#13 Mrs. Frances Birch, 32-year-old widow of Rock Island, as she appeared on the witness stand in Oregon, Ill. on Oct. 19, 1936, at the murder trial for Guy M. Tallmadge. Tallmadge, who was described by the newspaper as “bald-headed and paunchy” was an assistant undertaker in Rockford who shot and killed his wife Bessie, 51, along a gravel road six miles east of Oregon, Ill. on May 19, 1936. It was Bessie’s birthday. Tallmadge, who had been dating Birch on the side, had given the young widow an engagement ring and said he had asked his wife for a divorce. “I don’t know why he would do anything like that,” Birch said in reference to the murder according to newspaper reports. Later she was ordered to remove her dark sunglasses, which she had worn since the beginning of the trial.

A Look at Female Criminals of the Early 1900s

#13 Mrs. Frances Birch, 32-year-old widow of Rock Island, as she appeared on the witness stand in Oregon, Ill. on Oct. 19, 1936, at the murder trial for Guy M. Tallmadge. Tallmadge, who was described by the newspaper as “bald-headed and paunchy” was an assistant undertaker in Rockford who shot and killed his wife Bessie, 51, along a gravel road six miles east of Oregon, Ill. on May 19, 1936. It was Bessie’s birthday. Tallmadge, who had been dating Birch on the side, had given the young widow an engagement ring and said he had asked his wife for a divorce. “I don’t know why he would do anything like that,” Birch said in reference to the murder according to newspaper reports. Later she was ordered to remove her dark sunglasses, which she had worn since the beginning of the trial.

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