The Billings Gazette
Billings, Montana
Sunday, February 23, 1936, Page 10

BEDFORD, Feb. 23 - (AP) - Miss Anna JOHNSTON, 38, a widow, and Floyd HORTON, 38, were held by the authorities Saturday for questioning in connection with the mysterious death a few days ago of HORTON'S wife. They were taken into custody Friday night when a coroner's jury began an investigation after Coroner Floyd SHUM said the state toxicologist reported the finding of poison in Mrs. HORTON'S viscera.

County Attorney Roger WARIN reported that a woman who gave the name of "Mrs. Anna JOHNSTON" had purchased poison at a drug store last December.

San Antonio Light
San Antonio, Texas
Tuesday, February 25, 1936, Page 1

BEDFORD, Iowa, Feb. 25 - (AP) - Floyd HORTON, 38-year-old farmer, and his widow neighbor, Mrs. Anna JOHNSTON, 38, were held in jail without bond today on murder charges in connection with the death February 15 of HORTON'S wife, Elta, 37, allegedly from a dose of poison.

County attorney Roger F. WARIN said Mrs. JOHNSTON confessed she was HORTON'S paramour and that she plotted Mrs. HORTON'S death, but denied administering the fatal potion. Officers said Mrs. HORTON took two capsules shortly before her death, while suffering a cold.

The county attorney said Mrs. JOHNSTON asserted she told HORTON shortly before Mrs. HORTON'S death that she feared she was going to bear him a child, and that both Mrs. JOHNSTON and HORTON had admitted illicit relations since November 1, 1935.

Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Thursday, February 27, 1936, Page 1

BEDFORD, (AP) - Taylor county authorities Thursday disinterred the body of Mrs. Floyd HORTON, 37-year-old farm wife whose death Feb. 15 the state charges was caused by poisoned capsules.

Her body, buried at Clearfield, was brought here for examination for "new evidence."

Floyd HORTON and Mrs. Anna JOHNSTON, his confessed paramour, are held in the Taylor county jail, charged with plotting Mrs. HORTON'S murder.

County Attorney Roger WARIN refused to disclose what new evidence officials are seeking. He said physicians will perform a thorough post mortem examination.

Mrs. JOHNSTON has confessed participating in the plot but denies she administered the poison. HORTON has maintained innocence since his arrest.

Jefferson City News-Tribune
Jefferson City, Missouri
Sunday, March 01, 1936, Page 2

BEDFORD, Ia., Feb. 29 - (AP) - Frank WISDOM, attorney for Mrs. Anna JOHNSTON, 38, indicated his line of defense today when he charged the prosecution with using "third degree methods" to obtain Mrs. JOHNSTON'S confession in the poison death of Mrs. Floyd HORTON, 37.

WISDOM asserted:

"The county attorney and other officers questioned Mrs. JOHNSTON for more than 10 hours at a stretch. That constitutes a third degree and violates constitutional rights."

Either Mrs. JOHNSTON or Floyd HORTON, 38, the neighbor farmer with whom she admitted illicit relationship since last November, are scheduled to go on trial March 16 for poisoning HORTON'S wife.

Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Tuesday, March 03, 1936, Page 3

Mrs. Anna JOHNSTON, left, 38-year-old widow, who confessed plotting with her married lover, Floyd HORTON, of Bedford, Iowa, to poison his wife, who was found to have died of poison given to her in capsules as a "cold cure." She and HORTON are being held without bond on charges of murder.

Floyd HORTON, right, 38, farmer of Bedford, Iowa, in jail there, charged with the murder of his wife who was poisoned. His alleged paramour,Mrs. Anna JOHNSTON, 38-year old widow, is said to have confessed to plotting the death with him. HORTON denies it.

BEDFORD, (AP) - The poison murder trials of Floyd HORTON and his confessed paramour, Mrs. Anna JOHNSTON, will proceed March 16 as scheduled.

District Judge Homer A. FULLER, refusing to quash the county attorney's information charging Mrs. JOHNSTON with murder, Monday also denied HORTON'S and Mrs. JOHNSTON'S pleas to postpone the date of the trial.

HORTON and Mrs. JOHNSTON, who admitted illicit relations since last November, are accused of plotting the poison murder of HORTON'S comely 37-year-old wife, Elta, who died after taking capsules for a cold.

Frank WISDOM, Mrs. JOHNSTON'S attorney, asked the court to quash the indictment against his client on ground that the prosecution employed "first degree methods" in obtaining her confession.

WISDOM asserted that Mrs. JOHNSTON was questioned for more than 10 hours at one time and that she was not informed of her constitutional rights to an attorney and to refuse to make statements that might incriminate her.

"Such practices in procuring confessions foster anarchy and revolution," WISDOM said.

HORTON'S attorneys did not seek to quash the indictment of their client, but joined with DISDOM (sic) in asking a continuance. They told Judge FULLER they would not have sufficient time to prepare a defense by March 16, but Judge FULLER, overruling the motion, said:

"I believe that two weeks is all the time you need to prepare. . . .be ready for trial March 16."

Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Wednesday, March 04, 1936, Page 1

BEDFORD, (AP) - Prosecutors Wednesday disclosed a signed statement showing Miss Ruth SLAGLE, school teacher boarder at the home of Mrs. Anna JOHNSTON, will be a key witness at the trial of Mrs. JOHNSTON and Floyd HORTON for the poison murder of HORTON'S pretty wife.

Although Miss SLAGLE'S statement touched point by point events leading up to the night when Mrs. HORTON died of poison capsules she took for a cold, the school teacher apparently did not know of illicit love admitted by the buxom brunet widow and the husky blonde farmer.

Officials, who asserted Miss SLAGLE is not under suspicion, declined to make public the verbatim answers of Miss SLAGLE on two key points, but the content of her statement showed she will be asked to testify.

1. Whether (as Mrs. JOHNSTON'S confession said) a bottle of poison and empty capsules lay on the cupboard shelf of the JOHNSTON home.

