Did philanthropist get away with murdering her husband?

Editor’s Note: The Yuma Sun is reprinting articles from past newspapers honoring Yuma’s unique history. This column is one in a series written by local historian Frank Love that appeared periodically in the newspaper.

The Depression wasn’t the only thing Arizonans had on their minds in the summer of 1931. A murder trial in Nogales kept Yumans and other desert dwellers eager to read the latest issue of their local paper. Yuma’s Sun carried the story on page one day after day in September.

The trial was widely followed in Arizona because a former female professor from the University of Arizona, Louise Foucar Marshall, was accused of the killing. The wealthy 72-year-old woman was well-known for her philanthropy. A foundation she created still provides scholarships for needy students.

A native of Denver, Louise Foucar moved to Tucson as the 20th century dawned to complete graduate studies at the university. When she finished, the institution hired her as its first female professor. Louise taught foreign languages, botany and geometry.

Endowed with a talent for business, Louise began buying property soon after her arrival in Tucson. Much of it now belongs to the Marshall Foundation she created in 1930.

Soon after she began teaching at the university, 30-year-old Tom Marshall enrolled in a geometry class taught by 36-yearold Louise. Despite their six-year age difference, they became close friends. Louise soon hired Tom to manage some rental property. They got married in 1904.

Strains developed in the relationship with the passage of time. Louise had become semi-invalid by the time she was accused of murdering Tom on April 27, 1931. Testimony at her trial suggested she was convinced her husband had been having an affair with their attractive housekeeper.

She also believed they were slowly poisoning her using arsenic. A blood test administered the day of her arrest for killing Tom showed her body contained some of the poison.

Tom Marshall was shot while sleeping shortly after midnight on April 27, 1931. Despite four bullet wounds, he survived three weeks in a Tucson hospital. His death came when doctors tried to remove one of the slugs still in his body.

Louise was arrested the next day and accused of first-degree murder. Her lawyers feared Tucson newspaper publicity had created local sentiment so strongly against her that she couldn’’t get a fair trial there. They asked for and got a change of venue. She was tried in Nogales between Sept. 14 and Sept. 24.

Louise Marshall’s lawyers entered a plea of temporary insanity for her as the trial began.

They blamed it on her belief her husband and the housekeeper were trying to poison her. Bolstering their claim that Louise was being slowly poisoned, they sent contents from her stomach to a Chicago doctor for examination. The physician responded with a telegram which said it contained “arsenic of dangerous quantities.”

Temporary insanity was a novel defense which hadn’t been much used, and it came under sharp attack from prosecuting attorney, William Hall. He argued that it was merely a ploy to get away with murder.

“You can’t take the law in your own hands because you think you have been poisoned or because your husband has had an affair with the housekeeper,” Hall told the jury. “This was nothing but a cold-blooded murder.”

Hall bolstered his argument by having several doctors testify they believed Louise was sane when she shot her husband.

Louise testified in her own defense that she couldn’t remember what occurred between her and Tom before she shot him or afterward, but she didn’t deny shooting at him. “They were meant to be warning shots,” she claimed.

The defense used Louise’s age and frailty to advantage. They told the court their semi-invalid client was so ill she had to hold her head back and have her feet up in order to breathe properly. They provided a rocking chair for her use during the trial, and had her sitting behind her legal team.

The defense lawyers argued the death of Thomas Marshall was the result of poor medical treatment. He would have survived his wounds, they said, if his doctors had been competent. A Tucson doctor, J.H. Van Horn, testified that Marshall’s wounds had healed, and he was well until they operated on him 10 days before his death to remove a bullet lodged in his thigh. Van Horn said blood poisoning and pneumonia killed Marshall, not a gunshot.

The Marshall murder trial ended on Sept. 24 with the jury out less than an hour before bringing in its verdict. “Innocent,” they announced as cheers broke out from the audience of nearly 100 people in the courtroom.

Louise lived another quarter of the century before her death at the age of 92 in 1956.