A photograph of the murder scene at the home of William McElwee, of Clarks Valley, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, taken shortly after the murder, February 1937.
The murder was allegedly committed by Clair Guy Wingert, a trapper from that area, who claimed that the persons he fired shots at, William McElwee and his wife Dorothy McElwee, had poisoned his toe.
The photo appeared in the Harrisburg Telegraph, 20 February 1937 and was accompanied by the following caption:
The unfinished breakfast table at the McElwee home in Clarks Valley showing how suddenly the shooting of McElwee and his wife must have started. Jack Buffington looks over the table. Only one plate is disarrayed ant that was the one set before McElwee. He fell in his tracks as he was shot allegedly by Clair Guy Wingert. Mrs. McElwee who had been seated at the place nearest where Buffington is standing, ran out the door and was shot several times. Then Wingert threw the empty shells in the mud just outside the door.
Today’s post is the seventh of a multi-part series in which newspaper images and articles of the time are used to describe the affair.
_____________________________________
For other parts of this series, see: The Poison Toe Murder, 1937.
News articles are from Newspapers.com.