Family: William James Kirkpatrick / Bertha Mitchell Lambotte (Lambert) Kirkpatrick Poyner

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Marriage- Lambert, Bertha-Kirkpatrick, William 2

From The Topeka Daily State Journal
Wednesday, May 18, 1910

Minced No Words
Rich in Endearing Terms Are Kirkpatrick’s Letters.
“When I See My Tax List, I Always Think of You.”
“The Right Size Now”
Woman Charming Writer of Love Missives.
Wrote, “I Can Lay My Head on Your Noble Breast.”

Many love letters between Mrs. Belle Quinlan and W.J. Kirkpatrick are being read in her sensational breach of promise suit for $10,000 heart balm to heal the wound he inflicted when on their own intended wedding day, he took to himself another widow with fewer children. Progress in the case has become laborious, the attorneys clashing with rapid fire objections and wordy tilts.

Both the plaintiff and Kirkpatrick have been on the stand today, and Mrs. Bertha Lambert-Kirkpatrick, the widow wed, has been sworn and will be called. Evidence already in shows conclusively that the gay widower divided his spare time from his farm very profitably between the widows who seemed not to be “wise” and consequently not jealous.

The acquaintance of Kirkpatrick and Mrs. Quinlan leading to so terrible a termination began in an unique manner--from a relation often suspected but never before so thoroughly verified. Mr. Kirkpatrick first met the jilted widow as assessor for Rossville township. Twice, he met her in that capacity and from that grew their affections as admitted on the stand but more clearly shown from letters introduced.

The First Meeting.
“When did you first meet Mrs. Quinlan?” asked Attorney L.H. Greenwood of Kirkpatrick.

“I first met her when I was assessor for Rossville township about five years ago,” he answered.

Letter No. 8 in possession of Mrs. Quinlan reads:
“I’m so sorry you have that headache and I can cure a headache fine but not that kind. I remember you as you came to my house as an assessor and helped me figure something about my taxes. Every time I see my tax list now or figure anything, I always think of you. I used to be small then, but I have added flesh since then and I’m sure I am about the right size now. No doubt if you will remember me as I was then.”

A letter from Kirkpatrick corresponding in time which was at the beginning of their closer relationship reads:
“Dear Madam: -- They tell me you have gotten larger and fleshy. Of course that would not make you mad as people like to be large. I have to take mine out in big feelings as I am small in stature as you will remember. Now, Mrs. Quinlan, you can look for me coming over the hill some of these days.” Etc.

The use of “Ha, Ha,” figures peculiarly in these love letters also. In a letter to Mrs. Quinlan the defendant wrote:

Hat on Ha, Ha.
“Well if you are in town I will be there about 3 and will see you there somewhere if I should know you with a hat on. Ha, ha.”

She writes:
“I thought you would be sick and need a little nursing. Ha, ha. Let me know when you can come so I can prepare to devote my time to you.”

Again he wrote in a letter to her:
“My Dear: --I had a headache all morning and stayed in the house all day. I felt just like 30 cents but will get straightened out alright. That is the beauty of living alone—no one bothering you, no one to caress. So went the day.”

Mrs. Quinlan, on the witness stand, repeated all the allegations of her petition, Kirkpatrick’s attentions to her and his visits to her during January, 1909, their engagement in February, and his last visit to her in Topeka, where she stopped at the residence of her daughter, and the discovery later that he had married Mrs. Lambert. The visit in Topeka had been on Easter Sunday, April 11, and his wedding April 21.

During their engagement, Mrs. Quinlan testified, he had brought her an engagement ring and tried it on her finger. Finding it was too small, she said, he promised to get her a larger one.

Kirkpatrick denied that he had ever tried to put a ring on her finger, that he ever had a ring except a big Masonic emblem and a little broken one which he had always worn on his own finger.

Trip to California.
She also told of a proposed trip to California, and he on examination, admitted that he had planned one but had never made any agreement with her to go along.

“Did you ever speak to her about a California trip?” asked his attorney.

“Yes, I believe I said I intended to go.”

“Did you ask her to go with you?”

“I did not. But she said: ‘Well, you had better take me.’ And I said: ‘You wouldn’t go with me.’ And she replied, ‘You just try me.’”

But the plaintiff’s attorneys have a letter from Kirkpatrick, said to have been written to her in reply to one from her, the morning after their engagement, and which they think will be hard for Kirkpatrick to explain other than that they had some agreement. It reads in part:

“My Dear Girl.”
“My Dear Girl: Well, I certainly like the way you start your letter (My dear friend). I thought you more than just a friend, but of course it is a new thing to you, and will have to look over it this time.”

But aside from the love letters of Mrs. Quinlan and Kirkpatrick to each other, there are a lot of love letters and other letters between Mrs. Quinlan and a man known as A.C. Lattshaw. These were all written after the breach of promise proceedings were opened in this case, but have a direct bearing in part and the bone of contention between the lawyers and the court for admittance into the evidence.

This Latshaw, it is claimed, exposes himself as the most despicable of blackmailers and opens up something entirely new for the Shawnee court to handle. Directly after this suit was begun, he, then living in Topeka, began a correspondence with Mrs. Quinlan and secured a place in her regard, so that she answered some of his letters. Going then to Kansas City and St. Joseph, he wrote continually for money to save him from absolute ruin. The amounts he asked were from $10 to $300.

“I know you but you don’t know me,” he wrote, “but I love you with my whole soul and I know you will return the affection. God alone will know of our correspondence or know how dearly I love you.” Then he would enter a plea for money and say: “You will save me from absolute ruin by sending this amount. If you love me sent it right away. Of course if you do not love me, I will not ask for money again but work until the skin drops from my hands to earn a place by your side.”

She answered some of his letters, but refrained from sending money. Then he wanted to meet her and proposed the hotel at Rossville and at St. Marys and she wrote he must come to her house, which he then did.

Kirkpatrick’s lawyer read a letter from her to him, which read in part:

“Oh, Darling”—Mrs. Quinlan
“Write me a long letter if you have time. You say you write to me at the noon hour and can not write at length. Oh, darling, I hope to spend many a noon hour with you in our own home, and when you are in trouble then I can lay my head on your grand, noble, breast and smooth all your troubles away.”

“Why did you write that?” asked the attorney.

“Well, that was after I had seen him at my house,” she answered.

“But you have said you wanted to stop writing to him then why did you write him 29 more letters?”

“Because I was afraid of him, because I would not give him money.”

“No, it was because you were afraid he would turn your letters over to the defense in this suit, wasn’t it.”

Objections were made, but the witness answered, “No.”

Sent Letters to Defense.
But that was the entire purpose of Latshaw in getting these love letters from the unsuspecting woman. After he had gotten a number of them, he sent three to Kirkpatrick asking him what he would pay for the whole lot. He set his own price at $50. At the same time he was threatening Mrs. Quinlan to give them to Kirkpatrick unless she forwarded him $150. Neither of the parties ever paid him anything but his evil work has become a great figure in the present case and may have strong influence with the jury.

Up Late in Parlor.
Mrs. Alice Thomas of near Rossville was on the stand to tell about Mrs. Quinlan and Kirkpatrick being engaged to be married. Mrs. Nellie French, living near Silver Lake, was on the stand to tell that Kirkpatrick came to see his wife during all the time he was courting Mrs. Quinlan, while she was at her house, helping her through a period of sickness. Jas. Quinlan was on the stand to tell of Kirkpatrick’s coming to see his mother and staying up late with her in the parlor.

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