State v. Swenson

Frederick Arthur Ferguson 1 murdered Mary Campbell. He choked her, beat her in the head with an iron pipe, and then shot her through the head with malice aforethought. He said that Thelma Swenson put him up to it. Virginia Ferguson, Arthur’s wife, said so too.

Evidence showed that Mary Campbell, mother of six children, was a fine woman, constantly engaged in good work for her church, and was respected and admired by the officials and members of her church organizations. She had befriended Thelma Swenson, employed her as a baby sitter, counseled her in her marital problems, had Thelma and her…