"I can't account for this," Dr. John Garner told his wife after dinner on March 2, 1876. "I never had such a feeling in all my life. I feel as if something were closing in on me, trying to crush me."

Garner was a respected physician living on Milwaukee's prosperous East Side. At supper, his wife noticed he seemed especially restless. Neither of them knew why, and he laughed it off. "If a patient came to me with a story like that," he concluded, "I should give him a tonic and tell him to take a rest."

Twenty minutes later, the doorbell rang. His daughter answered it, telling him there was a lady at the door and Garner went to the hall. His wife heard low voices, and then a pistol shot rang out.

The doctor cried, "My God! I'm shot!" and fell, blood streaming from his chest. He died the next day.

His assailant, Sarah Wilner, ran into the street declaring, "He killed my husband, my brother, my cousin and my uncle. Now I've killed him and I'm glad of it."

All afternoon, while he grew increasingly nervous, Wilner had been approaching by rail.

At the moment the feeling peaked and he confided in his wife, his murderer had stepped off the 8:25 train and set off for his house.

When Wilner was caught and tried, the court uncovered longstanding evidence of persecution mania and declared her not guilty by reason of insanity.

- Wisconsin Historical Society
www.wisconsinhistory.org

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