Rejected Suitor Kidnaps Bride - 1936

Rejected Suitor Kidnaps Bride

July 1936

Toy Gun used in kidnapping

"Threatening Weapon" revealed as cap pistol.

Norwich [Chenango Co., NY]:  Gus Turkett, the Middleburg Lochinvar who came to Norwich and carried off the bride-to-be of another, Miss Ora Wager, 25 year old rural school teacher, "for her own good," as he put it in statements made to authorities, was to be arraigned today in city court on charges of assault, first degree; kidnaping and illegal entry.  

Facing similar charges as a result of the now celebrated "love snatch" is the school teacher's uncle, Roscoe Coons, according to Norwich police, who locked him up in a cell here last night after bringing him back from Schoharie County, where he was apprehended by state police.

After Turkett's arrest, both he and Miss Wager made statements to District Attorney, Glen Carter, describing events after the former broke through a window of Floyd Phetteplace's home, 1 Turner st., where the school teacher boarded, and forced her to leave with him at the point of a toy pistol.

The prosecutor said that both statements were similar in substance and differed only in minor details.  He said both principals in the "snatch" told of driving to Middleburg immediately after leaving the Phetteplace home and stopping first at the home of the teacher's aunt, Miss Ida Wager.  Then a stop was made at the home of the young woman's father, George Wager, and after a family council, immediate return to Norwich "to smooth things over" was decided upon on the school teacher's promise that she would call off her impending wedding Saturday to Melvin Morse of Norwich, Gus' rival, according to the district attorney's account of the statements.  The prosecutor said that when Turkett was asked for his motive in kidnaping the young woman that he responded it was "for her own good," but could give no reasons why her marriage to Morse should be postponed.

Her uncle, Roscoe Coons, was named as a motivating factor in the "snatch" by authorities, who said he had "egged Turkett on" in the sensational attempt to halt the marriage, scheduled to have taken place quietly tomorrow at Montrose, Pa.  Whether the young woman will go through with her wedding plans now is undetermined, but Norwich police said she was accompanied back to Middleburg late yesterday by her accepted suitor, and apparently thought little of her promise to call off the ceremony, which was made "under pressure."  Fear of her life was expressed by Miss Wager, Norwich police said, after she learned that her alleged kidnaper would probably be released under bond until his arraignment, which was done early last night.

Adding to the complications of the episode was discovery of a marriage certificate recording Turkett's previous marital ties to a Georgia Girl in his suitcase, according to Norwich authorities.  The Middleburg man, however, told officials that he plans to procure a divorce in order to marry the young teacher, with whom he said he had kept company "more than four years."  In Miss Wager's statement to the district attorney, she was quoted as saying she broke off her friendship with Turkett several weeks ago and had been seeing Morse the last three months.

District Attorney Carter said Turkett denied using a gun in carrying off Miss Wager from her room, but she charged that he did.  A toy pistol, that bore a close resemblance to an actual weapon, was found in Turkett's possession after his arrest Norwich police said, and is believed to have been the same flourished at the Phetteplace home.  He told authorities he had bought the toy gun to give to a young friend for use in celebrating the Fourth of July.

Search for Miss Wager after the "love snatch" extended into eight states before her appearance at Norwich police headquarters with information as to the whereabouts of her captor at Ye Old Polke tavern in Polkville, where he was arrested by Norwich police.

Phetteplace made the assault charge against Turkett shortly after the "snatch" and the kidnaping warrant was issued yesterday by City Judge Theodore C. Bonney upon further information furnished by the householder who was roughly pushed aside by the young woman's rejected suitor before the abduction was effected.

Coons was said by authorities to have been waiting in a car outside the Phetteplace home for Turkett at the time and to have driven away with him and the school teacher after she was carried, screaming, out of the house from her bedroom.  Fully clothed at the time, the young woman gave Turkett a merry chase through rooms of the Phetteplace home, despite sight of a gun, according to the authorities, before his disappointed lover managed to overtake her, lift her in his arms and clamber out with her through the window he had entered.  

"If she wants to marry Morse, it's alright with me now.  I won't stand in her way. I want her to be happy, that's all.  If she drops the charges, I'll leave the county or do anything she says.  But she doesn't love that other fellow."  He broke off at that point to turn abruptly to his questioner and ask "Why say, if you know a guy for a couple of months, could you tell you loved him?"

Turkett doesn't deny that he is already married, but he says, Miss Wager knew that,.  He continued:  "She has known it from the first. She also knew that I haven't been living with my wife since 1928.  Ora and I were engaged, we still are engaged, for that matter, and I won't believe the engagement is broken until she's married to someone else."

First hint that the young school teacher was planning to marry someone else, Turkett said, came from her father.  "I've been just like one of the family in Middleburg," he said.  "Her father mentioned Ora's getting married in June.  I knew then that something was wrong.  I knew I couldn't marry her, and then I knew it must be the other fellow.  Sure, I knew she was going with him.  But she explained to me that he didn't mean a thing to her, and we mean everything to each other.  I know she loves me, and I know that I love her. She knows, too, but I only hope she doesn't do anything out of spite.  I want to see her happy, that's all, but gee--I wish I could marry her myself."

Melvin Morse and Miss Ora Wager

_______________________________________

Rejected and dejected, Gus Tukett, 36-year-old Middleburg Romeo, sat in his cell in the Norwich police station last night and professed his love for the young school teacher whose attempted kidnaping landed him behind the bars.  "I'd marry her today, this minute, if I could," he stoutly affirmed.

In the meantime, Miss Ora Wager, 25-year-old district school teacher, center of the kidnaping plot, was on her way back to Middleburg with her fiancé, Melvin Morse, Norwich grocery clerk, her father and her aunt.  Before leaving she visited Turkett at his cell, promising her aid, and then, according to police went outside and told an officer.  "If he gets out on bail, my life isn't worth a nickel."

Turkett however, isn't ready to believe that Miss Wager intends to go through with her plans for marrying the grocer.  He said: "Why, she can't love him, because, you see, she loves me. We haven't missed a Friday or a Saturday night date in the four years we have known each other. We've stuck by each other through thick and thin, and I know she'll see me through now."

Gus Turkett

Ora Wager Marries

Chenango Telegraph, July 7, 1936

Ora Wager, 25-year-old district school teacher, who was kidnaped last  Wednesday night from the home of Floyd Phetteplace, 1 Turner street, returned to this city Sunday night about 8 o'clock with her new husband, Melvin Morse of Coombs street. The couple were married Saturday noon at the Broad Street M.E. parsonage by Rev. Scott pastor of the church.  Mr. and Mrs. George Marshall of Norwich attended the pair.  Shortly after the ceremony the bride and groom left on their wedding trip. They went through Schenectady and Troy and stopped at Bennington, Vermont. they also visited relatives of Mr. Morse in Greenwich, N.Y.  The couple were to have been married in Montrose, Pa., but changed their plans after the now famous kidnaping.  for the present they will make their home at the Phetteplace residence on Turner street.