I took the prisoner to the morgue; on the way she 
 asked for a pistol; she talked incoherently and wildly; 
 there were marks on her neck which looked like those made 
 by fingers; she first talked in English and then drifted into 
 Italiar." 
 
 Cross-examined by Mr. Mills: 
 
 "I can't say she was acting; don't know whether the 
 marks were made at the Palmer House, or before or since 
 the shooting." 
 
 Henry W. Fisher, sworn, examined by Mr. Trude: 
 
 " Am city editor of Arbeiter Zeitung; early in the after- 
 noon following the tragedy I visited the defendant to inter- 
 view her; saw her neck; saw on it red and blue marks; 
 might have been made by fingers of a person engaged in 
 an effort to choke her; her eyes looked wild and she acted 
 unnaturally." 
 
 Cross-examined by Mr. Mills: 
 
 " Don't know who made marks on neck."
 
 108 STUBLA-STILES TEAGEDY. 
 
 W. C. Smith sworn, examined by Mr. Trude : 
 
 "Am a pharmacist doing business at No. 441 State street; 
 know the defendant drugs; don't remember when I first 
 saw her, but the first time I saw anything unusual in re- 
 gard to her was about a year ago when I went to her rooms 
 to collect a bill; she was lying on a lounge, her limbs were 
 doubled up close to her body; she was talking in a language 
 not understood by me; she asked for something to quiet 
 her nerves; sent her a mixture of bromide of potassia and 
 calisya bark; she complained of pains she was compelled to 
 endure at a certain period of the month; saw her again 
 some months after; she was talking about Charlie, and said 
 she thought he would kill her yet; that he often beat her: 
 wanted me to get her some powdered loadstone; she want- 
 ed it fine, to mix up with some other powder to take to keep 
 the witches away that were worrying her; she was excited; 
 talked Italian, when she knew I could not understand her; 
 was excited ; gave her laudanum several times when she 
 was periodically ill; on those occasions she suffered much." 
 
 Cross-examined, by Mr. Mills: 
 
 " She was a customer of mine, and her doctor Bates 
 has an office in building attached to my store; sell drugs 
 and medicine to Miss Watson; have evinced some interest 
 in this case." 
 
 Frank Weed, examined by Mr. Trude: 
 
 "Am a farmer boy fifteen years old, and work for Alex. 
 Eckford, at Park Kidge; my father is dead; my mother 
 married again and I became a wanderer; don't know where 
 my mother or step-father is; as a boot-black and news-boy 
 I about three years ago became acquainted with Madeline; 
 she was kind to me, clothed and sent me to school; I did 
 odd jobs and ran errands about the house; Madeline often 
 sent me with money to Charles Stiles in an envelope, and 
 told me to give it to no one but him; this was done so of-
 
 STURLA-ST1LES TRAGEDY. 109 
 
 ten that I can not fix upon the first time, but it was when 
 she lived at No. 10 Clark street; I have seen Charlie hit 
 Madeline often ; on one occasion he went up to her and 
 knocked her down with his closed fist; she got up and threw 
 her arms around his neck and kissed him; she would never 
 allow anyone to take her part or rebuke him when he struck 
 her, but used to say, ' as I alone suffer, I alone have the 
 right to complain.' Have seen Madeline go down on her 
 knees and talk and pray wild-like, then she would get up 
 and run around the room and tear her hair; then she would 
 sit down on the floor and murmur something in Italian; 
 this continued until Madeline left No. 10 Clark street, when 
 she gave me in charge of the farmer, as she and Charlie 
 were going to live at a place where she did not want to take 
 me. 
 
 Cross-examined by Mr. Mills: 
 
 "I have been in the court-room in the company of House 
 or Mailhouse, but he was watching to see that no member 
 of the Owl Club got at me; I don't know whether House or 
 Mailhouse is a thief or not; I never saw him around No. 10 
 when I was there; have often seen Madeline in jail and 
 talked about the case; have had but little to say to Mr. 
 Trude about the case; he asked me to think carefully over 
 all that transpired from the time I went to live with Made- 
 line till I left." 
 
 Re-direct, by Mr. Trude: 
 
 " Mr. Trude told me to report the name of any person 
 who asked me to leave the city to Judge Gardner; that the 
 Owl Club had run off one boy witness, Peter Ruffing." 
 
 Letitia Miller sworn and examined by Mr. Trude: 
 
 "Am a washer-woman; live at 509 Victoria alley; I know 
 defendant four years and Stiles about same time; I washed 
 at No. 10 Clark street; the first time I found defendant in- 
 jured was in March, 1880, when Mr. Stiles stumbled over
 
 110 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 me as I was going up-stairs; he said, 'don't be frightened, 
 it is I; the little girl and I have had a fuss.' I went up- 
 stairs (he was going down-stairs) and I found Madeline ly- 
 ing on the floor, unconscious; I put her in the bed; when 
 she came to, she said Charlie had kicked her in the side; 
 she raved in Italian and was convulsive in her movements; 
 Dr. Bates attended her; she was insensible foe quite a 
 while ; the cook, Sally, applied hartshorn and I bathed her 
 face with water; was present at another time when Mr. Stiles 
 asked Madeline for $50, and when she refused he hit her in 
 the face with his fist; I exclaimed, 'Oh, Mr. Stiles!' when 
 he ran away. A few days after this I saw her and she was 
 all beaten up in the face; she cried, and said ' Charlie did 
 it;' the next time I saw her was when she lived at Watson's; 
 she was feeling bad; talked Italian and then English; said 
 'all he cares for me is to get my money;' I remember on 
 one occasion when he kicked a tooth out of her head and 
 left her on the floor, bleeeing. Often have seen her when 
 she was not in her right mind; she would on those occa- 
 sions take his letters to me and read the loving ones and 
 those that had love in them and poetry, and talk about 
 birds and flowers, and read them over and over again to 
 me- would laugh and cry at the same time, and would kiss 
 the letters; at other times she would bring me the bad let- 
 ters, those that blamed her and called her names; about 
 these she would rave and tear her hair." 
 
 Cross-examined by Mr. Mills: 
 
 " I guess she came to me because, she could get no one 
 else to listen to her; I don't know whether Mr. Stiles used 
 to give her money or not; I have visited Madeline in jail; 
 the house No. 10 Clark street was kept by Madeline, and 
 women and men used to go there for improper purposes; 
 I asked for Madeline."
 
 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. Ill 
 
 EIGHTH DAY NOVEMBER 29TH, 1882. 
 
 "William A. Pinkerton sworn, and examined by Mr. 
 Trade: 
 
 " Am general superintendent of the Pinkerton Detective 
 Agency; some two years ago I went with Lieut. Hayes to 
 see defendant at the request of Charles Stiles, caller for the 
 call board; he had received from a boy sent by defendant 
 at the board while in session a basket of so-called " fruit," 
 consisting of layers of rotten potatoes, decayed cabbages, 
 old onions, set off on the top by a large beet marked 
 'Charles Stiles;' he wanted me to induce her to let him 
 alone in the future; I told her the object of my visit, when 
 she said she would gladly consent to let him alone but de- 
 manded protection herself; that it was of no use, he would 
 stay away for a few days and then come around worse than 
 ever; I told her that if she was resolute and really wished 
 to break off with him, that it could be done, and that if he 
 came around to her place she could send for an officer of 
 Lieut. Hayes' command, who would protect her; I im- 
 pressed her with the necessity of giving up the articles 
 owned by him in her custody this she did; I told her to 
 send him no more bouquets 'to make him ridiculous in 
 the sight of board of trade people; she told me he abused 
 her and wanted him to ke'ep away; we then left; a few 
 weeks after this, while looking for a runaway Michigan girl, 
 I went to house of defendant, and, meeting her, was interro- 
 gated by her as to the reason of my writing a certain letter 
 to Stiles about her, saying she was dangerous, etc., and to 
 my astonishment she showed me the letter I had written 
 Stiles since my visit referred to. She then said, ' I told you 
 he could not keep away.' I said, 'you are wrong, he will 
 not come here,' and I was about to ask her how she got the 
 letter; she threw open a door to a room within which I saw 
 Charlie Stiles putting on a shirt; she tripped to a piano,
 
 112 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 sang and played, laughed at Stiles, who made for her with 
 a water pitcher, and but for my interference would have 
 struck her; she talked about destiny and fate bringing 
 them together; I said destiny and fate would separate them 
 with a bloody hand, or something to that effect; she said 
 Charlie had hoodooed her; she acted unnatural." 
 
 Cross-examined by Mr. Mills: 
 
 Are not prostitutes, as a class, superstitious ? My utter 
 want of knowledge of them renders a correct answer impos- 
 sible. 
 
 " She was nervous and excited, and I thought best for 
 both to separate; she could not keep her mind upon one 
 subject for a minute." 
 
 Lieut. Hayes sworn, examined by Mr. Trude: 
 
 " I accompanied Mr. Piukerton on the occasion referred 
 to by him." (Witness corroborated previous witness as to 
 first meeting). 
 
 Cross-examined by Mr. Mills: 
 
 "*L told Madeline that if Stiles did not keep away from 
 her there would be trouble." 
 
 Max Kipley sworn, examined by Mr. Trude: 
 
 " Am lieutenant of police; was, on July 9, desk-sergeant 
 at Armory; saw Madeline on day of arrest; there were little 
 red marks on her neck." 
 
 Cross-examined by Mr. Mills: 
 
 "Marks were very small indeed; don't know where or 
 when they were made, or by whom." 
 
 Gustave Demars sworn, examined by Mr. Trude: 
 
 "Am police officer; was such July 9, and for three years 
 prior thereto; in 1880 a hack drove up to No. 10 Clark 
 street, and Charles Stiles got out of it and kicked at front 
 door of the house; he was answered by a woman from an 
 upper window, who told him he could not come in; he had 
 a revolver, and was drunk; said he would kill her; took
 
 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 113 
 
 the pistol away; Stiles then went away, and a few days after 
 he requested me to go to the Owl Club; went there; saw 
 him; he apologized for his conduct; at another time saw 
 Stiles strike her." 
 
 Cross-examined by Mr. Mills: 
 
 " This was about two years before shooting of Stiles." 
 Mrs. Rosa Ashton sworn, examined by Mr. Trude: 
 "Was housekeeper at No. 10 Clark street; saw Madeline 
 come home from Lincoln Park; clothes were torn and filled 
 with burrs; she told in a wild, nervous, and crazed man- 
 ner, how she had been left in the park by Charlie; how she 
 wandered till she reached a tomb; got frightened; fled 
 from the tomb to the bank of the lake and fell down in- 
 sensible, and after she recovered she fancied how she saw 
 the dead walking around her; that after a while she 
 reached the house of Mr. Bobey, who kindly allowed two of 
 his servants to go with her to the cars." 
 
 "On this occasion she was white in the face; her eyes 
 were unnatural in appearance; she was confined after this 
 to her bed for several days. On another occasion I saw 
 Charles Stiles kick her and knock her down, when she got 
 up and tried to kiss him. She would often go around the 
 room crying, then she would suddenly sink upon the floor, 
 draw her limbs closely to her body and groan. On these 
 occasions she had her monthly sickness. When she had 
 her ' monthlies ' and had trouble with Charley besides, she 
 was always in great pain and was not right in her head." 
 Cross-examined by Mr. Mills: 
 
 "The house was kept for improper purposes. I have 
 not seen much of her lately," 
 
 Daniel Downing sworn, examined by Mr. Trude: 
 "Am proprietor of Sunnyside. Potter used to work 
 for me. At 8.30 P. M., July 9 I saw Monroe Potter; he 
 had been drinking too much; he may not have been 
 8
 
 114 STUfcLA-STILES TKAGEDY. 
 
 drunk, but was not sober. I discharged him from my 
 employ." 
 
 Joseph Dunlap sworn, examined by Mr. Trade: 
 "Am city editor of Chicago Times ; I saw defendant on 
 day of tragedy; her neck bore marks of fingers. The 
 pupils of her eyes were dilated; she looked wild and un- 
 natural." 
 
 Cross-examination waived. 
 
 Frederick E. Davis sworn, examined by Mr. Tiude : 
 "Am secretary of Tolu Bock and Rye Company; was at 
 Sunnyside day before death of Charles Stiles; saw him 
 there. He said he was getting on badly, that the Italian 
 had money and he was going to try to get some of it. I 
 said I hear that you treat her badly. He replied ' the more 
 I thump her the better she likes me.' " 
 
 In the cross-examination witness repeated his statement. 
 George W. Man by sworn, examined by Mr. Trude: 
 "Am hackman; took Stiles and defendant out riding first 
 time when she lived at No. 10 Clark street, about three 
 years ago. After they got beyond the Exposition Building 
 Michigan avenue I heard her cry out 'stop, don't;' then I 
 heard her scream; then I got out, and Stiles said, 'drive 
 on, I will settle with you.' She said he had taken her 
 money away. At the house of Carrie Watson, where I 
 went with Stiles and another member of the Owl Club, 
 after he induced her to come out of '/ House he struck or 
 violently pushed her in the back." 
 
 In the cross-examination Mr. Mills drew out the fact that 
 witness had been drinking liquor on the occasions referred 
 to, and that she drank at a State street restaurant, sang and 
 played on the piano and appeared gay. 
 
 George A. Elton sworn, examined by Mr. Trude 
 "Am undertaker; both father and son lay on my marble 
 slab at the morgue; the shirt of the son Charles was burned
 
 STURLA- STILES TRAGEDY. 115 
 
 with powder near or over the wound that caused his death. 
 The pistol must have been fired closed to his body; washed 
 the blood off his face, and saw no scratches or wounds 
 upon it." 
 
 Cross-examination by Mr. Mills waived. 
 
 John A. Corwin sworn, examined by Mr. Trade : 
 
 "Am journalist; about noon acting city editor of one of the 
 newspapers requested me to take charge of Stiles shooting 
 case; saw defendant in her cell; she was rocking herself to 
 and fro; was pale; saw marks on her neck. She was 
 excited, eyes protruded." 
 
 Cross-examination by Mr. Mills waived. 
 
 Cornelius Murphy sworn, examined by Mr. Trude: 
 
 "Am police officer; was sent for by the boy Frankie to 
 arrest a man in No. 10 Clark street. About three years 
 ago arrested both Stiles and the defendant. He gave name 
 of Ben. Shaw; both were fined and she paid both fines." 
 
 Cross-examination by Mr. Mills: 
 
 "She did not appear to be hurt much; did not see any 
 marks near the eye. They each demanded that the other 
 be arrested. The woman Ashtonwas arrested also." 
 
 Charles Blair sworn, examined by Mr. Trude : 
 
 " Am hack-driver; had known the defendant three or four 
 years and knew Stiles by sight same length of time. In 
 May, 1881, took them out for drive to Bowmansville, where 
 they had supper. After they got through Stiles asked her 
 to pay for the supper. She said, ' ain't you ashamed to ask 
 me for money before people ? ' He said, ' it don't matter, 
 you pay for it.' This she did, and on the way in I heard 
 some noise in the hack, I got out and looked in hack; saw 
 defendant with handkerchief to her face; her nose was 
 bleeding and she was crying. One night in May, 1882, 
 while on the way to South Park, he took her out of the 
 hack by the hair of head. She cried."
 
 116 STURLA-ST1LES TRAGEDY. 
 
 Cross-examination by Mr. Mills: 
 
 "She struck him on the occasion of the hair-pulling 
 episode. Yes, she looked mad. She did not curse him. 
 Before we got home they made up." 
 
 Richard S. Tuthill sworn, examined by Mr. Trude : 
 
 "Was city attorney; formerly member of Owl Club, 
 but severed my connection with it some years ago; I 
 used to occasionally meet Stiles at the club, as he was a 
 member." 
 
 Question What, if anything, did he say about getting 
 money from his mistress to make good loses at poker at the 
 club? 
 
 Objected to. Objection sustained and exception. 
 
 Agusta Papendeick sworn, examined by Mr. Trude: 
 
 "Am the matron of the county jail and have charge of 
 the department where the defendant has been confined. 
 Her conduct since she has been in my care has been 
 strange. She would kneel down after surrounding herself 
 with candles and pray; then she would suddenly jump up 
 and sing, then laugh and as suddenly cry. At other times 
 she would take his picture and say she would like to go to 
 Dixon and dig up his bones and have them near her. She 
 has a locket on her neck containing picture of Stiles 
 with charms and some of his hair in it. At times her 
 face looked unnatural, and the pupils of her eyes were 
 dilated. 
 
 Cross-examined by Mr. Mills: 
 
 " I don't think that she is pretending or following out a 
 line of defense marked by her attorney; Mr. Trude, up to 
 a few days before her case was called, did not call but rare- 
 ly; during the trial he has seen her often." 
 
 Rufus Chapin sworn, examined by Mr. Trude : 
 
 "Am Deputy Sheriff, and at times had charge of jail; 
 saw defendant after she used to sing on Sundays at service;
 
 STDRLA- STILES TRAGEDY. 117 
 
 she looked at times unnatural like a Madonna; her eyes 
 directed upward for an hour at a time." 
 
 Cross-examination waived. 
 
 James Maitlaud sworn, examined by Mr. Trude : 
 
 " Am journalist on Chicago Tribune; saw the defendant 
 at the Armory; she was incoherent; looked wild; saw some 
 marks on the throat." 
 
 Cross-examination waived. 
 
 E. J. McPhelim sworn, examined by Mr. Trude: 
 
 " Am journalist, connected with Chicago Times; was de- 
 tailed to interview Madeline Stiles on 10th of July; saw her 
 at Armory; her throat was marked on each side." 
 
 Cross-examination waived.
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 NINTH DAT NOVEMBER 30th, 1882. 
 
 Miss Carrie Watson sworn, examined by Mr. Trude : 
 "Have known Charles Stiles five or six years; he has 
 been at my house often; he brought the defendant to my 
 house about two and a half years ago; that was the first 
 time I saw her; he said that she was a good musician and 
 had a fine voice; that she was a money-maker, and at No. 
 10 Clark street she sang for board of trade people and 
 members of the Owl Club and for the Elks, and had lots of 
 friends; that he could get $500 from her almost time; 
 shortly after this he took her to my house to live; on one 
 occasion I saw him at the door of a closet waiting to get 
 such money as she might obtain in my house; Madeline 
 used to sing and play upon the piano, harp, and guitar; 
 while she was with me I did not keeper hire musicians; 
 when she was not there I did; she used to make most 
 money during the races, when she would sing and play for 
 wine parties; she thought a great deal of Charlie, but when 
 he called for her, took her out for a ride, and she came back 
 minus her money she became convinced that he was after 
 her money alone; then she grew melancholy; this was in- 
 tensified when he began to gamble and drink excessively; 
 on one occasion he came to the house and broke in the door 
 of her room; was drunk; Madeline got into a scuffle with 
 him when he fell down stairs; immediately after this she 
 had made for herself a dress upon which there were snakes 
 and various reptiles, (dress introduced in evidence) thinking 
 that by having before him the hideous sights which he saw
 
 STUIILA-STILES TRAGEDY. 119 
 
 in bis delirium he would refrain from drinking, but this did 
 not accomplish anything, so she tried to charm him by cer- 
 tain powders with like result; she would often play on the 
 piano and sing, and in the next moment she would cry; 
 when she had her " monthlies" and was vexed at something 
 Charlie did to her, she was very bad and seemed out of her 
 mind." 
 
 Cross-examined : 
 
 " All sorts of people come to my house statesmen, law- 
 yers and judges; yes, I have taken considerable interest in the 
 case of the defendant and have paid short-hand reporter ex- 
 penses; the defendant is perhaps quick-tempered." 
 
 Mrs. Bridget Harvey sworn, examined by Mr. Trude: 
 
 " Mr. and Mrs. Stiles, the defendant, came to my house 
 about the 1st of April last; he hired the rooms and said he 
 wanted them for himself and wife; they lived quietly so far 
 as I knew; on July 9th, between 9 and 10 o'clock A. M. 
 Mr. Stiles went out; about 11 o'clock a messenger boy came 
 with a note which Mrs. Stiles read and said to me, ' see 
 what Charlie writes;' she was excited and asked me to send 
 some one with her to find him; I sent a servant; they found 
 him. and all returned home; in the evening Charlie and the 
 defendant went out riding; at about 12 o'clock she returned 
 home alone and rapped at my bed-room door, which I 
 opened; lit the gas, when she said ' I have got a pistol, and 
 if he attacks me I will kill him;' she was wet, muddy, and 
 unwell; she asked me to sleep with her, which I did; dur- 
 ing the night she awoke; talked wildly; told me she was 
 not married to Charlie; I told her that I was surprised; 
 that she and he would have to move from the house; she 
 complained of being in pain; at 6 o'clock in the morning 
 when I awoke she was gone and the room was in disorder; 
 her and his trunk had been opened and the contents were 
 scattered all over the room ; the next I saw of her was at
 
 120 STUBLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 the station after Stiles had been killed; I saw her neck; it 
 bore the mark of fingers upon it; she was then unwell; 
 looked unnatural, talked incoherently." 
 v Cross-examined: 
 
 " She was excited at the time she went to bed; I did not 
 tell Richard Stiles, the uncle of Charles, that I saw the 
 marks on the neck after she came home on Sunday night; 
 in the room next to this court-room I had a consultation 
 with Dr. Lyman, Dr. Brown and Mr. Trude about the facts 
 of the case; this was to-day; I did not tell Mr. B. D. Stiles 
 that the marks on her neck were there when she came home 
 from Sunny side." 
 
 Joseph Chesterfield Mackin sworn, examined by Mr. 
 Trude: 
 
 " Am journalist; had business with Charles Stiles in 1880; 
 called at his room; saw defendant there; her hand was 
 covered with a cloth; I asked her what was the matter; 
 she commenced to tell me of her troubles, and it appeared 
 that a revival of them so affected her that she fell on the 
 floor in a violent fit; frothed at the mouth; have seen per- 
 sons affected with apoplectic fits and should say that de- 
 fendant had one on occasion referred to." 
 
 Cross-examination waived. 
 
 TENTH DAY DEC. 1st. 
 
 Dr. James H. Bates sworn, examined by Mr. Trude : 
 " Am a physician and surgeon. Have attended the de- 
 fendant more or less for about three years past; treated 
 her on the occasion when she had the tooth knocked out 
 and when she received the kick in the side. From that 
 time she suffered from difficult menstruation, or as you 
 term it, dysmenorrhea. When she had trouble with her 
 lover at the menstrual period she acted and was partially 
 or wholly insane. Her excitement was variable, severe
 
 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 121 
 
 when she claimed to have been mistreated just before, 
 often almost delirious. The pain \vas paroxysmal in 
 character, that is, there were cessations and renewals qf. 
 severity, and her mental disturbance was always marked. 
 Sometimes she was unnaturally gay and lively, and at 
 other times melancholly and morose and uncommunica- 
 tive. Her depressions of spirit had become more aggra- 
 vated within the year. There were all the conditions pres- 
 ent that might produce homicidal mania. Have known of 
 that result within my own practice. One Mrs. Martin, 
 under similar condition, became excited to homicidal 
 mania, attempting to slay her husband and children at 
 various times. It became so marked that her relatives al- 
 ways took extra precautions to prevent her injuring them 
 as such times recurred. There- was also among my 
 patients a woman whose mania similarly produced was 
 suicidal. The close sympathy of the brain and reproduc- 
 tive organs is universally recognized by medical men. 
 Maniacal alienation is more likely to result in the case of a 
 person of a naturally nervous and sensitive organization." 
 
 In reply to question by Mr. Trude, stated that great de- 
 liberation and considerable cunning were characteristics 
 of insane persons. He. thought the fact of her living in a 
 house of ill-fame would greatly strengthen the theory of 
 insanity. He had known of persons becoming insane 
 under repeated brutality. He thought it almost impossible 
 for any woman suffering from aggravated dysmenorrhea to 
 be sane at her menstrual periods. It would be almost mir- 
 aculous for her to be so. 
 
 He had treated defendant at the station on the 10th of 
 July; she was sick had her menses; must have had them 
 the night before. The fact of defendant having her menses 
 and exposed in a severe rain storm, associated with mental 
 anguish, trouble and physical pain, it is more than likely
 
 122 STUMA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 that she was insane when the shot that killed Charles Stiles 
 was fired by defendant. All the things that she suffered 
 are predisposing causes of insanity, and when all those 
 causes were combined in one person, and that person a 
 woman, sanity would be the exception and insanity the rule. 
 Mr. Mills cross-examined as to the number of times the 
 witness had seen defendant professionally, and learned that 
 between calls and visits he had seen her perhaps fifteen 
 times.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 MR MILLS' HYPOTHETICAL QUESTION. 
 
 The following question, embodying all that the prosecution 
 has shown or hopes to prove touching the tragedy, was 
 asked by the State's Attorney: 
 
 " Suppose the case of a young woman 22 or 23 years of 
 age; at the age of 15 she becomes a prostitute in a South- 
 ern city; four or five years ago she forms the acquaintance 
 of a young man of Chicago ; he brings her here and they 
 live together as man and mistress; she lives part of the 
 time in houses of ill-fame; suppose that she is naturally 
 nervous; her parents Italian; that she is afflicted with dif- 
 ficult menstruation ; that the relations of the two are not 
 always pleasant; that he sometimes struck her; that on the 
 9th of July a letter is handed to her from the man; that 
 she read it and said, ' I will take his life, I had rather die 
 than live here in this way;' that the two meet affection- 
 ately the next day and drive to Sunnyside and take sup- 
 per; that some misunderstanding arises; some violence 
 perhaps takes place; he leaves his mistress and drives to 
 his hotel; she remains at the road-house calm and resolute 
 and says, 'I am going to the Palmer House and kill him; ' 
 she comes to the city; a revolver is bought, the woman 
 paying for it; she returns again to the pawnshop and 
 pledges a silk dress to obtain money; she returns to her 
 room ; she is angry, excited and complains of the treatment 
 she has received; her clothing and shoes are wet and mud- 
 dy and she is excessively nervous. In the morning she 
 dresses herself carefully ; takes the revolver and walks to
 
 124 STUELA-STELES TEAGEDY. 
 
 the Palmer House; takes the elevator; goes to room 660; 
 feigns the voice of a boy, calling out 'messenger, mess- 
 enger; ' Stiles opens the door and within four minutes two 
 shots are heard; Stiles falls on the floor moaning ' Murder ! ' 
 she stands there like a statute and says, 'I said I would do 
 it, I came here to do it, and I am glad of it, even though I 
 swing for it;' afterward 6he is seen kissing his face and 
 claims that Stiles had tried to force her from the room; she 
 is cool and collected until fifteen or twenty minutes after 
 the shooting, when she becomes excited and nervous; as- 
 suming these facts, what do you say of the sanity or in- 
 sanity of the person described ? " 
 
 Dr. Bates replied: 
 
 " That hypothetical case would, of course, admit of analy- 
 zation. There are features which go to show that it was 
 beyond the control of the party. The fact of her planning 
 the homicide, if she did so, going to the Palmer House and 
 committing the deed, there would be no positive evidence 
 she was not insane, because there aro so many insane per- 
 sons who will plan with a great deal of adroitness to com- 
 mit suicide or commit homicide, or do whatever the im- 
 pulse of the moment dictates, and the manner of the party 
 you represent at the Palmer House at the time of the shoot- 
 ing, her cold, calm and collected statuary appearance, 
 might go to show that there was a mental irresponsibility. 
 Persons who have committed homicide have sometimes 
 seemed to feel a great relief after the commission of the 
 act; their mind seemed to be relieved of a load that had 
 been resting upon it, and the patient will experience a 
 great sense of relief; sometimes they sit still and motion- 
 less, and it is a long time before they realize what they have 
 done. Again, the patient may suppose that he or she was 
 possessed of an unconquerable command to commit such 
 and such a deed, and feel that they themselves were
 
 STUKLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 125 
 
 committing the deed with an evil spirit taking hold of 
 them." 
 
 ELEVENTH DAY DEC. 2ND. 
 
 Dr. Thomas Schmidt, sworn 
 
 "Am a graduate of the university of Guttenberg and 
 afterward at the Rush Medical College. Have had five 
 years' Eui'opean practice, including two years in a hospital 
 for the insane, and have practiced thirty-one years in this 
 country. Have had considerable experience in insanity in 
 my general practice, though I have made a specialty neither 
 of it nor of the diseases of women." Described functional 
 diseases of women. 
 
 Mr. Trude put the following hypothetical question: 
 
 Assuming that a girl when she was 15 years of age was 
 seduced by an individual under promise of marriage; that 
 this individual declined to marry her; that she lived in a 
 house , part of which was devoted to assignation purposes; 
 that while there she meets Charles Stiles; the woman is an 
 Italian, warm and devoted in her attachments; of an ardent 
 and passionate disposition ; Charles Stiles is a graduate of 
 Heidelberg; speaks the Italian language fluently; is a man 
 given to luxurious methods of living; who never toiled or 
 labored, or was never known to so far as we know or have 
 any intimation of, except to perform some labors that did 
 not require any physical exertion; meets this woman; talks 
 to her in her native tongue, Italian, and gradually and sys- 
 tematically alienates her from her affianced lover, she then 
 being inexperienced with., the methods of the world, not 
 very well educated, and kept largely in the house while 
 living with her parents; this man lives with her in this 
 house in Baltimore; takes his trunk there; borrows her 
 money; gambles, it, and spends it in the races; she is a 
 woman passionately fond of music; has an exceedingly full,
 
 126 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 rich voice, though not sufficiently cultured; plays upon the 
 piano skillfully, and also upon the guitar with a like degree 
 of skill; he recognizes in her these qualities and causes her 
 to come to Chicago; that before she arrives he paints to 
 her in glowing colors the life that she can lead; that he is 
 a prominent man there, has close connections with the 
 dramatic press, and can elevate her into a position of great 
 prominence upon the stage and in the lyric art; she comes 
 to Chicago, and the second day after she arrives, while they 
 are joint occupants of a bed, he gets out, takes her money; 
 she pursues, supposing it to be a burglar, and calls to her 
 sleeping lover as she supposes, and she is confronted at the 
 head of the stairs and is knocked down by him, which is the 
 first evidence that she had of his brutal treatment; that 
 night is spent by her in walking up and down the room, 
 talking incoherently; she faints and is affected by mania; 
 that she is prostrated for several days upon a bed of sick- 
 ness, her difficulties partaking more of a mental than of a 
 physical nature; that from that time there was a series of 
 acts of brutal treatment continuing over a period of five 
 years; that on one occasion she was knocked down by him 
 on the public highway, and he is restrained from using vio- 
 lence by the interposition of a police officer, who takes a 
 pistol away from him ; on another occasion she is prevented 
 from being knocked down by a bottle held by him at this 
 time he threatens to kill her, by the interposition of an- 
 other individual who happens to be present; that on an- 
 other occasion she is knocked down and kicked by him in 
 the face and one of the teeth knocked out or broken; that 
 she is kicked in the abdomen; that shortly after this she is 
 kicked in the side, so that whenever there is a menstrual 
 flow and the organs become enlarged, there is a preceptible 
 swelling in this vicinity which appears and disappears once 
 every month; that at another time he introduces her to a
 
 BTURLA-STILES TRAGED? 127 
 
 person by the name of Baxter, and severa* other persons 
 connected with the Board of Trade and with a club called 
 the Owl Club, in order that she might entertain by singing 
 and playing on the piano and guitar, and selling to them 
 wine, the end and object of which was that he might re- 
 ceive money thereby; that the money thus earned by her 
 was given to him ; that he gambled the same at faro banks 
 and other games of chance; that he wrote to her promising 
 faithfully to gamble no more, and claimed that if he could 
 not overcome his strong passions for gambling then he 
 would commit suicide, and that she believed him, when he 
 obtained from her more money; that he again gambled, and 
 between three or four days after, while in a drunken con- 
 dition, he comes to her rooms, has an altercation with her, 
 when a person interferes, and they are both knocked down 
 by Stiles; that thereupon this person gives her a pistol and 
 advises her to defend herself; that he writes her a letter in 
 which he asks her to be forgiven; that in the meantime he 
 associates with other women ; that while his brutal conduct, 
 and his constant and unremitting draft upon her for money, 
 and his neglect of her weighed heavily upon her mind, yet 
 liaisons with other women affected her mind more than all 
 other agencies combined; that he writes her a letter in 
 which he tells her that he is a burned child who dreads the 
 fire, and in effect says that he will leave wine, women, hacks, 
 and gambling alone and be constant to her, and signs him- 
 self " contritely yours, Charlie;" that this communication 
 is followed by a visit from him; that he persuades her to 
 purchase No. 10 Clark street, a place to which he would di- 
 rect the attention of his many friends connected with the 
 Board of Trade and Owl and other clubs to which he be- 
 longed; that they could make considerable money; that she 
 did as requested; that he would remain in a peaceful con- 
 dition until she had accumulated monev, when he would
 
 128 STURL V-STILE3 TRAGEDY. 
 
 demand the same, and on being refused would knock her 
 down; that on one occasion he took her to Elgin and then 
 to Aurora, and when in the vicinity of the Fox river he 
 threw her out of the phseton in which they were riding, 
 upon her declining to give him what money she had on her 
 person; that she started toward Aurora upon the determi- 
 nation of finding her way home as best she could, when he, 
 not content, pursued her and ran the pole of the vehicle 
 against her person, when she, in self protection, drew her 
 pistol which she had upon her person, and which was her 
 companion on all, or nearly all of her trips with him, when 
 he no longer persisted in his attacks upon her; that when 
 she endeavored to climb over the fence on the opposite side 
 of the river, when she fell and was suspended from the 
 fence head down, when she was relieved and peace was 
 maintained* upon her surrendering to him what money she 
 had upon her person, when he took her back to the town; 
 that on another occasion while entertaining some friends of 
 his and playing upon a piano, wearing a low-neck dress he 
 pours down her neck some wine, and upon her remonstrat- 
 ing with him he strikes her upon the head with a bottle 
 with such severity that the services of a physician, Bates, 
 are called in requisition; that on another occasion and for 
 the same purpose of obtaining money he takes her to drive 
 in Lincoln park, which was formerly a grave-yard, that 
 upon his asking for money and her refusal, she was thrown 
 from the vehicle, when he again runs his horse upon her, 
 and she fires her pistol in the air, which frightens the 
 horses, and she is left alone in the darkness in the grave- 
 yard, and finds herself in the vicinity of a tomb; alarmed, 
 and in great mental agony and physical pain, she wanders 
 aimlessly around until she finds herself in i swoon or fit; 
 how long she remained in that condition is unknown; when 
 she recovers she reaches the house of a gentleman, Mr.
 