2. Whether there were rats about the JOHNSTON farm and whether Miss SLAGLE had ever heard Mrs. JOHNSTON speak of poisoning rats.

Mrs. JOHNSTON said in her confession that she had purchased a bottle of poison at a Bedford drug store last December "to kill rats."

Judge Homer A. FULLER has granted separate trials and set the trial date as March 16, but the prosecution has refused to disclose whether it will elect to try Mrs. JOHNSTON or HORTON first. Both pleaded not guilty to murder charges.

Thus far, signed statements of the stony faced widow, HORTON, and Miss SLAGLE have failed to disclose whether poison pellets were substituted for two capsules containing harmless cold medicine which HORTON said his wife removed from a sealed envelope and took shortly before her death.

At one point, Miss SLAGLE'S statement said Mrs. JOHNSTON asked her, five days after Mrs. HORTON'S death:

"I wonder if Floyd (HORTON) would see if the report from Iowa City came back yet. I am anxious to know the report on the contents of the bottle (of cold medicine)."

The state toxicologist at Iowa City examined Mrs. HORTON'S viscera and found it contained poison.

Mrs. JOHNSTON'S statement declared emphatically that HORTON knew she had purchased poison "to kill rats," and that she had told him she would leave it on her cupboard shelf after he had said, I'll get it some time."

She asserted that "after he had gotten it (the poison), he told me he had gotten it," but HORTON denied knowledge that his widow-paramour had the poison.

The three statements agreed on one pertinent detail - that Mrs. JOHNSTON had told Mrs. HORTON she would "fix her up some capsules for her cold," and that HORTON had been designated to take them to his wife from the JOHNSTON farm.

The statements said the conversation between the poison victim and Mrs. JOHNSTON took place at the HORTON home one day before the farmwife died with HORTON and Miss SLAGLE present.

The statements of Mrs. JOHNSTON and Miss SLAGLE agreed on details of preparation of the capsules. Miss SLAGLE told how Mrs. JOHNSTON had difficulty in opening the cold medicine bottle, and how after the capsules were filled Miss SLAGLE put them in an envelope and sealed the envelope.

The school teacher said she wrote directions on the outside of the envelope and signed it "Doctors SLAGLE and JOHNSTON." which she said was written "just for fun."

HORTON'S statement declared that to his knowledge the envelope was not opened after he took it from the JOHNSTON home until his wife tore it open to take her "cold medicine."

The text of Miss SLAGLE'S statement showed she knew the location of the envelope from the time it was sealed until the moment HORTON picked it up.

When she told of the visit to the HORTON home on the day before the farmwife took the capsules, Miss SLAGLE said that as they were leaving, Mrs. JOHNSTON scolded HORTON for allowing his wife to carry wood from a snow-covered pile to the farmhouse when she had a cold.

The school teacher quoted Mrs. JOHNSTON as saying:

"You hadn't ought to let Elta (Mrs. HORTON) pack in the wood that way."

Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Tuesday, March 10, 1936, Page 2

BEDFORD, (AP) - Floyd HORTON retained James A. LUCAS of Bedford and Homer S. STEPHENS of Clarinda as counsel to defend him in his trial on charges of plotting the poison-murder of his wife with Mrs. Anna JOHNSTON.

Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Wednesday, March 11, 1936, Page 5

BEDFORD, (AP) - Attorneys for Floyd HORTON and his widow-paramour, Mrs. Anna JOHNSTON, charged with the poison murder of HORTON'S wife, renewed their legal jockeying Wednesday.

Frank WISDOM, white-haired veteran attorney representing Mrs. JOHNSTON, said he plans to ask the state for a bill of particulars. "I'd like to know," he said, "just what the state intends to prove."

The prosecution has exhibited a confession signed by Mrs. JOHNSTON, in which she admitted purchasing poison, but declared it was administered to Mrs. HORTON by her husband.

James A. LUCAS, HORTON'S attorney, said he would ask for a copy of the statement the prosecution said HORTON signed. In this statement, County Attorney Roger WARIN reported, HORTON admitted intimate relations with Mrs. JOHNSTON since Nov. 1, 1935, but declared he "knew nothing about any poison."

LUCAS also said he would ask a continuance and a bill of particulars.

District Judge Homer A. FULLER last week refused to grant continuances to both suspects and ordered their trials scheduled for Monday.

Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Wednesday, March 13, 1936, Page 2

BEDFORD, (AP) - Frank WISDOM, attorney for Mrs. Anna JOHNSTON, asked for a change of venue Thursday for the trial of the 38-year-old widow jointly accused with Floyd HORTON, 38, of killing HORTON'S wife with poison.

Declaring the case has been given "undue publicity," WISDOM argued that "the excitement and prejudice now existing against her (Mrs. JOHNSTON) is so generally widespread that a fair trial is impossible in Taylor county."

District Judge Homer A. FULLER said he would hear arguments Saturday morning on this and WISDOM'S previous motion asking the court to require the prosecution to submit a bill of particulars against Mrs. JOHNSTON.

James R LUCAS, of HORTON'S counsel, said he would not ask a venue change for his client.

"We want to try HORTON here among his friends," LUCAS said. He added that he expected to file another motion for continuance today, which probably will be argued also Saturday. Judge FULLER previously denied both Mrs. JOHNSTON and HORTON continuance of trial, scheduled to begin Monday.

Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Thursday, March 14, 1936, Page 7

BEDFORD, (AP) - The prosecution decided Saturday to bring Mrs. Anna JOHNSTON to trial first for the poison murder of Mrs. Elta HORTON, 38, whose husband, Floyd HORTON, is jointly accused with Mrs. JOHNSTON of poisoning her.

The trial will open at 9 a.m. Monday in district court here as District Judge Homer A. FULLER Saturday morning overruled a motion for a change of venue for Mrs. JOHNSTON.

Attorney Frank WISDON, representing the woman, who admitted illicit relations with HORTON since Nov. 1, 1935, told the court a fair trail was impossible in Taylor county.

