FULL TEXT (Article 1 of 5): Nashville, Tenn., Oct. 19 – Mrs. Bertie Wrather, middle-aged wife of a mattress manufacturer and active in church circles, was held today without bond on charges of poisoning her son, a brother-in-law and a father-in-law.
Her arrest yesterday culminated an
investigation that began two months ago, Attorney General J. Carlton Loser
said, with the death of Enoch B. Wrather, Jr., an only son.
Calmly, Mrs. Wrather pleaded innocent a few
hours after her arrest in general sessions court and was sent to county jail
without bond to await action by the county grand jury.
An autopsy performed on young Father by Dr. W. J. Core, county autopsy physician ''disclosed a poison present" in
the body, Loser declared. The warrant also charged the woman with the deaths of Richard Wrather,
50, a brother-in-law who died last year, and Andrews Johnson Wrather, 80, her
father-in-law who died in 1936.
The attorney general said "some
insurance was involved in the boy's death, and there were some estates in the
other two cases."
Mrs. Wrather, a large, efficient looking
person, worked as a bookkeeper in the small mattress plant of her husband,
Enoch B. Wrather, Sr., but found time also to engage in church affairs and
parent-teacher activities.
[“Woman
Charged With Poisoning - Nashville
Church Worker Accused of Causing Death of Three Relatives,” syndicated (AP),
The Biloxi Daily Herald (Ms.), Oct. 19, 1939, p. 1]
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FULL TEXT (Article 2 of 5): Nashville, Tenn.,
Oct 20. – District Attorney General J. Carlton Loser announced he is
investigating a number of deaths in addition to those of three persons whom
Mrs. Bertie Wrather, 46-year-old housewife is charged with having poisoned.
Mrs. Wrather is held in jail on charges
growing out of the alleged poison death of her son, Enoch B. Wrather, Jr., 23,
last September, her brother-in-law, Richard Wrather, 50, last year; and her
father-in-law, Johnson Wrather, 80, in 1936.
The attorney general declined to reveal the
number of additional deaths he was investigating, but said that some of them
were relatives of Mrs. Wrather who have died within the past few years. Mrs.
Wrather is the wife of the manager of a small mattress manufactory.
[“Other Deaths Are
Investigated In 'Borgia' Case,” syndicated (INS), The Racine Journal-Times
(Wi.), Oct. 20, 1939, p. 15]
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FULL TEXT (Article 3 of 5): On September 6th, 1939, Attorney
General J. Carlton Loser, of Nashville, intently regarded the physician who was
seated across from him. Dr. Rogers N. Herbert polished his glasses with obvious
preoccupation; finally he looked up and spoke calmly, deliberately –
“It is not my intention to imply anything sir – I merely
wish to relate a medical experience as frankly as possible.”
“I understand,” assented the attorney general.
“I lost a patient three days ago – Enoch B. Wrather, Jr., of
Murfreesboro Road, who is scheduled to be buried this afternoon. He was 23
years old, and, in my opinion, organically sound; but I found him suffering
from arsenic poisoning. In view of this fact, I do not think it advisable to
sign the death certificate until your office has made an investigation.
“In July of this year his mother brought him to my office
and explained that he was losing weight; this appeared obvious because he was
six-feet two inches tall, yet weighed only 130 pounds. I found him suffering
from a muscular atrophy, which affected the control of his limbs, and
considered his condition sufficiently serious to hospitalize him so that we
could make a more complete diagnosis. To my surprise, and in defiance of my
orders, young Wrather left the hospital after staying only one say.
~ Improved in Hospital ~
“The boy’s illness persisted, and on August 1st the mother
and I induced him to go back to the hospital. There he showed a rapid
improvement and, when discharged on August 13th, was well on the way to normal
health … Yet, only three weeks later, the boy died in violent agony with all
the symptoms of arsenic poisoning!
“Before this unfortunate lad is to be buried this afternoon,
I suggest that a thorough examination be made of his remains.”
Attorney General Loser agreed.
After the physician was gone, Lose summoned Detectives
Thomas J. Aldred and R. L. Tarkington, veterans of many manhunts in the State
of Tennessee, and informed them of the suspicious circumstances under which
Enoch E. Wrather had died. They were detailed to make an inquiry into the case
while the attorney general himself handled the legal moves necessary to delay
interment of the body.