 StURLA-STlLEiS TRAGEDY. 129 
 
 Itobey, and by him it is observed from her clothing and ap- 
 pearance that she has fallen down, that her dress is covered 
 with burrs, and that she is excited; that a few nights after 
 that he sends her a letter in which he apologizes for his 
 conduct, employs terms and expressions of affection, asks 
 for forgiveness and $50; that he obtains both; that she 
 lives peacefully until she obtains a few hundred dollars, 
 when he takes her on a Thanksgiving day to Sterling, near 
 the place where his parents live; that they went to a fair, 
 that he drank brandy and persuaded her to take some ; that 
 in the night time, prompted by a feeling of jealousy, he 
 awakened her, placed a pistol to her head, and exacted an 
 admission from her that she loved him, whereupon she, 
 alarmed, got out of bed and laid upon the floor, unable to 
 get out of the room, by reason of the door being locked and 
 he having the key ; that on the following Christmas he beat 
 her and obtained her money; that shortly thereafter he came 
 to the house sick with a venereal disease, which, when learned 
 by her, affected her more than all acts of brutallity and all 
 monetary exactions by him ; that on this occasion he was 
 drunk; that she drove him away with the aid of a pistol; 
 that on another occasion he assailed her, pulled her hair, 
 and bumped her head against the wall, when a little boy, 
 who was living at her house, being educated and provided 
 by her, alarmed for her safety, sent for the police, who, 
 when they arrived, were commanded by Stiles to arrest the 
 victim of his assault as well as himself, which the officer of 
 the law accordingly does; that she procures bail for herself, 
 and upon being addressed by him in tones of kindness, she 
 deposits $50, procures his liberation, and does not permit 
 the law to punish him or affect his reputation; that she 
 appears and takes upon herself all the degradation that 
 attaches to a police court prosecution, pays the fine and 
 secures the discharge of her lover; that on another occas- 
 9
 
 130 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 ion, when she went to hear Salvini, the tragedian, play, she 
 secured a box at the theater, concealed herself behind a 
 curtain, when she was knocked down by him; that the 
 noise occasioned thereby attracted the attention of an 
 usher, she makes no complaint, but apologizes for his con- 
 duct; that she provided for him rooms on the North side, 
 furnishes the same at her own expense, places therein a 
 piano which she rents from Kimball, and nightly visits 
 him at that place for the reason that he complained of 
 ringing of bells at the bridge which is located in the 
 vicinity of No. 10 Clark street, where they had been in the 
 habit of sleeping; that nightly accompanied by the little 
 boy, called Frank, referred to, she visits him at this place; 
 that at another time, she had a suite of rooms at another 
 place; that she gave him money to pay his board there; 
 that he took her out for a hack ride and beat her in the 
 hack, and when asked by the driver what the trouble was 
 she says, " It is all over now, no matter," that he is left at 
 the board of trade and she is left to go home alone; that a 
 short time afterward he writes her a letter in which he says 
 he is in hell's hole, asks forgiveness and money to pay his 
 landlady, a back bill of about $60; that he at another time 
 takes rooms at the Palmer house, 660 and 661; that he 
 writes for her to visit him at these rooms which she accord- 
 ingly does; that on one occasion he beat her and bruised 
 her to such an extent that again the services of Dr. Bates 
 were called into requisition; that his conduct on one of 
 these occasions was such as to prompt to order them both 
 from the hotel; that they then went to the JEtna house; 
 that she paid his bill of $200 to Kreigh & Davis; that he 
 took her to Milwaukee and while there obtained all her 
 money; that in May, 1881, when she was depleted of her 
 money with her jewels pawned for his benefit, he came 
 back to her and persuaded her to live at one Carrie
 
 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 131 
 
 Watson's, which she did, and sent the boy Frank to live on 
 a farm; that she acted while living at said house as musi- 
 cian and songstress and the entertainer of wine parties, 
 chiefly; that upon discovering that her lover was waiting in 
 the hall-way or under the stairway in the vicinity of the 
 room, where she was entertaining company, for the pur-< 
 pose of obtaining from her the pioceeds earned or ob- 
 tained by her from the sources and in the manner indi- 
 cated, she protested against his want of manhood, and that 
 he was using her simply for the purpose of supplying his 
 monetary wants, and on other occasions to gratify his 
 passions; that thereupon he knocked her down, when he. 
 was ordered from the house; that he remained away some 
 little time, when he again visited the house in the cornpanr 
 ionship of some men irom the Owl club; that she was 
 persuaded to enter a hack, and, while in the same with 
 him, was choked and beaten, and that they drove to a 
 hotel in a southern suburb, which, on account of the late- 
 ness of the hour, was closed; that when on their way back 
 he forced her from the hack, pulled her hair, and knocked 
 her down, and was proceeding to maltreat her when the 
 hackman, Blair, interposed and prevented further injury to 
 her; that then, or about that time, she surrendered what 
 money she had and again went back to the house referred 
 to, where she remained a short time, when he came and 
 pointed a pistol at her and forced her to accompany him 
 to a hack and thence to a depot, when they went to various 
 towns and cities, where her money was spent or obtained 
 by him, while she returned to said place; that on another 
 occasion, while crossing the Mississippi river in a ferry- 
 boat, between Lyons and Fulton, he asks her for her 
 money, tells her, on her declining to give it to him, that he 
 would throw her in the river, that she was a prostitute, 
 and in effect tells her that there is no law that would affect
 
 132 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 him if no Killed her on account of her being a prostitute 
 that the law placed no estimate on the life or feelings of 
 such a person; that on another occasion, when she learned 
 he had been making some money on the board of trade, 
 she asked him for the repayment of some of the various 
 sums which she had given to him, when he gave her what 
 purported to be $2,500 in stocks; that she learned that the 
 same was of no value, and when she complained of that he 
 struck her; that on or about July 14, 1881, she went to 
 live at No. 371 Wabash avenue, and rented out rooms at 
 that place; that she worked in the kitchen and washed his 
 shirts, and was contented and happy; that E. B. Stiles, his 
 father, came to said house, and largely contributed, by his 
 kind and affecti6nate disposition, to her happiness; that 
 said E. B. Stiles was sick the day upon which he arrived, 
 or the day after, was very sick, indeed dying; that she 
 ministered to his wants, and nightly slept at the foot of his 
 bed; that the wife of said Stiles during this period of sick- 
 ness was not present, and took no part in his treatment or 
 ministering to his comfort until the day before his death; 
 that upon his decease she made up her mind, upon being 
 advised by the mother of said Stiles to live separate and 
 apart from him, to obey the wish of said mother; that she 
 then concluded to live respectably, rent out rooms, and by 
 that means support herself, when one of the members of 
 said family told her she could not stay in the house; that 
 she had been a prostitute; that .she would make that fact 
 known to the landlord; that thereupon she became low- 
 spirited and greatly disturbed for losing an opportunity to 
 live a life that she became attached to and avoid a life that 
 she disliked; that she took the furniture from the house, 
 which was pvehased partly by her own money, and the 
 residue purchased by her lover, who had gotten large sums 
 of money from her many times in excess of the value of
 
 STDRIA-STILES TRAGEDY. 133 
 
 the furniture, and sold it, and subsequently gave her said 
 lover the proceeds thereof; that shortly thereafter she 
 gave her lover $200 in gold to defray the funeral expenses 
 of his dead father; that he paid a portion of the expenses, 
 and upon her being informed that he had not paid the 
 undertaker in full she remonstrated with him for failing to 
 do so, and he struck, beat, and bruised her; that on or 
 about Sept. 1, 1881, and a few days after being driven from 
 371 Wabash avenue in the manner indicated, she went to 
 Carrie Watson's, and determined to live separate and 
 apart from her said lover, when, on the following morning 
 after her arrival at said place, her lover, together with his 
 brother Gene, called at said house; that on that night he 
 took her to Downing's, when he endeavored to take a ring 
 from her finger and slapped her in the face; that in Octo- 
 ber, 1881, he sent for her to meet him in Rochelle; that 
 she did so, and on that occasion he obtained $300 from 
 her which she had obtained in said house between Septem- 
 ber, 1881, and Oct. 26, 1881; that about this time he 
 wrote to her, as shown by letters in evidence, and asked 
 her to aid him in getting his position as caller of the 
 call board, through the aid of a doorkeeper; that she 
 obeyed his directions in that regard; that in December, 
 1881, he went again to said house of Watson's, broke the 
 door in, and forced her to accompany him in a hack, when 
 he assailed her; that in December, 1881, he came to the 
 house of Watson, referred to, in an intoxicated condition, 
 and had the delirium tremens, in which he fancied he saw 
 snakes and other reptiles; that thereupon she procured a 
 dress upon which were painted snakes and lizards, hoping 
 that when he saw the same he would be persuaded to quit 
 drinking; that on another occasion he sends for her to 
 come to the Palmer house on the pretense of his being 
 sick; that she placed her pocket-book, containing her money
 
 134 STUKLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 that she had for the purpose of buying a cloak for herself, 
 upon a table with her gloves and hat; that a rap was 
 heard upon the door adjacent, when she was sent to an- 
 other room, and upon her return her pocket-book was 
 gone; she was then taken to the closet and forced into the 
 same, and was told to go to hell; that thereupon he left 
 the room; that she searched for him in vain to procure the 
 restoration of said money; that thereupon she went back 
 and cried, feeling sick at the time; that she took the saw- 
 dust filling of a pin-cushion and placed it in the bed and 
 threw ink upon his shirts; that she went back to Watson's, 
 when he, a day or two afterward, accompanied by a mem- 
 ber of the Owl club, demanded admittance; that on that 
 occasion she gave him $20 and begged him to remain 
 away from her, that she wanted nothing whatever -to do 
 with him, and upon that she was resolved; that she saw 
 little of him until April, 1882, when he went to her for the 
 purpose of having, as he claimed, her attend a person by 
 the name of Herrington, who was sick at the Palmer house, 
 after which her said lover went to Watson's and remained 
 there several days and several nights; that on this occasion 
 he promised reformation and that he would treat her 
 kindly, and asked that she live with him as husband and 
 wife; that at this time she had accumulated more money 
 than at any other period during her residence or connec- 
 tion with the house of Watson ; that she had lived at said 
 house, free from his visits and exactions, longer than at 
 any other time; that, acting on his suggestion, she, in the 
 early part of April, 1882, went to reside in a suite of rooms 
 at Mrs. Harvey's, No. 290 Wabash avenue; that from that 
 time on until the day of the homicide he was engaged in 
 studied efforts to obtain her money from her, and obtained 
 various large sums of money, from time to time, until the 
 3d day of July, when she had about $760 left, and during
 
 8TUBLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 135 
 
 ner residence at said Harvey's house all that she purchased 
 for herself was a little blue suit and a bonnet to match; 
 that on said 3d day of July she received word from him to 
 the effect that he was going to leave her, and that she 
 could take care of herself; that on the 4th of July she 
 went back to "NYatson's, and on the next day, the 5th, he 
 went after her to said place, takes her to the door of a 
 hack, strikes her in the neck or face, and knocks her into 
 the same; that while on the road he took said money away 
 from her, allowing her to retain about $GO; that when he 
 was engaged in taking the money away she screamed and 
 attracted the attention of the hackman, who inquired what 
 the matter was, when she stated in reply : " Nothing, it 
 is all over now;" that in connection with this matter the 
 woman exhibits this marked trait of character, that when 
 she was knocked down and kicked in the face and her 
 tooth broken out, and discovered by the colored woman 
 who testified; that when she was knocked down and kicked 
 in the abdomen, and again in the side, and left fainting 
 upon tli3 floor; when knocked down and discovered by the 
 colored woman Chase; that when knocked down and her 
 hair pulled on the occasion referred to by the boy Frnnkie, 
 ami when thrown from hacks and kicked, and when knocked 
 down in hacks, when assailed in hotels, and on various 
 other occasions, places and times, she would never permit 
 any person to call to account or punish her assailant, or 
 allow the employment of force upon him, invariably taking 
 the position that she was the sole sufferer by his acts, she 
 alone had the right to complain, and when arrested through 
 his instrumentality and upon his direction, she it was that 
 procured his enlargement and exemption from punishment; 
 that further in this connection, that no matter what injur- 
 ies he had inflicted upon her person, and no matter how he 
 may have wounded her feelings, insulting her womanhood.
 
 136 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 or in any manner outraging her, a few words from him 
 spoken in terms of affection, asking forgiveness and forget- 
 fulness, would cause the resumption of the old relations or 
 ardent attachment and self-sacrifice on her part; that he 
 makes repeated promises of forbearance in the exercise of 
 these brutal acts upon her person, takes various kinds of 
 oaths acting upon her suggestion, sui rounded by various 
 circumstances, and, finally, on the 6th day of July, 1882, 
 he takes an oath and swears by that which she regards, I 
 care not for the purpose of this question whether rightfully 
 or wrongfully, as the most sacred that he could take 
 swears by his dead father's bones and by his memory and 
 by his kind disposition never again to assail her in any 
 way, and she, with her disposition as already indicated and 
 described, places full reliance upon that statement so by 
 him made, and surrenders all the money that she had 
 acquired during the most peaceful and tranquil period of 
 her jife; that when her last dollar, or, at least, nearly her 
 last dollar, is gone, he, three days after taking said oath, 
 takes her out for a ride about six miles from the city to a 
 place called Sunny side; that while on the way he asks her 
 for money, first $1,500 and then $500; she declines to give 
 him any, or, rather, she says she has none to give nothing 
 except a few dollars $50 or $60; that while on the way 
 they have a conversation, wherein she asks him to like or 
 love her for herself, and not for her money or her qualities 
 for earning money or to satisfy any sensual passion; that 
 during all this time she is under the dominion and control 
 of this man, yielding at all times and upon all occasions a 
 pliant obedience to his slightest wish; that while at Sunny- 
 side her spirits are buoyant; she is pleasant to the old 
 people near her, plays upon the piano; they have a discus- 
 sion in which he asks for money; he leaves her at Sunny- 
 side, six miles from town ; she starts with a boy, a young
 
 RTTTRT.A-aTTT.KS TRAGEDY. 137 
 
 lad ana in this connection I will state she had a marked 
 trait in her life of attaching herself to boys; that on 0110 
 occasion she takes a lad from the street, a bootblack, sends 
 him to school, and when her own adversities drove her 
 from this home, wherein this boy lived with her, so that it 
 became necessary for her to go to a house of ill-fame in 
 obedience with the direct request and in the company and 
 companionship of this lover, she then commits this boy to 
 the care and custody of a farmer, where he would be free 
 from the influences that surrounded her and marked her 
 life; that she, in company with this boy at Sunnyside, not 
 thinking of taking a carriage, comes to town in a violent 
 storm, in the mud and rain, in the night time, passing sev- 
 eral graveyards while coming; that she then and there is 
 afflicted with this disease called dysmenorrhea; that she 
 had upon her person this other complaint, which caused 
 the swelling referred to; that she carried in her head a 
 brain that had been tortured by successive agonies, over 
 the time indicated by me; that she was wet, cold and 
 chilled through in consequence of the storm through which 
 she passed; that she was menstruating; that the evidence 
 of her menstrual period passed down her body, saturated 
 her stockings, and partially filled her shoes; that in her 
 journey through the mud and rain on that lonely road she 
 was delirious and saw in her delusion and delirium the 
 faces of old friends that had died ; that the next thing she 
 remembered was being raced around the room by her 
 lover; that she, however, in company of the boy and a 
 man. goes to a pawnbroker's shop on Clark street, 
 kept by a lady, and in that shop the man does the 
 talking, and she simply pays the money; while there she 
 talks par.ly in Italian to a man who does not understand 
 the language and to a lady that does not understand it, and 
 walks up and down the pawnshop, talking incoherently,
 
 138 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 with a wild and unnatural expression of the eye; that short- 
 ly after that, getting her pistol, she passes down State street, 
 and finally she goes to the room at Mrs. Harvey's, where 
 they had jointly lived together as man and wife; that she 
 reaches the house in the night, in the condition described, 
 and in such a state of mental excitement that she desires 
 the landlady to accompany her to her room for fear that 
 she might do violence to her companion if he were there; 
 that during the same night her menstrual flow is arrested; 
 that she is still further agitated by the information that she 
 must leave the house; that she begs her landlady not to 
 leave her, and she passes a night of headache and great phy- 
 sical pain and wakefulness; that the landlady is obliged to 
 awaken her son at 6 A. M., and being very sleepy, falls 
 asleep in that son's room ; that when she awakes about 6 :30 
 A. M. she returns to the room occupied by the defendant, 
 finds it in a condition of most extraordinary disorder, lead- 
 ing her to exclaim that it must be the work of an insane 
 person, and the defendant has disappeared, having left the 
 house; that she wanders to the room of her lover, No. GGO 
 Palmer House, where she had often been before at his so- 
 licitation; that when first seen at the Palmer House she ap- 
 pears calm, collected, and yet incoherent, soon becoming 
 nervous and excited; that when seen by her physician he 
 ascertained that she had experienced a cessation of the 
 menses, but that they had at length returned; that the im- 
 pression produced upon those who conversed with her was 
 that her language was incoherent, and that she did not 
 seem to appreciate her situation; that she goes into his 
 room and they talk, and he grasps her by the throat; she 
 shoots him, he falls in the hall and dies, that while in the 
 hall she bends over and kisses him; she tells persons that 
 she shot him; that she was glad of it ; exults, if you choose, 
 that she has dene it; she kisses him, goes with the officer,
 
 StURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 139 
 
 wrings her hands; there are involuntary twitchings of the 
 muscles of her face in the frontal regions; she accompanies 
 the officer to the morgue, and on the way asks him if he has 
 a pistol; she subsequently goes to the morgue and kisses 
 the face of her lover, or the lips of her lover; that her face 
 is deadly pale, the pupils of her eyes are dilated; as she 
 walks with the officer she talks incoherently; she asks him 
 if there is a woman at the station; she wants to see a 
 woman, refraining from telling the reason; she goes to the 
 station, and there it is discovered that her menses have 
 again resumed, or the reproductive organs are again per- 
 forming their natural functions in other words, that she is 
 flowing; that she is hysterical while confined in the cell; 
 that she talks disjointedly, disconnectedly, and hysterically; 
 that on all occasions her conduct had been characterized by 
 a preponderance of the emotional element and a correspond- 
 ing deficiency of the rational, as illustrated by her abject 
 compliance with all the desires of her lover, in spite of his 
 most brutal treatment, and as further illustrated by the 
 eccentric notion that she could, by wearing a dress painted 
 with snakes and reptiles, reclaim him from habits of intem- 
 perance, and that by feeding him with powdered loadstone 
 she could permanently secure his affection; that, further- 
 more, this person had been for at least three years subject 
 to exceedingly painful and disordered menstruation, accom- 
 panied by excitement of the mind, incoherent language, and 
 disorderly movement, necessitating frequent medical attend- 
 ance; that on at least one occasion she has suffered a con- 
 vulsive attack, which was supposed to have been an epilep- 
 tic fit; that while confined in the jail her monthly sickness 
 has always been accompanied by painful disturbances of 
 sensation, intellection, and motion, and that between the 
 periods of menstruation she has been for a year past suffer- 
 ing with fits of melancholy that have gradually increased in.
 
 140 STDBLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 intensity and duration as the year has rolled on; that dur- 
 ing the course of her trial she experienced a fit, character- 
 ized by sudden paleness succeeding complete suffusion of 
 the face, by a characteristic outcry, fall upon the floor, con- 
 vulsion, insensibility, dilation of the pupils, loss of sensibil- 
 ity of the conjunctiva, staring eyes, followed by conjugated 
 deviation of the eye-balls, with unconsciousness, continuing 
 for at least an hour; that awakening she had no recollec- 
 tion or consciousness of what occurred during the interval 
 since the commencement of the attack; that she passed the 
 night in a state of delirium, and that by common consent 
 she was incapable of appearing for trial the next day what 
 would you say as to whether or not, when she fired that 
 shot, she was legally sane or insane ? 
 
 " I should certainly consider her insane," Dr. Schmidt 
 replied. " It is impossible for a woman to be in the con- 
 dition described and not be mentally affected. Not only 
 that, but the very fact that a woman should subject herself 
 to the brutalities named, so long, I should regard as a very 
 strong additional proof. Persons possessed of their reason 
 always have some motive for their -actions. "What motive 
 had she? She was persuaded that he no longer loved her; 
 that he wanted only her money; that continuance with him 
 meant progressive degradation. If there had been any 
 such material hope as that she would receive money or 
 other consideration in the future as a reward for present 
 endurance, it might have been regarded as a symptom of 
 sanity. It did not exist, however; and when, after years of 
 endurance of abuses, she in a time of excitement such as 
 she suffered from, had she shot her lover, without the slight- 
 est violence or provocation, I should have regarded it as the 
 act of an insane person. If she was insane, it made no dif- 
 ference what she said before or after the killing." 
 
 Mr. Mills cross-examined witness, eliciting an affirmative
 
 8TURLA.-STILES TRAGEDY. 141 
 
 answer to the question : " Do you base your opinion upon 
 what was said in the question of the counsel ?" and that 
 witness had no knowledge whatever, other than that de- 
 rived from the testimony he had heard, the question, and 
 what he had read in the newspapers. 
 
 Dr. William H. Byford sworn: 
 
 " Am a graduate of Ohio Medical College and have prac- 
 ticed my profession in this city since 1857; am a professor 
 of gynaeology in Rush Medical College, and am consulting 
 surgeon for diseases of women in the South Side Woman's 
 Hospital. Have treated women's diseases for forty years, 
 and have written three works on such diseases which are 
 considered as authority. The symptoms of dysmenorrhea 
 often affect the head and nerve centers, affecting sensibil- 
 ity, mobility, and mind. There is no uniformity in the symp- 
 toms consequent upon sudden suppression, differing in dif- 
 ferent persons, and might be either mental or reflex. It fre- 
 quently produces insanity. Any aggravating treatment by 
 a loved one, disappointment, etc., would tend to aggravate 
 the disturbance. What tendency the maniacal excitement 
 might have, could not be predicted, as it would depend 
 upon the character and temperament of the person affected. 
 
 It is true that the persons so affected have often assailed 
 with homicidal intent those they loved best, though no such 
 cases have occurred in my practice." 
 
 Mr. Trude caused to be road hypothetical question of the 
 defense. 
 
 "I should say she was insane." 
 
 Mr. Mills cross-examined witness and read his hypothet- 
 ical question. The Doctor said in reply that on the facts 
 embodied in that question she was sane, there was such 
 nervousness shown in it. 
 
 Dr. Fayette Weller sworn, examined by Mr. Trude: 
 
 " Have practiced medicine since 1854 in Cook county;
 
 142 STURLA-8TILE8 TRAGEDY. 
 
 have had large experience in female diseases; having heard 
 hypothetical question as propounded, have no doubt that 
 the defendant was insane before, at the time of, and since 
 the homicide, as I prefer to term it, was legally insane, suf- 
 fering from transitory mania; was called to attend defend- 
 ant the first day of the trial, when she fainted; at that time 
 the abdominal swelling resulting from former violence, was 
 very perceptible ; that, of course, aggravated her functional 
 derangement; half the cases of female insanity result from 
 such causes." 
 
 Dr. E. W. Jenks sworn, examined by Mr. Trude: 
 " Am physician and superintendent of insane asylum at 
 Geneva; have had considerable experience in treating 
 women for diseases of the reproductive organs; I have heard 
 read the hypothetical question of the prisoner, and from 
 the facts stated therein, assuming them all to be facts, I 
 should say the prisoner was insane at the time of the firing 
 of the shot on the 10th of July, 1882." 
 
 The same question was put to Dr. A. Gugoris and Dr. L. 
 Dodge, who answered in the affirmative.
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 TWELFTH DAY DECEMBER 4th, 1882. 
 
 The testimony of the defendant, Carlotta Theressa Stur- 
 lata, was taken verbatim by Arnold Pearce, Esq., a journal- 
 ist of more than a local reputation and now connected with 
 the Chicago Times. The testimony thus taken is accurate, 
 as is evidenced by the stenographer's notes. We only 
 adopt his comments on a thrilling situation in connection 
 with the evidence as given. The testimony was reported 
 in The Times December 5, 1882. 
 
 " If Zolo desires the fabric for another story, 
 Let him follow this recital." 
 
 Carlotta Theressa Sturlatta sworn, and examined by Mr. 
 Trude: 
 
 The prisoner, whose face had been uncovered in the court 
 for the first time, arose from her seat and entered the wit- 
 ness chair. She was dressed, as usual, in black, a crepe 
 veil enveloping her head, and from beneath the folds of 
 which protruded small curls styled " widow's locks." Her 
 face was pale almost of an ashen hue, and the dark, 
 pretty eyes, fringed with darker lashes and brows, looked a 
 deeper black from contrast. Her forehead was slightly 
 wrinkled with a frown of thoughtfulness or pain. In her 
 hand she held a plain white handkerchief, which she now 
 and then applied to her eyes or nervously twirled in her 
 fingers. Her gloves were removed from her hands and laid 
 in her lap. With every eye in the court-room on her, and 
 every ear intent on each syllable, she began the story of 
 her sufferings, love and crime.
 
 144 8TUKLA-STTLE8 TRAGEDY. 
 
 "My name is Carlotta Theressa Sturlata; I lived at 
 home in Baltimore first, and afterward at the house of Mrs. 
 Fay; I have no home now; I first met Charles Stiles in 
 Baltimore, at Mrs. Fay's, in 1877; I had been placed there 
 by the man who seduced me, and was living as his mistress 
 under promise of marriage; it was during the races that I 
 first met Charles Stiles; I was sitting at the piano playing 
 and singing when Charlie was introduced to me; he talked 
 Italian to me and visited me very often; my lover became 
 jealous and refused to fulfill his promise of marriage; Char- 
 lie then stopped there with me; he went away with the 
 races, but returned in July; he had lost all his money on 
 the races, and had none when he came back; he brought 
 his trunk to the house and lived with me; I gave him $200 
 to bet on the races; when he was away he would write lov- 
 ing letters to me, sometimes ask ng for money, which I 
 would send him; then he began to write persuading me to 
 come to Chicago; I came, and he promised to make me his 
 wife; this was in June, 1878, and I lived at 52 Eldridge 
 court; the first night I slept there I was awakened about 3 
 o'clock by hearing a noise in the room ; supposing burglars 
 were there I reached over to where Charlie slept, but dis- 
 covered that he was gone; I then jumped out of bed and 
 ran toward a person that I saw in the room; he ran 
 towards the stairs and as he turned to go down I 
 caught up to him, when he struck me, and as I fell I saw 
 it was Charlie. That night was spent by me in crying, not 
 on account of my injury, but at the blow to my feelings. I 
 felt very bad. Shortly after he came back, begged my 
 pardon, and I forgive him. Nothing happened for some 
 weeks until one day he took me riding to South Park, 
 when he asked me for money, which I declined to give him, 
 when he struck me. "We made up again and Charlie had 
 me open No. 10 South Clark street; said it would be pat-
 
 STURLA.-STILES TRAGEDY. 145 
 
 ronized by Board of Trade people, members of the Owl 
 Club, and persons with whom he associated; we could sell 
 much wine, and I was to entertain by singing and music. 
 He introduced me to James Baxter, of the Board of Trade, 
 who gave me diamonds and other jewelry, and paid great 
 attention to me. Charlie got jealous; one evening he came 
 home and found Baxter there; he quarrelled with me and 
 struck me. Baxter took my part, when Charlie knocked 
 us both down. The next day or so after this Baxter gave 
 me a revolver, this was the first one I ever owned, to pro- 
 tect myself with. Often I would point it at him when he 
 was bad, and it would stop him. Nothing unusual hap- 
 pened till the spring of 1880, when Charlie and I quar- 
 relled and separated, when Charlie employed Mr. Pinker- 
 ton to intimidate me into giving up letters and mementoes, 
 and to persuade me not to send him any vegetable bou- 
 quets. I had sent him one made of small cabbages, tur- 
 nips and beets. Mr. Pinkerton claimed that this made him 
 ridiculous on the Board and annoyed him. I explained to 
 him the circumstances which induced me to send them, and 
 that I had things of his and did not want him. I said I 
 would be glad if he kept away forever. Then he sent me 
 back my pictures with the eyes cut out and all scallopped. 
 Two or three days after that, or maybe a week, I don't re- 
 member how long, he came back and showed the letter 
 Pinkerton had written him. I asked him why he did not 
 do as Pinkerton had told him to do, and k'eep away from 
 me. He became angry and said, ' I'll kill you yet,' and 
 knocked me down, knocking a tooth loose. The next July, 
 on the 3rd, 1880, he said he wanted to take me to Fox 
 .River and show me the insane asylum at Elgin, where he 
 had his brother. We went to one or two places, stopping 
 at hotels, where he registered himself as Charles Stiles and 
 me as Mrs. Hamilton. We took a drive to Aurora and 
 10
 
 1-46 STCBIA STELES TRAGEDY. 
 
 stopped at the Fitch House, where he registered himself as 
 Charles Stiles and me as Mrs. Hamilton. I went to the 
 hydrant to get a drink of water, and he threw some in my 
 face. We had our tin-types taken at a photograph gallery. 
 When we were between Batavia and Aurora he said he 
 wanted some money to play the races with. I told him I 
 wouldn't give it to him, and he said he needed it then. I 
 told him I would give him money to pay the hotel bills and 
 he threatened to put me out He did put me oat, and then 
 chased me with the horses. On one side there was a field 
 and on the other side the river. He afterward took me in 
 with him, but we hadn't gone far when he put me out 
 again. He threw me out, giving me a shove. He drove 
 away then, and I went back toward Aurora. He called to 
 me, saying, ' Come back, Effie.' I paid no attention and 
 walked on. I had some money and was going to Aurora. 
 He then came with the horses and chased me again. I 
 leaned against a fence and drew a pistol; I did it to fright- 
 en him, and told him I would shoot and scare the horses; 
 I climbed the fence, and in trying to get over my dress got 
 caught on the fence and I fell, my head downward; there I 
 hung till he picked me up and I gave him the money. He 
 was very kind to me that night he was good as he could 
 be. We went to Elgin and stopped at the Waverly House 
 as Mrs. Hamilton and Charles Stiles; then he brought me 
 home. In the hall I told him good-bye, and said I did not 
 want anything more to do with him. He laughed and 
 went away. After staying away a week he wrote me a 
 letter telling me to take care of myself. Then he returned 
 and treated me welL Charlie was very good to me some- 
 time. In August he took me to drive out to Bowmansville. 
 We had supper for three, Charlie and I, and Blair the hack- 
 driver; he asked me for money, and I asked him if he 
 didn't have some; he said that made no difference, and I
 
 8TURLA- STILES TRAGEDY. 147 
 
 paid for the supper. I told him he shouldn't have said any- 
 thing before the driver, and ought to be ashamed to show 
 people he was living off me. We got into the carriage and 
 he struck me. Charlie tried to put me out, and the driver 
 interfered. When we got home I showed the driver whf re 
 he had struck me and my bloody handkerchief; he was 
 good as he could be after that until October; he had me 
 get rooms over Swanson's, where I could come every night, 
 after our house was closed; he said he didn't like to sleep 
 at No. 10 on account of the bell ringing on the bridge, 
 which made him nervous and kept him awake. I took the 
 rooms and I had a boy to accompany me there every night. 
 The boy was Frank, whom I took from the street and after- 
 ward sent to Mr. Eckford's farm when I sold out. I got 
 some furniture and a piano and put them in the rooms, and 
 Charlie was good then. 
 