Judge FULLER answered that the had been in surrounding counties and that he "believed the feeling is less intense in Taylor county than anywhere in this section of the state. People here have been remarkably level headed," he said.

Attorney WISDOM then asked Judge FULLER to order the prosecution to state whether Mrs. JOHNSTON or HORTON would be tried first. The judge granted the request and after a conference County Attorney Roger WARIN announced Mrs. JOHNSTON will be the first called before the court.

Earlier the judge had denied a second motion for continuance of HORTON'S trial asked by his attorney, James LUCAS.

Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Friday, March 15, 1936, Page 2

BEDFORD, (AP) - Mrs. Anna JOHNSTON, 38-yar-old widow accused jointly with Floyd HORTON of killing HORTON'S wife with poison, pleaded guilty late today to a first degree murder charge.

Her admission of guilt came on the eve of her trial.

District Judge Homer A. FULLER said she would not be sentenced until the murder charge against her neighbor farmer, HORTON, is disposed of.

Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Monday, March 16, 1936, Page 1

BEDFORD, (AP) - "I'm glad," Floyd HORTON declared Monday, "that Anna JOHNSTON pleaded guilty of murdering my wife. I have felt for some time that she was guilty and her confession ought to vindicate me before a jury."

Mrs. JOHNSTON, the 38-year-old widowed neighbor of HORTON who confessed she was his paramour, withdrew her plea of innocent to a charge of taking part in the poison murder of HORTON'S wife and pleaded guilty Saturday.

She was taken to Rockwell City women's reformatory to await sentence after the murder charge against HORTON is disposed of.

HORTON'S attorney, James LUCAS of Bedford, declared Monday that HORTON is "going to stand trial on this charge." Trial is scheduled to open March 23.

HORTON talked of Mrs. JOHNSTON'S charge in front for the first time Monday. He also recalled details of his life with his wife.

"We had some good times together," he said, adding:

"How could anyone be so cruel as to take the life of any person by poison."

The husky, blond farmer declared emphatically that he has told authorities all he knows about his wife's death.

"I told them everything I could remember, because I had nothing to conceal. I kept telling them I was innocent, but they wouldn't believe me. I have been in jail about a month now. I guess that is what a fellow gets for trying to help officers in a case like this."

Mrs. JOHNSTON, in a signed confession given officers, said she and HORTON had been intimate since Nov. 1, 1935, that they had talked of getting rid of Mrs. HORTON, that she purchased poison. She claimed, however, that HORTON actually administered the poison in cold capsules.

HORTON, while admitting intimate relations with the widow, declared in a signed statement that he knew nothing about the poison.

Mrs. JOHNSTON will be returned here as a witness against HORTON, prosecution attorneys said Monday.

Since she pleaded guilty to a first degree murder charge, she faces either the death penalty or life imprisonment, depending upon the decision of District Judge Homer A. FULLER, who will sentence her.

Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Wednesday, March 18, 1936, Page 5

LEFT: Mrs. Anna JOHNSTON, 38, Taylor county woman, who has pleaded guilty to the first degree murder of Mrs. Floyd HORTON, wife of her paramour. Mrs. JOHNSTON is in the women's reformatory at Rockwell City. She will be sentenced after HORTON'S trial for his alleged part in the fatal poisoning of his wife has been finished.

MIDDLE: Dr. Seth G. WALTON, who discovered evidence that Mrs. Floyd HORTON of Bedford had been poisoned.

RIGHT: Special Prosecutor James LOCKE, who is assisting county Attorney Roger WARIN of Bedford in the poison murder case in which Floyd HORTON faces trial for the death of his wife.

Sheriff T. V. LACY (left), State Agent Con RYAN and County Attorney Roger WARIN of Taylor County look over evidence against Mrs. Anna JOHNSTON and Floyd HORTON in the alleged poison murder of HORTON'S wife at Bedford.

Mrs. JOHNSTON pleaded guilty and HORTON will stand trial on charges of first degree murder.

Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Tuesday, March 24, 1936, Page 1

BEDFORD, (AP) - Selection of a jury to try Floyd HORTON, 38, for the poison-murder of his wife, was virtually assured Tuesday afternoon before court recesses.

At the end of the morning session, 30 prospective jurors had been questioned by both state and defense attorneys, and 16 had been struck, leaving 14 still eligible to serve.

Special Prosecutor James R. LOCKE and James LUCAS of HORTON'S counsel, both said they thought they would conclude selection of the jury easily Tuesday afternoon.

LOCKE indicated his satisfaction with the jurors so far drawn by waiving the state's second peremptory challenge. All but three of the talesmen questioned have said they would approve the death penalty for HORTON if they decide he is guilty of poisoning his wife.

Mrs. M. Z. HENDREN is the only talesman who has admitted an "out-and-out" prejudice against capital punishment. She is the wife of a school teacher. Two others, however, declared they were uncertain as to what they believed concerning the death sentence.

HORTON Tuesday showed greater interest in selection of the jurors who will decide his fate, eyeing them closely as they were questioned by attorneys. Monday he sat with his hands over his eyes or with his eyes on the floor most of the time.

Judge FULLER indicated he believed taking of evidence would start Wednesday by dispatching Sheriff Tom LACY to Rockwell City women's reformatory to return Mrs. Anna JOHNSTON, 38, HORTON'S admitted paramour, to Bedford.

Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Wednesday, March 25, 1936, Page 1

BEDFORD, (AP) - Accused of "one of the most brutal crimes ever committed in this country," Floyd HORTON Wednesday was in the thick of a legal battle to save himself from the gallows.

The 38-year-old Bedford farmer is charged with administering fatal poison capsules to his handsome wife, Elta, in their snowbound farm home on the night of Feb. 14. Mrs. HORTON died of convulsions without medical aid early the next morning.

Projected against this background, the state charges, is an illicit love affair, with HORTON and Mrs. Anna JOHNSON, his buxom widow-neighbor, as the principals.

