Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Defense attorneys representing Della Olds in her capital murder trial extracted plenty of damaging testimony about the character of her late husband, Dr. W.H. Olds.

Two men who had accompanied Dr. Olds to the Alan Racetrack testified that he “lost $82 and was very drunk.” Another man who drank with the doctor that evening said Dr. Olds told him, “I can’t beat the races, but I can beat my wife.”

A policeman testified that Dr. Olds was so drunk that night that the officer had to help him get home. The officer also said that when Olds saw a “crippled man in front of them” on the way home, Dr. Olds laughed and “said the other fellow was drunk.”

There was also testimony about an incident a year earlier in a cab crossing the Monroe Street Bridge. The cabbie said that Dr. Olds attacked Mrs. Olds, who became so hysterical that she flung open the door of the cab and tried to throw herself into the falls.

A policeman dissuaded her from suicide, and she went back home after the doctor apologized.

The jurors, normally kept away from newspapers, asked for and received results of the two big Fourth of July prizefights.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1933: The first All-Star baseball game was played at Chicago’s Comiskey Park.