(Two different pics of Viola Horlocker.)

Undoubtedly aware of the scandal Charles Morey narrowly managed to dodge the summer before, Dr. Cook didn’t need to strain any mental muscles persuading Sheriff Simmering to take a closer look at Viola Horlocker for the attempted murder of Mrs. Anna Morey and her friends. When the lawman learned Viola and her mother hightailed it out of town a few hours after Dr. Cook’s accusation? The twenty-five-year-old law clerk became suspect numero uno. Viola’s sister, who was visiting Hastings, tried to explain to the Sheriff that the hastily taken trip was due to the disquiet caused by Dr. Cook’s unanticipated accusation — not because it possessed any merit. 

The explanation failed to hold water for the Sheriff Simmering.

Knowing when and what train Viola departed on, it didn’t take the Sheriff’s men much time to locate the wayward Viola and her mother in Sheldon, Iowa. Due to Viola’s crossing of state lines and lack of an arrest warrant, the Sheriff issued a statement to the press. Warning the Horlocker family that if Viola didn’t return to Hastings, Nebraska forthwith, he’d fetch her back to town himself. 

A threat he followed through with a week later, arrest warrant in hand.

Arriving back in Hastings, Viola (apparently) created quite a spectacle when authorities tried to usher her from the train platform to a waiting cab. Sobbing, moaning, and fainting — Viola needed support to traverse the fifty or so yards to the waiting vehicle. Whilst her mother looked on, giving an unhelpful statement to the eager reporters, “Even as a child, she’s always had these funny turns.” After finally making it to the courthouse, Viola pleaded ‘not guilty’, placed under a $5,000 bond, and sent home.

While in court, her brilliant legal team, John Stevens and William R. Burton, also asked Judge Adams for a continuance to prepare Viola’s defense. 

The request was granted.

The newspapers labeled their delay a sound strategy: Noting that Viola’s previously spotless reputation of a hardworking, churchgoing, and long-suffering daughter would delay the trial until autumn 1899 and would allow time for minds & memories to mellow. 

As coverage of Viola’s case continued, it became readily apparent she and her lawyers needed all the help they could get.

A little over a week prior to Anna finding the box of arsenic tainted candy on her doorstep, Viola purchased one full ounce (or 900 grains) of the deadly metalloid. She then returned to the chemists on April 3rd & 10th for another two half-ounce packets of the poisonous powder (or 218 grains each). Viola’s reason for the purchase? Rats.

(Though, unless a massive rabble of rats decided to take up residence in the house’s walls, attic, crawl space, garden shed, root cellar, and garage  — the purchase of two full ounces doesn’t exactly align with Viola’s explanation.)

Supplementing the prosecution’s case were various eyewitnesses who placed Viola in the Boswick Hotel at the same time as the Morey’s lunch date, on the street near their apartment, in their building, and in the hallway leading to their apartment. Together with the tried and true motive, jealousy, I’m sure Hasting’s prosecutors thought Viola’s case a slam dunk.

Despite the damning evidence mounting against her, Viola’s lawyers proved more than equal to the task. 

(An advert for the sanatorium in the 1900 publication — American Journal of Surgery and Gynecology, Volume 14.)

The first order of business, they convinced Viola’s mother to commit her daughter to the Oak Lawn Sanatorium in Jacksonville, Illinois, for treatment. (From the Office of Full Disclosure: I don’t actually have documentation that her lawyers persuaded Viola to enter the sanatorium. However, this surmise feels probable with the subsequent turn of events.) Next, they asked Judge Adams for another continuance in September of 1899. Stating they needed extra time to explore their defense strategy — hypnotism. Whilst not admitting to committing the crime, her lawyers said Viola had no recollection of perpetrating the deed and claimed she was subjugated to a will stronger than her own. It was this unnamed person who instructed Viola to kill Anna Morey, and it was they who wanted her dead. Making Viola an instrument, not the guilty party.

Whilst Viola’s lawyers did not directly point the finger at Charles Morey, the newspapers did. 

Digging into this sensational claim, they (rather quickly) found the kernel of truth fueling Viola’s defense. Seems Charles did indeed hypnotize Viola at least once in an effort to help rid Viola of headaches that had plagued her on and off for years. (Even back then, hypnotism stood on very, very shaky ground. However, I don’t think Viola’s lawyers ever seriously considered using it. I believe this was another means of A) buying more time and B) casting further doubt in the minds of potential jurors.) 

At this point, the papers uncovered another curious detail. 

During the period when the prosecution needed to charge Viola with attempted murder, the victim herself lay bedbound, recovering from arsenic poisoning. Hence, the task of pressing charges fell to Charles. Only he didn’t. The County Prosecutor did. This lack of action on Charles’s part was considered highly irregular. Perhaps Charles didn’t want to leave his wife’s side or was paralyzed by the fear of losing Anna. Either way, the newspapers didn’t report this so benevolently. Especially when editors know innuendo increases circulation, so speculation ran rampant: Because if everything between Charles and Viola in the summer of 1898 was on the up and up, it follows that the investigation into and the trial of Viola Horlocker wouldn’t uncover anything untoward. So why didn’t Charles press charges? Did he have something to hide? 

There’s no smoke without fire.

Planting yet another seed of doubt in the minds of the potential jury pool.

In the spring of 1900, Viola’s lawyers asked for a third continuance. Only this time, Judge Adams denied their request. Summoning Viola home from Oak Lawn Sanatorium, where she’d spent nearly a year receiving treatment, the trial commenced on March 20, 1900 with jury selection. After two days, the lawyers finally agreed on a group of all male, well-to-do, local farmers. At which point, Judge Adams instructed the jury that the prosecution didn’t need to prove Viola was sane when she poisoned Anna Morey & friends — just that the murder attempt was made.

Unsurprisingly, Viola’s lawyers abandoned hypnotism and switched to a straight not-guilty by reason of insanity defense. 

(The remnants of the Boswick Hotel, which as you can see here, caught fire in 1925.)

The first five witnesses called by the prosecution established that Viola was seen at the Boswick, walking towards the Morey’s building, and outside their flat’s door. 

Until their cross-examination, whereupon: Mr. Dillon, the proprietor of the Boswick, admitted he wasn’t totally sure Viola lunched in the hotel on April 10. The second witness, a Mr. Barnes, was equally uncertain if April 10th was the exact date he’d seen Viola walking towards the Morey’s flats. The third, C. E. Cox, owned that he hadn’t actually seen Viola climb the stairs towards the Moray’s flat. He only heard a female foot tread up them. Cox’s wife testified that a veritable bevy of women ascended and descended those stairs all that day. The flat’s housekeeper, Mrs. Pottinger, testified she’d seen Viola in the Morey’s hallway, but said she’d asked after a different tenant. Viola held a similar conversation with Belle Rand a minute or two later on the Morey’s doorstep. Unfortunately for the prosecution, neither woman recalled Viola holding a fancy candy box. 

Mrs. Anna Morey took the stand, confirming her sighting and hasty retreat of Viola from the hotel’s dining room. Plus her recollection of the circumstances surrounding the receipt of the poisoned box of candy.

Finally, the prosecution summoned Charles Morey to the stand.

*Cue the fireworks.*

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