Special Prosecutor James R. LOCKE painted a picture of "death in a blizzard" Wednesday with the testimony of HORTON'S neighbors.

After establishing the other neighbors lived closer to HORTON than Mrs. JOHNSTON to bear out the state's contention that HORTON kept "stock in her barn so he would have an excuse to go and see her." LOCKE introduced pictures of the room in which Mrs. HORTON writhed out her life.

Then he called Miss Anna KEMERY, one of the three elderly sisters who lived near the HORTONS, to the stand. Miss KEMERY said HORTON delivered milk to her home early in the evening of the night Mrs. HORTON died.

Shortly before 2 a.m., she testified, HORTON again knocked at her door.

"What did he say?" asked LOCKE.

"He said 'Elta died. My wife died. She died in convulsions.'" the witness replied.

Miss KEMERY said HORTON asked her to telephone Roy KEMERY, a relative living nearby to come to the house and bring Anna JOHNSTON with him.

The HORTON and JOHNSTON homes lacked telephones. The prosecution, in its opening statement to the jury, contended that HORTON'S failure to summon help for his wife indicated guilty knowledge. Defense attorneys declared he remained with her because Mrs. HORTON "pleaded with him not to leave her."

The next state witness was Frank CUBBATE, 41, farmer living a half mile southeast of the HORTON home.

CUBBAGE testified Miss KEMERY telephoned him that "Elta HORTON has died" and that "Floyd wants you to come to his house." He told of stopping at the JOHNSTON home, of walking across the snow drifted fields and roads to the HORTON home with Mrs. JOHNSTON and Miss Ruth SLAGLE, rural school teacher who boarded with the widow.

CUBBAGE said he arrived at the HORTON home about 2:30 a.m.

"Tell the jury," instructed LOCKE, "what HORTON said."

"He said," replied the farmer, "that he didn't know what had happened to his wife, but for me to take off my wraps and he would tell me all about it. He didn't seem much concerned."

"Did you observe HORTON closely?" asked LOCKE.

"Yes," said CUBBAGE. "He was calm most of the time."

The courtroom Wednesday was jammed to its very walls with spectators. More than half were women.

One District Judge Homer A. FULLER threatened to clear the court when a titter ran over the audience as CUBBAGE answered a question as to when he retired the night Mrs. HORTON died.

County Atty. Roger WARIN, in the prosecution's opening statement, asked the jury to send HORTON to the gallows.

"The state will prove," he declared, "that Elta HORTON died and was murdered by the lust of her husband Floyd, and of Anna JOHNSTON."

Both HORTON and Mrs. JOHNSTON have freely admitted illicit relations since last November. In her confession, the buxom widow said she and HORTON talked of "getting rid" of his wife and that she purchased poison at a Bedford drug store last December. She claimed, however, that HORTON took the poison from her home and substituted it for the medicine in a capsule she prepared for Mrs. HORTON to take for a cold.

HORTON denied "knowing anything about any poison" in his statement to officers.

WARIN quoted the defendant as saying during an earlier interrogation, "if I did it I was in a trance." At another point he quoted HORTON, "you'll convict me, but before you do I'll be examined by the insane board."

The attorney said HORTON has threatened to take his life on two occasions. He also asserted the state will show that HORTON "is over sexed;" that he engaged in illicit relations with women other than his confessed paramour.

Terming his client "a respected citizen," defense attorney Homer S. STEPHENS, told the jury HORTON was on trial for murder, not his relations with Mrs. JOHNSTON. He said the defense does not dispute the defendant's illicit relations. "We cannot condone him for it, but he is not on trial for that matter," he said.

Referring to the prosecution's claim that HORTON told conflicting stories of his wife's death and the circumstances surround it, STEPHENS said he was not surprised.

"He was in mental anguish and had been under a four-day grilling," he said. "He had the feeling any one would have whose wife died in his own arms.

"The evidence will show that he has rendered service to the officers and has aided in bringing to justice the person who perpetrated the crime. Mrs. JOHNSTON."

A jury of 11 men and one woman was chosen Tuesday to hear the case. Its members are: Tom FERGUSON, Lenox, farmer; Sam HOXWORTH, Jackson township, farmer; F. E. HATFIELD, Ross township, farmer; O. w. HUBBARD, Jefferson township farmer; Christie HILLERS, Blockton, farmer; Alan THOMPSON, Bedford, clerk; W. F. JOHNSTON, Gravity, merchant; Mrs. Ruth BOLTINGHOUSE, Lenox, farm wife; Harl STURM, Sharpsburg, farmer; John OVERHOLTZER, Blockton, telephone operator; L. A. WALKUP, Conway, farmer; and, M. T. KENDRICK, New Market, farmer.

Page 5

BEDFORD (AP) - Floyd HORTON and his admitted paramour, Mrs. Anna JOHNSTON, met again in district court here Wednesday - and ignored each other.

Mrs. JOHNSTON was brought into the courtroom for five minutes while District Judge Homer A. FULLER informed her testimony presented in HORTON'S trial would be considered in sentencing her.

HORTON and the buxom widow sat the five minutes with a table between them. Neither cast a glance at the other. Mrs. JOHNSTON'S face was marble calm as usual. HORTON teetered in his swivel chair, scratched his chin.

Jefferson City Post-Tribune
Jefferson City, Missouri
Thursday, March 26, 1936, Page 2

BEDFORD, March 26 - (AP) - Floyd HORTON'S attorneys gained from Ruth SLAGLE, young rural school teacher who lived with HORTON'S paramour, Mrs. Anna JOHNSTON, an admission today that she was not certain the powder Mrs. JOHNSTON put in capsules she prepared for HORTON'S wife was cold medicine.

Horton, 38-year-old farmer is on trial here for the poison capsule murder Feb. 15 of his attractive wife, Elta, 37. Mrs. JOHNSTON, widowed neighbor of the HORTONS, confessed purchasing the poison which the state contends killed Mrs. HORTON, but claimed her lover actually gave it to his wife.

