Woman Who Killed Her Two Children In 1946 Freed By Court Here

Woman Who Killed Her Two Children In 1946 Freed By Court Here

Mrs. Walker Ruled Insane At The Time

Mrs. Victoria Walker was 24 years old in April, 1946, when she shot and killed her two infant children in the living room of her Ann Arbor township home.

Now 40, she walked out of the Circuit Courtroom late this morning and into the arms of her 71-year-old mother, who will take her to a new home in Dearborn.

Mrs. Walker was free of a first-degree murder charge for the first time in 16 years, when Circuit Court Judge James R. Breakey, jr., rendered the verdict that she was aquitted of the murder charge by virtue of being insane at the time.

Goes To Her Mother

Upon hearing the verdict, the slight, small woman looked nervously about the courtroom, suddenly rose from the counsel table where she had sitting with her lawyers and walked straight to her mother sitting in the back of the courtroom.

They embraced hesitantly, joined other members of the family in the corridor of the County Building.

Mrs. Walker has been in the Ionia State Hospital for the Criminally Insane ever since she was committed by order of Judge Breakey in July, 1946.

She was returned to Washtenaw county Tuesday to stand trial for the murder of her two children, Patricia Edna, 3, and Robert,, nearly 2, after the superintendent of the institution had determined Mrs. Walker has regained her sanity.

Mrs. Walker took the stand and told of her 16 years in the hospital and how she feels “better, physically and mentally.”

Psychiatrists Testify

Judge Breakey freed Mrs. Walker after hearing the testimony of two psychiatrists, Dr. Dean P. Carron of Ann Arbor and Dr. O. R. Yoder, superintendent of the Ypsilanti State Hospital.

They testified that Mrs. Walker was insane when she shot her children with her husband’s .22-caliber rifle, then shot herself in their frame home at 1645 Maple Rd.

Mrs. Walker said under questioning of Judge Breakey that she now feels “a calm of mind” and will go live with her mother to “take a little time to get adjusted, after all these years.”