Daubs Jelly on Floor to Catch "Other Man"

1920
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Wife Denies Affinity Charge and Sues for Divorce.

SAN FRANCISCO, Cal., May 20. -- The sleuth with the jelly glass proved to be Edward McPhun, employed by a lumber company, whose wife, Sadie McPhun, filed suit for divorce.

So jealous was McPhun of his son-in-law, she declares, that at night after others had retired, he spread jelly on the floor between the bedrooms of the wife and the son-in-law in order to have imprints of their bare feet should they undertake during the night to visit each other.

Mrs. McPhun further alleges her husband would hide in closets for hours at a time and jump out at her when she chanced to open the closet door.

They were married in 1898 and separated ten days ago, she says. He accuses her of intimacy with the son-in-law and [she] alleges he searched the house for affinities with a searchlight, and recently broke two of her fingers in a quarrel. She asks for $65 a month alimony, the custody of their two minor children and all of the community property.

--The Saturday Blade, Chicago, May 22, 1920, page 1.