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Show YOUNG WIFE FREED BY COURT; I TWIN BABE MYSTERY UNSOLVED I I Mrs. Hazel M'Nally, Who Grinned and Giggled During Hearing, Falls to Floor in Faint When Judge Rules State Had Failed to Prove Infants Are Not Still Alive BABflfOND, Ind.. net. 2 1 (By the Associated PrCsa.) Mrs. Hazel M -! Nally, declared ty her G'-y .r-old hua-' hua-' hand to be tho mothT of "doll bat.. twins, wan freed of n charpe of mur-I mur-I l-r Friday when Judge Henry C. BjHJjW Cleveland ruled tho state had failed ) to prove the Infants are riot still eJlve. ) Tho 26-ycar-old wife, who has J grinned and giggled through four days BjBj of the preliminary hearing while wlt- I, nesaes attempted to fasten on her the charge of double murder, collapsed and fell fainting to the floor, as the heers and upplause of 150 women court room funs rang In her ears. Win STATU FAILED, By a strange paradox of tho law, )) tho defense which maln'alned tho ) (wins "horn" to Mrs. McN'ally last BjYV Pen-mber were but Inanimate crea- Hons of china and straw, dressed In1 baby clothes, won Its victory because.1 ) tho state was unable to' prove that' J the mystery babies were not at tho ) present moment living, breathing hU- man beings with actual flesh and, BjBB Tho missing corpus delicti lawyer's I phraseology for the "body of the' crime" proved a stumbling block to, the state and because of It the mystery' mys-tery' of th McNally twins, whether' they ever existed, whether they were only dressed up dolls, or whether, as! the stale contended, they were first real babies and then dolls, remains vi n .solved ICROWJ) AT DOOR. Sustaining th-- motion of Samuel Rwartz of South Bend, attorney for Mrs McNally. for dismissal of the charge. Judge Cleveland ruled that all legal decisions maintained that some proof that a dead body actually existed, that It Cam! to its death by violence, and th u the penon charged with the crime was In some way I connected with Its commission, was necessary before a rliars'- of murder could be supported. Hundreds of women and a f'-v men, pushed anil struggled up th" dark' stairs to Hammond's city council chamber an hour before the door was' thrown open on the final chapter of the "doll baby" ca-se. A barrier of (Stout oak desks four feet h gh had j been erect d across the room to Mock I tht rush of front row fans wln-n the i door was finally opened. Behind It women Jammed In a solid maw bo 'dense as to make movement Impossible, Impos-sible, and stood for two hours and a half while three lawyers argued the merits of the corpus delicti. uke m im I UM VX. Their long wait was rewarded, however, by a thrilling movie climax wnen Judge Cleveland solemnly pro-i pro-i nounccd his decision. To the boom of a flash light barrage and the cheers of the audience, the defendant who looks more nearly 19 than the 26 years she confesm d to, rose, to her J feet, smiled and thrn fell to the floor. lawyers and newspaper men lifted 1 her to the table and fanned her with law books, while photographers on the 'one side and Tpcctators on the other fought for vantage points, while -n He (rlnge of th" crowd. stanJIng flrat on one foot and then on the oth r, . hovered Frank McNally. the 61-year-1 old husband who testified his wife had fooled him for weeks, having him carry a doll around under the belief! that It was one of his children. Dl PARTS BUTJJlfG A half hour later tho mystery! mother of the mystery' twins, dishev-j tied but smiling, was helped Into an' automobile, took her final bow before j the cheering court fans, and left for: ViAf Viftm In Rftitlli nnr1 mirrnimili'il I by her mother, lrlends and Attorn- Swartz. The trial fans who hae hung for four days on every' bit of salacious ' tlfUOny, were left behind wrestling with a mystery Just as Impenetrable ns It was betore the trial bean. Again on the outskirts was the elderly husband, watching his wife's triumphal exit, and still doggedly mainainlng that she gave birth to a son and a daughter last December Tho spectators who elbowed him aelda to watch Mrs M N'ally ride nwa were Inclined to believe he was tho victim of a dev. . Imax from beginning to end. but Its purpose, why It b k'u:i and why It ended. Is as much a prob-l prob-l in as ever. |