 " One night at half-past 8 o'clock he took me out for a 
 drive. In the meantime I had not been giving him any 
 money to amount to anything. I would give him five dol- 
 lars or ten dollars, or sometimes one dollar, to pay for 
 breakfast or lunch, when he didn't have any. We went 
 out to drive and as we passed the park he said the place 
 had been a grave-yard, and asked me how I would like to 
 see a skeleton get up before us. I asked him not to talk so, 
 and, he said, ' By the way, Effie, our house is doing a good 
 business; I see carriages standing in front of the door, and 
 you must have a good deal of money; how much have you 
 got with you?' I told him I didn't know. He asked me 
 again to tell him how much I had, and then said ho wanted 
 the money. I told him I wouldn't give it to him, and he 
 began to coax and persuade me. When he saw I would 
 not give him the money, he put me out and began chasing 
 me with the horses. I took the pistol and fifed a shot in 
 the air. The horses became frightened and ran away. I
 
 148 STURL.'. STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 then wandered around in Lincoln Park and became fright- 
 ened at something; I hid behind a vault or monument of 
 some kind; I then ran away and fell against something; I 
 got up and turned cold all at once, and my brain was in a 
 whirl; I don't remember anything about it except that I 
 ran sometimes and would then walk. He had been talking 
 to me about the grave-yard and I could think of nothing 
 but ghosts; I thought I was going toward the city, but 
 found myself in a strange place; I knocked at the door of 
 a cottage and told the lady that I had been left on the road. 
 She told me I was in Lake View, and sent her two daughters 
 with me to the cars. When I got home my clothes were 
 all full of burs; I put my money away and went to 
 Charlie's room to get some papers and letters; as soon as 
 I -got in, he grabbed me and searched me. He had been 
 concealed behind something when I entered the room, and 
 caught me suddenly; he couldn't find any money, but he 
 locked the door and made me stay there all night. After 
 that I told him I didn't want him any more and to leave 
 me. 
 
 "He staid away for a while and then came one night 
 with a crowd of his friends and members of the Owl Club, 
 and kicked at the door; I wouldn't let him in, and he 
 went away, his fiiends laughing at him. He came back 
 after a while and kicked on the door again. I told him 
 from the stairs I wouldn't let him in, and I afterward 
 looked out of a window and ordered him away. He said 
 he would shoot me, and no one would care fe because I was 
 a fast woman. A policeman came then and took him away. 
 It was Officer Demars. He came another night and threw 
 stones at the windows and broke the transom. We made 
 up after that and he promised to be good. On this occasion 
 there was with him several members of the Owl Club. He 
 often got money from me to spend on them. Shortly after
 
 8TURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 149 
 
 this I read in the papers one morning about a destitute 
 woman on the West side, and I went to see her. She had. 
 two little children and was sick and perfectly destitute. 
 I came back and bought her some groceries and gave her 
 $10. Charlie took me to the theatre that night as he used 
 to do quite often, and when we were returning home I told 
 him about giving the woman $10, when he complained 
 about spending money in that way when he needed it so 
 much; then he called me some bad name, struck me, and 
 knocked me down. He also kicked me in the side right 
 where he had kicked me before. Officer Demars came and 
 interfered. He took Charlie away, but did not arrest him. 
 Dr. Bates then came and treated me. I suffered a great 
 deal and had pains in my stomach and in my side." 
 
 Mr. Trude then identified the letters and showed by 
 witness that they were in the hand writing of the defen- 
 dant, and offered them in evidence. 
 
 By Mr. Mills: I object; what have they to do with this 
 case ? Have they any connection with the murder com- 
 mitted on the morning of July 10th, 1882 ? Do they tend 
 to prove her insane then or now ? 
 
 By Mr. Trude : These letters must be viewed and con- 
 sidered together, and when so viewed and considered they 
 will corroborate the defendant and other witnesses of the 
 defense, and show further that he was guilty of extreme 
 brutality upon the defendant. This is one predisposing 
 cause of insanity. Next in them he admits that he sub- 
 jected her to one of the greatest disappointments that a 
 woman can endure. This is the second predisposing case 
 of insanity. Further in them it will appear that he had so 
 represented himself to her that she believed him to be a 
 humane, devoted, and to her a constant man, that he was 
 influential with the dramatic and musicial press, and would 
 gratify the controlling wish of her life by aiding her in
 
 150 STURLA-STILES TKAGEDY. 
 
 attaining a positim before the musical world. In vivid 
 .contrast with that just stated it will appear from two of 
 the letters of a later date, that he was the very opposite of 
 what she was led to believe, for he confesses himself brutal, 
 devoted only to the obtaiuing of her money, and so incon- 
 stant that he almost stood in full view of a new made 
 grave on account of the terrible disease that his licentious- 
 ness brought upon him, these are all agencies that are 
 calculated to disturb the mind. All things that are done 
 and said to the prisoner that would have a tendency to 
 unseat her reason are competent for the jury to consider, 
 and all the medical gentlemen agree that these matters are 
 all predisposing causes of insanity. The letter wherein he 
 says, in effect, that he has drank deeply from every cup of 
 vice, is virtually by his own confession a gambler, drunkard, 
 libertine and pimp, and worse than all has declared that 
 as he has robbed her, he proposes to make her a slave to 
 his will. The idol that his tongue described and her fancy 
 painted, was shattered by the contents of these letters. 
 These combined agencies are more potent in effecting the 
 overthrow of reason, than physical brutalities; most 
 wounds made upon the body soon heal, but wrongs like 
 those shown in these letters endure while reason lasts. 
 Counsel cited in support of his position on this branch of 
 the case several authorities. 
 
 Will not these letters associated with all the evidence in 
 the case aid the jury in arriving at a just conclusion. 
 Letters of a like nature were admitted in the case of 
 People vs. McFarline, People vs. Cole, and Sickles charged 
 with the murder of Phillip Bertou Key., 
 case charged with the murder of Phillip Bertonkey. 
 
 In all cases where insanity is relied upon as a defense 
 they are admitted. In Stevens ads. People, tried in this 
 court before Judge Kogers four years ago, when the same 
 attorneys who now represent respectively the People, and
 
 8TURLA-STILES TRAGEDY 151 
 
 the prisoner in this case, occupied the same position in 
 that case. All the letters were admitted as well as photo- 
 graphs, and any thing that might affect the mind of the 
 prisoner was ruled as competent evidence. 
 
 The Court ruled that the letters were competent. They 
 are as follows: 
 
 CHICAGO, Jan. 19th, 1880. 
 
 MY DEAR EFFIE: My heart is breaking. Won't you 
 please erase my name from your memory, and pardon me 
 if you can for the many unkind and unmanly words I 
 have allowed myself to say. I will return your presents 
 by a messenger. I will never speak to another woman as 
 long as I live. 
 
 Your heart broken lover, CHARLIE. 
 
 MY DEAR EP. : The same old story. I got $900 this 
 morning, played it in against faro bank; this demoralized 
 me so completely; then I went, got some fresh air; think 
 now that I shall go out home at 4 P. M. You have been 
 very, very kind to me and I love yon, but I am resolved 
 from to day to do differently, and if I cannot conquer my 
 passion for gaming I shall jump in the lake. Having lost 
 my sleep I feel unable to attend to any business, and shall 
 not, if I go home, be able to keep my appointment for to 
 night. You may rely upon it that I will be faithful to so 
 good a girl as you have been to me. 
 
 With all my love, CHARLIE. 
 
 DIXON, Friday, 1880. 
 
 MY DEAR EFF. : I have just telegraphed you, care of 
 Mrs. Parker, to see the big, fat door-keeper of the call 
 board, who wrote the enclosed letter, and have him, if pos- 
 sible, find out in a quiet sort of a way from Mr. Henneberry, 
 the secretary of the call board, if he thinks I can again gf t 
 my position. Now if you do this I want it done in such a 
 way that you will not be known in it. I think you had 
 better send a note to Richard and have him meet you, say 
 at Race Bros, or some other convenient place, and you can 
 then talk it over together; if this can be arranged you look 
 out for a place to live at once, and if when I get to Chicago 
 I hear that you have been bad or dissipated in any way
 
 152 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 I'll pound you black and blue. Now please, honey, be a good 
 girl and I will stick to you for life. My God ! I never 
 knew how much I could love you; please return the en- 
 closed letter to me; don't take a drop of champagne no 
 more than you would so much poison, and your lot shall 
 be a happy one. 
 
 Ever your, CHARLIE. 
 
 P can hardly express to you in words my gratitude for 
 your kind attentions; only if you will pardon my past 
 transgressions, I will by my good conduct more than atone 
 for them in the future. Gold must be tried by fire, and 
 we only discover the finer traits of character in those we 
 hold dearest by the severest tests of the human furnaces; 
 vice, drink, temptations of wine, women and hacks are 
 some of tLe last mentioned kinds of fire; I shall try to avoid 
 them all hereafter, and not place myself in any position 
 that you may reproachfully say to me: "A burnt child 
 dreads the fire." 
 
 Yours contritely, C. 
 
 MY DEAR EF. : I went to see your friend Emerson last 
 eve. He is a very attractive and seductive person, and I 
 am sure you will avoid him. 
 
 With all my love, CHARLIE. 
 
 " Shortly after this I met him in a restaurant called the 
 ' Fashion,' and he told me he had used some money belong- 
 ing to one of his friends. He used to talk to me in Italian. 
 Charlie could speak Italian very well, but sometimes he 
 would want for a word. When we first met I spoke very 
 broken English, and he taught me English and I taught 
 him Italian. 
 
 " When Mr. Pinkerton came to the house the second time, 
 looking for some girl who had run away from home, I 
 showed him that Charlie had come back. Charlie was in 
 the front room reading. He swore at me and threatened 
 to hit me with a champagne bottle, but was restrained by 
 Mr. Pinkerton. Pinkerton took him out, and he swore at 
 me, saying he would kill me yet,
 
 ^STUBLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 153 
 
 " One time he was in bed feeling sick, and said he wanted 
 something warm to drink. I went out to get it for him, 
 leaving my pocket-book on the table. When I came back 
 tbe pocket-book was under the pillow and the money was 
 gone. I went home and told Rosie I was going to see 
 Charlie and get my money back; I got a carriage and went 
 to the rooms over Swanson's; Charlie had taken his trunk 
 and left. I went down to the Owl Club and asked for 
 Charlie. The boy said he had been there, but had left. 
 He went to the Grand Pacific then, and I wrote to him to 
 stay away. I then sent back the piano and furniture I had 
 in the rooms, and for the time abandoned all hope of im- 
 proving my musical education. He stayed away for but a 
 short time, when he often frequented the house in a drunken 
 condition. This condition of affairs continued with little 
 variation until two years ago last Thanksgiving he wanted 
 to go to Dixon to see his people, and got me to go with 
 him. He said we would take the names of Mr. and Mrs. 
 Charles Stiles. We went to Sterling, where Charlie left 
 me to go and see his people at Dixon. Toward night he 
 came in. I met a clerk there I had known in Chicago, and 
 when Charlie came I was playing and singing. He became 
 very angry, and when we went to the room he asked me 
 what I had been doing with that man ; I told him I knew 
 him in Chicago. When we were in the room he drew out 
 a small flask of brandy. It was marked 'best brandy,' 
 and ho took a drink. He asked me to have some, but I 
 refused. This was at the Gait house, and he took me to 
 the Fair with the proprietor of the hotel and the clerk. He 
 introduced me to several people. 'On retiring this night 
 after some casual conversation I fell asleep, and was awak^ 
 ened by feeling him nudging me with the barrel of a pis tol. 
 I woke up, he caught me by the hair, put his pistol to my 
 face and asked me if I loved him. I became very fright-^
 
 154 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 ened, and after I had told him that I did and that I had 
 always loved him, he laid down again without saying an- 
 other word. He acted so strange I was afraid to stay in 
 bed with him, so I got up. Just as I was putting on my 
 stockings, he pulled his revolver and pointed at me, telling 
 me he would shoot me; I took my pistol from my seal skin 
 sacqae, and I said: 'You shoot and I'll shoot.' He went 
 to sleep then and I took a pillow and laid down in front of 
 the grate. I wanted to get away from him, but could not 
 as he had locked the door and concealed the key. During 
 the night he slept off the effects of the brandy and was 
 apparently all right, and we then came home. 
 
 " On Christmas day, 1880, he wrote me the letter to meet 
 him at the Owl Club at 11 o'clock that night; I went there 
 and he took me to his room at the Palmer house with him. 
 There was a large clock on the mantel, and just as the 
 clock was striking 12 he made me kneel down and take all 
 manner of oaths that I would always love him. I frequently 
 went to the Palmer house with him, and if the elevator was 
 stopped we took the freight elevator and went to his rooms 
 660 and 661. Charlie remained away for some time. When 
 he came to the house it was in the latter part of February, 
 1881, his face bore the marks of dissipation and his eyes 
 had an expression peculiar to drunken men. I told him 
 that I wanted him to go away from the house and visit the 
 "VVashingtonian home for a while. He pleaded with me for 
 a while when I consented to ride with him to Sunnyside; 
 while there he saw a woman accompanied by a man ; it 
 appeared that he knew ker and was angry because she was 
 with the man, and asked me to engage in a fight with her, 
 and, on my declining, he struck me in the face; when, 
 being disfigured, I came home. That night he ot into 
 the house; I ordered him out of the house; he was then 
 drunk and diseased, he declined to go, but assaulted me.
 
 BTUHIA-STILES TRAGEDY. 155 
 
 I told him I would kill him if he kicked me again. Sent 
 little Frankie, the boot-black that lived with me and who 
 went to. school from my home, after a policeman, who, on 
 his arrival, was informed by Charlie that he was a member 
 of the Board of Trade and caller of the board, and ended 
 by demanding the arrest of all in the house; this the officer 
 did. I was liberated by the aid of the hackman and on my 
 way out of the prison saw Charlie in a cell between a white 
 thief and a negro prostitute, both drunk; Charlie was sing- 
 ing ' I want to be an angel,' and ' Shamus O'Brien.' I 
 went out, raised $50 and bailed him out. He gave the 
 name of Ben Shaw, a journalist of Dixon. The next day 
 I appeared for him and paid his fine. About a week after 
 this he called to obtain money to give Salvini, the tragedian, 
 a star supper. It was to be given by the Owl Club and he 
 was selected by the Club as the leading spirit. He said he 
 needed money to pay for table fixings, wine, etc., and money 
 to buy a white vest and swallow-tail coat. He showed me 
 a plan of the table and where the notable persons were to 
 sit. I gave him the money he requested. 
 
 " Some time in the year , 1881, 1 cannot now remember 
 just the time, Charlie came to the house with some friends 
 and asked me to play on the piano, which I did, and was 
 singing some Italian opera when he came up behind me 
 and poured some wine down my back. I had on a low- 
 neck dress; I turned to wards him suddenly, when he struck 
 me. Shortly after this I determined to sell out, and did so 
 at a sacrifice of $1,500. I intended to take rooms, but Char- 
 lie appealed and persuaded me to go to Watson's, where I 
 went. After I had been there a while Charlie came after 
 money, and used to wait in a closet for it until I could get 
 away from the parlor and the wine parties that I used to 
 sing and play for. We again quarreled, and one day I went 
 to a Salvini matinee, and fearing that some of Charlie's
 
 156 STUKLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 friends might be in the audience, I went into a box. Short- 
 after I entered it some one struck me from behind, and on 
 looking around I saw Charlie. That night he took me to 
 the Tremont House and asked me for $100, which I gave 
 him. He then talked so good to me, said he was going to 
 do the right thing, and that we would get married and keep 
 furnished rooms. He showed me an advertisement of a 
 house for sale on West Randolph street, and Rosa and I 
 went there to look at the house. I thought of buying the 
 house, but Charlie changed his mind. 
 
 " The next thing that occurred that I can now remember 
 was that one day I went to the Palmer House to see Mrs. 
 Busteed, a lady that I knew in Baltimore, who was sick. 
 Charlie came in the room and quarreled with me. He after- 
 ward struck me and took $GOO away from me. I asked him 
 for it. and he told me to be quiet and remain at the hotel 
 until the next day. He had a friend he called Judge, and 
 when we were in the room some one came into the hall and 
 Charlie told me to go into No. 661 for a moment. I left my 
 pocket-book on the center-table, and when I came back it 
 was gone. He kept me there, and said he had put the 
 money in wheat and would give it back to me. The porter 
 at the Palmer informed about my being there, and he was 
 ordered to send me away. He told me to go to the JEtna 
 House, and I did. He would come to me, and soon he got 
 all my money. I gave him about this time $200 to pay 
 Kreigh & Davis for him." 
 
 The following letters read and introduced as evidence. 
 The first from the defendant: 
 
 CHARLES STILES, Dear Sir: Please be so kind as to send 
 me my picture, and also my one little gray hair. If you do, 
 I will send you all your letters, pictures, and even to 
 the lock of your hair I severed in sport, and then thought I 
 Joved you so dear. I want nothing belonging to you, so
 
 STURLA-STILES TUAGEDY. 157 
 
 please do as I ask you to; it will be the best for you and 
 the best for me. 
 
 The answer to this was as follows: 
 
 Nov. 15, 1881. 
 Miss STURLA : Inclosed please find your picture. 
 
 Respectfully, CHARLES STILES. 
 
 CHICAGO MINING BOARD, CHICAGO, JULY 14, 1880. 
 MY DEAR EF. : Again you have cut another notch in the 
 stick of obligations I am under to you, and this morning I 
 am as happy as a man can be. It seems so easy for you to 
 be loving aud kind that it is difficult to imagine you any- 
 thing else. I would not care to live if I thought I should 
 ever cause you a moment of sadness or regret. I pledge 
 you the devotion of a lifetime. 
 
 Your lover, CHARLIE. 
 
 This in pencil: 
 
 I am still very sick in bed. Come over to 660 at 11 
 o'clock this morning, if you can. CHARLIE. 
 
 MY DEAR EF. : "Won't you please make up with me ? I 
 can't stand it any longer. Yours, CHARLIE. 
 
 This was also in pencil: 
 
 I loved you once ; I hate you now. No, I loved you once 
 and I love you now, so don't get sick. Good-bye. Good- 
 bye. EFFIE. 
 
 I've had and am still having a hell of a lot of trouble. I 
 rely in you to help me out. Will try and see you at 9 P. 
 M. Brother was at the show last night and I could not 
 come. CHARLIE. 
 
 SATURDAY, 12:30 P. M. 
 
 MY DEAR EF. : I am absolutely without money. My 
 brother has the scarlet fever. Mrs. Nevis says this morn- 
 ing she must have her money about $40. I have no re- 
 sources whatever, and unless you will be good enough to 
 send me about $50 by this boy I shall be obliged to pawn 
 my watch, a thing which I know you do not wish me to do. 
 
 With all my love, CHARLIE.
 
 158 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 "On various occasions he appeared at Miss Watson's; his 
 brother Eugene, his father and uncle Chinney and a niece 
 were in the house. I used to give money to them all. On 
 account of my relations with Charlie the members of the 
 Owl Club used to visit the house. Some of them came with 
 him, often. Charlie's desire to drink seemed to grow upon 
 him, and on one occasion he came to the house so drunk 
 that when he attempted to reach my room near the head of 
 the stairs I pushed him and he fell down stairs, and it took 
 two girls to carry him up again. After this I had made a 
 green velvet dress, and got a man who used to run errands 
 for Charlie, a convict by the name of House or Mailhouse, 
 to paint snakes, lizards, frogs, etc., with diamond eyes. I 
 thought that by wearing this when Charlie was around it 
 might remind him of what he saw when drunk and make 
 him stop, but it didn't." 
 
 Tell the jury all the money, goods, chattels, or other prop- 
 erty Charles Stiles ever gave you. 
 
 " He gave me this, and this," (pointing to the clasps of 
 gold around her wrists,) and once at the Tremont House he 
 gave me $20 in gold." 
 
 " He got me to leave Watson's and gave me a little dia- 
 mond ring, which he afterward took away from me." (Here 
 she burst into sobs and had to control herself before she re- 
 sumed.) 
 
 " He also gave me another pair of bracelets, which I had 
 to pawn for him, and I lost them. He gave me $2,500 in 
 certificates. They were green, and he said they were the 
 same as money. I asked several people about them and 
 took them to some brokers, who told me they were worth- 
 less. We were living at 371 Wabash avenue then. That 
 night I told Charlie the certificates were not good, and ho 
 laughed, saying, ' I'll show you to-morrow that they are 
 good.' He asked me out to walk, and we walked on Wa-
 
 8TURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 bash avenue to Twenty-second street, and then came back 
 on Michigan avenue. He asked me to sit in the park on 
 the lake front with him, and we went. I asked him to tell 
 me the truth about the certificates, and then he told me 
 they were no good. He wanted some money, and I told 
 him it was all gone. He struck me and I screamed. Some 
 boatmen heard my screams and took my part. I ran away 
 and went home. I found him there, although I had run 
 nearly all the way. He knocked me down at the bouse, 
 striking me on the back of the head with a revolver. He 
 gave the revolver to the landlady and told her that I was 
 not his wife, and that he had left me. The next morning 
 the landlady told his brother Gene, who was living with us, 
 that Mr. Stiles had left and that he would have to get an- 
 other place. I went back to Watson's on July 4 this was 
 in 1881. He came there with some friends and went down 
 in the pool-room. He sent one of the girls to ask me to 
 come down in the pool-room, but I went into a room and 
 refused because I was afraid of him. I heard Watson tell 
 him he must not come to the house. He laughed and went 
 away. On the morning of July 9th I heard some one kick- 
 ing at my door, and opened it, and giving me a shove he 
 drew a revolver and put it to my head, He ordered me to 
 get up and put on my clothes or he would shoot me. We 
 went to the Palmer House, where I packed up some shirts 
 and other clothes for him. He said he was going to Sara- 
 toga, and wanted me to go to the train with him. I was 
 sitting by him on the seat, and went to kiss him good-bye. 
 I told him to be a better man, and he pointed the pistol at 
 me and made me stay on the train. He took me to Men- 
 dota, and, then we went to Galesburg. There he made all 
 sorts of promises. He said he had loaned the landlady 
 some money on her furniture, and he would buy it. He 
 told me that I must be good, and when I had been good
 
 160 8TURLA-ST1LES TRAGEDY. 
 
 three months he would marry me. We came back and 
 stopped at the Tremont House three days. Our rooms 
 were at No. 371 W abash avenue, by some Board of Trade 
 men, and we had to wait till we could get fixed up. He 
 asked me for some money, saying he did not have enough 
 to pay for the furniture. I gave him $200, and he bought 
 the furniture." 
 
 "We had ten rooms and I boarded some members of the 
 Board of Trade, who had rooms with us. I worked in the 
 kitchen and washed and ironed Charlie's shirts. I was 
 glad to do it, because I thought I was living right." 
 
 (The witness sobbed violently, covering her face with her 
 handkerchief, and broke down completely. The majority 
 of the audience were visibly affected, and some in tears. 
 Recovering herself she continued :) 
 
 "A man named Robinson was stopping at the house and 
 Charlie said we must get him to leave; Charlie did not 
 like him. Chinney Stiles, Charlie's uncle, was also stay- 
 ing there. Charlie's father then came to live with us. One 
 time Chinney got in the Bridewell and Charlie came to me 
 to get money to get him out. I gave him the money, but 
 he didn't do it. I asked him why he didn't do it, and he 
 answered, 'Let Chinney stay there; it will do him good.' 
 I remonstrated with him, because I liked Chinney. He 
 was a harmless man. Charlie said he was worthless and 
 might stay in jail; that he was only good to do something 
 arourd a faro bank. Gene and Al., Charlie's brothers, 
 were also there. I don't remember when the old gentle- 
 man, Charlie's father, came. He was very sick on the 
 18th, and I nursed him. I took care of him until the 20th, 
 except one night, when Mr. Richard Stiles, that gentleman 
 over there (pointing to Mr. R. Stiles, who sat next to Mrs. 
 S.,) came and sat up with him. Mrs. Stiles then came, and 
 that night she took me into a room and talked to me. She
 
 S1URLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 161 
 
 spoke to me kiudly and said I was doing wrong to live 
 with her son. At five minutes past two that morning he 
 died. He died on a chair, and I helped Charlie put him in 
 the bed." 
 
 " How did you live with him then ? " interjected Mr. 
 Trude. 
 
 "Oh, he was awful good as kind as a man could be. 
 The old gentleman said once, in the presence of Charlie, 
 that he was glad to soe us together. 
 
 " After they took Mr. Stiles' body to the morgue, Charlie 
 said he had no money, and he did not know how much his 
 mother had. I had $255 I had saved from what I made 
 at Miss Carrie's, and gave him $200 to pay for his father's 
 funeral. I afterward heard he had not done it. [This was 
 ruled out.] When Mr. Elton, the undertaker, came I tore 
 up a white shirt of Charlie's, which was too small for him, 
 and which I had been wearing, and gave it to Mr. Elton to 
 tie up the old gentleman's limbs. On the following Mon- 
 day, Mr. Richard Stiles came and gave me Charlie's father's 
 picture. On Thursday, Charlie's aunt came and said I 
 would have to give up the flat. I saw it was no use to live 
 right. (Here she broke down and sobbed hysterically. 
 Between her sobs she continued:) The night Charlie's 
 father died I said I would be a good woman, but he sent 
 his folks to take my furniture and send me back to the life 
 I led before." 
 
 (The scene in the court room at this time was a sad one. 
 The witness' breast was heaving and she almost howled 
 with anguish, while scarcely a dry eye remained among the 
 spectators.) 
 
 " When I told them I would not give it up they said 
 
 they would go to the landlord and tell him that I was not 
 
 Charlie's wife, and he would take the lease from me. I was 
 
 advised not to give up the furniture, and I didn't. I stored 
 
 11
 
 162 BTtmLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 it on West Monroe street on Friday. A week after that 
 Charlie came back from Dixon. 
 
 After his father's funeral he came with Gene to Watson's 
 and told me to hold on to the furniture. I was afraid of him 
 and showed him my revolver. He said he was sorry for 
 his treatment of me, and asked me to go to Downing's with 
 him. 
 
 Then we went to Rochelle; on the way he explained that 
 he had lost his situation on the Board of Trade and wanted 
 me to use my influence with Dick, the door-keeper, to get 
 him back; this I subsequently did, and he got back. He 
 asked me afterwards to help him in the letter read a little 
 while ago, (the letter referring to Dick, the door-keeper.) 
 After this I sold the furniture taken from house 371 Wabash 
 for $350. 
 
 " The next thing unusual that happened was when we took 
 another trip, this time in Iowa, and, as we were crossing 
 the Mississippi river, he asked me for some of the money I 
 got from the sale of the furniture. I told him I would not 
 give it to him. It was night time and we stood on the rail- 
 ing of the boat, and he said that he had a good notion to 
 throw me into the river. I said that would be murder and 
 he would be hung. He said it was not murder to kill a 
 prostitute; that there was no law for them, and that it was 
 no crime to kill one. I took out my pistol and told him to 
 keep away, which he did. On our way home we made up 
 and I went back to Watson's. He began coming to the 
 house drunk. 
 
 " Next March, in 1882, he took sick and asked me to come 
 to see him. I took fifty dollars with me to buy a cloak, 
 and went to his room. The doctor came in, and I went 
 out. I went in again and found him dressing. I asked 
 him if he wasn't sick; he laughed and said he was, but he 
 was going out. The pocket-book was open and the money
 
 STtJKLA-STlLES TRAGEDY. 163 
 
 gone. I told him I wanted , it to buy a cloak, and lie 
 laughed, saying, I was in a place where I could make plenty 
 of money. I told him I would send him some money, when 
 he answered that he needed it, and knocked me down. I 
 fell in a closet and he told me to lie there. I told him I 
 wouldn't leave the room until he gave me the money. He 
 went away and the chambermaids came in to arrange the 
 room. I hid in the closet. He came back after a while 
 and said, ' You are there yet are you ? ' and went out. I 
 didn't know how to get even, so I took the sawdust out of 
 a pin-cushion there was in the room and placed it between 
 the sheets. I also sprinkled ink over his clothes. Charlie 
 next came in about two weeks after that with a friend. He 
 was in a dress suit. Miss Carrie ordered him out, but he 
 came up stairs with one of the ladies and told me to give 
 her some money to go out with his friend. I gave her 
 fifteen dollars, and we went to Madame Gee's. Next 
 morning Charlie's friend left early and we went to Bach- 
 elder's for breakfast. I had to pay for the breakfast, and 
 he told me he wanted money to get his watch out of pawn. 
 I declined, and then he struck me. When Charlie let 
 drinking and gambling alone he was very good when he 
 had no one to tempt him. After that we went out for a 
 drive, and he made me take an oath to go back with him. 
 He wanted me to go to the Palmer to see a young man. 
 Cyrus Harrington, who was sick. I did go, and then he 
 made me promise to live with him again." 
 
 (The witness in answer to questions described the swell- 
 ing of her side during her periodical illness, and spoke cf 
 her fauting spells. Her troubles were very much increased 
 after receiving the first kick he gave her. She related how 
 they went to Valparaiso and to St. Louis, where they stop- 
 ped at the Southern Hotel, and told of her musical per- 
 formances in Watson's house for the entertainment of wine
 
 1C4 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 parties, where she had lived. She lived there from Sep- 
 tember, 1881, to April, 1882.) 
 
 "He frequently invited his male friends to supper at 
 Kingsley's, and I would have it to pay for. In the latter 
 part of April, we went to live at Mrs. Harvey's as husband 
 and wife. We often went to Kingsley's and had dinner or 
 supper with some of Charlie's friends at my expense. 
 When I left Watson's I had $2.700. He got it all but $50, 
 or $60. All I ever got myself while living with Charlie the 
 last time, was a little blue dress and a little bonnet. The 
 whole thing did not cost over $35. On Friday Charlie 
 wrote me a letter, saying he was going on a little trip. He 
 did not come home and I told Mrs. Harvey I did not think 
 my husband would come back, and that I would leave. I 
 left then and went to Miss Carrie's. I still had $700. 
 Charlie returned next da^ and came to Miss Carrie's with 
 another woman. They had both been drinking. The 
 woman came out and told me, Mr. Stiles wanted to see me, 
 and I had better go to him. I went out and Charlie struck 
 me and pushed me into the carriage. We drove to 
 Harvey's, the woman leaving us before we got there. We 
 went in and he began to abuse me. I begged him to let 
 me alone, and told him I would go away; that I would go 
 home, back to Baltimore, that he only wanted to abuse me 
 and then write me letters. Next day, the 6th of July, I 
 went to Miss Carrie's to get my clothes. She advised me 
 not to go back to Charlie, and I told her I had to. I 
 showed her my money $700, when she said I wouldn't have 
 it long if I went with him. She then told me I could 
 never come back to her house. [All this was ruled out as 
 incompetent.] Excepted to by Mr. Trude. 
 
 " On another occasion he made me stand in a door-way 
 after I had given him some money, until he went in an 
 alley by the board of trade and played the races. On
 
 8TUHLA-ST1LE3 TKAUEUY. 105 
 
 Friday we went to Kingsley's where be asked rue for money 
 to pay for the meal. I handed him ray money and he kept 
 it all but $GO, or $70, which he threw back to me. Oil 
 Sunday he asked for breakfast money, and I asked him 
 what he had done with all he had got from- me. Ho 
 showed me a lot of pool tickets and said he had bet it on 
 the races. I asked him how we were to get along; he said 
 we would get along some way. He got a little money and 
 went out promising to be back at 11 o'clock. Mrs. Harvey 
 brought me a note, I read it and called her back. It \vus ;i 
 note bidding me good-by to go where I came from. I 
 left the note on the table in the room. I don't know 
 where it is, or what has become of it. I couldn't get the 
 messenger who had brought it the boy was gone. Then 
 I got the colored girl to go with me to the board of trade. 
 We went there and it was closed. I didn't think about its 
 being Sunday. I wanted to see him and ask him if he 
 meant what he said in the note. I sent the colored girl 
 with a card to the Owl club. There I met him as he got 
 off a car. He asked me what I was doing there, and I 
 told him, I wanted to see him. We went to the park on 
 the North side and sat on the grass and talked. Then we 
 came south, and, getting on the cable-car, took a ride. 
 We got out and went in a saloon, where he ordered two 
 beers. Then we came back and he asked me to take a 
 drive. We went to a stable on Wabash avenue and drove 
 out to Sunnyside. He asked me for some money. I told 
 him I had none, I had given it all to him. Ho told me that 
 he had heard that I had plenty of money, and wanted 
 $1,500. I said I couldn't give it to him. Then he wanted 
 $1,000. I said he couldn't get any. We got to Sunnyside 
 and he ordered the supper. While waiting for supper we 
 sat on the porch and he ordered two beers. I just sipped 
 mine and then threw it aside. I had my pocket book in
 
 166 STUBLA-STTLE8 TRAGHDT. 
 
 his hat which I held in my lap. He kept ordering beer 
 and said, ' Effie, why don't you drink ? I want to see you 
 get drunk. I never saw you drunk and I want to see how 
 you'll act.' I went to the piano and sung and played a 
 little until* we went to supper. At supper he said: ' Can't 
 you go to Carrie's and get $500 for me ? She will lend it 
 to you and you can go back and make it.' He kept ^saying 
 I must get $500 for him, and told me to write to some 
 men and borrow it. Then he struck me, and told me to 
 pay for the supper while he went and ordered the horses. 
 "When I went out on the porch I found he was .gone." 
 