"Didn't you," defense attorney Homer S. STEPHENS asked, "have your back turned much of the time Mrs. JOHNSTON filled the capsules?" The witness and attorney were standing as though at the buffet where she said the capsules were prepared.

"Yes," said the teacher, "I was turned away from her part of the time. I saw her pour out the medicine on a piece of paper so she could scoop it up in the capsules."

"But you are not absolutely certain the powder Mrs. JOHNSTON placed in the capsules was the cold medicine?" asked STEPHENS.

"No," replied the witness. "I thought it was."

Earlier in direct examination, James R. LOCKE, special prosecutor, brought from Miss SLAGLE the statement that HORTON, who a witness yesterday said he admitted unfaithfulness to his wife with other women besides Mrs. JOHNSTON, asked her once for "a date."

"I told him absolutely no," said the teacher.

HORTON was showing signs of strain as his trial rounded into its third day.

The News and Tribune
Jefferson City, Missouri
Sunday, March 29, 1936, Pages 1 & 2

BEDFORD, March 28 - (AP) - Floyd HORTON'S attorney wound up cross-examination of Mrs. Anna JOHNSTON this afternoon. She answered their questions, aimed to trap her into admitting she killed HORTON'S wife with "I don't remember" or flat denials.

They dwelt little on HORTON'S illicit love affair with Mrs. JOHNSTON, but hammered away at her testimony that she bought poison, used some of it to kill rats and left the rest in her home where HORTON obtained it.

HORTON, a farmer and World War veteran, is on trial for the poison capsule murder of the wife, whom he married 14 years ago [June 1, 1922].

The state charges he took poison from Mrs. JOHNSTON'S home, substituted it for medicine in capsules Mrs. JOHNSTON prepared for Mrs. HORTON to take to doctor a cold. The widow has plead guilty to a first degree murder charge.

Defense Attorney Homer STEPHENS, after meeting a string of "I don't remembers" to questions as to when and how Mrs. JOHNSON poisoned rats, asked:

"Isn't it true, Mrs. JOHNSON, that you bought this poison with the intention of killing Mrs. HORTON with it?"

"I did not," she snapped.

Taking a new turn he asked, "you had an oyster stew supper for HORTON and his wife, Miss SLAGLE, your father and your hired man one evening, didn't you?"

Miss SLAGLE is Ruth SLAGLE, rural school teacher who lived with Mrs. JOHNSTON. Her father is Lem ROSS, the hired man, Frank LADD.

"Yes," said Mrs. JOHNSTON.

"Just tell the jury all about it," said the attorney.

"I saw Elta (Mrs. HORTON) taste [continued on Page 2] her soup," she related, "and Elta said it tasted bitter. Ruth SLAGLE took a sip from Elta's bowl and rushed out to the kitchen to spit it out. I tasted it and it tasted bitter and salty so I threw it out and gave Elta some more soup."

The witness explained she thought some epsom salts had been spilled in Mrs. HORTON'S bowl of stew since she found a bottle upset in the kitchen cupboard.

STEPHENS turned the witness back to Special Prosecutor James LOCKE who inquired:

"Did anyone else complain of the soup?"

"No," said the widow.

"Did any one else comment about it?"

"Yes. Floyd said to Elta, 'Maybe it's your taster.' He didn't taste Elta's soup though, although it was right there if he had wanted to."

With that, LOCKE excused Mrs. JOHNSTON, who today had regained her composure except for brief moments when she flared angrily at STEPHENS.

Court recessed today until 9 a.m. Monday. County Attorney Roger WARIN said Mrs. JOHNSTON would be recalled to the stand later.

Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Wednesday, April 01, 1936, Page 1

BEDFORD, (AP) - Floyd HORTON Told from the witness stand Wednesday afternoon his version of his wife's death, the wife he is on trial for murdering with poison.

He emphatically declared he did not know what was in the jar of medicine his paramour, Mrs. Anna JOHNSTON, testified she prepared for him and his wife.

BEDFORD (AP) - Floyd HORTON'S attorneys laid the groundwork for their defense of the 38-year-old farmer today by seeking to establish that HORTON was "all broken up" after his wife's death.

Guy HORTON, 30, Floyd's brother, testified he went to the HORTON home the day after his brother's wife died and that "Floyd took it awful hard."

"I never saw Floyd and Elta have an argument or scrap," he said, "and I worked for Floyd and lived with them a whole year.

"Floyd often joked Elta, but it was all in fun."

He also declared his brother told Mrs. Anna JOHNSTON, Floyd's 195-pound, stern-faced, widowed paramour:

"Anna, you hadn't better stay. You better go home."

State witnesses testified HORTON called Mrs. JOHNSTON to the HORTON home immediately after his wife died and that the neighbor women with whom he has admitted illicit relationships remained there until Mrs. HORTON was buried.

Clyde HORTON, 46, another brother, also testified that "Floyd was all broken up after Elta's death, crying and talking wildly." He declared his brother and his wife were "always friendly."

In cross examination, Special Prosecutor James R. LOCKE brought out that Floyd told his brother, Clyde, that he and Elta quarreled the day before she died, that he reached for a gun and said, "let's end it all," that Elta replied, "I'm not ready to die yet."

Clyde also admitted "Floyd and Elta has spats sometimes," and that "she kidded him about other women."

Indicating they would make an issue of an oyster supper Mrs. JOHNSTON testified she served HORTON, his wife, her father, Lem ROSS, Ruth SLAGLE, young school teacher who lived with her, and her farm hand, Frank LADD, defense attorneys questioned Herbert OWENS, pharmacist who earlier testified he sold Mrs. JOHNSTON the poison she confessed purchasing.

OWENS said the poison found in Mrs. HORTON'S body tastes bitter and that a cathartic Mrs. JOHNSTON testified probably was spilled into Mrs. HORTON'S oyster stew also tastes salty and bitter.

