Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

The town of Orofino, Idaho, was abuzz about its notorious new resident: Dora E. Doxey, an accused bigamist who had recently been acquitted of murdering one of her husbands with poison in St. Louis.

Doxey came out west after the death of another of her husbands, Dr. Loren B. Doxey. Within three weeks, she met Fred Whitney, 32, an organizer for the Modern Woodmen of America. They were married shortly afterward and were living in a cabin on the Clearwater River.

Whitney was husband No. 4, but apparently at least one of the other husbands was still alive, because she was under indictment in Missouri on a bigamy charge.

Whitney admitted that Dora was a “nervous wreck” due to her use of morphine. He said he knew her history when he married her and planned to cure her of the morphine habit.

“If the authorities will leave my wife alone for a year in this restful and healthful place, I will have her restored to health and we will go back east and face any charges they may bring,” he said.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1863: The London Underground had its beginnings as the Metropolitan, the world’s first underground passenger railway, opened to the public.