 (She screamed the last words and burying her face in her 
 hands sobbed the rest, getting wilder and wilder at every 
 word.) " The bar-keeper was drunk and insulted me. He 
 wanted me to go some where with him. Then I got a boy 
 to go with me and we started to walk. It lightened and 
 thundered and rained! I fell over a log or some- 
 thing, and it lightened and thundered and rained. We 
 passed a grave-yard and I saw everything. The flashes 
 were bright when it lightened, and I saw my old Jem 
 More and and everybody ! That is all I remember. 
 
 "The next thing I remember, I saw him chasing me 
 around the room ; the next the next O God ! the next 
 that I had killed him ! " (Her face had been in her hands, 
 her breast heaving and violent sobs breaking between 
 every word. The dead face of Charles Stiles had risen 
 before her, as she saw it that fatal morning at the Palmar 
 house, when she bent over and kissed the pallid lips of 
 death. The storm of that night, the ghostly scenes in the 
 grave-yard, the phantom creations of a superstitious mind, 
 the resurrected forms of her deceased friends, her mother's 
 face as she last saw it, all were rising before her and pass- 
 ing in review in that short whirl of the brain as she cried, 
 " I killed him ! " She rose spasmodically from her seat,
 
 STURIA-STILES TUAQEDY. 167 
 
 clutched the air and fell to the floor, her arms striking the 
 table where were seated the official phonographer and the 
 Times representative. Scream after scream came from her 
 throat, and four bailiffs rushed to her. These four strong 
 men were powerless to control that girlish form as she 
 struggled and tore at her breast. "Take her out! Tuke 
 her out ! " called out the Court and others, but there was 
 more difficulty than was imagined. She gnashed her teeth 
 and bit at her captors, until partially exhausted from her 
 frenzied efforts and screams, they succeeded in bearing her 
 out of the court-room into an adjoining appartmeut.) 
 
 During the last words of her testimony, when her heart 
 seemed breaking and the spectators were all shading their 
 eyes, Mr. Trude, the attorney for the defense, rose from his 
 seat, and withdrawing from where the jury could see bis 
 face, he stood dazed, the tears rolling down his cheeks and 
 his lips quivering with sympathetic emotion. He was not 
 the only one. There was many a strong man doing the 
 same. Her senseless form was borne out of the room, the 
 bearers passing immediately in front of the murdered 
 lovers' mother, whose eyes never lost their glitter and on 
 whose lips not a quiver was perceptible. It was nothing to 
 her what that woman suffered, if indeed she suffered at all, 
 but was merely acting. Mr. Mills and Mr. Richard Stilus 
 smiled the only two men who did, because they believed 
 she was shamming. In the ante-room she was placed upon 
 a table, perfectly rigid, her breast heaving, her eyes closed, 
 and her lips trembling like an aspen leaf, while every tinge 
 of color was gone, leaving her face of a deathly pallor. The 
 physicians examined her and waited for nature to restore 
 itself. Dr. A. Reeves Jackson was among the first to enter 
 the room, when he felt her pulse and examined into her 
 condition; and though called by the prosecution as a wit- 
 ness against the woman, unhesitatingly stated that she was
 
 168 8TUKLA-ST1LES TEAGEDY. 
 
 suffering from a very pronounced attack of hysteria, and re- 
 pelled with indignation insinuations made by a member of 
 the Owl Club that she was feigning. Dr. Jackson's opinion 
 was formed after a careful examination of her eyes (the lids 
 of which he pulled back } and her hands and pulse. 
 
 Dr. Jackson was closely followed by the leading physi- 
 cians of the defense, Drs. Brown and Lyman, gentlemen 
 standing very high in their profession, and relied upon by 
 the prosecution in important cases for effective service; 
 These gentlemen examined the woman,' and said it was im- 
 possible for her to be acting. " She might scream," said 
 one, "but she could not stop her pulse." The pulse had 
 completely ceased its throbbing, and her form was quite 
 cold. Judge Gardner exhibited plainly that he was affect- 
 ed, and the jury, stern as they tried to look, were also glad 
 that court immediately adjourned and that they could es- 
 cape the scrutiny of the public.
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 THIRTEENTH DAY DECEMBER 5th, 1882. 
 
 Judge Gardner examined Drs. Lyman and Brown as to 
 the condition of the prisoner, and on their representation as 
 to her inability to appear, the case was adjourned until the 
 next day. 
 
 FOURTEENTH DAY DECEMBER 6lH. 
 
 The defendant was called to the stand and is by Mr. Mills 
 cross-examined. 
 
 Q. Did you ever keep a house of ill-fame ? 
 
 A. At Charlie's request I kept No. 10 Clark street, 
 which was an assignation house. 
 
 I can not tell how much money I made; I never had 
 $7,000 of Charlie's money, and he never gave me over $100 
 in his life; I never told R. D. Stiles that I had that much 
 of his money; I did not jump on a train as it was starting 
 for Dixon and say that I was going there to show myself up 
 to ' papa' and 'mamma' Stiles and that I was just as good 
 as any of them; I did not see Charlie take out his watch 
 and offer it to me; I can not tell how often I handled a re- 
 volver; I have often pointed one at him to frighten him; I 
 did not tell Mr. Robinson that I had Charlie's money or got 
 any money from him : I did not tell any member of the 
 Stiles family that I had any of Charlie's money or was his 
 banker. 
 
 lie-direct, by Mr. Trude: 
 
 How many of the Stiles family did you see in Watson's 
 house at one time ?
 
 170 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 A* I saw 
 
 By Mr. Mills: I object. 
 
 The Court You can not show the acts of the entire 
 Stiles family. 
 
 By Mr. Trude No, your Honor, least it make even us 
 lawyers blush with shame at the recital. 
 
 Dr. Reeves Jackson sworn, examined by Mr. Trude: 
 
 A. Yes, I am here as a medical expert on behalf of the 
 State, and I saw the defendant when she fell from the 
 stand. 
 
 Q. Did you examine her at my request ? 
 
 A. I went with the other physicians and examined hsr. 
 
 Q. Did you feel of her pulse and examine her or test her 
 eyes and limbs, with the view of learning whether she was 
 feigning or not ? 
 
 A. I did as best I could; you were in there about the 
 first person, Dr. Lyman next, and I followed and Dr. Brown 
 came after. I should say she was not feigning, but was at- 
 tacked by hysterics acute in their nature. 
 
 Cross-examination waived. 
 
 Edward Robey sworn, examined by Mr. Trude: 
 
 Am a lawyer by profession; two years ago I lived in 
 Lake Tiew ; at about that time a woman whom I take to be 
 the defendant came to my house; her clothes were dis- 
 ordered and covered with burs; I sent two servant girls 
 with her to the cars; Hived beyond the grave-yard. 
 
 Cross examination waived. 
 
 Mrs. W. P. Black sworn, examined by Mr. Trude: 
 
 I am the wife of Capt. W. P. Black, Congressional can- 
 didate in the Third district; have often visited defendant 
 in jail; there were no receptions there, no hilarity, no levees, 
 but quiet and decorum prevailed.
 
 STUULA-STILES TRAGEDY. 171 
 
 FIFTEENTH DAY DECEMBER 7th, 1882. 
 
 Dr. Daniel E. Brower sworn, examined by A. S. Trade: 
 
 Ain physician ; am connected with St. Joseph Hospital, 
 of this city, and was formerly superintendent of insane asy- 
 lums; yes, I have been called upon as a witness in several 
 cases of note as an expert both by the State and defense. 
 
 The hypothetical question referred to w^ then put to the 
 witness, who, in answer, said that she was undoubtedly in- 
 sane at the time of the shooting. 
 
 By Mr. Trude Can you draw the line between histeria 
 and insanity ? 
 
 A. I can not and no living man can and no one dead 
 ever attempted it. 
 
 Q. Will not constant brutality alone, constantly inflicted 
 upon a female of an ardent nature, produce a condition of 
 insanity ? 
 
 A. It will 
 
 Q. Will not brutality, inflicted for say five years, be as 
 likely to drive a woman insane as any other predisposing 
 cause of insanity ? 
 
 A. 'Yes, sir. 
 
 Q. Have you any cases which you have treated that you 
 can give to the jury with regard to menstrual difficulty ? 
 
 A. Yes. A young lady patient has to be constantly 
 watched upon every occasion of her periods, for fear that 
 *he will commit homicide. The relations that the sexual 
 orpins bear to the home of thought the brain is very 
 close and intimate, and when it is shown that this young 
 woman had this disease, dysmenorrhoa, and was menstru- 
 ating on the night of July 9th, when in an excitable frame 
 of niind she walked three miles in a violent rain-storm, tak- 
 ing cold, this preceded by the acts of brutality referred to 
 by you, she would be a wonder if she preserved her equi- 
 librium.
 
 172 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 Q. Is not disappoinment in love a frequent cause of 
 mental disturbance ? 
 
 A. It is particularly so in women; several good cases 
 are cited in Blandford, p. 230. 
 
 Cross-examined by Mr. Mills, who asked the witness his 
 hypothetical question. 
 
 A. That can not be answered by either yes or no, for in 
 it are some things that would indicate sanity and other 
 things that would indicate insanity. 
 
 Q. Is there any thing insane in buying a pistol, trying 
 it to see if it would be sure, to go off ? 
 
 A. There might or might not be. 
 
 Q. Is there any thing insane in getting up early in the 
 morning before there is any possibility of the victim escap- 
 ing her, going to his room and feigning a boy's voice in 
 order to get at him ? 
 
 A. There might or might not be. The insane fre- 
 quently resort to a depth of cunning scarcely possible to 
 attain by a reasoning mind. 
 
 Q. Then having seen him, she deliberately fires two 
 shots at him, one of which kills him; she exults in her 
 crime and says she is glad of it, etc. Is there any thing 
 insane in this ? 
 
 A. You are asking me, Mr. Mills, if a nail and a shingle 
 make a house. You put all the ingredients together, and I 
 can answer you, but to ask me whether shooting a pistol or 
 buying one is an insane act, I must say it may or may not 
 be. Give me the previous history of the person who bought 
 the pistol and let me know what, if any, influences have 
 been at work calculated to make a human being insane, 
 then I can answer you. An insane person can exult, as in 
 the Oxford case. An insane person can resort to cunning, 
 fire a pistol, etc., as in the Hadfield case; all this can be 
 done by a sane person. Your question is hardly a proper
 
 STDRLA- STILES TRAGEDY. 173 
 
 one, in my opinion, either from a medical or a legal stand- 
 point. 
 
 Q. I want you to answer my question without comment, 
 sir. 
 
 Mr. Trude I desire to protect the Doctor from insult 
 when he testifies for the State. Mr. Mills eulogizes him so 
 high that he is lost in the clouds. 
 
 The Court Let the question be answered. 
 
 Mr. Mills, loudly The Court has decided that the ques- 
 tion shall be answered. 
 
 Mr. Trude, determinedly But I propose to present our 
 exception; it is my legal right and no one in this court can 
 stop me. 
 
 The Court directed both attorneys to be quiet. 
 
 The exception was entered, and the witness answered: 
 The question can not be answered by a yes or no. 
 
 Dr. Henry Lyman, sworn, examined by Mr. Trude : 
 
 I have practiced here for twenty-two years. Am pro- 
 fessor of several colleges; am familiar with diseases of the 
 mind. Disorders of the sexual organs are frequent causes 
 of insanity in women. I never saw, and in the literature 
 of my profession, I never read of so severe a case of hys- 
 terics as that shown in this case. (Hypothetical questions 
 of Mr. Trade and of Mr. Mills were here put to the wit- 
 ness.) Blending the hypothetical question of Mr. Mills and 
 \curself just asked me, I should say she was insane at the 
 time of the firing of the shot on the morning of July 10. I 
 do not regard the proper basis for testing responsibility, by 
 a knowledge of right or wrong. Sir Alex. Cockburn, Lord 
 Chief Justice of England, had recently pointed out, recog- 
 nizing as he did that the proper basis for testing responsi- 
 bility was not by an ability to discriminate between right 
 and wrong, but the power of controlling the ivill the neces- 
 sity of revising the criminal laws.
 
 174 SdmtLA-STlLES TRAGEDY. 
 
 A person may know the difference between right and 
 wrong and be unable to choose the right; there are a num- 
 ber of such cases found in the books. (To avoid tautology 
 do not cite the cases here; nothing will be found in Mr. 
 Trude's argument.) The irresistable impulse takes posses- 
 sion of the person so that he or she is but as a straw in a 
 gale of wind, devoid of power of controlling himself or her- 
 self. Have often been witness for the State in lunatic 
 cases; was witness in Peter Stevens case. 
 
 Cross-examined by Mr. Mills: 
 
 Q. Do you regard her insane now ? 
 
 A. That question can hardly be answered. She is the 
 victim of paroxymal insanity. 
 
 Q. Do you think that if it were true the defendant lied 
 while on the stand in such a case, she would be responsible 
 for perjury ? 
 
 Mr. Trude, rising quickly I object, as the remark was 
 intended as a characterization of the defendant's evidence 
 in the hearing of the jury, and is bullying and unfair in its 
 nature- 
 
 Mr. Mills I submit that the question is not improper, 
 and as to a characterization of the evidence of the witness 
 wait till by and by. 
 
 By the Court Let it go in. 
 
 Mr. Trude Exception. 
 
 A. If she is insane now she ought not to be held respon- 
 sible. I may say, Mr. Mills, that the insane impulse that 
 prompts the firing of a pistol shot is unlike the rambling 
 of an insane witness; I do not regard her story on the 
 stand as insane utterances, but a vivid narrative of what 
 occurred as she remembered it. 
 
 Ke-direct by Mr. Trude: 
 
 I saw the defendant when she fell from the witness box, 
 and examined her in the room to which she was taken;
 
 BTURLA-8TILES TRAGEDY. 17o 
 
 her limbs were rigid; there was no sensation in her eyes; 
 I put my finger on the pupil of her eye and there was no 
 response. My opinion is that she had an attack of hyste- 
 reo-epilepsy. 
 
 SIXTEENTH DAY DECEMBER 8th, 1882. 
 
 In rebuttal. 
 
 Mrs. Sybil Catherine Stiles, sworn, examined by Mr. 
 Mills: 
 
 Am the mother of Charles Stiles, d( ceased; my son was 
 thirty-three years old; my son was educated in Europe; 
 studied in Geneva and Dresden. Up to time of his death 
 was caller of the Chicago call board. His salary was 
 $6,000 per year. The first time I saw the defendant was 
 August 25th, A. D. 1881; that was the day before my hus- 
 band died. I went to the house where, my son and hus- 
 band were staying, No. 371 Wabash avenue, rang the door- 
 bell; when this woman appeared, I asked if my husband 
 was in; I determined to keep this woman at a distance; 
 she pointed to a door; I went in, saw my husband. At 
 dinner I saw her; she was elaborately dressed; she was 
 quiet and pretended to be modest; was always cool and 
 self-possessed. 
 
 Cross-examined: 
 
 I can not say whether the letters shown me were written 
 by my son ; I can't tell whether they are in his handwriting 
 or not. 
 
 Richard D. Stiles sworn, examined by Mr. Mills: 
 
 I was never at the house referred to till Charlie's father 
 was taken there; never heard of the defendant till then. 
 After that I saw her several times; .noticed nothing pecu- 
 liar in her conduct. The day before Charlie's father was, 
 buried I called at the house. She said she had at one 
 time $7,000 of his (Charlie's) money and used to act as his 
 banker. Mrs. Harvey told me that the marks on defend-
 
 176 STUKLA-ST1LES TRAGEDY. 
 
 ant's neck were there when she came home from Sunny- 
 side Sunday night. 
 
 Cross-examination : 
 
 Never knew that nearly all the male members of the 
 Stiles family lived off from this woman. Yes, I am a scalper 
 on the Board of Trade. Have taken quite an interest in 
 this case. Cannot tell my own nephew's handwriting. 
 
 Mrs. Mary M. Robinson sworn, examined by Mr. Mills: 
 
 Am the aunt of Charles Stiles and reside in Council 
 Bluffs, Iowa. I was present when General E. B. Stiles 
 died in August, 1881. I met the prisoner at 371 Wabash 
 avenue and told her that Charlie told me to take possession 
 of the furniture and the house, and the best thing for her 
 to do was to quietly leave him and lead a more reputable 
 life; that she was pulling Charles down. She said in reply 
 'If Charlie undertakes to leave me I will kill him and his 
 d d marble-hearted Methodist mother besides.' As she 
 said this she looked as if she meant it. Her eyes looked 
 fierce and her dark face flushed. I told her that she would 
 be supplied with money. She said that she already had 
 between $6,000 and $7,000 of Charlie's money then, and 
 that if he left her he would never get a cent. Charlie had 
 some clothing laying around the room. I wanted to pick 
 them up and pack them away, when she drew a revolver 
 and told me in a ringing voice to let them alone or she 
 would put a hole through me. Of course, I let the clothes 
 alone after that. "When we subsequently set down to lunch, 
 she put the revolver on a table. She paid for the lunch out 
 of a roll of money that she took from her person. She was a 
 dead weight on the neck of my nephew and was ruining him. 
 
 (On motion last part of answer of witness stricken out.) 
 ' Cross- examintion: 
 
 I have known my nephew since childhood and have seen 
 him write and have corresponded with him.
 
 STtJRlA- STILES TRACED?. 17? 
 
 (Here witness is shown letters introduced and read in 
 evidence, and is asked by counsel if they are not in the 
 handwriting of Charles Stiles.) 
 
 A. I don't know. 
 
 Q. Was not your nephew on a tour when he met the 
 defendant at Madame Fay's house in Baltimore, in 1877, 
 that involved gambling, betting on horse racing, mingling 
 with fast women, and wine drinking? 
 
 A. I suppose so. 
 
 Q. Was not your nephew a debauchee, libertine, drunkard 
 and gambler before he ever saw the defendant in order 
 that your answer may be the result of conscientious reflec- 
 tion, look at his letters, which you must know to be his? 
 
 A. He may have been ; I have heard that he as. 
 
 Otto Ernst sworn, examined by Mr. Mills: 
 
 Am a saloon-keeper at Lake View. On Sunday evening, 
 July 9th, the defendant and a boy came into my place out 
 of the rain. She wanted to know how soon she could take 
 a car to go to the Palmer House; she said that she had 
 been abandoned by the gentleman who was with her on 
 their way out. I saw them on their way out, for they 
 called at my place to water their horse. She appeared 
 calm; no signs of excitement. 
 
 Benjamin Price sworn, examined by Mr. Mills: 
 
 Am at work in the jail; saw the defendant often since 
 she has been there; her conduct in the jail is that of a per- 
 son in full possession of her faculties; receives company, 
 laughs and sings. I have seen no signs of insanity; she 
 has been able to consult with her attorney ; up to the time 
 the case was called for trial he was seldom at the jail, but 
 since then has been there often. The day before she testi- 
 fied he spent two hours in her company. 
 
 Cross-examination: 
 
 Among the duties I am called upon to perform are not 
 11
 
 178 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 those of spy on females or attorneys, but I watched in this 
 case; can't tell why I spend so much time in the female 
 department. 
 
 Dr. James S. Jewell sworn, examined by Mr. Mills: 
 
 Dr. James S. Jewell testified as to his connection with 
 the Chicago University, and twelve years' study of the 
 diseases of the nervous system and mind. 
 
 Q. Did you hear read the hypothetical questions sub- 
 mitted by the defense and the State? 
 
 A. I did. 
 
 Q. Was she insane or sane on July 10th, 1882 ? 
 
 A. I think she was legally sane in the eyes of the law. 
 
 Q. On what do you base this opinion? 
 
 A. Simply by the symptoms and signs manifested. 
 Dysmenorrhea is a common trouble among women, and is 
 frequent; dysmenorrhea, in proportion to insanity, is very 
 small; just how much I cannot say. 
 
 Cross-examination : 
 
 Q. Doctor, did you ever read Bay ? 
 
 A. Yes. 
 
 Q. You could not have read it carefully or you would 
 have seen the Harris and Brazcer cases, would you not? 
 
 A. I guess not, carefully. 
 
 Q. Ain't it true that both these women are judged in- 
 sane from this disease, and that the medical profession at 
 large admit of the correctness of the decision ? 
 
 No answer. 
 
 Mr. Trude: I ask your Honor to rule on the witness to 
 answer. 
 
 A. I can't say. 
 
 Q. Do you recognize such a thing as partial insanity? 
 
 A. I do not. 
 
 Q. Doctor, you see these books open before me, written 
 by Bay, Ordronaux, Nichols, and Blanford, in which they
 
 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 179 
 
 say that there is such a thing as partial insanity you 
 differ from them, do you not ? 
 
 A. Most decidedly. 
 
 Q. You also differ, do you not, with Hammond, and 
 Gross, and again with Ray's Medical Jurisprudence, page 
 1G4, on this subject? 
 
 A. I do. 
 
 (By Trude:) I am sorry for them, for they have been 
 deceiving the medical profession for more than forty years- 
 (Laughter.) 
 
 Q. Doctor, you say there is such a thing as legal in- 
 sanity ? 
 
 A. I do. 
 
 Q. Name to this jury a single writer on nervous diseases, 
 mental derangements, psychology, or insanity, that recog- 
 nizes legal insanity, or a single book wherein the phrase can 
 be found ? 
 
 A. (After a long wait.) I cannot. 
 
 Q. Doctor. I hold in my hand, the 31st of Illinois Ke- 
 ports, and read from page 390, what is known as Hopp's 
 case, and read the language of a distinguished jurist, Chief 
 Justice Breese: "It is now generally conceded 'that in- 
 sanity is a disease of the brain, of that mass of matter, 
 through and by which that mysterious power, the mind 
 acts. There the mind is supposed to be entranced, acting 
 through separate and distinct organs. These organs may 
 become diseased, one or more, or all, and in the degree or 
 to the extent of such disease is insanity measured. A 
 disease of all the organs causes total insanity, while of one 
 or more, partial insanity only." You see, Doctor, do you 
 not, a legal definition of insanity by a legal gentleman of 
 renown, and he in common with the distinguished men in 
 your profession, is in error? 
 
 A. It seems so.
 
 180 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 Q. You undertake to overrule tlie Supreme Court of 
 our State, do you not, Do.ctor, and put your feet upon all 
 the literature of your profession, on the question of partial 
 insanity ? (Laughter). Objection from Mr. Mills. Ques- 
 tion withdrawn. 
 
 Q. Is not "legal insanity," a phrase of your own, 
 learned by you in the States Attorney's office ? 
 
 A. I used it before. 
 
 Q. Have you ever been connected with an insane 
 asylum, in an official capacity ? 
 
 A. No sir, but I have treated nervous diseases of 
 women for thirty years. 
 
 Q. Can you draw a line between legal and medical 
 insanity ? 
 
 A. I can not. 
 
 SEVENTEENTH DAY DECEMBER 9TH, 1882. 
 
 Dr. A. Keves Jackson sworn, examined by Mr. Mills. 
 
 Am a practicing physician of some sixteen year's stand- 
 ing, and sustain official relations with several asylums for 
 the insane; am familiar with diseases of the reproductive 
 organs and' with the disease dysmenorrhea; have heard the 
 hypothetical question of the State read, and assuming it to 
 be true, would say that the prisoner was sane at the time 
 of the firing of the shot in question that killed Stiles. 
 
 Cross-examined by Mr. Trude. 
 
 Q. Taking both questions together, Doctor, what would 
 you say as to her condition with regard to sanity or in- 
 sanity on July 10. 
 
 A. Medically insane. 
 
 Q. Taking the prisoner's question above, Doctor, what 
 would you say as to her mental condition at the time stated? 
 
 A. I should say the question contained many elements 
 of insanity; taken as a whole I can not with safety say.
 
 S1UUIA-STILES TRAGEDY. 181 
 
 Re-clirect by Mr. Mills. 
 
 Q. Eliminating from the defense's question, melancholy, 
 delusion, incoherence and want of memory, what would 
 you say ? 
 
 A. I should say she was sane. Seeing i'aces at a grave 
 yard is not an insane delusion. Want of memory and in- 
 coherence does not prove insanity. 
 
 Dr. Bluthardt sworn, examined by Mr. Mills. 
 
 Am County physician, and as such am now and have for 
 several years been brought in contact with insane persons, 
 and have treated them for years; heard the hypothetical 
 question of the State; should say she was sane when the 
 shot was fired; have frequently seen the prisoner in jail; 
 never saw evidence of insanity in her. 
 
 Dr.. Walter Hay sworn, examined by Mr. Mills. 
 
 Am professor in Chicago Medical College; I have 
 made a special study of nervous and mental diseases; have 
 heard read the hpy^thetical question of the State, and in 
 reply say that in my opinion she was sane on July 10 last, 
 when she killed Charles Stiles. 
 
 Cross-examined by Mr. Trude. 
 
 Q. Taking both questions together, Doctor, what would 
 you say as to ner condition at the time of the alleged 
 killing? 
 
 A. They are so inconsistent that it is not possible to 
 take them together. I do not believe in partial insanity, 
 and disagree with the Supreme Court. That is a question 
 of law with which we doctors have nothing to do. "NVt; 
 doctors often disagree with each other, and it would not be 
 strange if we disagreed with you lawyers or Supreme 
 Court judges. I do not believe in intcrmittant insanity or 
 moral insanity. Unlike my medical brothers called by the 
 State, I am unable to make 'any distinction between legal 
 and medical insanity.
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 THE CLOSING SPEECHES. 
 
 [The closing speeches as here given, are verbatim copies 
 of them as furnished me by the States Attorney and the 
 attorney for the defense. That of Mr. Mills was taken 
 from the Chicago Tribune, of Dec. 14th. In it all analysis 
 and repetitions of evidence is by him omitted. Hence the 
 seeming inharmouy between the speeches of the two dis- 
 tinguished attorneys, as to length and oratory, is not to be 
 attributed to the author, who had compiled the report of 
 the trial as herein presented.] 
 
 " The Criminal Court-room was more, crowded than ever 
 this morning, it being generally known that the arguments 
 of the counsel would occupy the time. The audience, both 
 in number and make-up, was such as is seldom seen at any 
 trial, criminal or otherwise. 
 
 "Judges, ministers, states attorneys, doctors, merchants, 
 lawyers, and ladies filled the court-room to overflowing from 
 morning till the adjournment of the court. Among these 
 phenomenal attendants at court may be specially named 
 Judge Dickey and Mrs. Dickey, Judge Kellum, the Rev. Mr. 
 Lloyd, of Lake View; the Rev. Dr. Morrison, States Attor- 
 ney Works, of Rockford; States Attorney Wright, of Doug- 
 las county; States Attorney Sommers, of DeKalb; States 
 Attorney Sellers, and States Attorney Whitlemore, and sev- 
 eral of the states attorneys from various parts of the State. 
 Many well-known ladies, prominent in social circles, were 
 present. One old gentleman present, in order to hear the
 
 8TURLA-8TILES TRAGEDY. 183 
 
 States Attorney make his closing address, had come 900 
 miles, while so ,-eral lawyers from Wisconsin were also pres- 
 ent, and though justly enamored of their own great legal 
 orator, Vilas, pronounced the address of States Attorney 
 Mills as a grander effort even than their own Vilas had ever 
 made. 
 
 " The defendant, Theressa Sturla, was even more than 
 usually well arrayed. Beside her during a considerable 
 part of the day sat Mrs. Captain Black who, for nearly an 
 hour and a half, had her arm affectionately encircling the 
 neck of the defendant. 
 
 " For a little over three weeks the young woman has sat 
 in the court-room, gazing upon the gaping wounds of mind 
 and body opened afresh, looking back upon all the years of 
 her life. Day after day the ghostly procession of thoughts 
 and deeds and the memories of the past wound its way 
 through the court-room, a funeral cortege to a slain lover. 
 
 " The doors of the galleries were thrown open, and in five 
 minutes every seat was filled. Crowding against the railing 
 of the bar was a sea of faces, on every one of which was out- 
 lined a deep interest. Distinguished men in every profes- 
 sion, judges and lawyers from beyond the city, clustered 
 about, taking in the words of eloquence and gazing upon 
 the shaded face of the prisoner. With his honor Judge 
 Gardner on the bench were seated the Hon. T. Lyle Dickey 
 of the Supreme Court, Mrs. Dickey, Judge Calluni of the 
 interior of the State, and other prominent gentlemen. At 
 one side were standing Messrs. A. H. Fethers and E. Hyzer, 
 of Wisconsin, and a few members of the bar from Indiana.' 
 Tribune. 
 
 Immediately on the court being called to order the prose- 
 cuting attorney commenced his opening address, as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 " In beginning my address to the jury I am thankful to
 
 184 STUBLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 be able to tell you that after three weeks' toil you see the 
 approaching close of this great investigation. The toil has 
 been unwearying. Your minds during all these days have 
 been strained with the one endeavor to accomplish one 
 great object, and that is the ascertaining and determining 
 the truth and right. I pray Heaven to grant that when you 
 return to your firesides and meet the hospitality and friend- 
 ship in your homes and among men, you can look all men 
 and women in the face and have the consciousness that you 
 have done your utmost duty toward your country and your 
 God. I thank you sincerely on behalf of the clientage I 
 represent, for the attention and consideration you have be- 
 stowed on the case in regard to both the prosecution and 
 the defense. la what I have to say I will be brief. There 
 is little to be added to what was said in my opening re- 
 marks. I then said that there would be certain proofs laid 
 before you on which you can decide as to the homicide. 
 The counsel for the defendant denied the probability of the 
 fulfillment of that promise. Every promise made at the 
 opening of the case has been absolutely and literally kept. 
 I then said that the defendant went to the Palmer House 
 for the sole purpose of shooting Charles Stiles, and the evi- 
 dence showed that she proclaimed her intention to take his 
 life; and when she did take it she said, 'I told him I would 
 do it, I came here to do it. I am glad I have done it. 
 Let the law take its course if I swing for it.' I would call 
 your attention to certain well settled principles of law gov- 
 erning the case. The defendant was indicted for the crime 
 of murder committed on July 10th, 1882, by destroying the 
 life of Charles Stiles with malice aforethought, and I will 
 read to you the statutes of the State governing homicide 
 -and denning the different kinds of homicide. (He then 
 read from the statutes and from the decisions of the Su- 
 preme Court to show that when one went armed he could.
 
 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 185 
 
 not plead that, in taking his assailant's life he acted in self 
 defense. In regard to the defense of insanity, he read from 
 the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of William 
 Hopps on the points of the right of defendant to prove 
 good character, and that the burden of the proof lay on the 
 prosecution.) That decision laid it down that the defend- 
 ant might prove good character in every respect, and the 
 prosecution must prove the absolute guilt of defendant be- 
 yond a reasonable doubt. 
 
 " Chief Justice Breese defines legal insanity to be where 
 the prisoner was not of sound mind and that the fact of the 
 insanity was the cause of the act, and if he had not been 
 insane he would not have done it. 
 
 " Just four minutes elapsed from the time the prisoner 
 went np-stairs in the Palmer House till the young man, 
 with all his sins on his head, lay stark, and still and frozen 
 in the winter of his early death. I ask you if there was one 
 symptom of insanity in her case ? I claim not one. ( Ho 
 read from the decisions to show that where the plea of in- 
 sanity is set up, the defendant must establish the fact that 
 the act was committed under an uncontrollable impulse.) 
 
 " The facts on which the prosecution depended were brief- 
 ly that the defendant met Charles Stiles in Baltimore in 
 1875. For nearly five years this man and woman lived a 
 life of the most unholy character. Their life together w;is 
 a standing menace to public morals and a constant viola- 
 tion of law, but it was the voluntary act of the man and the 
 woman. Those years were marked by no uncommon cir- 
 cumstances in their mode of life. At times they live d 
 peaceably; at other times they quarreled and he assaulted 
 her and she assaulted him. You have it from her own lips 
 that at different times she drew a revolver on him and made 
 threats. Some of the physicians have testified that accord- 
 ing to the hypothetical question put by the defense the do^
 
 186 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 fendant was insane. I do not refer to that hypothetical 
 question, but in reply to the address of the counsel on the 
 other side I will do so analytically, and will show you where 
 the question was not in accordance with fact. I will de- 
 tain 3*ou no longer at present." 
 
 Mr. Mills here concluded his opening argument and was 
 iollowed by Mr. Trude. 
 