The defense brought up the oyster supper in winding up their cross-examination of Mrs. JOHNSTON, the inference being that the widow attempted to poison her lover's wife, previous to Mrs. HORTON'S death from poison contained in a cold capsule Mrs. JOHNSTON admitted preparing for her.

The state contends HORTON substituted poison obtained from his paramour in the cold capsule. Defense attorneys indicated in cross-examination that Mrs. JOHNSTON filled the capsule with poison instead of medicine and that HORTON knew nothing about it.

In redirect examination, the state brought out that Mrs. JOHNSTON tasted Mrs. HORTON'S soup, threw it out and refilled her bowl; that HORTON twitted his wife about her taster, but did not taste the soup himself.

In turn, defense attorneys brought out in questioning Miss SLAGLE that Mrs. HORTON'S bowl was different from the others placed on the table by Mrs. JOHNSTON.

A court battle developed when the defense called Ralph CREW, Clearfield undertaker who prepared Mrs. HORTON'S body for burial.

Prosecutor LOCKE, objected when CREW was asked if Mrs. JOHNSTON told him "Floyd is foolish to have a post mortem done on his wife." CREW was allowed to answer, however, and said he didn't remember such a conversation.

He further testified he had known HORTON for many years and that "Floyd's reputation for truth is good." He admitted in cross-examination that he knew of HORTON'S affairs with other women.

The defense recalled Frank LADD, Mrs. JOHNSTON'S farm hand, and brought from him that he never saw a rat on Mrs. JOHNSTON'S farm or observed any poison, Mrs. JOHNSTON testified she brought the poison to kill rats.

Defense Attorneys Home S. STEPHENS and James A. LUCE were secretive as to their defense plans, but said they would call about 15 witnesses and that HORTON would take the stand.

They held a long conference with HORTON Tuesday night.

District Judge Homer A. FULLER denied the defense request for a directed verdict when the state rested its case late Tuesday.

"There is abundant evidence in the record at this time to sustain the state," the judge ruled, "if a verdict of guilty were returned against this defendant, and the highest penalty assessed, either on the theory that the defendant was an accomplice with Anna JOHNSTON or on the theory of a conspiracy between them and that she herself administered the poison."

As the state brought its case to a close new testimony of HORTON'S unfaithfulness was given the jury.

Mrs. Grace ADAIR, the dead woman's sister, testified between sobs that HORTON made advances upon her five years ago.

Under questioning of Special Prosecutor James R. LOCKE, Mrs. ADAIR said HORTON came to her and said "he came out to have a little fun."

Q. "What did you say to him?"

A. "I told him that I didn't want to disgrace my husband and my little girl, and I didn't want to disgrace my sister [Mrs. HORTON]"

Asked HORTON'S reply to her rebuke, the witness answered:

"He said he didn't mean no harm by it."

BEDFORD (AP) - Spectators call W. A. HATCHETT the 'thirteenth juror" in district court here where Floyd HORTON is on trial for the poison capsule murder of his wife, Elta, 37.

Twelve jurors sit in the jury box, their duty to decide whether the 38-year-old farmer should be hanged, sent to prison for life, or freed.

The thirteenth juror sits in the front row of the courtroom benches, 74 years of age, work and grief weighing down his once big framed body, his faded sun squinted eyes fastened intently upon HORTON as the state parades testimony of HORTON'S illicit love life before the court.

The thirteenth juror is HORTON'S father-in-law, father of the attractive wife he is accused of killing in their snowbound farm house Feb. 15.

Once he was "Bud" HATCHETT, a cattle feeder and farmer with seven children.

Now only three children remain. One died when a baby. Another was drowned. A third vanished. The fourth died in poison produced convulsions.

He talks but little as the second week of the trial wears away. But each morning he slides into a seat where he can watch HORTON without interference. Perhaps he listens to state witnesses tell of his son-in-law's unfaithfulness to his wife and to his paramour, Mrs. Anna JOHNSTON, the 195-pound widowed neighbor, who pleaded guilty to complicity in the murder, testified against her erstwhile lover.

But his eyes seldom leave HORTON, who weeps, squirms, mops his brow or sits slumped in his swivel chair.

"Mother and me," he said, "were very happy. Then Mildred died when a wee baby. Then Eldon left us. He was 32, drowned out in Utah. Then Manford left home - that was before Elta married 14 years ago - and never came back. We don't where he went. We used to get letters from him from Omaha where he said he was making good in a flour mill. Then his letters stopped.

"Now Elta's dead.

"It's nearly too much for mother and me. We're getting old." His big, farm work gnarled hand brushed at his eye.

The three HATCHETT children remaining to "Bud" HATCHETT and his wife are daughters - all married.

Since the trial opened, HATCHETT has refrained from commenting about his son-in-law unless questioned and then he is likely not to "hear" he question.

But once the thirteenth juror said:

"I liked Floyd when he and Elta were married. I thought he was all right then."

Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Wednesday, April 01, 1936, Page 1

BEDFORD, (AP) - Special Prosecutor James R. LOCKE wound up his blistering cross-examination of Floyd HORTON Thursday by wringing from the farmer accused of the poison murder of his wife the admission she had refused to give him a divorce.

The defense allowed HORTON to step down from the stand, flushed and shaken, without further questioning.

HORTON'S fate, it appeared, soon would be in the jury's hands. Prosecutor LOCKE said the state's rebuttal testimony would be short. Defense Attorney James LUCAS reported five more witnesses would be called, but "it won't take much time for them."

Prosecutor LOCKE established what he claims was HORTON'S motive for killing his wife in HORTON'S admission that she would not give him a divorce.

"HORTON," he said, "you asked your wife for a divorce so you could go away with Anna JOHNSTON, didn't you?"

"I asked her for a divorce," HORTON answered.

"That was in the presence of Mrs. JOHNSTON?"

"Yes," HORTON replied.

"And your wife told Anna JOHNSTON, 'You can go keep house for Floyd, but you'll probably be sorry for it. I won't give him a divorce.'"

