Mrs. Waldman accused Mrs. Cooper of being a witch after fire balls entered the Waldman’s home. The end result was that Mrs’ Waldman murdered Mrs. Cooper.
Published in 1935:
Woman Kills Another She Believes Had Put Black Magic Over Her
CLEVELAND, Oh. — For Samuel and Matilda Waldman, years of worry over an obsession that they were being “hexed” by Mrs. Isadore Cooper, were at an end Saturday. Mrs. Cooper, with two bullet wounds in her body, was dead. The Waldmans were in jail.
Police, holding the 46-year-old Mrs. Waldman on a charge of first degree murder, said she freely admitted she fired the shots to end the spell of witchcraft which she and her husband believed Mrs. Cooper held over them.
Waldman was held for an examination of his mentality. He was in the office of Police Prosecutor William H. Echneider at the time of the slaying Friday, protesting to the prosecutor and Cooper that Cooper’s wife, Ida, was practicing “fire magic and black magic” against him and his wife.
Waldman told the official that “at night, balls of flaming fire would come rolling into our house, strike us on the legs and roll up our chests and heads.”
He exhibited scars which he said were caused by the “balls of fire.”
Mrs. Cooper, 50, was shot while at work in her delicatessen store. A moment later, two passersby seized and held Mrs. Waldman until detectives arrived. Then she told her story to the officers and newspapermen.
“At 2 p.m., I lay down on the bed and some power told me I was in great danger, so I got my husband’s gun and went to the Cooper store,” she said.
“I’m Waldman’s wife,” I told Mrs. Cooper.
“Oh, yes, you’re the wife of the fellow who thinks I’ve put the witch on him,” Mrs. Waldman said Mrs. Cooper replied.
Mrs. Waldman said she then fired three shots as Mrs. Cooper came toward her.
“I feel better now,” police Sergeant Stephen Tozzer said Mrs. Waldman added at the end of her story. “I’m rejuvenated.”
Tozzer said Mrs. Waldman earlier had attempted unsuccessfully to get Mrs. Cooper to sign a note “releasing” the Waldmans from witchcraft.
Source: Brownsville herald. (Brownsville, Tex.), 04 Aug. 1935.