 Mr. Trude, in rising, said: 
 
 " I am no less earnest and sincere than the State's Attor- 
 ney in congratulating you on the evident fact that this pro- 
 tracted trial is near its conclusion. As I now look into 
 your faces, I plainly see that your enforced confinement is 
 menacing your health. That you are solicitous to meet 
 within the family circle your wives and little ones, your 
 parents and those near an'd dear to you; that you are anx- 
 ious to resume your relations with the outside busy world. 
 It has been and still is my desire to bring this case to as 
 speedy a conclusion as possible, consistent with my duty to 
 the unfortunate prisoner whose life now rests in the great 
 scales of justice poised by you. Before I proceed to an 
 analysis of the testimony I desire to thank, in the name of 
 justice, the State's Attorney for reading to you at length 
 the case in the 45th of Georgia, for the judge, who ren- 
 dered the decision in the case resurrected from the grave 
 with the habiliments of death around him Charles Stiles 
 and when that judge described in graphic language the 
 vices of the prisoner in that case, and then in grandiloquent 
 terms referred to the inevitable retribution that follows 
 closely on the heels of a career of crime; he pictured a man 
 nearer like Stiles, as shown by the evidence in this case^ 
 than can be found in the pages of any work of law or of 
 fiction. Had the State's Attorney been retained by the 
 defense he could not have rendered more substantial ser- 
 vice than he did in furnishing that authority. It has no
 
 A. S TRUDE.
 
 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 187 
 
 application to the prisoner whatever. She is a victim of 
 countless crimes committed by hei dead lover; not the 
 cause or the inspiring agent of a single crime. In passing 
 upon the question of the piisoner's guilt or innocence, on 
 her sanity or insanity, it is your duty to take into consider- 
 ation Charles Stiles' strength and Madeline Stiles' weak- 
 ness, his experience with the world, the flesh and -the devil, 
 her youth and inexperience, his calculating deliberation 
 and selfish motives, her ardent love and a devotion that 
 still lived when its object lay dead in the hallway of the 
 Palmer house, and was made manifest when she bent over 
 him and with the lips of affection kissed again and again 
 those of death. When Stiles first saw her she was a fresh 
 victim of man's lust, and her only offense, if offense it can 
 be called, was in yielding to the strongest of all human 
 passions under a promise of marriage made by one of our 
 sex. Stiles was cultured, had traveled much, seen much of 
 the world and (adopting the language of his aunt, Mrs. 
 Robinson) was a gambler, a follower of race horses and a 
 man who never learned the full import of the seventh com- 
 mandment. She was an Italian girl, born in a land of 
 dreams, of poetry and romance, a land whose sky is never 
 cloud-cast, and is so near the sun that the passions are 
 intensified; they endure longer and grow stronger with 
 each passing hour and too often culminate in death. 
 Rienza has truly said, that the Italian women are creatures 
 of passion and act from impulse rather than from reason, 
 and that God made them such. This defendant was and 
 is a typical Italian girl. She loved music aud desired to 
 sing in public; had a rich though crude voice, and could 
 speak but little else than Italian. At this time she was 
 about seventeen; he ten years, at least, her senior; he 
 talked to her in her natal tongue and promised her the full 
 gratification of the controlling desire of her life. She with
 
 188 STURLA-STELES TRAGEDY. 
 
 the adverse circumstances surrounding her, as shown by 
 the evidence in this case, yielded to his wishes, and from 
 that time on until his death, gentlemen of the jury, she 
 followed him with a devotion that never wearied. You, as 
 jurors, ought to view this woman in all her weakness and 
 fraility; in the light furnished by the knowledge of all the 
 facts surrounding her. Her being an Italian woman, with 
 her weaknesses, passions and impulses incident to her 
 nativity, she is not to blame. You must look beyond the 
 clouds where the God of us all resides if you wish to locate 
 the responsibility for her being Italian with all tha~ that 
 implies. With Stiles it is different, brought up in an 
 atmosphere of wealth, given a good education and posses- 
 sing a degree of intelligence that bordered on genius; cool 
 and calculating in his habits he became a gambler from 
 choice, libertine from inclination, and voluntarily left the 
 rigid circle of commerce, where he was first placed by those 
 who wished him well, for the habitation of the prostitute, 
 the pimp and the drunkard, and entered into a career that 
 either ends in the penitentiary or the morgue. 
 
 " Charles Stiles, when in the summer of 1877, gained con- 
 trol of this defendant, he did not love her; he, at this time, 
 was incapable of this passion; he saw from looking at her 
 person, he heard from listening to her voice, that she 
 could be used by him to his monetary advantage, and he 
 regarded her as a gambler would a dice box an agent to 
 replenish his depleted pocket. The evidence conclusively 
 shows that after he had spent a week in Baltimore, on the 
 occasion referred to, in telling her how much he loved her, 
 he borrowed $200 from her, payable, as was every dollar of 
 the thousands thus borrowed, when eternity is forgotten. 
 From the evidence in the case we are clearly informed that, 
 at the time of the unition of their fortunes, she was inspired 
 with love and he prompted by avarice. By keeping this
 
 8TURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 180 
 
 fact before us \ve can, with Confidence, review the evidence 
 for confirmation. But before so doing I desire to call your 
 attention to the defenses in this case; they are, first, that 
 at the time of the killing on the 10th day of July, 1882, the 
 defendant was irresponsible or insane; and, next, that the 
 art was done in necessary self-defense. These defenses are 
 sometimes inconsistent with each other, though in a num- 
 ber of cases cited in the books they have been found to be' 
 perfectly consistent. An insane man will defend himself 
 upon the same provocation as a sane person. His insanity 
 impairs or destroys his intellect, but does not dim his vis- 
 ion so that he cannot see his assailant', or render him insen- 
 sible to p.iin when assailed. Our chief reliance, I frankly 
 state, in this case, gentlemen of the jury, is in the defense 
 of the irresponsibility of the prisoner at the time stated. 
 The fact that the prisoner was assailed by the deceased in 
 his room in the Palmer house, and that he choked her 
 makes it part of my duty to interpose that defense. And 
 in this connection I state that the court will, in effect, in- 
 struct you that if, after considering all the evidence in the 
 case, you have a reasonable doubt as to whether the fatal 
 shot was fired in necessary self-defense, then you should 
 acquit the prisoner, and in considering this question you 
 should take into consideration the strength of the de'ceased 
 and the weakness of the prisoner. The Court will further, 
 in effect, instruct you that even though you believe to the 
 exclusion of all reasonable doubts from the evidence in the 
 case that the fatal shot was not fired in necessary self 
 defense, yet you have a reasonable doubt as to whether or 
 not the accused was irresponsible or insane at the time of 
 the firing of the fatal shot, you should acquit her. 
 
 " In addition to these well known principles of law, thus 
 briefly alluded to, I desire to call your attention to yet one 
 more legal proposition; it is this: In this State you are
 
 190 STUBLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 the sole judges of the law aud the evidence. The sover- 
 eign power of the State, that power that makes States' 
 Attorneys and judges and fixes the terms of office, I refer 
 to the legislative power, has lifted you, as jurors, to such 
 an eminence that you are beyond the control even of a 
 judge you can, if you wish, disregard the instructions of 
 the Court and treat them as you would the idle whistling 
 of the wind. I shall now ask you to first consider the evi- 
 dence with regard to the last named defense; I desire you 
 to follow me as I refer to the evidence and see to it that 
 I adhere to established facts, and that I do not move in 
 the domain of imagination for my statements. 
 
 " It is charged by the prosecution that she went to his 
 room in the Palmer House with intent to kill him with a 
 revolver obtained by her the night before for that purpose. 
 The defense contends that on her being abandoned by him 
 at Sunnyside, while she was afflicted with a sickness that 
 prostrated the body and always affects and frequently de- 
 stroys the reason, she walked to the city in a violent rain 
 storm, and arrived sick at heart and bewildered in the 
 vicinity of the suit of rooms occupied by herself and Stiles 
 With the little reason left her in her desolation and loneli- 
 ness she considers as to whom she will go. She dared not 
 go to the house of "Watson, for she from time to time sought 
 shelter there on promises to return to Stiles no more, till 
 finally on the occasion of the last time she left that house, 
 she was emphatically told to never return. She was equally 
 unwilling to go to Stiles' room, for in it she expected to 
 meet the man who had lately left her baffled and disap- 
 pointed in not obtaining money from her. From all the 
 rest of the world she was effectually shut out indeed, she 
 seemed to live in the belief that there were but two places 
 in the wide world to which she at any time could go the 
 rooms of her lover and the Watson he use, where he him-
 
 8TURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 191 
 
 self had taken her. To go to the latter place was to meet 
 the same treatment that had nearly driven life from her 
 body and reason from its citidel. She remembered that 
 Stiles was a coward and feared the glitter of a pistol barrel, 
 and she then mechanically, under the guidance of a boy or 
 man she chanced to meet, and who knew of her suffering 
 at the hands of Stiles, went into a pawnshop, obtained the 
 pistol, went to her rooms at Mrs. Harvey's, and standing 
 in the hallway told Mrs. Harvey that she was afraid that 
 Charlie might beat her; that she was sick, wet to the skin, 
 and spirit broken, and could not stand further punishment; 
 that she had a pistol and would protect herself; that Mrs. 
 Harvey went into the room where Stiles and his supposed 
 wife had slept with regularity ever since they boarded at 
 that house, and where he was then believed by both of the 
 women to be, and found that he was not there; thereupon 
 the defendant was undressed, and the fact became apparent 
 that she was suffering from her monthly sickness, weak and 
 trembling in body and nerves, and that her mind was wan- 
 dering, and in her delirium she told her companion of the 
 hour and mistress of the house the sad story of her late 
 trouble and divulged the fact that she was not married to 
 Stiles. Mrs. Harvey then informed her that she could not 
 occupy rooms in her house. 
 
 " Passing the details of that night's scenes and occur- 
 rences, (for on the other branch of the case I will refer to 
 them more fully,) morning dawned upon her, and with it the 
 recollection that she must quit the suit of rooms then 
 occupied by her. To whom would she naturally go under 
 the circumstances ? Indeed, to whom else could she go but 
 to the man who five years before had brought her, his child- 
 mistress, to this city? She sought him, as she had done 
 previously on the various occasions when he had inflicted 
 great violence upon her frail body, to forgive and never to
 
 192 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDt. 
 
 reproach liiru sought him in the spirit of more than 
 human love and devotion, not animated or moved by ven- 
 geance. Whether she went to him on this occasion for the 
 purpose of saying to him, 'Charlie, have we done forever? 
 I am going to Watson's and I will tell her that if you again 
 try to visit me there you will be arrested. I have been 
 driven from Mrs. Harvey's, who is now aware of the fact 
 that we are not married. I only come to you now that I 
 may be in a position to inform her of my warning to you 
 and that she may credit my resolution to see you no more,' 
 or whether she went to ask him (as she had virtually been 
 driven out of Mrs. Harvey's house) what was to be done 
 and where she should go, may be involved in doubt. But 
 it is clear from her delicate situation and surroundings it 
 was necessary that she should see him that evening. That 
 being the case, the question naturally arose in her mind 
 how she would go. The bitter experiences of the past had 
 taught her that he was a coward, and that even a weak 
 woman, with pistol in hand, could frighten and subdue 
 him. Being weak from the continued physical and mental 
 strain of the last twenty hours; unable, as she told Mrs. 
 Harvey, to endure greater punishment, she took the pistol 
 with her to his room at the Palmer House to protect her- 
 self from further suffering at his hands. When she entered 
 these rooms there were no marks of violence whatever upon 
 her throat or neck. (Let this fact be remembered by you, 
 gentlemen of the jury.) Dr. Bluthardt, a witness called by 
 the prosecution, testified, and he is not contradicted, that, 
 at and from the instant Stiles received the fatal shot he 
 was incapable of choking any one that the moment the 
 bullet entered his person the whole machinery of the body 
 gave convulsively away every muscle relaxed and the 
 power of motion was gone forever. Thus it appeal's that 
 those marks of violence upon her person were silent, but
 
 8TOELA- STILES TRAGEDY. 193 
 
 eloquent and indisputable witnesses, that he must have 
 choked her before she fired the fatal shot. The sworn 
 utterances of human witnesses may be false, but evidences 
 like the marks of choking impressions of fingers 
 scratches made by finger nails tearing flesh from the neck 
 of a resisting woman cannot lie. No argument is needed 
 to convince you that if that strong man had his vice-like 
 grasp upon the neck of this girl with such severity as to 
 produce the injuries shown by the evidence, that she must 
 have believed that she was either in danger of suffering 
 great bodily injury or of losing her life, and that she fired 
 the fatal shot while under the influence of such belief. 
 He was so near her when the shot was fired that his night 
 shirt was burned by the powder. And all the circum- 
 stances in the case conspire to convince a reasoning man 
 that he was choking her at the time he was shot. On 
 nearly every occasion in the past, when he beat, kicked or 
 abused her, he renewed his brutalities on their next meet- 
 ing. This seemed a singular fatality so marked was it, 
 and, why should this meeting be an exception to this cus- 
 tom on his part? 
 
 ' Officer Bohan also swore t"hat the marks on her neck 
 were fresh, and that there was blood upon it; that the fresh, 
 bleeding scratches, looked as though they were made by 
 finger-nails imbedded in the flesh. This is the language of 
 a police officer called by the State an officer who does not 
 think it is part of his duty to lie, in order to aid in the pro- 
 secution of his prisoner. That officer is the owner of a full, 
 open and honest face, eyes that look the truth, and a tongue 
 that never fails to tell it. He was among the first to see 
 the prisoner after the death of Stiles. His opportunities to 
 note her condition were the best. He is corroborated by 
 the city editor of the Chicago Times Joseph Dunlap, and 
 McPhelin, one of his reporters, by Messrs. Haitland and 
 13
 
 194 STURLA-KTILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 Corwin, of the Tribune, and a number of other witnesses. 
 These witnesses also testify as to the severity of the injuries 
 received. 
 
 " If Stiles beat and choked the girl on this occasion, he 
 simply carried into effect his threat made to Frederick Davis 
 less than twelve hours before. ( Here counsel read the evi- 
 dence of the witness to the jury.) 
 
 " From the fact that the reason of this defendant took wing 
 when she, in narrating the story of her relations with Stiles, 
 approached the final climax in the sad tragedy, you have 
 not heard from her lips her version of the occurrences in 
 the rooms 660 and 661 preceding the death of Stiles. 
 And the States Attorney did not see fit in his cross-exami- 
 nation of her, to go into that question. 
 
 " Perhaps the distinguished medical gentlemen who are 
 employed by the State or by the Owl Club (as the case may 
 be) told him that from the physical and mental condition 
 of this defendant it would be impossible for him to look 
 upon that picture of agony without having another hysteria 
 epileptic fit. But the injuries on her neck speak in her 
 behalf as did the wounds on Caesar's bleeding body, trans- 
 lated through the lips of Antony. 
 
 " For reasons which I will hereafter show by the evidence } 
 you should disregard the testimony of Monroe Potter it 
 should not have the weight of a feather in your estimation. 
 But either with or without your considering it, with all the 
 other evidences, you can not safely say that you are satisfied 
 beyond a reasonable doubt as to the guilt of the woman, 
 assuming that she was sane on the 10th day of July, 1882, 
 and gladly acquit her on the ground of self defense. 
 
 " On the law of self defense I read to you a few of the best 
 recognized authorities. (Counsel here read to the jury 
 cases of People vs. Campbell, 16 Illinois, page 16; 47 Illi- 
 fiois, page 379; 24 Illinois, page 242; 77 Illinois, page 25.
 
 8TUKLA -STILES TRAGEDY. 195 
 
 And going out of our own State, found on the same subject 
 the well-considered case of State vs. Monroe, cited in H. & 
 T. on self defense,) which is a leading case, and replete with 
 legal lore, wisdom and justice. The decision and the rea- 
 sonings upon which it is grounded is recognized by nearly 
 every State in the republic. 
 
 " On the threshold in the main branch of this case we are 
 confronted by the inquiry: * Was this person irresponsible, 
 or, as it is usually called, insane at the time of the firing of 
 the fatal shot ?' Adopting the language of Ernest Schmidt 
 ' She would be a psychological wonder if she were not in- 
 sane, having been subjected to unparalelled severity to mind 
 and body, likely to overthrow the reason of the strongest.' 
 
 " The Doctor says disappointment in love is one of the 
 predisposing causes of insanity. Blanford, on insanity, 
 page 230, fully agrees with him. So does Dr. Nichols, su- 
 perintendent of asylum for insane at Washington a man of 
 national renown who testified in the Harris case. (Counsel 
 here read his evidence given on that trial. ) 
 
 " Dr. Nichol's opinion is supported by thirteen other 
 medical gentlemen who testified in that case, and was dis- 
 puted by none. The evidence clearly shows that in the 
 summer of 1877 the deceased met the prisoner, declared his 
 love to her and solemnly swore that it would endure while 
 life lasted; he pictured to her a glowing future and the 
 fruition of every hope, and she believed him. 
 
 " Hope is the poetry of youth, 
 As memory Is that of age." 
 
 " Upon his earnest solicitation she came on to Chicago, 
 and on the first night of her arrival retired with him to bed. 
 In the night she is awakened by hearing someone in the 
 room. She was alarmed, but never dreaming that the form 
 that was dimly seen by her in the gloom of night was that 
 of her lover, she quickly reached over to the place in the
 
 196 STUKLA-STILES TBAGHBT 
 
 bed lately occupied by him. and found him gone. 
 Hearing the lid of her trunk softly close a feeling took pos- 
 session of her of such intense agony that terror when com- 
 pared with it would be a pleasure. She felt and believed 
 that her lover was about to rob and then abandon her, in a 
 city where she knew no one but him. She jumped out of 
 bed and ran toward him. He fled, she pursued, and at the 
 head of the stairs overtook him, when he savagely turned 
 and knocked her senseless. When she recovered she wiped 
 the blood and tears from her face and raved about her lover. 
 She then was less than 17 years of age. Do you think she 
 was the victim of disappointed love ? In the criminal record 
 of man's depravity with, and brutality to woman, can you 
 find a parallel to this ? 
 
 " Next, all the medical gentlemen agree that long-con- 
 tinued brutal treatment of a person is a predisposing cause 
 of insanity, and particularly is this true of women of a sen- 
 sitive nature and of tender years. And when the imagina- 
 tion of the subject is vivid the greater is the likelihood of 
 her becoming insane. 
 
 " Upon the subject of Stiles' hellish brutality upon this de- 
 fendant the record is, metaphorically speaking, red with her 
 blood and wet with her tears. 
 
 " It is no part of my duty to entertain, but it is plainly 
 my duty to convince you. That can not be better done 
 than by reading to you the evidence of Letitia Miller, Lieut. 
 Hayes, Lieut. Kipley, Officer George Demars, Cornelius 
 Murphy, George Elton, William A. Pinkerton, Frankie 
 "Weed, Edward Robey, Carrie Watson and Bridget Harvey, 
 who testified on this branch of the case. (He also quoted 
 from the evidence of Joseph Dunlap, John Corwin, Mr. 
 Fisher, Mr. Maitland, E. J. McPhelin and Augusta Papen- 
 dike, as to the utterances, conduct, acts and appearance of 
 the prisoner inconsistant with her sanity.)
 
 STURLA- STILES TRAGEDY. 197 
 
 " To this mass of testimony you will add that of the 
 prisoner. For weeks she has sat within the range of your 
 vision. You have noted her every act and look. You 
 heard her tell under the solemnity of her oath all about 
 her relations with Stiles. That narrative was absolutely 
 true in every particular. "When she came to a page, in the 
 chapter of her life with Stiles, that was against her, she 
 told it truthfully in her own impressive way. The tortures 
 of the inquisition becomes mere pastime compared with 
 the sufferings she endured. For five years her frail form 
 had been writhing under the blows, kicks and worse than 
 both of these to her, the curses of her lover. Lover, did I 
 say ? What a travesty on the word his conduct was. During 
 the details of his treatment of her, witnesses from the out- 
 side busy world came to her aid, as did that distinguished 
 lawyer, Edward Kcbey, who when he read, as he testified, 
 in the papers the story of what occurred in the grave yard, 
 thought he owed a duty to the cause of public justice, and 
 confirmed her evidence as to how she traveled in tho night 
 time and in the storm with her dress covered with mud 
 and burs, her dark hair flowing down her back and her 
 eyes peering in the darkness with the frenzy of shattered 
 hopes, and with a future darker than the night whose 
 shades fell thickly around her. Like Leah, the forsaken, 
 she wandered through the grave-yard and growing weary 
 took shelter under a tomb-stone. There she remained till 
 the storm subsided, and the winds of Heaven drew aside 
 the cloud cast curtain that covered the sky and the moon 
 appeared, lighting up the scene and revealing to her the 
 fact that she was an intruder in the home of the dead. 
 Even as Leah fled in terror when she found that she had 
 taken shelter under the cross of the Christian, so did this 
 bewildered girl flee toward the lake till its waters bade her 
 go no further, then she walked along^ the water's edge until
 
 198 STUELA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 she came to the house of that good man, Mr. Robey, who 
 directed two of the servants who worked in his house to 
 accompany her to the street cars. When she arrived at 
 No. 10 Clark street, where Mrs. Ashton takes up the story 
 and describes her condition when she arrived. She cer- 
 tainly was not manufacturing evidence then. 
 
 " Years before the alleged murder, Mrs. Ashton tells you 
 she raved about grave-yards and the dead; that the pupils 
 of her eyes were dilated; that she was incoherent and mad; 
 not the Ophelian madness that decks itself with flowers and 
 makes the air resound with the melody of song and music, 
 but with that frenzy which bespeaks mental anguish and 
 bodily pain she raved one is as different from the other 
 as a pleasant dream is from a hideous nightmare. 
 
 " Wm. Pinkerton is another witness who in like manner is 
 induced to give evidence in behalf of the prisoner. He 
 was sent by Stiles to visit this defendant at No. 10 Clark 
 street. "While there she acts so strangely that it inclines 
 him to believe that she was deranged. She played on the 
 piano, sang and cried almost in the same breath. She 
 gladly endorsed Mr. Pinkerton's suggestion to separate 
 from Stiles and begged him to make that parting 
 effectual, but she thought after all it would be of no use 
 that he would come back to her and that like a child of 
 fate she must receive him. Pinkerton did not think so. 
 Soon after this Pinkerton visited the house to look for a 
 missing Michigan woman, and saw Madeline who showed 
 him the letter he had written to Stiles. This astonished 
 him, but he was annoyed beyond comparison when Stiles 
 was shown to him to be in a room adjacent. A discussion 
 took place, when without cause or reason, Stiles took up a 
 pitcher and aimed'a deadly blow at this girl's head, and but 
 for Pinkerton, he, would have been on trial for murder 
 instead of this defendant. As I read you the evidence of Mr.
 
 8TUKLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 199 
 
 Piukerton, I ani reminded of the fact that I may be tautolog- 
 ical. But as this witness stands so high in public estimation, 
 is the head of an agency which extends through every Stale 
 in the Union, and whose mission is to extirpate crime, and 
 in which mission it has so well succeeded that the agency 
 has partaken of a National character, and its aid gladly 
 accepted by the nation in time of peace and invoked in 
 times of war. 
 
 " The testimony of the little farmer boy, Frankie "Weed, 
 deserves more than a passing notice. While the defen- 
 dant was living at No. 10 Clark street, this little, pale-faced 
 boot black and news-boy visited the house to sell papers 
 and black boots. With that attachment to children that 
 has marked her life, she became interested in him, inquired 
 as to his parentage and learned that his father was dead, 
 that his mother had married again, and that he had a step- 
 father to deal with, then he became a homeless wanderer, 
 a stray plank on life's great and troubled sea. This girl 
 took him in charge, clothed and sent him to school. Thus 
 he obtained a young man's best asset, the rudiments of a 
 good education. After a while her misfortunes drove her 
 from this house to one which she would not permit this boy 
 to cuter. She then committed him to the care of a farmer, 
 who used to furnish her with vegetables, where he lived from 
 that time until the present, free from the influences that 
 surrounded the defendant, in an atmosphere tainted by no 
 crime or immoralities. You heard the bright and exceed- 
 ingly intelligent boy testify, in his direct examination and 
 also listened to his exhaustive cross- examination. No where, 
 was he shaken in his evidence. It was confirmation strong 
 as holy writ of the truth of the prisoner's testimony. "\Vhen 
 she took this hungry waif in, clothed, fed and educated him 
 as far as she could, she little dreamed that he would be her 
 most valuable witness, in the hour of tribulation, when
 
 200 STUBLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 her life was trembling in the balance. It is an instance 
 where indeed ' bread was cast upon the waters and returned 
 after many days.' He told you, how on many occasions he 
 carried money from Madeline to Charles Stiles, and that he 
 was instructed to give it to no one but him ; that she was 
 more guarded in taking care of the reputation of her lover 
 than he was himself. She was adverse to letting the 
 fact be known that she was furnishing him with money. 
 The witness says he often saw her inclose money in an 
 envelope which he conveyed to him; that on one occasion 
 when he asked her for money he struck her in the face; 
 that on another occasion when she advanced to meet him 
 with a kiss he struck her in the face with his closed fist; 
 that a woman who was near called him to account, when 
 Madeline made the characteristic reply, ' Do not reproach 
 or scold him, as I alone suffer, I alone have the right to 
 complain.' And again with tears streaming down her 
 swollen cheeks she advanced and kissed him. This bru- 
 tality on his part, and insane forbearance on hers, was a 
 matter of frequent occurrence. 
 
 " When the question was asked the lad ' "What, if any 
 thing, did Madeline do on these occasions ? ' he answered, 
 ' She cried, and tried to make up with him. She never 
 struck him and would not let anybody scold him when he 
 hit her.' What eloquent vehemence in that reply how 
 simple yet how pathetic ! 
 
 " The boy, in answer to the question as to whether he 
 ever saw anything unusual in her conduct, stated that he 
 had often seen her cry and laugh at the same time, that she 
 would often act as if she was in pain and bend over, then 
 she would get up and walk fast and her eyes would look 
 wild like. 
 
 " The State endeavored to make a point by showing that 
 this boy, during the trial had been in charge of a person,
 
 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 201 
 
 identified with the defense. He informed you that he was 
 simply protected from the advances of members of the Owl 
 Club. In this connection I desire to say that it is in evi- 
 dence that the last seen of Peter Buffing, the boy who 
 accompanied defendant on the night of July 9th from Sun- 
 nyside, was when he was in company of one of the members 
 of that odious club. The man who did that justice-insult- 
 ing act is at heart a murderer. 
 
 " We had lost one witness and feared we might lose this 
 one, hence the precaution. You note, gentlemen, that the 
 evidence of the defendant is corroborated by a large num- 
 ber of respectable persons, and is contradicted by none 
 except the members of the Stiles family and Munroe Potter. 
 This leads me to inquire as to who and what Potter is or 
 was he is virtually a self acknowledged drunkard, a migra- 
 tory distillery, a bar-keeper in various disreputable places, 
 but none so bad as the O'Neil saloon on the lake front, 
 where only thieves and cyprians consort, and to which an 
 honest man is a stranger, and in which a virtuous woman 
 would be lost. He tells an improbable story and is con- 
 tradicted by this woman, who narrates a story in which is 
 shown hundreds of incidents known to many witnesses and 
 is contradicted by none. He is detected in several false- 
 hoods imong them is that of the cause of his discharge 
 from Sunnyside he says it was not for drunkenness 
 Downing says it was. You saw him fixed up for a great 
 occasion, clean shaven and neat in attire. Accompany me 
 to Sunnyside on the 9th of July look at the blear-eyed, 
 red-faced, reeling drunkard, with tobacco juice on his 
 whiskers, and from whose lips on that sacred Sabbath day 
 no expression flowed that honesty or virtue would care 
 to listen to. This is a word picture of Potter dis- 
 charging his duty on Sunday, a bar- tender at a road- 
 house, patronized mainly by the Owl Club, while you
 
 202 8TURLA- STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 are at church or with your family. Potter testified that 
 the defendant said she wanted to get to the Palmer 
 house before the elevator stopped so that she could 
 shoot Stiles, and that she had a determined look on 
 her face. At this time Stiles was not stopping at the 
 Palmer house he had without exception slept at Harvey's 
 house every night for several weeks. She had no reason 
 to believe that he would sleep at the Palmer house that 
 night. . From the testimony of Mrs. Harvey and the 
 defendant we are informed that she expected to meet him 
 at Harvey's house. Hence, she asks Mrs. Harvey to tell 
 Charlie: ' I have a pistol and can not stand any more pun- 
 ishment.' Again the elevator runs till one o'clock in the 
 morning. Potter admits he lied to the reporter with whom 
 he talked on Sunday and Monday, July 10th and llth. 
 Before the light of analysis and investigation the rotten 
 fabric of this wretch's evidence is plainly revealed to view. 
 The poet must have had Potter in his mind when he wrote 
 
 ' He who knows one thing and would another tell, 
 My soul abhors as it would the gates of hell.' 
 
 " I next come to the consideration of the letters written 
 by Charles Stiles to defendant, and in this connection let 
 me answer a statement made by Mr. Mills, in which he 
 said that Charles Stiles being dead could not give his ver- 
 sion of the various charges made against him, and that 
 from the grave he can not inform you as to how much 
 money he may have given her, etc. I join issue with the 
 State's Attorney on this subject. He, though dead, speaks 
 so clearly that he can not be misunderstood. Junius, in 
 one of his letters to the Duke of Graf ton, said, in effect, 
 that from a letter one may correctly judge as to the char- 
 acter of the writer and the recipient thereof. In the let- 
 ters I now read to you he admits or iu other words con- 
 cedes his brutality. (Reads.) 'My dear Ef. : The same
 
 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 203 
 
 old story I got $900 this morning and played it in against 
 faro-bank. You demoralize me so completely that I must 
 get some fresh air and think now that I shall go out home 
 at -1 p. m. You have been very, very kind to me and I love 
 you, but I am resolved from to-day to do differently, and 
 if I can not conquer my passion for gaming I shall jump 
 in the lake. Having lost my sleep, I feel unable to attend 
 to my business, and shall not if I go home be able to keep 
 my appointment for to-nijht. You may rely upon it that 
 I will be faithful to so good a girl as you have been to me. 
 With all my love, Charlie/ Another 'I can hardly ex- 
 press to you in words my gratitude to you for your kind 
 attentions, and if you will pardon my past transgressions 
 I will, by my good conduct, more than atone for them in 
 future. Gold must be tried by fire, and we only discover 
 the finer traits of character in those we hold dearest by the 
 severest tests of the human furnaces. Vice, drink, tempta- 
 tions of wine, women and hacks are some of the last men- 
 tioned kinds of fire. I shall try to avoid them all hereafter 
 and not place myself in any position that you may reproach- 
 fully say to me A burnt child dreads the fire. Yours 
 contritely, Charlie.' In all these letters he acknowledges 
 her kindness, not only to himself but to other members of 
 his family. Adopting his language in his letter to her of 
 July 14, 1880 ' Again you have cut another notch in the 
 stick of obligations I am under to you. * * * * It 
 seems so easy for you to be kind and loving.' 
 
 "In others of the letters he admits the reception of money 
 and constantly asks for more. Am I not correct, gentle- 
 men of the jury, in saying that Charles Stiles does give evi- 
 dence in this case, and though dead speaks as loudly as a 
 bugle blast and as clearly as the English language will per- 
 mit? 
 
 " These letters are admitted in evidence against the ob-
 
 204 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 jection of the States Attorney, who saw what effect they 
 would necessarily produce, for in them Stiles admits that he 
 is one of the most degraded creatures on earth. No won- 
 der that no member of his family would admit that they 
 knew his hand -writing, though no one of them could or 
 would say that the letters were not written by him. The 
 mother was shown several of the letters written by her son 
 with whom she says she corresponded once or twice a week 
 whenever he was from home, and was asked to state whether 
 they were written by him. Before she answered she read 
 them through, and then on the stand this Christian woman, 
 resting under the solemnity of an oath, declared that she 
 could not tell. I pressed the question no further. Of her, 
 in this connection, I utter no words of denunciation. Her 
 love for her son is only equalled by the bitter intensity of 
 her hatred of his mistress and victim. In her breast truth 
 and vengeance are engaged in a strife, and vengeance wins 
 in the conflict. The word * Dear,' so often found in these 
 letters, as applied to the mistress, were written by the same 
 hand and had the same marked characteristics as when the 
 same word was written and applied to the mother; and 
 whether it was ' Mother ' or ' Effie', that followed that word, 
 they both looked alike. 
 
 " There was another word or name written more than any 
 other, and in a bold and peculiar manner. I refer to the 
 word with which his letters are concluded 'CHARLIE.' 
 This no member of his family could say whether written by 
 him or not, or whether it was his signature or not. These 
 letters contain truths. There was nothing to be gained by 
 the employing of falsehood. Each knew the facts referred 
 to and they wrote as they talked to each other, and were 
 both free from extraneous influences and had no purpose 
 to serve by falsehood. The letters have in them all the in- 
 herent evidence of fact. When, he asked for money b-
 
 STURLA-8TILES THAGEDY. 205 
 
 cause he was sick and out of employment, the evidence 
 shows that it was true and that he was sick and out of work. 
 When he said he wanted money to aid in giving Salvini a 
 supper, under the auspices of the Owl Club, at that time a 
 supper was given to the great actor by the club referred to 
 and Stiles was the leading entertainer on the occasion. 
 Little did Salvini think as he drank the sparkling wine at 
 the banquet little did the gay members of the club dream 
 as they listened to the wit and applauded the generosity of 
 Charles Stiles for so materially contributing means to make 
 the occasion brilliant in every respect, and wanting in 
 nothing, that behind the witty, gay and generous Stiles 
 was the scarlet-robed cyprian from whose outstretched hand 
 he took the money that purchased the wine that the trage- 
 dian drank, as well as the costly refreshments with which 
 the table was freighted. To Theressa Sturla, his country- 
 woman, Salvini, was indebted for the costly entertainment, 
 yet he never drank to the health of his fair hostess once. 
 