The detectives began with the commonplace routine of establishing
the deceased’s background. They learned that he was an only child who had lived
with his parents, Enoch B., Sr. and Bertie Wrather. The family was in moderate
circumstances and well thought of by their neighbors. Enoch Jr. was a
handsome, ambitious, well-balanced boy, very popular among his set and
seemingly destined fore a bright future. He had been keeping company with an
attractive girl named Lena Holm whom he had planned to marry in the not too
distant future.
In checking the boy’s movements of a few months prior to his
death, the officers found what they believed to be a singularly strange
circumstances in his illness. His serious attacks always occurred under his own
roof; whereas he showed great improvement when away from his home – once while
staying for ten days at the home of a relative, and also while in the St.
Thomas hospital from August 1st to August 13th. This led the investigators to
the Wrather house.
They explained their suspicion of foul play to the bereaved
parents and asked if Enoch Jr. had any enemies. Neither parent could think of
anyone who would want to harm their only child, nor could they ever remember
his ever having any serious trouble.
“Who prepares the food in your home?” asked Tarkington.
“Our colored maid, Louelle,” answered Mrs. Wrather. “She’s
in the kitchen now if you want to talk to her.”
The girl was round-eyed with fear at the police officers’
visit. She stated that she had prepared all the meals for the sick boy but that
she never served him food personally.
“Who did serve the food?” insisted Aldred.
“Why, Mrs. Wrather – and sometimes Mrs. Baldy helped.”
“Who is Mrs. Baldy?”
“A relative, cousin of Mrs. Wrather; she lives near here and comes in once in a while when Mrs. Wrather needs help.”
“A relative, cousin of Mrs. Wrather; she lives near here and comes in once in a while when Mrs. Wrather needs help.”
~ No Poison in Home ~
While talking to the girl, the detectives examined cans and
bottles on the pantry shelves.
“Ever use roach powder around here?” asked Tarkington.
“No, suh, never had no need,” the servant seemed to
substantiate her.
Baffled, but more determined, the officers left. They
resolved to dig still deeper into the background of the family … and from this
painstaking and tedious effort they unearthed even more sinister and mysterious
implications …
In the meantime an autopsy report revealed that the boy’s
body contained sufficient arsenic to kill. To it was attached a toxicologist’s
statement that explained the action of arsenic. It stated that arsenic when
taken internally is gradually eliminated from the body in about twenty-four
days. To cause death, doses must be taken or administered regularly; and since
the boy had been sick for months it was logical to assume that the dosage had
been fairly regular. In conclusion the statement read that there could be no
question of the amount of arsenic retained by the deceased after death because
arsenic is a metal and remains long after tissues have disintegrated …
Reporting back to Attorney General Loser, Aldred and his
partner gave the results of the latest phase of their investigation: “Robert
Wrather, brother of Enoch and uncle to the dead boy, had given an accurate
picture of the family setup. He is a supervisor at the Nashville Post Office
and he tells us that the head of the family was A. J. Wrather, who had three
sons and two daughters. The male line included Robert, Richard and Enoch.
“On September 29th, 1936, A. J. Wrather – then 81 – died in
the home of his son Enoch. And not long after, on February 9th, 1938, his
bachelor son Richard followed him – at the age of 57 – also in the Enoch
Wrather home!”
“Did they leave any money,” asked Loser quickly.
~ A Money Motive ~
“Well, the old man left an estate of around $5,000 which was
divided equally between his five children so they each got $1,000.
“Hmm – interesting. Who got the money Richard left?”
“He left some $4,000 which was divided equally between the
surviving sisters and brothers.”
“This may point to a motive. What were the circumstances
surrounding the death of the grandfather and the uncle?
“They both died from sudden, violent internal disorders
while ostensibly in good health.”
“How about Enoch Jr?” asked Loser. “Was he insured?”
“We discovered that Bertie Wrather had taken out a life
policy on her son in the amount of $2,000 – without her husband knowing it!”
