Michigan's Strychnine Saint by Tobin T. Buhk

Author:Tobin T. Buhk
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2014-03-03T16:00:00+00:00

Part 3

The People v. Mary McKnight

10

The Trial of the Century103

CADILLAC, MICHIGAN

Tuesday, December 1–Friday, December 4, 1903

News correspondents from across the state joined the throng at the rail depot in Cadillac, Michigan, on Monday, November 30, as the southbound train pulled into the station. Over three hundred faces, eager to catch a glimpse of the alleged mass murderess, crowded the platform. They expected to see the plump, sinister spinster depicted by the press, but instead a frail, sallow-cheeked, hunched-over figure emerged from the train. A chorus of “oohs” broke the silence as Mrs. McKnight steadied herself by clinging to the arm of her sister Margaret Chalker.

The Detroit Tribune reporter, who signed his articles “NATHAN,” described the pathetic character’s grand entrance in Cadillac: “Almost as yellow as parchment, the heavily wrinkled skin hanging loosely from her face, her frame shriveled and bent, this woman whose alleged crime has almost no parallel in the history of the criminal courts, is helped about by two people as she cannot stand alone.”104

In a feeble attempt to avoid the gawkers, she kept her eyes closed as the Chalkers escorted her through the crowd. “She is physically a wreck, and mentally on the verge of collapse,” Nathan observed as Mary McKnight and her escorts shuffled past.105

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