 " I now pass to the consideration of the evidence of Dr. 
 Bates. I need not tell you that he is a gentleman of cul- 
 ture and refinement, for his appearance upon the stand pro- 
 claims that fact. He informed you that the first time he 
 was called upon to treat the defendant she was afflicted 
 with difficult menstruation or dysmenorrhea, and that the 
 disease necessarily affects the mind. He explained the close 
 degree of intimacy between the genital organs and the 
 brain. That on the occasion of the defendant being kicked 
 in the abdomen he was called to treat her, that he found a 
 large swelling in the left side; she was menstruating this 
 added to the mental anguish under which she was laboring 
 more than the physical pain she endured caused her to be 
 in a condition of irresponsibility. ' She was out of her head, 
 talked incoherently.' He also treated her at the time 
 Stiles knocked her down and broke out one of her teeth,
 
 206 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 and at other times for injuries sustained at his hands, and 
 found that her mind was more affected than her body. 
 That the fact of his ill-treating her, to put it mildly, seemed 
 to weigh upon her mind. The Doctor proceeds to say that 
 this condition of affairs continued and his patient became 
 worse and worse. The disease took a strong hold ^^pon 
 her frail body and her mind grew weaker. He treated her at 
 the Armory, there her suffering was from excessive menstru- 
 ation which followed a night of painful suppression of the 
 same. She had walked a long distance in a rain-storm } 
 that she was suffering from a feal or supposed injury, and 
 had been for some time previous, and that she had a short 
 time before shot the deceased. The Doctor then conclud- 
 ed and says that as a matter of fact the defendant was in- 
 sane or irresponsible at the time of the shooting referred 
 to, and that it was impossible that she could have been 
 otherwise under the circumstances.. 
 
 " You will please add the evidence of the witness to those 
 already given who corroborate the defendant as to facts 
 stated by her. 
 
 " By whom is she contradicted is a pertinent inquiry ? 
 "Who undertakes to contradict a witness whose testimony 
 on all the material points is corroborated by these wit- 
 nesses: Pinkerton, Robey, Bates, Harvey, little Frankie, 
 Ashton, Davis, Smith, Blair, Elton, Bohan the officer, 
 Papendicke, the matron, Chapin, the bailiff and a host of 
 others. 
 
 " Mrs. Eobinson, the aunt; Mrs. Stiles, the mother; E. D. 
 Stiles, the uncle ; Baldwin Ryerson, the messenger boy, and 
 Munroe Potter, whom I have already referred to, are all that 
 could be found. To the first I will now call your attention. 
 (Counsel here read her evidence.) Was there ever a more 
 brazen specimen of female humanity than this Mrs. Robin- 
 son ? She and truth evidently are on bad terms, for they
 
 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 207 
 
 never met. In her direct testimony she volunteers the 
 statement that the defendant ruined Stiles. In her cross- 
 examination she admits that he was a gambler, libertine, 
 and was a follower of races before he saw the defendant, 
 and, according to her statement, there was nothing left to 
 be ruined. She contradicts R. D. Stiles, the scalper, on 
 the question of the $7,000; she says defendant told her she 
 had that amount on hand then. R. D. Stiles said she in- 
 formed him that she had had that amount as Charlie's 
 banker, at one time. She then claimed to have been 
 familiar with defendant from time of his birth up, and had 
 corresponded with him, and when shown his letters says 
 she can not tell whether any one of them are his or not. 
 She is compelled to admit that she went to the house of 
 defendant uninvited by her, partook of her hospitality, and 
 then tried to take possession of the goods and chattels of 
 defendant and banish her from the house; she declines to 
 folly explain how it was that her husband, Eugene Stiles, 
 (Charlie's brother) E. B. Stiles, the father, had from time 
 to time lived off from this woman. It appears that he was 
 like the lilies of the valley, which 'toil not, neither do 
 they spin.' 
 
 " I offered to prove that he was a gambler and she an ad- 
 venturous woman, but was met by an objection which de- 
 terred me tberefrom, and could go no further. R. D. Stiles 
 stated in cross-examination that he was engaged in no busi- 
 ness at present, and had not been for some time; that he 
 used to be a 'SCALPER.' That while engaged in working up 
 evidence against this defendant that he talked with Mrs. 
 Harvey, who told him that defendant had the marks on her 
 neck when she returned from Sunnyside. When Stiles saw 
 Mrs. Harvey the alleged crime had been committed, and it 
 was easy for an honest witness to bo mistaken as to the 
 time when defendant was said to have received the in-
 
 208 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 juries on her neck, and for a man who has malice in his 
 heart and is engaged in a hunt for evidence against the 
 accused, he was more than likely to misunderstand what 
 was communicated to him. Mrs. Harvey contradicts him, 
 however, and is not related to the accused and has no in- 
 terest in this case. Baldwin Ryerson says that on or about 
 the 8th day of July, he delivered a message to a person 
 who made the threats referred to; that from that time until 
 September or October following he had never thought of 
 the matter, and that the next time he saw defendant she 
 was in jail and was pointed out to him by a person who 
 took her a package. To test the boy's memory I asked 
 him whether or not he could remember ever having de- 
 livered a message to any one of your number. He said he 
 could not tell. By chance I saw an elderly lady sitting be- 
 hind me. I asked the lad if that was not Mrs. Harvey, 
 whom he saw at the same time he thought he saw defendant. 
 He said, after looking at her intently, that he could uct 
 tell. Again he admits that he never at the time of de- 
 livering the message heard the name of the defendant, and 
 that the first time he heard it was when that man (pointing 
 to R. D. Stiles,) told it to him. Little reliance can be 
 placed upon the testimony of the boy. He is, in my opin- 
 ion, an honest lad, but has been under improper influences; 
 he has the odor of the Owl Club about him, and a lie has 
 been put in his month, but he failed to intelligently utter it. 
 
 " I now come to the consideration of the evidence of the 
 last witness, Mrs. E. B. Stiles, the mother of Charles. 
 Standing on the verge of her son's new made grave I am 
 disinclined to say aught, not fully maintained by the evi- 
 dence, in regard to her. (Here counsel read a portion of 
 her evidence.) 
 
 "There were no tears in her eyes when she described the 
 death-bed scene of her distinguished husband, or when she
 
 8TUBLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 209 
 
 spoke of her son Charles cold, frigid and repellant as 
 though she was born on an iceberg and rocked by the snow- 
 crested waves of the Arctic. She told you how she learned 
 that her husband had taken refuge at 371 Wabash avenue, 
 at the house of this girl; how she learned of his fatal sick- 
 ness; how she was restrained from visiting him by her reso- 
 lution never to see him so long as he went to the home of 
 'that woman.' The result was that the husband and father, 
 abandoned by wife and neglected by his sons, was com- 
 forted in his last sickness by Madeline, the mistress of his 
 son ; she slept night r.f ter night at the foot of his couch, and 
 with a devotion that never wearied and a love that never 
 diminished she ministered to his every want. In a room 
 near by lay one of his sons, (Eugene,) in whose stomach 
 was liquor and whose brain was overcome by its fumes. 
 He was aroused, and to him was money by Madeline given 
 to purchase medicine for his father; he went on his errand, 
 but in vain waited the dying man and his solitary watcher. 
 Dispatches were again and again sent to the wife, but to 
 no effect. Weaker and weaker grew the dying man; his 
 eyes had lost their luster; from his face the blood had 
 receded to his heart; his breath was labored and found its 
 way through a throat obstructed by the froth and foam 
 which precedes dissolution. 
 
 " Shortly before death his wife appears, but she brought 
 no warmth or comfort with her, for the almost pulseless 
 man, who faintly whispered to Madeline to bend over him 
 she complies with a look of love and kindness in his 
 filmy eyes, he attempts to speak and fails falls back and 
 in the arms of a Camille dies! With a portion of her 
 clothing she tied up his feet, and the wife then assumed 
 control of the body and it was taken to the morgue, where- 
 in, shortly after, the body of Charles also lay. 
 
 "Gentlemen of the jury, look upon that bed of sickness; 
 14
 
 210 . STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 view that death scene and then consider the conduct of 
 the sons, of the mistress, and of the dead man's wife ! I 
 now approach the medical branch of the case. (Here 
 council read extracts from the evidence of Drs. Brown, 
 Lyman, Schmidt, Weller and Jenks,) these physicians are 
 the cap-sheafs of their profession and they are sustained 
 by Esquirol, Blanford, Ray, By ford and Wharton, and an 
 army of shining lights which to day illuminate the scien- 
 tific world, and dispel from the skies the clouds of ignor- 
 ance, brutality and superstition. On derangement of the 
 menstrual function or dysmenorrhea council cited, Wharton 
 Sec. 525 to 530; Connection of Uteris with Brain, Blanford 
 69; Effect of Torment on Brain, Blanford 67; Opinion of 
 Dr. Nichols and others on effect of cold upon person 
 afflicted with difficult menstruation, Harris case, page 80; 
 May show different acts of defendent as evidence of in- 
 sanity, 12 Alabama, 827; one leading case, page 95 and 97. 
 When a medical man has observed habits of patients (as 
 Dr. Bates did of case at bar) may give opinion on the 
 facts, 1st Philips on Evidence 662, (top paging). On 
 general question of insanity and effect of letters council 
 cited, 7 Abbott's Practice, (U. S.) 321, Cole case; 8 Abbott's 
 Practice, (U. S.) 57, McFarlin; 1 Bishop, Sec. 469 to 482. 
 Partial insanity recognized from the days of Lord Hale 
 to present time, see Hadfield 121; Deliberation and cool- 
 ness evidence of insanity rather than sanity, see trial of 
 Hadfield and Oxford, also Hopps' case 31st Illinois. Hence 
 the evidence of Willis Howe, Fred Livingston, Frank 
 Brobst and others, who are all respectable gentlemen and 
 in no wise connected with the Owl Club, and who testified 
 as to what defendant did and said at the Palmer house, 
 which instead of showing malice and intent as claimed by 
 the State, prove insanity. Mr. Howe swore that she 
 leaned against the wall and said " I came here to do it
 
 8TURLA-STILES TRAQEDS. 211 
 
 I have done it let the law take its course," that she then 
 bent over the dead man and after looking at him fondly 
 kissed him. Mr. Livingston said that in her eyes there 
 was a far away look, and that her face Was very white. 
 This evidence associated with the condition that she was 
 found to be in when she was examined at the station, 
 proves her to have been insane or irresponsible, beyond a 
 doubt I will not insult your intelligence by discussing 
 the evidence of these witnes3es further, but will resume 
 my discussion of the law governing this case. 
 
 "When, gentlemen of the jury, our own Supreme Court 
 has passed upon a question of law and fact, it is worse 
 than idle to seek for authority on that question in the 
 decision of the courts in other States; as against our own 
 they are valuless. The decision of our Supreme Court as 
 enunciated by Judge Breese is controlling, and well it may 
 be, sustained as it is by reason, humanity and justice. As 
 a lawyer Sidney Breese was the peer and companion of the 
 great Abraham Lincoln, David Davis, and Leonard Swett. 
 That great jurist is now dead but he has left behind him a 
 monument of his sterling genius, so high that its crest is 
 lost in the clouds of erudition." 
 
 Court ad'ourned.
 
 CHAPTEE XI. 
 TWENTIETH DAY DECEMBER 18th, 1882. 
 
 When the court opened all the seats in the room were 
 filled, and the aisles were all crowded by people who were 
 forced to stand. There were present a large number of 
 ladies, members of the bar of this and other States, legis- 
 lators and distinguished citizens. Upon the bench beside 
 Judge Gardner, sat the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, 
 T. Lyle Dickey. The jury looked wise but said nothing. 
 The lawyers on the case performed their respective duties 
 well and eloquently. The final appeal of Mr. Trude in- 
 duced one of the jurors to lose his poise, and he breaks 
 out into loud applause along with the remainder of the 
 audience. 
 
 Mr. Trude: "I will resume, gentlemen of the jury, 
 where I left off last night. Our Supreme Court joins the 
 army of scientific men, and among other questions decides 
 or rather recognizes such a mental condition as partial 
 insanity, and cites abundant authority for so doing. Bold 
 are the men of whatever profession who would run their 
 heads against such a rampart, as that erected by these men 
 of science, aided by the Supreme Court of the State of 
 Illinois. 
 
 " His Honor, on the bench, will recognize that decision 
 and instruct you that there is such a mental condition as 
 partial insanity. Every other jurist throughout the length 
 and breadth of this great State is bound to bow to and 
 follow that decision. Yet two or three medical men dis- 
 covered by the State, undertake to over-rule the Supreme
 
 STURLA-8TILES TRAGEDY. 213 
 
 Court, and say that all these great men, mentioned by me 
 are fools, and the literature which they have given to the 
 world, trash. 
 
 "Dr. Jewell is doubtless a skilled physician, most of 
 whose time is devoted to the curing of the physically sick; 
 he was never connected with an insane asylum and never 
 had much experience in treating the insane. Gentlemen 
 of the jury, remember his evidence and the manner in 
 which he gave -it. What a look of ineffable disgust there 
 was on his face when I read the Hopps' case to him ! He 
 could not have looked more so if it had been a dime novel. 
 In fact the Doctor opened wide his month, filled his lungs 
 with wind and prepared to blow out at one breath the 
 great lamp of science, and envelope us in a misty gloom of 
 such intensity that only bigotry could be discerned. On 
 questions of insanity the Doctor is insane. 
 
 " Drs. Hay and Jackson are both recognized as efficient and 
 capable physicians, but on the questions involved in this 
 case they do not agree with each other, and both of them 
 disagree with Dr. Jewell. (Here counsel referred again to 
 their evidence.) 
 
 " How could she be otherwise than insane ? is an inquiry 
 suggested to many minds during the progress of this trial. 
 When he knocked her down and kicked her in the face she 
 would not brook interference, but gurgled through her 
 blood that as she alone suffered she alone could rebuke. 
 This is so unnatural as to suggest insanity. She gave him 
 all the wealth of her love, all her worldly effects, and fol- 
 io '.ved him with dog-like servility and got in return what? 
 Blows and curses. She was less affected by his blows and 
 curses, however, than she was by his infidelity. It was on 
 making this discovery that she ran him out of the house 
 and did the acts of seeming violence to him. I think I 
 Jiave conscientiously and carefully reviewed all the evidence
 
 214 STTJBLA-STILES TKAGEDY. 
 
 given in this case by both sides, and desire that the evi- 
 'dence find such a lodgment in your minds that it may not 
 be expelled by what either counsel may say, independent 
 of the evidence. The Oourt will instruct you that it will 
 be your duty to disregard all statements of counsel not sup- 
 ported by evidence. The prosecution is given by law the 
 right to close the case. A closing argument is a great 
 power and advantage even when made by a lawyer of or- 
 dinary capacity, but when employed by so able and eloquent 
 a man as this prosecuting attorney it is a terrible weapon. 
 No one can correct his mis-statements of facts or mis-quo- 
 tations of law if he should be betrayed into making them. 
 Sole reliance must be placed on the intelligence and sense 
 of justice of the jury, who will find some way of rebuking a 
 lawyer for improperly using that tremendous advantage 
 which the law in its impolicy gives him. 
 
 " Frequently during the progress of this trial has the 
 name Owl Club been used. That leads us to inquire more 
 particularly what it is and who are its members. 
 
 " It takes its name from a bird that sleeps in the day- 
 time and is awake roaming around in the night-time. So 
 it is with this club and the members thereof. 
 
 " As originally organized it had good men in it journal- 
 ists whose duties and labors kept them out late nights, to 
 which were added actors; then a number of rich men's sons 
 (though none the less fast) became members. Then the or- 
 ganizers retired and surrendered their membership, and a 
 fourth-class consisting of rakes and libertines took their 
 place. 
 
 " The organization of the Owl Club reminds me of the 
 first club of the kind that was started. It was in the far 
 West on the "prairie somewhere near western Kansas. The 
 first member was a well-meaning and respectable owl, who 
 sat near the entrance; it was next joined by a prairie dog,
 
 8TUBLA-STILKS TSAGEDY. 215 
 
 next by a rattlesnake, then the skunk got in under a sus- 
 pension of rules. 
 
 " Some of you, gentlemen of the jury, may have in your 
 travels on the great western prairies seen those clubs thus 
 organized. They are less disreputable and less odorous 
 than the club under consideration. 
 
 "This club is now largely composed -of young men whose 
 parents are so exclusively engaged in the accumulation of 
 wealth that they neglect the ethics and morals of their sons. 
 The result is that they are more dangerous to the com- 
 munity and a greater menace to society than professional 
 criminals. They are in the main debauchees and libertines 
 of the most pronounced type. And this is largely due to 
 the malformation of society itself, for it visits all its vencm 
 on poor defenseless woman while her villainous betrayer 
 treads ankle deep in the rich carpets of palatial mansions, 
 his head unbowed by shame. The victim of his perfidy and 
 lust, however, is exiled from society, banished from, home 
 and diiven to a life of prostitution, and finally sleeps on the 
 cold marble slab at the morgue. No woman becomes a 
 prostitute except through the agency of our sex. Upon 
 woman falls all the chances of exposure and shame, and she 
 alone is made the sufferer. Those gay young men make 
 cyprians and people houses of ill-fame with them, and were 
 the lightnings of God's wrath to strike the structure where- 
 in the Owl Club holds high carnival, and reft it from dome 
 to basement, the moral atmosphere would be more pure. 
 Look" at the picture and see to it that I do not exaggerate. 
 Charles Stiles, a leading member in that club, waits in the 
 hall-way of a well-known house of ill-fame to obtain from 
 his ill-treated mistress the fruits of her shame, and when ob- 
 tained joins other members of the Owl Club who await him 
 outside, and they proceed to the club-room where they revel 
 in a saturnalia of sin till dawn appears. The ominous owl,
 
 216 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 like the acts of the members of the club bearing its name, 
 can not stand the light of day. They hurry to their hotels, 
 (not their homes,) with flushed cheeks and swollen heads, 
 till night, and when they come out their vices take 
 some other form. Again, it is not disputed that Charles 
 Stiles accompanied by members of that club went to No. 10 
 Clark street to break in by violence that Stiles had a pis- 
 tol with him, which Officer Bemars took from him and dis- 
 persed the party that this weapon was taken by the officer 
 to Stiles at the Owl Club. On another occasion Stiles and 
 several members of the club went to No. 10 Clark street to 
 induce defendant to sing, and on her cheerfully complying 
 Stiles poured wine down her back, when his companions 
 were greatly amused. 
 
 " The defendant, in testifying, mentioned these persons 
 as members of the Owl Club. Under the circumstances it 
 was not for her to give their names. But the States Attor- 
 ney could elicit them and he had only to ask her, when, as 
 I stated during the trial, she would give them. He did not 
 ask her because he knew she told the truth and to contra- 
 dict her was impossible. 
 
 " The officer could give them those corset-wearing, but- 
 ton-hole-bouquet young men are known. You see them 
 near theatres on matinee days. You hear them greeting 
 shop-girls on their way home, and woe betide the unfortunate 
 girl who returns his greeting and accepts an invitation to 
 supper, for she is lost. She must be guarded by an angel } 
 indeed, if she be proof against the blandishments of these 
 practiced libertines who study the tastes, inclinations, habits 
 of the girl he, or they, have marked for a victim. Though 
 assailed as individuals and as a club, not one of them 
 has dared to reply to or contradict this defendant or my- 
 self. I predict that the exposure resulting from this trial 
 will sound the death knell of this club. It ie to be hoped
 
 STTJRLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 217 
 
 that it will, for no plummet can sound the depth of its de- 
 pravity. 
 
 " There was clearly identified with this prosecution one 
 of its members who was seen in the company of our most 
 valued witness, who soon after disappeared. They are 
 interesting themselves, not that they desire so much to 
 avenge Charles Stiles, as to so punish this woman as to 
 spread terror along the line as they call it. They want it 
 understood that under no circumstances and upon no prov- 
 ocation can a woman strike down one of their number. 
 As they are constantly engaged in violating laws, human 
 and divine, they feel the urgent need of crushing out this 
 victim so as to apall the rest. When the administration 
 of justice is upheld by such hands, then is it time that you 
 take from the typical figure called Justice her robes of 
 white, and clothe her in scarlet and write on her forehead, 
 so plainly that he ' who runs may read/ the word HARLOT. 
 
 " Conspicuous during this long trial have Mrs. E. B. and 
 Mr. B. D. Stiles appeared; on their faces resolution is 
 blended with that of malice. They, of all the members of 
 the Stiles family, claim to be good Christians. Hoping this 
 is true I commend to them the words that came from that 
 great Being who lives beyond the home of the rolling thunder 
 and the flashing lightning ' VENGEANCE is MINE AND I WILL 
 REPAY,' saith the Lord of hosts. 
 
 " It appeared from the evidence'of this case that many 
 facts are in the possession of Eugene Stiles, Charles' 
 brother. Why has he not appeared as a witness ? The 
 same is true of Chinney Stiles, the uncle; it is likewise true 
 of uncle Robinson. Why have not they appeared ? These 
 difficult questions the prosecution can not answer, but 
 how easy it is for us to do. The defendant testified that 
 these members of the Stiles family, together with other 
 members of both sexes, had frequented the Watson houae
 
 218 STUKLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 and had borrowed money of her, and knew of her exact 
 relations with Charles Stiles. "What a family! "What 
 morality ! No oratorical tube-roses of the State's Attorney 
 can conceal their hideous moral deformities. 
 
 " Remember, gentlemen of the jury, in this case you have 
 the widest range you can if you choose send this woman to 
 the gallows, or you can send her to the penitentiary for any 
 term not less than one year, or for life, or you can acquit 
 her. These various findings are within your power. The 
 domain is exclusively your own. By convicting this defend- 
 ant you will elate the vengeful members of the Stiles family, 
 and the Owl Club and every pimp and libertine in the city 
 will rejoice. On the other hand acquit her and you will 
 send a thrill of joy and gladness into every home where 
 virtue lives, and where vice may creep in to deceive and 
 destroy. 
 
 " Gentlemen of the jury, in a few moments I shall have 
 discharged, as best I could, inefficiently I admit, my duty 
 to this unfortunate woman. The present is the most sol- 
 emn hour of my life. Were I defending a man surrounded 
 by friends with monetary agencies to help him, I would be, 
 perhaps, supinely indifferent as to results, for there are 
 other courts beyond this to which persons so situated may 
 appeal. Not so is it with this woman. The Rebecca of 
 Sir Walter Scott's pen was not more alone, as she wandered 
 in Sherwood forest, afraid of Christians and shunning Jews, 
 than is this girl. She avoids the frail of her sex, and the 
 virtuous, with but one noble exception, shun her. 
 
 " Gentlemen of the jury, do you not think as you look 
 into this woman's face that she has suffered enough in 
 body, endured enough in mind to last her through life ? 
 She will be in your custody to-night, and before any one of 
 you vote on the question of guilt or innocence, I ask you 
 in your mind's eye to divest her of her clothing and look
 
 8TURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 219 
 
 upon a bruised and mutilated piece of humanity, from 
 whose body and mind health and happiness is forever ex- 
 iled. If you acquit her, a good woman stands ready to aid 
 her. There is a wall of fire between her and the house of 
 shame. When left alone and uncontrolled by any person, 
 her inclinations were in the direction of morality and purity 
 of life, and above all, charity. 
 
 " There sits a little boy, who to-day is a respectable farmer, 
 who but for this defendant would probably have' been a 
 thief; as he was a wanderer on the streets with no one in 
 the wide world who was concerned in the welfare of either 
 his body or soul. That little lad is here evincing his 
 gratitude to the girl who clothed his nakedness, satisfied 
 his hunger, educated his mind, and, knowing from her own 
 bitter experience the .dangers and temptations of city life, 
 committed him to the care of a good old farmer. They are 
 her only friends, and while poverty and helplessness are 
 apparent they are her true friends. 
 
 " You remember the occasion when the deceased, for the 
 purpose of extorting money from the prisoner, took her to 
 the railing of the vessel and pointing to the dark and angry 
 waters of the Mississippi, said: 'Do as I wish, or I will 
 throw you in. There is no law that protects prostitutes.' 
 By your verdict inform the young men of the class to 
 which he belonged, that they are in error that the misfor- 
 tunes of the fallen woman does not place her beyond the 
 pule of the law. I ask you to render such a verdict as will 
 meet the approval of your conscience, and the sanction of 
 that God who will one day be the sole juror who will fin- 
 ally judge you all. 
 
 " Gentlemen of the jury, in a few days Christmas will bo 
 here, and I ask you to render such a verdict in this case 
 that when you look into the blazing firejof your happy 
 homes on that sacred yet joyful day, you do not, in fancy,
 
 220 STUKLA-STILES TRAGEDY: 
 
 see in the smoke and embers the pale face, the tearful eyes 
 and bruised body of this Italian girl there to reproach you. 
 I ask you not to hasten a conclusion, but render such ver- 
 dict that you can look your wives and daughters and you 
 young men your sweethearts in the face. Do not be 
 prejudiced against her on account of nationality or sur- 
 roundings. The free winds of tolerance has swept from 
 the skies of this country the clouds of bigotry. Sinned she 
 may have, but only then at the instigation of her lover. 
 Many years ago another woman sinned and was pursued 
 by a howling mob in whose uplifted hands were stones 
 which they designed to hurl at the head and body of the 
 grief and terror stricken woman. To the frenzied mob the 
 Savior said: 'Let him that is without sin cast the first 
 stone;' none were thrown; and to the trembling woman 
 who clung to his garments for protection he said with pity 
 in his eyes and sorrow in his heart ' neither do I condemn 
 thee go thou and sin no more.' The day made holy by 
 this divine being is near at hand. Let it recall his sacred 
 words to you for imitation and example, and unite in saj- 
 ing to this no less unfortunate and stricken woman: ' Go 
 
 THOU AND SIN NO MORE.' " 
 
 " The last word of Mr. Trude had scarcely fallen from his 
 lips, when the great crowd in the court-room broke into an 
 uproar of applause, which for some minutes Judge Gardner 
 and his bailiffs were not able to interrupt. 
 
 " One of the jurors sitting in the front row, apparently 
 overcome by the eloquent words of Theressa's counsel, 
 joined in the applause and clapped his hands with the rest. 
 It was some little time before he seemed to realize what he 
 was doing, but as the crowd naturally attracted by the un- 
 usual incident began to watch his manifestations of appro- 
 val, he suddenly stopped and appeared somewhat be- 
 wildered. He then covered his face with his hands and
 
 LUTHER LAFLIN MILLS.
 
 8TURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 221 
 
 looked as if he was about to faint. A glass of water was 
 handed him and he was allowed to retire from the room for 
 a few moments. Chicago Daily News, Dec. 13. 
 
 When quiet was restored States Attorney Mills arose and 
 began his closing address, as follows: 
 
 "May it please your Honor and Gentlemen of the Jury: 
 For the third time in this trial, it is my duty now to ad- 
 dress you on behalf of the People of the State of Illinois. 
 Never before in my brief but not uneventful life have,! been 
 so impressed by duty to be done, and impressed by the con- 
 sciousness of the inadequacy of my ability to do what my 
 People ask me to do. Therefore I ask your indulgence for 
 my weakness, and your favoring attention to all I say. I 
 stand in the temple of the social community ; I see its walls 
 defaced; I see its sacred altar fires growing dim; I stand 
 beside the body of the dead. No mere sentiment no weak 
 sentimentality no diverting trick nor fraud engages my 
 solemn thought. I stand under the social dome with mil- 
 lions around me a death staring at me death with glazed 
 eyes staring up into the social dome; and I hear a million 
 voices speaking, ' Let the law of this State, without fear, 
 favor, or affection, be honestly and bravely administered 
 and justly executed.' Gentlemen of the jury, men, citizens, 
 will you not now rise with me above the trick and strata- 
 gem of fraud, and all pretense and hollow things up to 
 those heights of calm serenity, where Justice has her abode 
 and God presides ? 
 
 c: Last evening, while the poor widow was -receiving the 
 lashings of the lawyer, and a tear came to my eye, even I 
 looked upon her white face and tearless eye and wondered 
 why it was so; and turning to the good woman, I said, 
 * Don't be worried, madam.' She answered, as if by in- 
 spiration, ' What care I for all these wrongs and frauds, 
 these slanders and attacks. Troubles in the furnace fire I
 
 222 STTIKLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 may have suffered in my life. Widowed, the mother of a 
 murdered boy, I find consolation in higher things I walk 
 with God.' 
 
 "I ask you, gentlemen, from this time on to lift your 
 thoughts and judgments above ordinary events, and on those 
 heights above, to decide what is the truth what is the 
 right what is the eternal law. And I believe you will favor 
 my asking, for you are here under the most solemn obliga- 
 tion ever assumed by men. When you were placed on the 
 jury each one of your number raised his hand to Heaven 
 and took a solemn oath to well and truly try this case of 
 the People of the State of Illinois against the defendant, 
 and a true verdict render according to the law and the evi- 
 dence. That oath is recorded on the tablets of your God. 
 It was more than a mere form of law and courts, or as one 
 of the incidents in the administration of laws. It was a 
 sacred, a solemn, a religious pledge made between your- 
 selves and that God whose name you invoked. 
 
 *' It is not improper, I think, for me at the outset of our 
 inquiry to make a brief comparison between the methods 
 which have characterized the prosecution of this case and 
 those which have characterized the defense, and I submit 
 to you to your memory and your judgment this one 
 claim : that the whole inspiration of the prosecution every 
 thought and act in it has been a desire to bring before you 
 the absolute truth of this case. There has been no con- 
 cealment; there has been no fraud; there has been no veil- 
 ing of the truth; but all we could obtain of truth we gave 
 to you without any stint. 
 
 " The counsel, learned, shrewd, and most able, who repre- 
 sents this woman began this case by a charge against the 
 prosecution. With his fiery lash he let blows fall upon the 
 State in its representative, and also upon the family of the 
 dead boy. He denounced it as a wrong and an injustice
 
 STtJRLA-STlLES TRAGEDY. 223 
 
 and an outrage that that widowed woman should sit in this 
 court-room and hear this trial. But who, of all the world, 
 outside yourselves, the judge, and the lawyers here, and 
 the prisioner being tried, has a better human right to sit 
 and hear and see the events of this great investigation, 
 starting with the miserable, hurried, brutal death of her fa- 
 vorite child. Why, gentlemen of the jury, suppose the son 
 of any one of you, in the toils of temptation, in his folly and 
 fault and sin, had been murdered by a harlot the boy 
 whose whispering breath you heard so early in his first 
 days, whom you cradled in your love whom you held 
 and fondled because he was your boy whom you trained, 
 educated, toiled for, and loved as you loved yourself upon 
 whom you builded highest hopes for all the future who 
 was to be your staff in old age, the comfort of your soul in 
 your last days. Suppose he had been murdered by a har- 
 lot, you would go to him in the dead-house, you would go 
 to him in the tomb, and you would kiss his pale, dead face, 
 and you would beg to be taken off with him, because you 
 are men with hearts and souls and human love. She is a 
 woman; has she no right here? 
 
 "The defense is characterized, first, by an element of 
 trickery and fraud. Why? Because- the constant effort 
 has been made iu this court-room to impress you with the 
 idea that Theressa Sturla is an insane woman now, and the 
 learned counsel, in one of his addresses, took occasion to 
 remind you that he had for a client a person utterly useless 
 to him. For three long weeks has this defendant sat be- 
 hind the table and never spoken one word to her lawyer, 
 excepting once, and yet the evidence is as positive and 
 conclusive as evidence can be that while this defendant is 
 outside the court-room, the moment this court adjourns 
 at the close of the day she begins a consultation with her 
 lawyer and holds receptions in the county jail. This
 
 STURLA-STTLES TRAGEDY. 
 
 defendant, silent in the court-room, becomes talkative in 
 the jail. 
 
 " Again, there has been forced into this case much that 
 is not true; much of sentimentality that has no foundation. 
 It has been offered here to be shown that a great many peo- 
 ple have gone to see this defendant in the jail. The effort 
 has been made to impress you with the idea that this de- 
 fendant has not been befriended by Carrie Watson, but by 
 other people. Now, I have no fault to find with any pity 
 that is just and right. I have an open hand of recogni- 
 tion for any generous spirit standing by honest trouble; 
 but I do not have so great a respect for mistaken philan- 
 thropy and erroneous pity, The name of a most distin- 
 guished lady, well known in this community, has been 
 mentioned by the counsel for the defendant, and she her- 
 self took the witness-stand. For that lady I have no harsh 
 word to speak, but I beg to say to her in all kindness and 
 proper gallantry: Oh, good madame, will you not this cold 
 December day go with me through the streets and lanes of 
 our great town. Taking my humble hand for guidance, 
 come with me to the pauper homes of the honest poor. 
 Let us go into the country and get green spray from fields 
 and decorate our bounty and prepare a Christmas dinner 
 for the starving children of the honest poor. Let us take 
 it to the cripple, the pauper, the Tiny Tim going hungry 
 on the street, to all those sufferers from human woe. Let 
 us go and aid them. Let us be kind to God's poor, and 
 then afterward take care of the devil's poor. 
 