Loser reflected for a moment and then said: “All three
deaths that have taken place in that house are of sufficiently suspicious
nature to make a thorough examination of the house. In a corner of the cellar,
among some rusty garden tools and cob-webbed trash, they found a small, shiny,
half-filled can that was labeled “Arsenic of Lead.” No one in the house was
able to account for its presence.
The officers decided it was time to turn a horrible
suspicion into proof; so Loser got a court order for the disinterment of the
bodies of A. J. and Richard Wrather.
When the bodies were taken to St. Thomas Hospital and a
scientific examination of the remains made, Dr. W. J. Gore, County Physician,
submitted the cause of death in both cases was: arsenic poisoning!
Aldred and Tarkington hurried to question Mrs. Baldy, cousin
of the dead boy’s father. She quickly and frankly told him that she had often
helped nurse the boy.
“Did you at any time eat any of the food prepared for Enoch
Jr?”
“No – the cook prepared it especially for the patient and
his mother always fed him.”
Aldred noticed that she hesitated, so he encouraged her,
“Well –”
~ Took Milk Away ~
“One thing might seem peculiar to you as it did to me: the
doctor had ordered us to give Enoch milk, yet every time I tried to give him
some his mother took it away.”
That was all they learned from Mrs. Baldy – but it was
enough! Milk is an antidote for arsenic!
Next they questioned Lena Holm, the boy’s pretty,
level-headed young fiancee; she said she had visited Enoch while he was sick,
but at infrequent intervals because “Mrs. Wrather didn’t like me. I think she
hated me, because I noticed she went out of her way to show me that I was
unwelcome in her home.”
This information, added to what had been gathered before,
slanted in one direction. Could it be possible that a woman would raise an only
child to the age of 23 and then poison him? Because of the enormity of such a
crime, however, the detectives had to be extremely cagey; they began a door to
door canvas of neighbors and storekeepers for shreds of evidence to bolster
their entirely circumstantial case.
A neighbor, wife of an odd job man, supplied this
information.
“I was over to visit Bertie one day while her boy was sick,
and I heard him tell his ma he was going to marry Lena Holm just as soon as he
got well. Bertie carried on something terrible – she cried about being thrown
aside for some snip of a girl by her boy whom she had raised for twenty-three
years.”
Tarkington turned a significant eye to his partner – their
theory was being corroborated.
When they got away, Tarkington commented: “Maybe jealousy
for a motive ..”
“Yes – with a dash of insurance!” retorted Aldred with
unveiled sarcasm. And he continued: “Her husband profited from the death of
the old man and that of his brother – a profit in which she undoubtedly shared.
One day, in fact, she stood to inherit the whole thing – if her husband died …”
“You mean that another victim is in the making!”
The two detectives next came to a local beauty parlor where
Virginia Shackleford that she would be rich soon, and asked the beautician how
long it was proper for a widow to wear weeds!
Aldred and Tarkington decided it was time to act – before
another victim had eaten his way to an agonizing doom. Loser agreed with his
ace detectives and quickly convened a grand jury that heard the purely
circumstantial evidence; nevertheless they indicted Bertie Wrathers [sic] on
and she was placed under arrest.
The woman remained calm, insisting she was “not guilty.”
She immediately employed counsel to obtain her freedom on
bond, but this was promptly denied her. In her cell she spoke only to a woman
reporter, to whom she insisted her husband would come to her aid “now when I
need him most.” But Enoch Wrather did not come to her assistance, for he was too
ill with symptoms of poisoning – fortunately discovered in time!
~ A Mystery Woman ~
Mrs. Wrather’s youthful past remained a mystery. All that
could be learned was that she was a native of Ohio who had, as Bertie Wene,
come to Nashville and lived on Paradise Ridge; therte she met and married Enoch
Wrather Sr.
The prisoner came to trial in June, 1940, charged with only
one murder: that of her son. To the consternation of the prosecution, her
counsel claimed that embalming fluid contained arsenic and therefore the
substance in the body of Enoch Jr. had been injected by the undertaker.
To refute this contention the prosecution offered the
testimony of H. S. Echols, Herbert Schmidt and W. K. Jones, chemists of the
three companies who furnished Pettus-Owens Funeral Parlor with embalming fluids
used in the three Wrathers. These representatives testified that their fluids
contained no arsenic.
