Paul Pueller.com

The report that my wife had urged me to take out $10,000 life insurance is absolutely false.

Said Paul V. Southered, husband of the woman now in jail in Honolulu, accused of the murder of a former

husband in Twin Falls, Idaho, and suspected of the murder of three other husbands, an infant,

and a brother-in-law, six in all, in a statement which he made last night.

Southerd, a chief petty officer in the Navy, is a clean-cut, fine-appearing young man.

He has been hit hard by the shocking accusation against his bride of six months,

which, as he said, came like a bolt from the sky.

But he emphatically declares his faith in her innocence and his

determination to stand by her in her great trial. Quote, she has always proved a good true wife

to me. I never had any reason to doubt her in any way. I have absolute confidence in her

innocence and am sure that she will be cleared when

she's brought to trial. Mrs. Southerd has been in very poor health since we came to Honolulu.

The change in climate has seriously affected her, and she's now a very sick woman. I want to have

her taken back to Twin Falls as soon as possible. She has waived

extradition and is anxious to go back and face her accusers. If it would expedite her return,

I'd be willing to pay the expenses of an officer to take her from here to the coast. If I don't

get her out of jail here and her present condition, I do not believe she will live to stand trial."

Southerd has seen his wife and herself several times since her arrest. He says that she has almost

collapsed from the shock of her arrest, and she vows her innocence of any wrongdoing, and that she wants to go back

to Twin Falls as soon as possible for trial. She does not want legal advice here, and will not oppose

extradition to Idaho. A report emanating from the city jail yesterday to the effect that Southerd had

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