 "Again the counsel has seen fit to attack with his fiery 
 lash and scourge the white character of a woman who 
 happens to be a witness for the prosecution because she 
 was the mother of the dead boy. On what evidence is 
 this ferocious assault built ? Upon the evidence of people 
 disreputable, of infamous character, vile, and base. On
 
 STUBLA-STILES TRAGEDY. . 225 
 
 this foundation is the fabric of the attack made upon the 
 widow and her relations. Why, gentlemen of the jury, 
 you would not convict a poor woman of the pettiest crime 
 against the law on such evidence. How is it then that a 
 lawyer can build ferocious assaults upon the character of a 
 woman upon so flimsy and miserable a basis ? 
 
 " Again, one other characteristic of the methods of this 
 defense has been an undue and unfounded magnifying of 
 the sufferings of this defendant. Have her sufferings been 
 greater than others have endured ? The world is full of 
 trouble. It is the common lot of men and women and 
 children. Grief is the omen of birth, and trouble sits 
 upon the cradle's edge and whispers in the ear of the 
 child. Woman is the sufferer always. That is the nature 
 of her physical organization. She is the burden-bearer. 
 With her tender love she bears the griefs of man and 
 children. The woman honest, virtuous, good, who never 
 broke a law, who slaves from early morning till midnight 
 hour, who lives upon scanty fare, who takes care of her 
 boys and girls she is a sufferer too. The widow who, 
 even while she stands by the new-made grave of her 
 husband, sees the soil prepared to receive the body of her 
 slain boy does she not suffer ? " 
 
 The State's Attorney then, after showing how the only 
 character presented of Charles Stiles had been that painted 
 by a disappointed woman a professional harlot pro- 
 ceeded to say: 
 
 " They have called him a murderer, a scoundrel, a brute. 
 Why? Because the indicted harlot tells us so. Who is 
 the defendant, Tneressa Sturla? We can answer the 
 question from her own lips. At the age of 15, leaving 
 the shelter of her father's house, where do we find her? 
 Forgetting father and mother, we find her in a house of 
 shame in the city of Baltimore. She there remained for 
 15
 
 226 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 several months, while in the same city was the parental 
 roof-tree ready to shelter and welcome her coming. I have 
 pity for the honorable and unfortunate. I have pity 
 for the regretting bad. I sympathize with the remorse 
 of one who, having done a wrong, regrets the fact, 
 but what sympathy can one- have for one of 15 years who 
 leaves voluntarily, who remains away voluntarily from her 
 father's home in the city of her birth, and follows the life of 
 harlotry all her life, and says she likes it, and would not 
 leave it if she could ? We cannot apply to the mistress 
 and her man the same test of judgment as we apply to a 
 good man and a good woman, his wife, because there are 
 evident responsibilities, risks, dangers, perils in the rela- 
 tions of mistress and man that do not belong to wife and 
 husband. She was a willing tool in this defiance of the 
 rights of home, of morals, of law. Her counsel paints for 
 you only a picture of suffering. "Why not spread upon the 
 canvas all the history of her relations all the scenes of 
 revelry in the houses of shame? She lived at Carrie 
 Watson's; she lived at Eldridge court; she kept her own 
 house of shame at 10 Clark street. She said to Mrs. 
 Robinson, "I love this life; I began it when I was 12 years 
 of age. I can sell more wine and attract more men than 
 any woman in Chicago. I love this life." Do you suppose 
 that if one-hundredth part of her story is true she would 
 have lived so long with this man ? "What bond held her ? 
 What obligation forced a compliance? None whatever. 
 Her living with him is a brand of perjury on the story she 
 has told you." 
 
 The State's Attorney then reviewed carefully the testi- 
 mony presented in the case, varying his analysis of it with 
 many an eloquent comment 
 
 Upon the conclusion of the address the court stated that 
 eighty-nine instructions had been presented to him for the
 
 8TDRLA- STILES TRAGEDY. 227 
 
 jury's consideration, and, as it would take considerable 
 time to read them over before presenting them, he would 
 adjourn court till morning, which was accordingly done. 
 
 "After the jury were instructed they retired, and after 
 remaining out all day and night, on the morning of Dec. 
 15th announced this conclusion, which was evidently a 
 compromise verdict finding her not guilty of murder but 
 guilty of manslaughter with a one year term of imprison- 
 ment. As the jury were filing out of the court-room it 
 was learned that ten of their number were for acquittal, 
 and two (Tobias and Forbes) were for conviction with 
 death penalty punishment. The ten finally agreed to this 
 compromise, for the reason that they thought that the 
 prisoner would have to remain in jail about a year any 
 way before she could be again tried. It will be remem- 
 bered that Tobias and Forbes were the jurors that Trude 
 tried to exclude from the jury." Chicago Times of Dec. 16. 
 
 SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23rd, 1882. 
 
 The defendant requested her counsel not to ask for a 
 new trial. Mr. Trude then said to the court: "Obeying 
 the instructions of my client I do not desire to press the 
 motion formally made for a new trial. Shall the prisoner 
 come forward. 
 
 The Court assented, whereupon Theressa Sturla, with a 
 smile on her face, walked to the space in front of the 
 court, which brought her near E. D. Stiles, uncle of 
 Charles, the murdered man. Upon being asked if she had 
 anything to say replied: 
 
 " I am willing to go to prison for one year. It will take 
 that length of time to get over my dysmenorrhea, (looking 
 at B. D. Stiles). As I go I carry with me the pleasant 
 recollection that ten of the jury stood by me, and that of 
 the other two, one of them Andrew Forbes, was once the
 
 228 STTJRtA-STlLES TBAGHBt. 
 
 keeper of a house of ill fame, and a son of his killed by 
 one of its inmates, and the other Tobias, was put on the 
 jury to convict me, although my lawyer tried to put him 
 off. After thanking her attorney and friends she smilingly 
 awaited what his Honor had to say. Judge Gardner said 
 that it became his duty to carry out the verdict of the 
 jury. I wish to say that you have been as thoroughly 
 defended as any person I have ever seen or ever heard of 
 in the history of criminal cases. I can not in fact conceive 
 of a stronger defense than that interposed by your able 
 and eloquent counsel; this will be seen from the result. 
 Your term is the lowest known to the law. 
 
 "When the Court concluded she with an elastic step went 
 back to jail. Chicago Times, Dec. 24, 1882. 
 
 "As the woman delivered this brief oration she was a 
 picture. Those who saw her during the trial, would not 
 have dreamed her capable of the ironical accent and con- 
 teinptous curl of the lips with which she spoke that portion 
 referring to her complaint. They would have been equally 
 surprised to have witnessed the imperious sweep of the 
 hand which attended the return of thanks to the court." 
 Chicago Tribune, Dec. 24. 

 
 PART III. 
 Conclusions by the Author. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 CRIMES AND CORRUPTIONS RESULTING FROM 
 DESECRATION OF MARRIAGE. 
 
 Is this the finale this the conclusion of this terrible 
 tragedy? Is Chicago, the great maelstrom of iniquity, 
 only to gather up the fragments and pile up the wreck, 
 leaving it to be forgotten ? Is there no word of warning, 
 counsel or information to be given as safeguards to the 
 mariners on life's sea? Has art, music, beauty, talent and 
 love the highest and noblest gifts of the human soul 
 fallen so low as to become the hand-maids of prostitution, 
 dissipation and murder, and we stand by mute and help- 
 less? 
 
 Was it love that caused Theressa Sturla to send the 
 pistol ball through the heart of Charles Stiles, or was it 
 perverted and outraged human nature in the frenzy of pas- 
 sion wresting the prerogative of justice from the hands of 
 the law and asserting itself as embassador of vengeance ? 
 Does the soil of love spontaneously bring forth such' fruit ? 
 Does the gentle lamb in a moment change to a ravenous 
 wolf the cooing dove to a venomous serpent? Nay, it is 
 the want of love that makes prostitutes, libertines, paupers, 
 and I might truly say, is the primal cause of all the misery 
 in this world. 
 
 The doctrine of love was the central theme of all the
 
 230 STUBLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 preaching and labors of Christ. "Love thy neighbor as 
 thy self. Love thine enemies. Love them that hate you. 
 Do good to them that persecute and revile you and say all 
 manner of evil against you," were the precepts He gave, 
 and which He followed by loving and merciful examples. 
 And all through the meandering years that have followed 
 His advent has humanity been tortured, scourged, starved 
 and driven to frenzy for want of love. And to-day, the 
 want of it in the home, between husband and wife, parents 
 and children, brothers and sisters, in the neighborhood, in 
 the church, and in the entire world is what is causing the 
 misery and strife. Love unites, but never separates. It 
 feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, comforts the afflicted, 
 reclaims the wanderer, and forgives the erring. Love is 
 God, and God is love. It fits man for the companionship 
 of angels and allies him with Divinity. It is the perversion 
 of this strongest and holiest passion that leads men and 
 women to surfeit the animal desires, then turn upon its 
 recipient with disgust, loathing and hatred. Then human 
 intelligence gives it another name, calling it lust. 
 
 Love is the reality, lust the fiction; love is the wheat, 
 lust the chaff ; love is the poetry and harmony of life, lust 
 the jargon and discord; love is Heaven, lust is Hell. 
 
 That Charles Stiles and Theressa Sturla each possessed 
 the elements which, if directed in proper channels, would 
 have made them capable of love earnest and pure, and a 
 life of more than ordinary brilliancy and usefulnes there is no 
 doubt, but it is equally certain from the evidences shown in 
 their entire career, that the baser passion became the dom- 
 inant power which controlled their unitious and their 
 separations and was at last the cause of the terrible crime 
 which terminated his life and branded her with the mark 
 of Cain. And now, having summed up the trial and their 
 history, it seems to be the duty of intelligence and mercy,
 
 STUIILA-STILES TRAGEDY. 231 
 
 in the interests of unstained womanllood and honest man. 
 hood, and in behalf of innocent childhood, to explore the 
 ground still before us, and, if possible, restrain their feet 
 from following in the loveless, sorrowful pathway strewn 
 with broken vows and with the sad wreck of human hearts. 
 
 What a picture is the life of Charles Stiles and Theressa 
 Sturla for our children to look upon! What an experience 
 was hers for a girl of twenty-three in the morning of 
 womanhood with a life-time before her, full of promises, 
 of happiness and usefulness in the sphere of purity 
 and goodness wasting her wealth of love the unsearch- 
 able riches of her woman's heart, and abasing her virtues 
 in a life of shame 1 And Charles Stiles, with all his talent 
 and brilliant powers, which fitted him . for the higher and 
 better walks of life, consumed in the fire of dissipation and 
 infamy ! 
 
 But with all this appalling scene before us, the question 
 comes home to us, as responsible beings, does this crime 
 belong wholly to the parties who enacted it ? If so, what 
 part of it belongs to the woman what part to her victim ? 
 But a more important query than all to what extent are 
 we responsible for this and the many similar crimes com- 
 mitted under the auspices of our social, religious, political 
 and educational institutions ? 
 
 Muy not society, after all, be responsible for every sinner 
 it has in it ? May not these sinners be God's avenging 
 angels sent to chastise us as a people for our remissness in 
 duty, our lack in vigilence in keeping pure the fountain's 
 head f Does not the putrid corpse of Charles Stiles lie at 
 the door of our institutions? Does not the human gore 
 which drips from the hands of the murderess fall upon the 
 threshold of Church and State ? 
 
 If our institutions are sending one to the grave and the 
 other to the prison or gallows, it may become the duty of
 
 232 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 some one who sees with more than eyes and hears with 
 more than ears to sound a note of alarm. 
 
 The Sturla-Stiles tragedy is by no means an isolated 
 one would that it were. Neither are these tragedies con- 
 fined to that class of people who are openly immoral. 
 Though no two of them may be alike, and though thou- 
 sands of them may never reach the public ear, yet daily 
 and hourly are dreadful sacrifices made upon the altar of 
 this " abomination of desolation " set up in the place of 
 the " holy of holies." 
 
 "Various theories have been put forth by clergymen and 
 moral reformers, still the torrent of crime is like the rush 
 of many waters, and our ears are filled with cries of murder 
 and rapine on every hand, and the arbitrary enforcement 
 of law fails utterly to stay its headlong course. 
 
 If the enforcement of law was sufficient in itself to sup- 
 press crime; if the leaders in society who claim to be 
 virtuous, law-abiding and peace-loving citizens are really 
 so, then will crimes like the one under consideration be 
 known only amongst that class who are openly regardless 
 of law. But do we find this to be the case? Nay. There 
 are, probably, as many tragedies and crimes within the 
 pale of legalized marriage as among the social outcasts. 
 The records of our criminal courts, as well as the circula- 
 ting literature of the day, is virtually smirched with ac- 
 counts of elopements of married people, and of divorces, 
 of wife-beating, wife-murder and husband-murder, and 
 thousands of lawyers in our criminal courts feed and thrive 
 upon these abuses of the marriage relation. 
 
 A large proportion of married people are studying how 
 they may become unmarried, and would resort to any strata- 
 gem or expend any amount of money to rid themselves of 
 the self-imposed compact, and if they can not influence or 
 bribe those who administer the law to come to the rescue,
 
 STURLA-8TILES TRAGEDY. 233 
 
 they chafe under the conjugal yoke and lead lives of secret 
 warfare which, if not ending in murder or suicide, can be 
 no more nor less than a consuming fire which burns out all 
 the holier or better feelings and causes a torture, to which 
 Nebuchadnezzar's seven-fold heated furnace were a rose- 
 garden. "We believe that the universal lack in the moral 
 foundation of marriage is a prolific source of crime and li- 
 centiousness. Intrigue and a " pet " or lover, aside from 
 the wife or husband, has become the ruling ambition in cer- 
 tain aristocratic circles. Hotels, parks, theatres, houses of 
 assignation yes, and post-offices are largely patronized by 
 those who associate and correspond under assumed names 
 and relations. Hence, the sexes have become suspicious 
 and wary of each other, and the unmarried prefer to re- 
 main so rather than run the risk of getting a companion 
 who would practice intrigue and infidelity upon them, simi- 
 lar to what they have been guilty of practicing upon 
 others. 
 
 All these things go to prove that arbitrary law can not, of 
 itself, change the tendencies of the heart. 
 
 Law, man-made, can not unite or separate hearts no more 
 than it can force the buds and blossoms to unfold, the sun 
 to shine or be hid under a cloud, the wind to blow a storm 
 or gentle breeze. A law may be passed forbidding those 
 who love purely and truly from dwelling together, and be- 
 ing to each other a moral and spiritual help and solace; it 
 may force the semblance of union and make one say he 
 loves that which in his soul he detests, but this only adds 
 to the number of law-breakers and hypocrites already in the 
 world, and desecrates the institution of marriage. 
 
 True marriage is divine. It is the garden of the soul 
 where all the sweet and fragrant flowers of love grow in 
 beauty and symetry. Legislation can only throw a hedge 
 around it to protect it from intruders. The ceremony if
 
 234 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 subservient to the higher law is merely an acknowledgment 
 of a pre-existing union of hearts, giving the pair legal pro- 
 tection as life partners and can be perpetuated by moral 
 rather than legal keeping, and when sincere attachment is 
 the basis no coercive means are necessary to make it eter- 
 nal, no more than it is necessary to hold the law prohibiting 
 murder and theft over the heads of moral people to restrain 
 them from committing those crimes. The law does not 
 touch them. They live above it, being a law unto them- 
 selves. Thia law of self-purity and self-government is the 
 law which makes obedience a virtue in itself, and elevates 
 its subject to nobility and grandeur of soul, and enables him 
 to wield an influence for good greater than that of the 
 greatest monarch that ever sat upon a throne. That the 
 majority have not yet reached a condition of moral unfold- 
 ment which enables them to comprehend, much less prac- 
 tice, this higher and better law, is true. That extraneous 
 means are necessary, wholesome and proper in regulating 
 these things, is self-evident. And it is doubtful whether 
 any theory put forth by social iconoclasts would in its prac- 
 tical application result in a better state of things than now 
 exists. And we can but conclude that reform in this direc- 
 tion, as well as others, must be a matter of growth, of edu- 
 cation. 
 
 Every thing in the world's history and in individual ex- 
 perience tends to prove that the higher the state of civiliza- 
 tion, of moral growth, and individual culture, the more ex- 
 clusive and durable does marriage become. And we be- 
 lieve that any theory or doctrine which would undermine 
 the lasting union between one man and one woman is a 
 relic of barbarism, and should be discountenanced by every 
 moral person. 
 
 Every fleeting attraction is a step backward, not forward, 
 in the scale of civilization, and only when the divinity of
 
 8TURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 235 
 
 love aiid the holy purpose of marriage shall have been com- 
 prehended, and entered into, with wisdom and obedience to 
 the higher intuitions of the heart, and all sexual relations 
 based upon and understood to grow out of a union of mind 
 and heart, will prostitution cease. 
 
 The man or woman who is worthy tne name o* manhood 
 :ind womanhood will not debase themselves by merely sex- 
 ual indulgence a companionship based upon a mere differ- 
 ence of sex, beauty of person, or mercenary interests. They 
 will seek reciprocity of mind and heart and tastes as well 
 as physical adaptation, and we believe that such marriages 
 seldom call for divorce. 
 
 Separations are unnatural and repugnant to all moral 
 people. And even when mistakes, and lack of wisdom in 
 forming the alliance, has made it unavoidable, which, alas, 
 is too often the case, it is invariably attended with the mqpt 
 acute anguish of mind and heart, with any person who is 
 capable of deep and true r Section. None except those who 
 are depraved morally oft*BQ or reckless would willingly 
 abandon one whom they had taken to their hearts as hus- 
 band or wife. 
 
 But ambition, want, or the stress of circumstances often 
 induce women, especially, to marry. And when a woman 
 marries for a home, for money or for position in society, 
 thus placing the highest and purest relation known to the 
 sexes on a mercenary basis, her sense of virtue and delicacy 
 is as essentially blunted and she sells herself as veritably as 
 her poorer and less fortunate sisters who make a wholesale 
 business of their sexuality and become public prostitutes. 
 
 This marriage of mind and heart is invulnerable to the 
 ravages of time or to the interference of law, as has often 
 been proved by the inflexible determination of persons who 
 have been thwarted in their early attachments, to live lives 
 of celibacy, or if persuaded to marry any other than the
 
 236 STUBLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 heart's chosen mate, the inevitable unhappiness resulting 
 therefrom. A higher duty may come between the parties 
 circumstances may forbid their dwelling together, but the 
 heart-union is no less indissoluble. And where marriage is 
 formed upon a union of hearts there grows around it all 
 lesser interests of a temporal nature, of thoughts and mem- 
 ories that grow and strengthen with the years. 
 
 That there are instances where natural antagonism arises 
 and breaks through all this is too true, and a condition 
 could scarcely be imagined which would be more wretched 
 than that which would result from two persons being com- 
 pelled to inhabit the same house and to meet daily in the 
 closest relations, having toward each other only an increas- 
 ing vicious feeling, engendering ill-temper, fault-finding, 
 carelessness, and a total lack of self-respect and respect for 
 each other. Such a condition of things destroys the peace 
 of the entire household and breeds quarrels and bickerings 
 among children, and is a direct incentive to licentiousness 
 and secret and debasing sexual relations. 
 
 Marriage, the family, the home, should be the sanctum 
 sanctorum, the " holy of holies." The place where kind- 
 ness, charity and love reigns supreme, and the home where 
 contentions, selfishness and discord exists is a burlesque 
 upon human intelligence and is accursed. 
 
 I can not so well express my own sentiments upon this 
 grandest and greatest of subjects as by quoting the 
 language of Robert G. Ingersoll, who though an infidel 
 according to the comon acceptation, has in my opinion 
 gone deeper into the lore of love and human justice than 
 any other man or woman in the land. He says: " 1 regard 
 marriage as the holiest institution among men. Without the 
 fireside there is no human advancement; ivithout the family 
 relation there is no life worth living. Every good government 
 is made up of good families. The unit of government is the
 
 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 237 
 
 family, and anything that tends to destroy the family is perfectly 
 dcvlish and infamous. I BELIEVE IN MABBIAGE, and I hold in 
 utter contempt the opinions of long haired men and short 
 haired women who denounce the institution of marriage. * 
 * * The- grandest ambition that any man can possibly have 
 is to so live and improve himself in heart and brain as to be 
 worthy of the love of some splendid woman, and the grandest 
 ambition of any girl is to make herself worthy of the love and 
 adoration of some magnificent man. * * * There is no 
 success in life without it. If you are the grand empercr of 
 the world you had better be the grand emperor of one lon'ny 
 heart and she the grand empress of yours. THE MAN WHO HAS 
 
 REALLY WON THE LOVE OF ONE GOOD WOMAN IN THIS WORLD, I DO 
 NOT CARE IF HE DIES IN THE DITCH A BEGGAR, HIS LlFE HAS BEEN A 
 SUCCESS." 
 
 But while the marriage contract should, above all 
 others, be made with the greatest deliberation, it is often 
 made with greater recklessness than that of any other 
 co-partnership. Indeed, the acquaintance between the 
 parties is seldom formed under circumstances which bring 
 out the real character of the man or woman. It is usually 
 formed in the drawing room, or perhaps in the ball room 
 or at some place of amusement where the participants are 
 on dress parade and society manners, and is purely super- 
 ficial. A handsome foot and ankle, a pair of brilliant eyes, 
 a naked perfect arm, a fine bust, a head of luxuriant hair, 
 a fine singer or an adept at the piano, or in the waltz, fills 
 the ideal of the average young man of society. (All honor 
 and praise to the gift of music, to the poetry of motion in 
 the dance, and to physical beauty and grace. They are 
 worthy of emulation, but if not accompanied by beauty 
 and goodness of soul, they are as sounding brass and tink- 
 ling cymbals. ) The man of the world selects a wife, as he 
 would a horse, for her physical beauty and adaptation to
 
 238 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 the place he wants to put her in. He does not regard her 
 as an equal or as a soul companion, but as a play thing for 
 his leisure moments, a superb doll which he decorates with 
 jewels, laces, and finery and shows off as a brilliant ap- 
 pendage to his elegance and style. Or perhaps the girl has 
 a rich father, and he has an eye to that, and when he 
 stands at the altar, instead of marrying the bride whose 
 hand he holds in his he is really marrying her father's 
 money. 
 
 The young lady of society accepts a husband on the 
 same plane of external considerations. She estimates him 
 according to the value and brilliancy of the diamonds he 
 wears, the elegance of his " turn out," and for his polished 
 manners. Slie looks upon him as her legalized gallant. 
 She is proud of his style, proud of his servants, of the 
 pearls, diamonds, and luxuriant home he keeps her in. 
 Do such marriages form the basis of homes where domestic 
 peace and the joy of real companionship is known? No, 
 they are homes where the laughter and prattle of innocent 
 childhood is seldom heard. They are homes where mater- 
 nity, the God given crown of woman's glory and joy, is not 
 regarded as a welcome or sacred event. They are hom'es 
 where children are considered burthens and hinderances 
 where children are neglected by the mothers, who should 
 be their most constant companions, and left to the capiices 
 and wiles of ignorant servants. They are homes where 
 children are not permitted to come into the world if there 
 is sufficient potency in the skill of the druggist or abor- 
 tionist, to prevent them. The unborn babe is not only 
 murdered but the mother by her murderous practice, her- 
 self, becomes a suicide. Healthy, frugal and industrious 
 mothers like the mother of our great and noble Lincoln, 
 Garfield, Elaine and others, are the exceptions, and families 
 of healthy and frolicsome children are entirely out of
 
 8TURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 239 
 
 fashion, and only found in the homes of the poor and 
 ignorant laborers. 
 
 Physicians are constantly annoyed with disgusting im- 
 portunities from ladies for abortions or some method by 
 which they may escape motherhood; and from gentlemen 
 who are either suffering from unmentionable diseases, or 
 wh? are the fathers or seducers of some beautiful and 
 respectable girl, and would bribe or pursuade the physician 
 to commit a murder, or devise some means by which her 
 shame may be hid from the world and they absolved from 
 disgrace. If the co -operation of the M. D. can be obtained 
 it is all arranged very nicely and respectably ? 
 
 The girl disappears for a time from the circles where she 
 has been a shining star makes a tour to Europe or per- 
 haps visits some friend in California. After a few months 
 if the unborn is not murdered, another foundling is added 
 to some hospital or left upon the marble door-stone of 
 some wealthy mansion, and the girl-mother returns to her 
 home a trifle paler and sadder than before. But her 
 pride stimulates her to resume her former round of gayety, 
 and though it has now no attractions for her wounded 
 heart, she goes deeper than ever into vanity and deceit 
 that she may dispel the shadow that hangs over her soul, 
 and effectually hide from the world the fact which pride, 
 custom or law cannot annihilate. The laws of God and 
 nature cannot be set aside or their effects be ignored. The 
 tie of mother-hood is sacre 1 whether legalized or not. 
 
 " A child was given to sanctify 
 
 A woman set her in the .sight of all 
 
 The clear eyod heavens, a chosen minister 
 
 To do their Inisiii : ! *i>iriis up 
 
 The difficult blue heights! \Vh;it woman lives 
 
 Not bettered, quickeiii'.: toward the truth and good 
 
 Through being a mother? " 
 
 But many a girl, naturally noble and pure of heart, who
 
 240 STUKLA-STILES TRAGEDY- 
 
 in an unguarded moment yields to the smiles, caresses and 
 flattery of the man she loves; makes a wreck of her entire 
 future, and through disappointment, wounded pride and 
 recklessness, becomes a secretly wicked and abandoned 
 woman. 
 
 If all the illicit practices, from one cause and another, 
 existing in the higher walks of life were disclosed, and if 
 many of those who are now regarded as patterns of excel- 
 lence and virtue, and who appear to be supremely happy, 
 could be shorn of their ornaments and the protection 
 which wealth and position throws around them, we should 
 not only see many lacerated hearts, but many an one as 
 stark and bare of the moral qualities which clothe and 
 beautify the soul as was ever Theressa Sturla's. And it is a 
 fact demonstrated on every hand, that these unnatural 
 customs have led not only to moral depravity, but to 
 disease and physical deterioration. 
 
 There is scarcely a healthy woman to be found in all the 
 land, except among the peasantry and immigrants who 
 have not yet become educated in the arts of society. 
 
 Two-thirds of the women we meet with are no more nor 
 less than bundles of weak and sensitive nerves. They can 
 endure nothing, accomplish nothing worthy the name of 
 woman, and in their later years drag out a miserable pale- 
 faced hypochondriac existence and die prematurely. And 
 how is it with the offspring of such mothers? Do any of 
 our orators, inventors, statesmen or great and good men 
 spring from such parentage ? Nay, the children who have 
 had the hardihood to survive the attempts at fceticide, are 
 nervous, excitable, intemperate, sickly and licentious, and 
 grow up to be, if not utterly wicked and corrupt, to say 
 the least, but weak minded dandies and flirts mere 
 excuses for men and women, living in a round, of what 
 might properly be denominated high toned iniquity.
 
 CHAPTEE H. 
 
 EARLY INFLUENCES AND EDUCATION, AS AF- 
 FECTING CHARACTER. 
 
 In view of all these things we can but come to the con- 
 clusion that the cause of evil as well as good lies greatly in 
 circumstances over which children have but little control. 
 
 It is necessary in order to have good children, good men 
 and good women, that they be conceived in love and purity 
 that they be born right and reared right. There is no 
 other effectual means by which crime and corruption can be 
 permanently cured 
 
 The home and fireside is the nucleus of all reform. 
 Good example, careful and attentive domestic discipline, is 
 the surest foundation for good communities. When wise, 
 kind and judicious home training lead children to honor 
 and obey their parents and to be correct and orderly in 
 their habits, the early habit of obedience and good behavior 
 becomes second nature and in after years it is less difficult 
 to conform to the laws and regulations which have a wider 
 range. But in the present generation there is a universal 
 and deplorable carelessness in the home training, and much 
 of the recklessness and wickedness of after years is directly 
 attributable to this cause. 
 
 Indeed, the memories and influences of childhood have 
 in all human souls been deepest planted and most perma- 
 nently grown. 
 
 The aged grandsire and granddame, having climbed the 
 long weary hillside, look with tearful, longing eyes, down 
 the slope to the old, old home, and in the soft sweet light 
 16
 
 242 STURLA-STTLES TRAGEDY. 
 
 of memory linger around its hallowed precincts, listening 
 to the kindly counsel of the dear old father and mother 
 whose voices were long since hushed, and feeling the warmth 
 of kindness and sympathy which beamed from the loved 
 faces that gathered around the glowing hearth in the long 
 ago. All the experiences and joys of after years are as 
 naught when compared with these. 
 
 But, alas, how frequently does the aged sinner whose life 
 has been full of sorrow and whose gray hairs are as a crown 
 of thorns upon his head, turn with bitter memories toward 
 hfs childhood, where scenes of -turmoil, strife and drunken- 
 ness drove him from the home into the wide world, with no 
 word of counsel or love to guide his steps and no incentive 
 in his heart but that of hatred toward his fellow men. 
 
 The parents are the child's first teacher, and its educa- 
 tion begins long before its mind is conscious of the objec- 
 tive world. I would not be understood to here use the 
 word education in its mere technical sense of a school and 
 books, for, indeed, books and schools approach very slowly 
 that which we most need to know in practical life. The 
 child is often, through these, brought into a maze of mys- 
 teries and theories which darken and perplex rather than 
 unfold the mind. I would employ the word education in 
 its integral sense, applying it to every faculty of the nrind^ 
 heart and body. This education begins with the very germ 
 of life and ends only when life ends. 
 
 Our every breath, every motion and pulsation is a push- 
 ing out or expression of mind an elimination of some 
 thought or motive which is reaching forward to some object 
 beyond, and there is nothing in the wide world that is so 
 diminutive or trifling as not to make an expression upon 
 our lives and serve as incentives or educators. Looks, ges- 
 tures, and even the intonations of voices are the child's ed- 
 ucators long beiore it discovers a meaning in words.
 
 STURLA-STTLES TRAGEDY. * 243 
 
 The face of the mother, beaming with its wondrous wealth 
 of love, as she bends over the cradle, the caressing touch of 
 her hand, her warm, sweet kiss upon the baby cheek, the 
 low soothing tone of her voice and the tender melody of 
 the nursery songs are educators, beginning their work in 
 the unconscious dawn of the child's love-life, and as it ad- 
 vances on life's journey it is all the way being instructed by 
 its surroundings. The atmosphere, the landscape, the over- 
 hanging sky, whether clear or cloudy, the pictures on our 
 walls, the hue and pattern of the carpets on our floors, and 
 every person we meet with are our educators. 
 
 It has been said by a noted mental philosopher that it is 
 impossible for a person to enter a room and come out the 
 same as he was before. Even inanimate objects and scenes 
 have the power to awaken feelings of awe and devotion, and 
 we can but compare the human soul to a many-stringed in- 
 strument which vibrates at the touch of every thing it meets. 
 The nursery the home is the starting point, the nucleus 
 of life and when we leave it and go out into the world we 
 diffuse what we have taken on, there. And in all the after 
 life we are constantly giving and receiving, ever dependent 
 upon our surroundings as our educators. In the tender- 
 ness of childhood these impressions are more readily re- 
 ceived and more openly and unreservedly repeated. Hence 
 the conduct of children is often the open book in which may 
 be read the sealed page of the parental heart. In the play- 
 ground is often enacted in pantomime the hypocracies, en- 
 vyings and strife which obtains in maturer years, and we 
 are shown that men and women are after all but children 
 of larger growth amusing themselves with noisier tops and 
 finer kites. 
 
 The average child in what is called high society is scarcely 
 out of the cradle before it is an adept in the little knacks of 
 deception. The highest ambition of the little girl is to be
 
 244 STUBLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 mincy, nobby and showy, to play the piano, have soft, white 
 hands, little dainty feet, and not to know how to do any 
 thing like work that would make her coarse and vulgar, 
 just like the children of the poor and ignorant, and would 
 never do. 
 
 Boys, also, learn early that to drive a sharp bargain, to 
 get money by trickishness and deceit, that to drink wine, 
 wear diamonds and smoke cigars is a sure indication of a 
 gentleman, and that the less there is of honest toil and fru- 
 gality and simplicity of taste, the more distinguished he will 
 be. 
 
 He learns to regard his sisters as only tender house- 
 plants or toys to admire or amuse himself with, not as 
 creatures having qualities of mind and heart fitting her to 
 compete with him at the school or fireside. Hence, the girl 
 grows up with enervated nerves and a weak will which only 
 fits her for the flattery and caprices of men, and the boys 
 naturally enough carry their earlier impressions through 
 life and become social egotists and domestic tyrants. 
 
