A story appeared in the Shamokin News-Dispatch (Shamokin, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania), 22 February 1937, describing a murder which took place in Clarks Valley, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. The murder was committed by Clair Guy Wingert, a trapper from that area, who claimed that the persons he fired shots at had poisoned his toe. Today’s post is the second of a multi-part series in which newspaper images and articles of the time are used to describe the affair.
TRAPPER KILLS MAN AND BADLY WOUNDS WOMAN
Clark’s Valley Man Declares Couple Poisoned His Toe
WOMAN IN HOSPITAL
C. Guy Wingert, 51 year-old Clark’s Valley trapper and hunter, is in the Dauphin County jail at Harrisburg awaiting arraignment on a charge of murder, growing out of the fatal shooting Saturday of William McElwee, 40, and the serious wounding of Mrs. McElwee, 23, as they sat at the breakfast table in their rural home.
Wingert, arrested by state police in his cabin a short time after the shooting, informed officers he shot the couple because “they injected poison into my toe.” The man is believed to be mentally deranged. His father and brother, William Wingert Sr. and William Wingert Jr., of Williamstown, were killed about 10 days ago at the Williamstown Colliery of the Susquehanna Collieries Company.
The accused man had been an overnight guest at the McElwee home. At breakfast Saturday morning Wingert suddenly drew a revolver from his pocket and opened fire on McElwee, who fell as he was about to hurl a plate at Wingert to defend himself and his wife. He was shot through the chest.
As Mrs. McElwee sough to flee, she, too, was severely wounded but managed to leave the house and run toward the home of her grandfather, A. L. Stricker, 80-year-old farmer residing a short distance away. The woman fell face down in a creek where she was found by Stricker who had heard her screams for help.
McElwee and his wife were both taken to the Harrisburg Hospital, where the husband died six hours after the shooting. Mrs. McElwee is in a critical condition.
State police at Harrisburg were notified of the double shooting and went to Wingert’s cabin to place him under arrest. He surrendered without trouble.
It was following his arrest and transfer to Harrisburg that Wingert gave the story of alleged injection of poison into his toe as he slept. The .22 calibre pistol with the six chambers empty was found lying on the kitchen floor of the McElwee home.
Guy Wingert is known to a number of Shamokin sportsmen who hunt annually in Clark’s Valley, between Lykens and Harrisburg. He is well known as a hunter and trapper and was known to hunters as “Huck Finn” because of his devotion to outdoor life.
After the shooting Wingert stopped at the home of Mrs. Frank Paschal, a widow, and informed her he had shot both the McElwees and also gave her the poison theory as the reason for the shooting.
Mrs. McElwee suffers bullet wounds through the chest and surgeons at the Harrisburg hold little hope for her recovery.
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For other parts of this series, see: The Poison Toe Murder, 1937.
News articles are from Newspapers.com.