Hammer Attack Unplanned, Says Wife-Killer’s Lawyer

Spontaneous rage, not a murderous plan, prompted John Whipple to bludgeon his wife to death with a hammer, an attorney for the man said Wednesday.

Whipple, 46, does not deny beating his wife, rolling her body onto a sleeping bag and stuffing her into the trunk of the family car, said Val Siegel, Whipple’s public defender.

He never intended for it to happen and does not remember doing it, the attorney said at the opening of Whipple’s murder trial.

Siegel said Whipple suffered from “intermittent explosive disorder” and “post-traumatic stress syndrome.” He called Whipple’s actions a “violent rage utterly devoid of premeditation, deliberation and even intent to kill.”

Police found the 46-year-old woman’s body Nov. 18, 1996 in the locked trunk. The couple’s teenage daughters called police after finding a trail of blood that led to the car.

Shoshone County Prosecutor John Cossel charged Whipple with first-degree murder. Cossel said Whipple “conned his way back into the family home” shortly before beating his wife with a stainless-steel mallet their son had made.

Whipple’s trial is expected to last more than two weeks. Testimony continues today.

Siegel denied that Whipple meant to kill his high school sweetheart. His violent rage was the culmination of 40 years of mounting emotional strain, he said.

Growing up watching his father abuse alcohol and his mother, horrendous memories of serving in Vietnam, the pressure of his own stormy marriage and the increasingly independent spirits of his teenage daughters all contributed, Siegel said.

“You’ll hear from John that he loved Deborah,” Siegel said. “She was the most important thing in his life.”

The couple’s relationship turned rocky shortly after Whipple was honorably discharged from the Army after a tour in Vietnam. Haunted by memories of his childhood and images of the war, Whipple began throwing things around the couple’s home when they argued, Siegel said.

By 1978, escalating emotional trouble convinced Whipple to quit his job at Ford Motor Co. He sought help from a veteran’s hospital in Cleveland.

Meanwhile, Whipple’s marital troubles continued. He shot himself in the chest with a shotgun when his wife left him five years later. Police found him painting pictures on the walls with his blood, Siegel said.

The couple eventually reconciled, but their oldest daughter left home shortly after. Three years later, the family moved to Kellogg.

Personal troubles followed them. During one fight, Whipple hit a man on a motorcycle while driving after his wife.

The family moved briefly to Kentucky, but financial troubles brought them back to Wallace.

Arguments with the couple’s children took their toll on Whipple. Their son left home and their teenage daughters started “expressing independence,” Siegel said.

The couple’s arguments continued and Deborah Whipple allegedly attacked her husband with a knife in December 1995, knocking over the family Christmas tree.

The couple’s relationship continued off and on during the next year. Deborah Whipple filed for two restraining orders against her husband, but eventually invited him to move back to the family home.

“John tried very hard to please his family,” Siegel said. “He shoveled snow, cleaned the refrigerator, worked on the car.”

Whipple was trying to fix an oil leak on the family’s 1975 Oldsmobile Cutlass shortly before his wife’s killing. He had used the mallet while trying fix an oil leak and had forgotten to put it away.

The morning Deborah Whipple died, the couple argued as they stepped off a flight of stairs “near that two-car garage with that hammer still on the floor,” Siegel said.

Deborah Whipple told her husband she wanted him to leave.

“At that point John apparently snapped under all the accumulating hell,” Siegel said.

, DataTimes