 Fathers in the wealthier circles at the present day are so 
 eager in the pursuit of gain, so engrossed in the business 
 which brings them affluence and position that they have no 
 time to attend to the small matter of training their sons. 
 The ruling ambition of the day is to hoard money, and, as 
 a rule, men of the world spend their lives in amassing 
 wealth and bequeath it to their children, who spend it in 
 extravagance, dissipation and profligacy. 
 
 Mothers are equally absorbed in the ambition for popu- 
 larity. Her whole time is devoted to the entertaining of 
 fashionable guests, in making calls, attending receptions, 
 balls and theatres, and in selecting her toilet and informing 
 herself upon matters of fashion and etiquette. She has no 
 time for the nursery and companionship of her children* 
 Hence the little hearts that are ever thirsting for love, even
 
 8TURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 245 
 
 as the flowers thirst for the sunshine and sweet showers, are 
 left to starve or become perverted by the bad influences of 
 those who have no intelligence or interest in them. 
 
 Again, if we follow the chain to the other extreme to the 
 filthy alleys and sub-cellars where children are born and 
 nursed in the very lap of poverty and crime where hu- 
 manity is met at the cradle with brutality and followed by 
 it to the tomb, where children tremble at the sound of the 
 father's approaching footsteps, and who never hear their 
 names spoken by the lips of the mother except in abuses 
 and curses, our hearts can but go out in pity, and if there 
 be a prayer-hearing and a prayer-answering God we would 
 plead that He give us wisdom and power to save, but no 
 heart to condemn. 
 
 Mothers! fathers! look after your children; love them 
 more ; counsel them ; guard them more closely. " The infant 
 in the cradle or the child playing at your feet will be to you 
 a blessing or a curse, accordingly as you love and protect 
 them, or neglect them." 
 
 A kiss upon the lips of childhood is a more powerful re- 
 straint than the lash upon the back. Children need love 
 and kindness more than money, and there are in the world 
 a thousand-fold more human beings starving for love than 
 for bread.
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 SOCIAL AND MORAL INEQUALITY OF THE SEXES 
 
 ENCOURAGES LIBERTINISM. MAN 
 
 AND WOMAN. 
 
 The purity and civilization of society has increased just 
 in proportion as woman has advanced toward a position of 
 moral, social and intellectual equality with man. But while 
 crime and immorality should be considered equally repre- 
 hensible in both sexes, men, especially in the worldly circles 
 of society which claims for itself distinction and popularity, 
 are distinguished in proportion to their convivial and rakish 
 qualifications. But while the libertine is virtually encour- 
 aged his victim is invariably a by-word and the subject of 
 coarse jests and vulgar ribaldry. Hence, men have naturally 
 enough learned to regard their immoral practices as only a 
 little, cunning and harmless flirtation, and not only excus.i- 
 ble but quite complimentary to their attractive abilities. 
 And these practices are not confined to the circle of unmar- 
 ried men and those who proclaim themselves irresponsible 
 and men of the world, but prevails with married men as 
 well men who occupy responsible positions and should be 
 examples to the young. 
 
 If we could make a circuit through our cities at any time 
 between the hours of 8 o'clock p. m. and midnight, visiting 
 the saloons, brothels, and houses of infamy, we will find a 
 large proportion of their guests to be married men men 
 who claim to be respectable, men who are the heads of fam-
 
 STURIA- STILES TRAGEDY* 247 
 
 ilies, men who have wives, "sons and daughters who look up 
 or down to them as examples. 
 
 How would it be if some of these respectable (?) men 
 should return to their homes some night and liud the wife 
 of their bosom, the mother of their children, absent on a 
 similar errand to the one they have been engaged in, or at 
 home revelling in wine and debauchery with some aban- 
 doned man ? How many homes are there that would not 
 immediately become the scene of tragedy and murder ? For 
 where is there a man that would for a moment bear the 
 known infidelity of a wife? Still there are hundreds of 
 women who know these things of their husbands, and 
 through fear, pride, or love, hide his crime from the world 
 and submit to a life of heartache and smothered grief which 
 at last wears her into the grave. Why it is that men claim 
 immunity from self-degradation, and corruption, is beyond 
 tho power of human wisdom to divine. 
 
 It seems to me that in the eyes of justice and righteous- 
 ness man and woman stands equal iii accountability for 
 their acts, and that the man who would have his wife pure 
 ami loyal should be so himself, and that both should havo 
 the wisdom to appreciate the joy which pure and true love 
 brings to the heart, and for their own happiuess, (if not from 
 a higher motive, being true for the sake of truth,) pay trib- 
 ute to its worth by adhering to its behests. 
 
 In the name of truth and purity we fail to see the moral 
 difference between a house of ill-fame, occupied by women 
 who entertain men of the same character as themselves, and 
 a club-house or club-rooms where men fraternize or become 
 contrabands in gambling, drinking and debauchery. AYo 
 fail to see tho moral difference between the harlot who is 
 bramlt-d l>v all decent people and scarcely permitted to walk 
 the stivi-U l>y day-light and the libertine and gambler who 
 drinks with her in her saloon, sits by her side in the theatre
 
 248 STURLA-STELES TRAGEDY. 
 
 and consorts "with her until his base passions are surfeited. 
 And it is our opinion if all the male prostitutes who wear 
 diamonds, drink champagne and sport in infamy were ta- 
 booed, ostracised, as is .the female prostitute, there would 
 be a thinning out in the ranks of men greater than was 
 made by the war. Our streets, parlors, theatres and 
 churches would be as desolate as though the land had been 
 stricken by a plague, and it is possible that tlirough man's 
 inordinate ambition for popularity he would be led to re- 
 form. 
 
 But it is not men alone that make the distinction in the 
 moral amenability of men and women, but to the shame of 
 woman, be it said, woman is often the worst enemy of her 
 sex. While she welcomes the libertine, gives him free 
 access to her home and trusts her innocent daughters in 
 his society, his victim, even though she reform, is bur- 
 lesqued all the days of her life; and it is frequently the 
 case that the woman who is really immoral herself, but 
 who through her sagacity or intrigue has hid the fact from 
 the world and gained a position in society, is the one most 
 bitter in contempt of these, so called, outcasts. Such a 
 woman is often the one most likely to gather her garments 
 closely about her, fearing that their hem shall touch those 
 of her polluted sister. She is the one who sits with cold, 
 saintly dignity upon the immaculate heights of popularity, 
 which she has gained through her sagacity rather than her 
 real worth, not deigning to reach down and touch, even 
 with her finger ends, her unfortunate sister woman, who, 
 perhaps, with one word of encouragement or recognition 
 from one of her sex, would take courage to rise in the 
 strength of her womanhood and obey the behests of her 
 better nature, as did the woman of old to whom the Savior 
 said, in his sweet spirit of forgiveness: " Neither do I con- 
 demn thee; go and sin no more,"
 
 BTURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 249 
 
 It is difficult, indeed, for a woman who has taken a false 
 step to reform, for the reason that she has not only to over- 
 come her own deep sense of degradation, but to battle 
 against the overpowering scorn of her own sex and the 
 sneers and insults of men. 
 
 That woman should be uncharitable to woman is incom- 
 prehensible a seeming contradiction to her nature. Man 
 at the best, with all his far-reaching wisdom, can be but a 
 weak, poor judge of woman's heart. "Man is strength, 
 woman is beauty; man is courage, woman is love." And 
 it is impossible for him to comprehend the delicacy and 
 extreme sensitiveness of her nature. In body, mind and 
 heart woman is of finer and choicer mold than man. At 
 the same time and for this very reason she is more suscep- 
 tible to the influences which bear directly upon her spirit- 
 ual nature, and as the sweetest things are bitterest when 
 turned, so she, when perverted, sinks lower in the scale of 
 degredation, just in proportion, as she is capable of soar- 
 ing higher in her ideal and devotional aspirations. 
 
 In these conclusions, suggested by the tragedy under 
 consideration, it is not our purpose to pronounce a eulogy 
 upon woman or to seek to exculpate her, but would, if 
 possible, place upon her as well as upon man a true and 
 just estimate. And we believe that the facts and senti- 
 ments herein presented are those universally conceded by 
 men as well as women, who form their conclusions upon 
 the basis of intelligence and morality. With the morally 
 unfolded, woman is recognized as the creature of man's 
 especial care and adoration. As mother, wife, sister and 
 daughter her influence is ever over him, and the man who 
 is worthy the name of man would die rather than dishonor 
 her. 
 
 Woman's love is the morning and evening star of the 
 home and fireside. It is the star that never sets. It shinea
 
 250 STURLA-STTLES TRAGEDY. 
 
 over the cradle ; it soothes the pain and kisses the tear from 
 childhood's cheek; in the midnight hour it sheds its soft 
 light over the couch of pain and sickness; it follows' the 
 prodigal child through the checkered and oft times dark- 
 ened path of sin; in the hour of adversity and misfortune 
 it is the guiding star of hope to the husband, reaching after 
 him even to the gutter, and in the sweet light of forgive- 
 ness and love seeks to lift him up and lead him to a better 
 life; it shines over the tomb and goes not down in the 
 night of affliction. 
 
 Man is what woman makes him; woman is what man 
 makes her; they are mutually the blessing or curse of 
 each other. In the language of Longfellow: 
 
 "As unto the bow the cord is, 
 
 So unto the man is woman, 
 
 Though she bend him she obeys him, 
 
 Though she lead him still she follows 
 
 Useless one without the other." 
 
 Man's infidelity to woman; woman's infidelity to man is 
 a curse to the home, to society and to the world. 
 
 We should have a reformation in society, greater than 
 has been wrought through the instrumentality of all the 
 legislatures, courts and pulpits in the laud, if every woman 
 could be so educated and trained as to fully appreciate the 
 excellence and power of womanly virtue and chastity, and 
 to maintain it through the exercise of her own personal 
 rights and freedom, being the arbiter of her own destiny, 
 obeying the behests and instincts of her own nature, and 
 were man so educated in self-purity as to enable him to 
 occupy the place God designed him to occupy toward 
 woman, being to her a friend and protector, honoring her 
 virtue as a woman and as the mother of his kind. But 
 instead of this, man is the creature to be most dreaded and 
 feared by woman he is as a beast of prey which crouches 
 in the secret places and lurks in the dark alleys and street
 
 8TURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 251 
 
 corners that he may ensnare and devour her. "But," 
 says one, " those are not gentlemen who do those things 
 they are the roughs the outlaws, and there are plenty of 
 women who are just as bad." Granted they are roughs 
 and outlaws and resort to brute force to accomplish their 
 vile purpose. But are they really any worse than men who 
 take a more refined and gentlemanly course to accomplish 
 the same end, and who claim better things ? 
 
 As to there being plenty of women equally as bad, I 
 would ask who ever heard of a woman gratifying her lust 
 by brute force, then murdering her victim, leaving only his 
 mangled corpse to tell the story of his fate ? Who ever 
 lu-ar.l of a woman seducing a man and forsaking the off- 
 spring of their mutual sin or love, as the case may be, leav- 
 ing it to perish or be rescued by the hand of charity? Who 
 ever heard of a woman endowed with even a rudimentary 
 maternal affection who would voluntarily abandon her 
 babe, illegitimate though it be? Nay there is not one 
 woman in a thousand who would do this except that she is 
 compelled by the crushing stress of the conditions which 
 society enforces upon her; and in most instances she will 
 not only cling to her babe with a tenacity which refuses to 
 yield, but equally to her betrayer who abuses and maligns 
 her. This fact we have verified in the case of Theressa 
 Sturla. 
 
 But man has a convenient way of making the ballauce 
 in the scale of justice incline toward himself. He frames 
 all sorts of excuses for himself, on account of his over- 
 powering passions, the insidious wiles of wicked wnncn, 
 etc. Then he turns around and burlesques women as his 
 inferior, calls her the weaker vessel and makes the sillk^t 
 excuses for her dereliction. In a local paper I read the 
 following paragraph: "Some outcast women fall in lovo 
 with men, become slaves to their affections and delight in
 
 252 STURLA-STILES TKAGEDY. 
 
 bestowing gifts upon their idol. It is the one diversion 
 from the miseries and horrors of their degraded lives." 
 This shows that even in her worst condition of degradation 
 there are occasional glimpses of her better instincts. It is 
 not to be diverted from the horrors and miseries of her 
 life that she bestows her affections upon these unworthy 
 objects. The woman whose heart was wholly corrupt and 
 incapable of affection, would never choose such means for 
 diversion. It is her craving for love that impels her. It 
 is the pleading aspirations of her better nature struggling 
 and reaching upwards through the darkness of sin, toward 
 the light the sweet light of the purer and better life.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 DEGRADATION OF LABOR, AND EXTRAVAGANCE 
 IN DRESS AS CAUSES OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 " The statistics of the social evil shows that an aban- 
 doned life is not chosen by one in ten of the fallen. The 
 stress of circumstances has drawn them into it. And it is 
 the unanimous testimony of physicians, the ones most 
 competent to judge, that women as a rule are modest and 
 virtuous to a degree which men find it difficult to compre- 
 hend. Indiscretion, credulity, starvation and an over- 
 weening love of dress are the chief causes of her downfall. 
 The love of finery and the want of the means of obtaining 
 it, have been the most conspicuous of these." 
 
 The sentiment contained in this paragraph is a prevalent 
 one, and is at least partially true. But when we compare 
 the present with even a few years ago, we can but be con- 
 vinced, that the crime of prostitution in all ranks of 
 people, is greatly on the increase. A few years ago 
 divorces, elopements, and everything like illicit relations 
 between the sexes were considered the most heinous of 
 crimes, and were comparitively of very rare occurrence. 
 Children knew little or nothing of those practices which 
 are now so common with the youths of both sexes. And 
 the fact cannot be disguised that while licentiousness in 
 men has become largely prevalent, and is looked upon by a 
 large proportion of society) as excusable, if not respec 
 table, the number of females who take up lives of prostitu- 
 tion is increasing every day.
 
 254 STURLA-STILES TRAGH&Y. 
 
 There are girls, beautiful and promising, who voluntarily 
 abandon good homes and the protection of tender and 
 loving parents, and girls who forsake honorable and re- 
 munerative employment, and deliberately enter upon lives 
 of shame. There are boys who prefer the saloon or gamb- 
 ling den to their homes and the society of decent people. 
 These things seem unnatural. But the general habits and 
 customs of society are such as foster and stimulate these 
 tendencies. The majority feed upon stimulants not only 
 in the form of tobacco, cigars, wine and other spirituous 
 liquors, but highly seasoned food, strong tea and coffee, 
 and added to these, is the universal tendency to vanity and 
 idleness. 
 
 In primitive days when people subsisted upon plain, 
 coarse food, and when children were trained almost from 
 the cradle to habits of usefulness and industry, they grew 
 up to be honest, virtuous men and women divorces, licen- 
 tiousness, murder and suicides were of rare occurrence. 
 
 The healthy, sweet tempered, rosy-cheeked, tidy, indus- 
 trious and kind hearted girl was the one most popular. 
 And the hard working, intelligent, temperate, saving, 
 honest and loyal young man was the one most respected. 
 
 All labor whether of head or hands, that is honestly and 
 efficiently performed and adequately remunerated, is 
 worthy. 
 
 But at th e present day the fruits of honest industry are 
 not only below par, but labor is considered a disgrace. 
 None but speculators, politicians, professors, members of 
 boards of trade, exchanges, clubs and rings are really 
 popular. The honest laborer who builds houses, constructs 
 rail roads, fashions machinery, tills the soil and furnishes 
 the food, shelter, conveniences and luxuries of the nation, 
 are the ones least recognized and least remunerated. 
 Fraud meets with greater compensation, greater success
 
 STtmLA-STlLES TRAGEDY. 255 
 
 and stands higher in the scale of popularity, than honesty. 
 The moneyed nabob looks at his gold, his bonds, his rail 
 road stock, chuckles over the tricks he has played in secur- 
 ing them, figures his interest, lolls back in his cushioned 
 chair, smokes his cigar and congratulates himself on being 
 a lord and a non-tax payer. He keeps liveried servants 
 eager to obey his slightest wish; he rides in his carriage, 
 drinks his wine, patronizes prostitutes, sports fine horses 
 and jewelry. His wife and daughters entertain other 
 iji'rttlcinen, of the same rank and are nobby, mincy and 
 stylish. They wear seal skins, velvets, silks and diamonds, 
 and catch their skirts in hand as they sweep past the 
 humbly clad laborer, lest the immaculate robe of aris- 
 tocracy be sprinkled with honest dust. 
 
 The woman, especically, who labors for a living cannot 
 be admitted into society. Hence she will resort to every 
 possible stratagem to conceal the fact, and will virtually 
 starve herself rather than have it known that she works or 
 goes humbly clad. And even the more rational thinking 
 people who recognize and deplore this state of things, are 
 in the main, too cowardly to step out into the vanguard of 
 reform and live, and act their honest sentiments and con- 
 victions, but content themselves to follow in the rear of an 
 army of shysters, extortionists and legalized robbers. 
 Every nerve is strained for fashion's sake, and for it they 
 not only submit to every imaginable discomfort, but make 
 themselves ridiculous. 
 
 Really taking a common sense view of the matter, the 
 bride of a Comanche chief would not appear more absurd 
 than the corseted, bustled, painted, perfumed, be-ruffled, 
 be-feathered and be-fwzzled females that appear on the 
 streets, at the churches and places of resort in our civilized 
 land. And this fever for show and popularity extends to 
 all classes, rich and poor, high and low.
 
 256 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 If we would follow many of those who appear in public 
 places, arrayed in silks and laces, to their homes, we would 
 find it in either a garret or basement and their cupboard as 
 bare as that of Mother Hubbard. And it can not be doubt- 
 ed that the degradation of labor and the prevailing extrava- 
 gance in dress are, among the leading causes of infamy. 
 Sensuality and intemperance in all things has become pre- 
 valent with the American people. It is growing apace, and 
 if a moral revolution does not soon come, America will ere 
 long be more corrupt than ever was France or Spain or any 
 of the ancient dominions that fell by the weight of their own 
 sin and pollution, and faded from the face of the earth. 
 
 "Woman, especially, is compelled to dress well or take a 
 back seat in any place she may go, even to the churches. 
 She is seldom complimented or appreciated for her excel- 
 lencies of character. Her beauty, her jewels and finery are 
 her stock in trade, for them she is praised, and they give 
 her a passport wherever she goes. The idea that brain and 
 heart-culture and refinement is above mere physical beauty 
 and bodily decorations, belongs to the days of our grand- 
 fathers and grand-mothers, and is too old-fogyish for any 
 thing like the present day. 
 
 The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit is not in de- 
 mand even in our churches. Nay, the church whose glitter- 
 ing spire points Heavenward, and whose choirs sing " Come, 
 ye disconsolate ! come, ye poor and needy !" the church 
 whose ministers claim to teach the doctrines and follow the 
 example of the meek and lowly Nazarine, who walked the 
 streets of Jerusalem in bare feet and who in the extremity 
 of physical want exclaimed, " The birds of the air have 
 nests, the beasts of the field have lairs, but the Son of Man 
 has not where to lay his head," is not the place where the 
 poor in spirit or in purse can obtain a blessing or a wel- 
 come. The church of the day is more like a fashionable
 
 8TORLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 257 
 
 bazaar, where people show dry goods, than a place of moral 
 instruction and divine worship. The wives and daughters 
 of the wealthy make the standard cf the market, and they 
 make it so elaborate that women of ordinary means shrink 
 from the contrast which their humble garb would make with 
 the jewels, feathers, velvets, silks and perfumes of the fash- 
 ionable church. Hence they remain at home and, per- 
 chance, instead of spending the Sabbath in profitable read- 
 ing or reflection, spend it in devising means and ways by 
 which they may honestly or otherwise procure the coveted 
 wardrobe and be equal with their more favored sisters, in 
 appearance at least. 
 
 It seems to me if this class of money-worshippers and 
 style-worshippers would take off their gold, and, like Aaron 
 of old, make a golden calf and worship it en-masse at stated 
 times, giving the rich and poor an equal chance at the 
 shrine, it would do away with much of the envyings and 
 vanities of dress, place the worshippers upon more of an 
 equality and economize time and money. 
 
 " The seasons are not more sure to roll, the sun to shine 
 or the rivers flow," than for corruption and crime to 
 follow these abuses of the good gifts . of our Heavenly 
 Father. And these lesser vanities and hypocricies are the 
 confluent streams which go to make the mighty rush ing 
 rivers of crime which are overflowing our land, and the duly 
 of those who wgnld stay the deluge lies at the fountain's 
 head. 
 
 " We arc not worso at' once, 
 The course of evil l>cgins so slowly , 
 And from such Miglit source un infant hand 
 Might stop tlif I'H-ach with clay, 
 But let the breach grow wider and philosophy, 
 Ay, and religion too, may strive in viiin 
 To stem the headlong current." 
 
 17
 
 CHAPTEB V. 
 
 INTEMPERANCE A CAUSE OF CRIME. THERESSA 
 STURLA AND CHARLES STILES. 
 
 Upon reviewing the history of Charles Stiles and Made- 
 line it is obvious that one great incentive to the crimes com- 
 mitted by them was the use of intoxicating drinks. In fact 
 we find the cause of a majority of the crimes committed 
 originating in this. Indeed, " if all the forms of evil pro- 
 duced in the land by intemperance could come before us in 
 one horrid array, it would apall the nation and put an end 
 to the traffic in ardent spirits." But these terrible things 
 have been so often actualized before our eyes, and their 
 heinousness so often pictured by the great and noble men 
 and women who are zealously at work in the cause of tem- 
 perance, that it seems the ears of the people must have be- 
 come dull of hearing and the hearts insensible of feeling or 
 there would, ere this, have been an improvement in the ad- 
 ministration upon this question. 
 
 While the law makes it the duty of the police to arrest 
 the Criminal, of the prosecuting attorney to prosecute, the 
 jury to convict, the Sheriff to imprison or execute, should it 
 not make it the duty of those officials to shut up and blot 
 out the low rum holes and brothels which indiscriminately 
 deal out the fatal poison which " drives reason from the 
 brain and puts murder and rapine into the heart of its 
 victim ?" 
 
 It is not strange that the American republic has become 
 a by -word with foreign nations and that its corruptions are 
 growing apace. " The bar-room is the school of American
 
 STtJRLA-STlLES TRAGEDY. 259 
 
 politics. Each year 100,000 drunkarks go staggering to the 
 ballot-box to deposit the vote which shall elect to the re- 
 sponsible government of this mighty republic the candidate 
 whom their drunken intelligence taught them to be the 
 proper man." It may not be in the power of legislation to 
 extirpate this evil, even by their most constant and vigilant 
 efforts for years and years to come, for it has taken a deep 
 root and has grown to a gigantic upas whose branches 
 spread over our churches, our school-houses, our manufac- 
 tories, our capital and our homes, and whose leaves are for 
 the poisoning of the nation. But with the concurrent aid of 
 an enlightened people, it is in the power of these magistrates 
 and legislatures by the wise administration of law, by their 
 firmness, wisdom and examples of temperance, to check and 
 eventually blot from the face of the earth this terrible curse 
 and thus roll down to the coming generations of our child- 
 ren, and children's children, deeper and purer streams of 
 prosperity and virtue. But these political sentinels, whose 
 duty it is to stand guard over our private ranks and prevent 
 them being invaded by any enemy to peace and prosperity, 
 are asleep on the post of duty some of them fast asleep in 
 a drunken stupor. Naught but the piercing cry of murder 
 can awaken them. Then they spring to their feet, rub their 
 bleared eyes, swear vengeance upon the murderer, demand- 
 ing a life for a life. When it is over, they, perchance, over 
 their glasses of champagne or wine, discuss the details with 
 as much indifference and glee as they would a matinee or 
 cock-fight. 
 
 And there are men in what is sanctioned as respectable 
 business, men whom the law protects, or at least permits 
 to carry on their respectable business unmolested, whose 
 chief income, directly or indirectly, is the fruit of infamy 
 and crime. Is this not true of the vendor of ardent spirits 
 who stands behind the bar and deliberately deals out
 
 260 STTTRLA- STILES TRAGEDY?. 
 
 potions which he knows will breed in the hearts of his cus- 
 tomers every species of crime and debauchery ? And does 
 the crimes incited by this beverage of hell lie with the one 
 who drinks it, and who perhaps from some hereditary or 
 tempermental cause is cursed with an almost irresistable 
 craving for it, or with the one who distills and sells it in 
 the cool, calculating scheme for gain ? I believe in ninety- 
 nine cases out of one hundred the drunkard is the one 
 most excusable and most deserving pity. 
 
 John B. Gough, the man of warm heart and tender sym- 
 pathies the man who has suffered and struggled against 
 this accursed appetite to a degree beyond that of most 
 others, says in his beautiful and touching address, " Sym- 
 pathy for the drunkard. My sympathies go out to the 
 poor victims of intemperance. No man or woman in this 
 assembly, perhaps, knows what it is to be a drunkard. 
 Can you realize what it is to feel every nerve and fibre cry- 
 ing out for stimulus ? ' Ah,' said a man to me, ' I must 
 have it till I die ; and I am as essentially damned to-day as 
 if sentence had been passed upon me.' "When I look back 
 upon the past, and remember my own history, it seems to 
 me as if my whole heart's sympathies went out to the 
 victims of this vice. What shall we do for the poor, de- 
 based, degraded and almost hopeless drunkards? We 
 look upon them as reckless and wilfully wicked. Society 
 throws them out of her superabundant lap as things un- 
 worthy of pity or sympathy; and yet these are men and 
 women with hearts as warm and sensibilities as keen as 
 yours." 
 
 Indeed, what shall we do for the poor unfortunate crea- 
 tures more than to remove from our streets and public 
 places the temptations which work their ruin ? 
 
 It is beyond the scope of human intelligence to grasp 
 or compute the damages done to soul and body which
 
 8TURIA-8TILES TRAGEDY. 261 
 
 this traffic in poisonous drinks brings upon us as a 
 nation. 
 
 " Undeniable statistics show that this hellish cauldron of 
 the still consumes enough grain to make bread to feed all 
 the poor in our land. Yes, more than this. We find that 
 the value of all the slaughtered animals, home manufac- 
 tures, forest products, market, garden and orchard pro- 
 ducts is annually less than the cost of our nation's drink 
 bills." Is it any wonder that want and poverty stalk 
 abroad, and that crime lurks in the by-ways and secret 
 places ? And yet our officers to which the legislatures have 
 confided the discretionery power to grant license, and the 
 courts who have the power to prevent the ruin-sellers from 
 violating the rights conferred by virtue of a license, not 
 only permit its abuse, but are often the rum-seller's best 
 customer. And this corruption has become so prevalent 
 that the man who depends upon public patronage in earn- 
 ing his daily bread dares not invade it. Murder and 
 rapine is of every day occurrence. Our sons and daughters 
 are not safe to walk the streets except in the broad light of 
 day. Every allurement which the practiced sagacity of 
 unprincipled men and women can invent is hung out to 
 decoy the innocent and unsuspecting, and to rob them of 
 their money, their purity and their reason. The streets of 
 our cities are aglow with the blaze of gas and glitter of 
 crystal in saloons and houses of infamy. Seductive music 
 floats out upon the air. Bewitching eyes peep from wind- 
 ows, voluptuous forms float in the dance or figure in ob- 
 scene tableaux, and when the curiosity of the unwary once 
 induces him to cross the threshold- and take the glass which 
 inebriates, he is soon lost in the maze of sensuality. The 
 higher and better instincts of the heart are lulled to sleep, 
 and he forgets that there is such a thing as purity, honor 
 pr self-denial, and 'he gradually "goes dowu the fatal
 
 262 STURLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 
 
 sliding scale to ruin- a ruin moe awful than the imagina- 
 tion can describe." 
 
 Much intelligent argument is used to discourage the pro- 
 hibition act, and undoubtedly the honest sentiments of 
 many intelligent and philanthropic persons are in the 
 direction of Temperance vs. Prohibition. Their reasoning 
 is that the temperate use of spirituous liquors is not only 
 admissible, but conducive to health and happiness, and 
 that a man who cannot drink without getting drunk is no 
 man at all, but a beast, richly deserving all the suffering 
 that can be brought upon him, and that he is scarcely en- 
 titled to a place among civilized people. This argument 
 might have been appropriate fifty years ago, but at this 
 age, when there is almost a saloon in every man's door- 
 yard, where gambling, drinking and obscenity is practiced 
 at all hours of the day and night, and where the appetite 
 for stimulants has by transmission and every-day habit 
 become second nature to both male and female, it is 
 doubtful if any medium ground can be taken in the work 
 of reform. 
 
 Human intelligence, when properly trained, is undoubt- 
 edly capable of self-control, and finds its highest satisfac- 
 tion only in the domain of temperance, purity and good- 
 ness. But it is a fact that comes within the observation or 
 experience of every intelligent person that there are per- 
 sons possessed of the highest and noblest qualities of heart 
 and head who could not safely taste a drop of spirituous 
 drink. I have myself known of more than one instance 
 where individuals had reformed from the habit of drink- 
 ing individuals of superior mental and moral attainments 
 who had sought strength and refuge in the fold of the 
 church, who by tasting wine at the holy communion, 
 which typifies the flesh and blood of the Saviour, had the 
 appetite for drink so aroused as to be irresistable, and in a
 
 8TDRLA-STILES TBAGEDY. 263 
 
 few hours after partaking the sacrament were beastly 
 drunk. 
 
 I was told by an eminent jurist in Franklin, Pennsylva- 
 nia, a man of gpreat moral excellence and highly esteemed 
 by his numerous friends and acquaintance, but who was for 
 years an habitual drinker, but now permanently reformed, 
 that he would not for all he was worth, (and he was a 111:111 
 of wealth,) allow a drop of spirituous liquor to touch his 
 lips. Said he: "I can not abstain from excessive drink- 
 ing except by letting it entirely alone." Persons of differ- 
 ent temperament from him might think he was not much 
 of a man to give in to such a weakness, but I verily be- 
 lieve that there are men who deserve more credit for being 
 able to keep from being constantly drunk, than are some 
 others for never drinking at all. 
 
 And there is no doubt that the evil passions of Stiles 
 were lashed into frenzy by this demon of the still, and that 
 much of the sins and excesses of both were attributable to 
 the poisoned glass the gaming table the house of revelry 
 and profligacy. But the past can not be undone. The 
 grave stands between him and those who loved him and 
 prayed for his redemption. 
 
 We can do nothing for the dead but bury them from our 
 sight, strew flowers upon their graves and say what we can 
 of good concerning them. 
 
 Madeline lives. "What can we do for her? There can 
 be no doubt that she possessed many latent excellencies of 
 character. There were occasional glimpses of them all 
 along her terrible career. Notwithstanding her heart was 
 stained with sin notwithstanding her wild caprices be- 
 neath it all is a woman's heart, capable of the deepest 
 devotion and self-sacrifice. The tenacity with which she 
 clung to Charles the sacrifices which she made for him 
 from time to time her determination to shield him from
 
 264 STURLA-STLLES TRAGEDY. 
 
 recrimination, and suffer alone from bis cruelty her charity 
 to the poor her care for the little boot-black her devo- 
 tion to the dying father the pity she expressed for her 
 mother when she herself was writhing under the hand of 
 retribution, shows that there is something in her nature 
 worth redeeming. And it is to be hoped that her reflec- 
 tions in the solitary prison cell and all that she has suffered 
 as a legitimate and unavoidable result of sin, may be to 
 her as a crucible of fire which shall cleanse and purify her, 
 and that when she again emerges into the world so full of 
 temptation and woe she may come a saved and regenerated 
 woman, and that by the encouragement and aid of every 
 good woman she may be helped upward and onward toward 
 the clearer and purer realms of virtue and peace. 
 
 It seems to me as I write these concluding lines that I 
 hear the voice of Charles Stiles calling unto me from the 
 realm of souls, saying Protect her restrain her feet from 
 again entering the gates of sin our crimes were mutual 
 we mutually suffered from them she not more than I 
 but in the beautiful beyond is hope and forgiveness God 
 is merciful ! The heart throbs of the murderess, Madeline, 
 answers him through the pleadings of her better nature, 
 for forgiveness, for love, for strength to rise to the purer 
 altitudes of goodness and happiness. And both join in 
 saying to me " Close thy doors against the destroyer ! 
 Withhold the "footsteps of thy children from entering those 
 places more dangerous than the lion's den !" Teach thy 
 sons and thy daughters the religion of temperance, of pur- 
 ity and love. Make the home a haven of peace to which 
 the child, however sinful, may return, knowing that charity 
 and love will be extended toward them, and, if possible, all 
 errors and wounds be corrected and healed through the 
 power of kindness and forgiveness ! 
 
 Let the grand anthem of love be sounded in the paternal
 
 STUBLA-STILES TRAGEDY. 265 
 
 heart let the children and the household join, filling the 
 very air with the music of glad hearts ! Then will the 
 homo send into the world pure and good men and women. 
 The curse of drunkenness, of harlotry, libertinism and 
 murder will fade as darkness before the rising sun. The 
 shadow of the gallows and the prison will no longer stretch 
 gloomily over the land, " but wisdom will sit in the legis- 
 lature, justice in the courts, charity in the church, and, fin- 
 ally, the world will be controlled by liberty and love, by 
 justice and mercy."

 
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