"Yes."

LOCKE turned then to HORTON'S worries over the fact that Mrs. JOHNSTON told him she thought she was going to be a mother.

"Mrs. JOHNSTON never told you she wasn't going to bear you a child until after your wife died, did she?" LOCKE asked.

"No," HORTON answered. "I'd asked her before that and she'd say, 'no good news yet.'"

LOCKE'S questioning also indicated officers employed a hidden device to record statement during their investigation of Mrs. HORTON'S death. He told HORTON a device planted in the room where the inquest was held disclosed Mrs. JOHNSTON said to him "we might as well tell the whole truth about it."

HORTON, however, emphatically denied Mrs. JOHNSTON made this statement.

The farmer also denied he said "before I'm proved guilty I'll go before the insane commissioner," as officers previously testified.

He declared, "I don't remember what I told those officers. I was sleepy."

Defense attorneys called five character witnesses after HORTON stepped down from the stand. These were Lawrence KIRBY, J. A. HENSLEY, Henry LONGFELLOW, Homer RANBARGER and Mrs. Russell HENDERSON. They testified either that HORTON and his wife were friendly; that HORTON'S reputation was good or that Mrs. JOHNSTON'S reputation was bad.

When LOCKE resumed his cross-examination Thursday morning, he dwelt at length on the capsules the state claims contained the poison which killed Mrs. HORTON.

"HORTON," charged LOCKE, "you told the jury you never saw a capsule before you brought those two your wife took for a cold from Mrs. JOHNSTON'S home and your wife poured them out of an envelope onto the table."

"Yes," said the 38-year-old farmer on trial for the murder of his wife who died in poison-induced convulsions at their snowbound home the night of Feb. 14.

"You mean to tell this jury," the prosecutor lashed out, "that you, a farmer, never saw capsules given stock?"

"Well," replied HORTON, "I've seen them given hogs."

"And you told officers," LOCKE continued, "that your wife poured those poisoned capsules that killed her out onto the living room table, didn't you?"

"I did not," HORTON fired back. "She poured them out on the kitchen table."

LOCKE, who began his cross-examination late Wednesday afternoon, after HORTON told his story of his wife's death and denied he poisoned her, stressed this point as to which table the capsules were on.

The state contends HORTON substituted a poison filled capsule for one of those his paramour, Mrs. Anna JOHNSTON, testified she prepared for her lover's wife to doctor a cold. During the cross-examination LOCKE tried to show time and again that HORTON had the chance to switch capsules while they were on the table.

HORTON, however, maintained he never had such opportunity, declaring that he only returned to the house twice while he did the chores that evening and that Mrs. HORTON was in the kitchen both times.

Thoroughly, LOCKE reviewed events of Mrs. HORTON'S death from the time HORTON said she took the second of two capsules about 9:30 p.m. In direct examination Wednesday, HORTON testified his wife asked him to engage in the marital relationship with her after taking the second capsule, said she retired about 10 p.m. and took sick shortly afterwards.

Try as he might, however, LOCKE could not pin HORTON to any definite statement of the time after 9:30 p.m. HORTON declared his wife did not die for three hours after taking sick. The state's expert witness testified a dose of poison as large as that taken by Mrs. HORTON would have killed her within an hour.

"HORTON," snapped LOCKE, "you answered questions before the coroner's jury concerning a capsule you found in your dead wife's pocketbook, didn't you?"

"Yes," replied the farmer.

"You said, it looks exactly like one of the empty ones, didn't you?"

"I don't remember," said HORTON.

The state charges that HORTON obtained an empty capsule and the poison from his paramour's home.

Mrs. JOHNSTON testified also that HORTON asked her to plant an empty capsule in his wife's pocketbook after she died so "it will look like she done it herself."

The buxom widow-paramour has pleaded guilty to a murder charge. She will be sentenced when HORTON'S fat is decided.

HORTON held his newfound calm for the most part Thursday, but flared back at LOCK on one or two occasions.

Heretofore, a weeping, squirming, emotional defendant, he told Wednesday of his wife's death in a matter-of-fact manner until he came to the moment of death when he sobbed, necessitating a short recess.

Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Friday, April 03, 1936, Page 1

BEDFORD, (AP) - Floyd HORTON'S attorneys called upon the jurors who will decide whether the farmer is guilty of the poison murder of his wife to obey themselves "the God given law 'thou shalt not kill' cited to you by the prosecution which seeks his death."

Attorney James A. LUCAS began the defense's final argument Friday after County Attorney Roger WARIN asked the jury to bring the death penalty against HORTON, declaring he broke "not one, but three of God's commandments, 'thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not commit adultery, and thou shalt not bear false witness."

"If yu do decide HORTON poisoned his wife," LUCAS said, "don't add another white cross to the row on row in Flander's fields as the state is asking you to do."

"But the evidence, I believe," LUCAS continued, "will not convince you HORTON killed his wife. Rather it will convince you that Anna JOHNSTON, who admits she's an adulteress and does it brazenly, was the person who killed Elta HORTON.

"Who would have been more likely to commit this crime? Could any many live 14 years with his wife, give her poison and watch her die?

"Did he want to get rid of her so he could marry Anna JOHNSTON? The testimony does not say a thing about that.

"I'm not condemning Floyd's other woman," the attorney assured the jurors, "I'm condemning him for that. But we must remember he's not on trial for being unfaithful to his wife.

"Anna had a motive. She was a penniless widow. She admitted talking with Floyd of his war bonus and the estate he might inherit. She knew he was financially sound and she wanted to take him from his wife for that reason.

"So she used poison to get him.

"But when she saw that someone would have to pay for Elta HORTON'S murder, she tried to lay the blame on Floyd.

"Floyd is not afraid to die. His war record proves that. But he is not guilty of murder. No man could be so heartless as to give his wife poison and then engage in the martial relationship with her, knowing she was going to die.

"It is beyond reason."

Defense Attorney Homer S. STEPHENS wound up the defense arguments Friday afternoon. He was followed by Special Prosecutor James R. LOCK.

