The Dark Secrets of a Deathbed Will
A Centralia druggist claims his arrest on fraud charges is a retaliation for his testimony regarding a coerced deathbed will that disinherited a dying man to benefit his doctor.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Edwin J. Luther was arrested in Fremont by Detective George Cave on a telegram from Deputy Sheriff J. F. Blackwell of Centralia, stating that he was wanted for obtaining money under false pretenses. Luther, a former druggist, claims the charge is a pretext. He was a witness to a will made by Alfred Wright in favor of Dr. Minkler and a nurse, Mrs. McCormick. Luther alleges that the will was forced upon the dying Wright while he was under the influence of chloroform. He contends his former business partner—the brother of Dr. Minkler—is seeking to silence him because he testified in an earlier manslaughter trial involving Dr. Guile, who had attended to Wright. Luther stated, 'The night before the operation was performed by Dr. Guile and Dr. Minkler I told my wife that a murder would be committed sure within a short time... When I entered the room Wright lay on a bed with an open can of chloroform near his head and was in a half-conscious state.'
“I heard the doctor and Mrs. McCormick, the nurse, planning to make old man Wright... make a will giving them his property, amounting to about $150,000.”
This case highlights the era's vulnerability to predatory 'will-doctoring,' a form of elder abuse that still persists in probate disputes today. The intersection of professional medical negligence and financial exploitation reflects long-standing concerns about how the wealthy and vulnerable are handled by those closest to them in their final days.
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