I'm not making this up.... things you find in family history research

LegacyUser

Justin Masters said: https://www.newspapers.com/clip/43464...

Clipping found in El Paso Times in El Paso, Texas on May 8, 1888.
Juror picked for W. G. Rector's trial for murder is his victim, John W. Koehler.
Pub May 8, 1888

A Peculiar Coincidence.
Captain W. G. Rector will be tried May 31 on charge of murdering his son-in-law, John W. Koehler.

When the list of names was drawn by lot of men to be summoned by special venire for the purpose of getting a jury to try Captain Rector, among the names drawn was "John W. Koehler."

By an oversight his name had not been erased from the list of citizens liable to jury duty, and the irony of chance brought that name out among the list of men from whom should be selected the jury to try his slayer.

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: I've found several amusing stories in researching my own family. While some of these oddities involve tragedy, others are just plain amusing and reflective of the time in which they occur.

For instance, I came across a death certificate in which the cause of death was Idiocy. No additional details were provided to suggest what might have been going on at the time, such as an epileptic seizure. But the big bold word written across the section where the cause(s) of death are recorded certainly caught my eye.

Then there is the anecdotal story of a young woman among the Swiss Mennonites who was told by her mother that she should not marry -- that she was too frail and sickly. She was faithful to her mother's advice and later recorded in her journal that, "I was quite sickly until I reached the age of sixty; then I got better." She lived to be 102 years old. And yes, she never married.

LegacyUser

Christina Sachs Wagner said: I'll bet he was recused. ;-)

LegacyUser

Justin Masters said: Not only that, but the accused was aquitted, even with a full confession.

LegacyUser

Christina Sachs Wagner said: face palm

LegacyUser

Justin Masters said: Here's what the article said:
The Case Against W.G. Rector Dismissed.
The famous Rector-Koehler case was finally disposed of a few days ago by the dismissal of the case on motion of District Attorney Dean. The ground for dismissal is stated by the district attorney to be that "the evidence accessible to the state is not sufficient to warrant a conviction. The terrible tragedy enacted last spring in the blacksmith shop on East Overland street is still fresh in the minds of the readers of the Times. W. G. Rector, an old man, shot his son-in-law, John W. Koehler, dead, on account of the alleged seduction by Koehler of a younger sister of his wife.

The original article about the death is at https://www.newspapers.com/clip/43413...

LegacyUser

Justin Masters said: Tom, was the time her health improved about the time her mother died?

LegacyUser

Christina Sachs Wagner said: I guess they considered that justifiable back then.

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: Good question. I don't know since she is not a relative, but in one of the collateral lines that married into my ancestral lines. All I remember was the irony of what she was told. The book on the family contained quite a bit about her from her journal, but I don't even remember the family name, other than it was Lancaster County, PA, Swiss Mennonite.