Edna Buckles (or Buckholtz) was brought to court on this date to hear a charge of murder brought against her. On Sunday evening, police had been called to her home after her husband, Henry, was shot dead in the front yard. Although there were no witnesses to the shooting, reporters for the Pantagraph were able to get several statements from those who were present for the preliminaries. Marie, Edna Buckles' 13 year old daughter, said that her mother and father had been arguing about Robert Woods. Mr. Buckles was insisting that his wife stay away from Woods. The daughter also said that Mr. Woods had given her mother a gun. Mrs. Buckles' sister had also been present, and after hearing the shot, she ran outside and saw Henry on the ground and Edna with a gun in her hand.
Edna was immediately arrested and her four daughters, Marie, Emma, Nellie and Theresa were left alone with the knowledge that their father was dead and their mother accused of murdering him. The reporter described them as "four bring young girls, rather scantily clad."
Prior to his death, Henry Buckles was a miner. Edna worked in a restaurant and took in laundry. After the shooting, the Buckles children were found to be dependent on the State and sent to the Catholic children's home in Peoria.
Edna was not left completely alone. Her father, Mr. Hobson, worked to get her released before her trial.
Edna was not unknown to the Bloomington police. In January of 1915 she was found falling down drunk at Center and Grove. She was with a man named Roscoe Gray on that occasion, another character well known to the police. In September she had brought a charge of Threatening against her husband.
Testimony at the trial in March was that Mrs. Buckles shot Henry in self defense. She told a story of poverty and deprivation all her life. She stopped going to school at age 7 in order to work and support her family. She was married at 15 and then divorced at 17. Henry was 22 years her senior and had always been a drunk as long as she had known him. His first wife had divorced him. After Bloomington went dry they had a sort of bootlegging business going in which Edna would travel to Peoria to buy whiskey. They would sell the whiskey out of the house. She claimed that Henry was always drunk on beer and that he was always cruel and jealous. Mrs. Barber, Edna's sister, testified that Henry had been arguing and threatening to kill Edna throughout the day. Two of the daughters testified as to their fathers cruelty and their mother's fear of him.
Edna admitted that on the night of the shooting she had been drinking that day and claimed she only drank with Henry to keep the peace. She was leaving the house to find her daughter Marie, who had gone to get some laundry, when Henry grabbed her arm and asked her where she was going. He then took her by the throat and Edna shot the gun without aiming.
The jury hung, 10 to 2, and Edna was freed. After her release she married again, to Carl Ernest.
and Mrs. Buckles went free. She married again and was a jailhouse resident again when she was arrested along with her brother for disturbing the peace in 1920. She married Carl Ernest.