All the evidence presented by the prosecution, though
damning, was entirely circumstantial – and this seemed to have its effect upon
the jury who became deadlocked at 11 to 1 for conviction and had to be
discharged.
A second trial took place the following May; the same
charges and defense were made, and for ten days the same array of witnesses
took the stand. And then there was a deadlocked jury – this time the count was
7 to 5 for acquittal.
Attorney General Loser never faltered in his conviction of
the woman’s guilt, he brought Bertie Wrathers [sic] to trial in October, 1941, for a
third time.
Throughout these three trials Mrs. Wrather retained a
composure that faltered only once – and then briefly. It occurred during her
own testimony when she wept softly as she described her son’s lingering illness
and death.
The sensation of the third was the statement of Enoch
Wrather Sr. that he believed his wife guilty of their son’s murder. And this
undoubtedly weighed heavily with the jury because, after five hours a verdict
of “Guilty of murder in the first degree.”
The unnatural mother showed no sign of emotion when she heard
the verdict, nor when Judge C. K. Hart fixed her punishment at ninety-nine
years in the state penitentiary. She merely turned to the reporters and
announced: “They have convicted an innocent woman.”
[Terry McShane, “Nashville’s very odd Three-in-One Murder,”
(King Features Syndicate) St. Petersberg Times (Fl.), Jun. 13, 1942, magazine
section, p. 2]
***
FULL TEXT (Article 4 of 5): Nashville – Mrs. Bertie Lee Wrather was acquitted
Monday [Jun. 21] in the poison death of her son, Enoch Wrather, Jr., on a
directed verdict at her retrial in Davidson Criminal Court. Recommended by
District Atty. Gen. J. Carlton Loser, the jury presented the verdict at the
direction of Judge Chester K. Hart.
After two trials had ended in deadlocked juries. Mrs.
Wrather was convicted and sentenced to 99 years in the state prison on a charge
of poisoning her son, which was reversed by the State Supreme Court. In its
opinion, the Supreme Court ruled in improper to allow evidence at the trial
concerning previous deaths of Mrs. Wrather’s father-in-law, Andrew Wrather, and
brother-in-law, Richard Wrather. It cited that all evidence was circumstantial.
Unless further evidence is introduced the state will not
prosecute the case further, General Loser said.
[“Nashville Woman Given Acquital in Murder Case,” [sic,
“Acquital”], Kingsport News (Tn.), Jun. 22, 1943, p. 5]
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FULL
TEXT (Article 5 of 5): Nashville – Mrs. Bertie Lee Wrather, acquitted last June
in the poison death of her son, Enoch Wrather, Jr., was awarded a divorce in
circuit court Saturday. Mrs. Wrather was convicted on the murder charge in
October 1941, after two previous trials ended in deadlocked juries. Sentenced
to 99 years in the state prison, the conviction was reversed by the Tennessee
Supreme Court and a directed verdict of not guilty was given last June on
recommendation of the district attorney.
[“Mrs.
Wrather Is Granted Divorce,” syndicated (AP), Feb. 13, 1944, p. 6]
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CHRONOLOGY
Other deaths – “investigating a number of
deaths in addition to those of three persons” “ The attorney general declined
to reveal the number of additional deaths he was investigating, but said that
some of them were relatives of Mrs. Wrather who have died within the past few
years.”
Sep. 29, 1936 – Andrews Johnson Wrather, 80, dies.
Feb. 9, 1938 –
Richard Wrather, “50” (or “57”?), dies.
Aug. 1-13 – Enoch,
jr. in hospital.
Aug. 1939 – Enoch B.
Wrather, Jr., dies.
Oct. 1939 – husband,
Enoch Wrather Sr., ill, poisoned; discovered, survived.
Oct. 19, 1939 – Bertie Wrather arrested for murder of son,
brother-in-law, father-in-law.
Jun. 1940 – trial #1, murder of son; hung jury; deadlocked
at 11 to 1 for conviction
May 1941 – trial #2; hung jury; count was 7 to 5 for
acquittal.
Oct. 1941 – trial #3; convicted.
Jun. 21, 1943 – trial #4, retrial; acquitted of murder of
Enoch.
Feb. 12, 1944 – divorce. Enoch B. Wrather, Sr.,
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[1252-1/4/21]
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