The case was expected to go to the jury before night.

Even without Mrs. JOHNSTON'S accusing testimony, WARIN said, there was an abundance of evidence to warrant the death penalty for HORTON. "There is no doubt of it," he told the jurors. "Anna JOHNSTON was merely a tool of Floyd HORTON."

WARIN built his plea to the jurors for conviction around the prosecution contentions that:

HORTON told Dr. Seth G. WALTON, called after Mrs. HORTON'S death, his wife suffered no pain, but medical authorities testified her poison death was one of the most agonizing known.

HORTON had ample opportunity to substitute poison for quinine in capsules sent to his wife for a cold by Mrs. JOHNSTON, while Mrs. JOHNSTON had no such opportunity.

Because HORTON, as well as his wife, at the time was suffering from a cold, Mrs. JOHNSTON would not have prepared poisoned capsules without informing her lover for fear he might also be a victim.

HORTON made no effort to summon aid during his wife's convulsions although she suffered "the tortures of hell."

HORTON told Dr. WALTON, the coroner's medical aid, he had seen the capsules prepared and knew they contained harmless quinine, whereas subsequent testimony refuted this.

Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Saturday, April 04, 1936, Page 1

BEDFORD, (AP) - Floyd HORTON, 38-year-old farmer and man of many women, to-day was found guilty of the poison murder of his attractive wife, Etta (sic) HORTON, who died in convulsions at their drift-isolated home the night of February 14th.

Rather than die on the gallows, as the state had demanded, HORTON must spend the rest of his life in prison for his crime, the jury decreed.

The same fate is expected to be meted out to Mrs. Anna JOHNSTON, HORTON'S 195-pound sweetheart, who confessed she plotted the murder with HORTON because she "couldn't resist him."

Helena Independent
Helena, Montana
Sunday, April 5, 1936, Page 1

BEDFORD, Iowa, April 4 - (AP) Floyd HORTON'S "home folks" jury of 11 men and one woman decreed today the 'Cornfield Casanova' must serve life in prison for the poison murder of his attractive wife, Elta, 37.

District Judge Homer A. FULLER then imposed a like penalty on the 195 pound widow, Anna JOHNSTON. She previously had pleaded guilty of first degree murder and had supplied the prosecution with the foundation of its case against her erst-while neighbor lover.

The state charged HORTON substituted poison, obtained from Mrs. JOHNSTON, for medicine in a capsule she prepared for his wife to treat a cold. Mrs. HORTON died on the night of February 14.

The defense sought to establish that Mrs. JOHNSTON sent the poisoned pellet to Mrs. HORTON so "she could have HORTON all to herself."

Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Tuesday, April 07, 1936, Page 2

COUNCIL BLUFFS, (AP) - Floyd HORTON, convicted at Bedford Saturday of complicity in the poison murder of his wife, threatened to take his own life when he was brought to the Pottawattamie county jail here Saturday, Sheriff Joe PERRY revealed Monday.

Feeling much better Tuesday, HORTON said he must have been nervous when he was checked in here, and did not realize what he was saying.

"I'll never take my own life - that is, at least until all of this is cleared up," he told newsmen.

"The only thing I hope is that I'm not an old man when it is."

HORTON insists that Mrs. Anna JOHNSTON, who pleaded guilty to a part of the murder plot and has started a life sentence at Rockwell City reformatory, "can tell the truth that will clear me."

HORTON will be kept in the new local jail until his motion for a new trial is heard at Bedford on April 25.

Jefferson City Post-Tribune
Mason City, Jefferson City, Missouri
Tuesday, April 23, 1936, Page 4

BEFORD, Ia., April 23 - (UP) - Floyd HORTON, convicted slayer of his wife, Elta, will be returned to Bedford tomorrow for a hearing Saturday of his motion for a new trial.

If the motion is denied by District Judge Homer FULLER, sentence will be pronounce. The district court jury recommended life imprisonment.

Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Monday, April 27, 1936, Page 2

FORT MADISON, (AP) - Taylor county Sheriff Tom LACY had a message Monday to carry to Floyd HORTON'S lawyers at Bedford, as HORTON started serving a life sentence for the poison capsule murder of his pretty wife.

"Tell them to get busy," HORTON said to LACY. "I don't want to stay here very long."

The philandering farmer expressed hope the state supreme court will reverse his first degree murder conviction.

As he became number 17,226 at the penitentiary HORTON said:

"This is a hell of a place to end up. I'm not sore at anyone except Anna. Anna lied about me and put me here."

He referred to Mrs. Anna JOHNSTON, his buxom paramour who is also serving a life sentence for the murder.

"I hope that damned JOHNSTON woman is satisfied." HORTON said. "She was responsible. I'm innocent. Elta was a peach of a wife. I don't know why I ever started running around with Anna."

District Judge Homer A. FULLER Saturday at Bedford overruled the defense motion for a new trial and pronounced the life sentence on HORTON, who remarked, "Well, that's that."

Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Thursday, May 21, 1936, Page 2

BEDFORD, (AP) - James A. LUCAS, attorney for Floyd HORTON, Taylor county farmer convicted of murdering his wife with poison, filed notice in district court that an appeal will be carried to the Iowa supreme court.

HORTON now is serving a life term in Fort Madison prison. Mrs. Anna JOHNSTON, his neighbor-paramour who confessed she conspired with HORTON to kill his wife Feb. 14, is serving a life sentence in Rockwell City women's reformatory.

LUCAS said the appeal will be based on what the defense contends were errors in the conduct of HORTON'S trial.

NOTE: Floyd was denied a new and second trial.

Floyd D. HORTON, son of John W. and Carrie HORTON, was born on November 29, 1891. Floyd and Elta Fern HATCHETT were married on June 1, 1922. Floyd died in May of 1979, and was interred at Clearfield Cemetery in Ringgold County, Iowa.

Transcriptions by Sharon R. Becker, March of 2012