SELFISH INTENTIONS - K-REx - Kansas State University

abuse made her life an ongoing nightmare. The police knew of Mr. Lee’s problem and had
arrested him four times in the months prior to the family’s final “incident.” 153
The Manhattan Daily Nationalist ran a sad story on February 26, 1923, explaining the
horrific conclusion to the Lee marriage. A few weeks before, Clara Lee had decided that she
could no longer live with the threats and beatings and so she took legal action by filing for
divorce. The divorce petition angered Mr. Lee and his abuse and threats had escalated. When
she requested a restraining order, the court stepped in and ordered Mr. Lee to keep away from his
home. After it had been determined that Mr. Lee had no money for other lodging, the court
allowed him to stay on the couple’s property but he was not allowed inside the house. A
sympathetic judge might have believed that he was forging the only compromise possible: so
long as they were married, her home was his home as well. J.M. Lee had an undeniable right to
be there. Neighbors testified that he stayed away from the house in a pitched tent in the yard, but
that he would “talk” to his wife from outside. 154
When the police arrived at the property on August 23, they found Mrs. Lee unconscious.
J. M. Lee had beaten his wife with a club, knocking her down, and beating her over the head
until she was unconscious. A doctor was called and he determined that the wounds were very
serious and she was taken to the hospital. Unfortunately, Clara Lee died from the injuries she
suffered during the attack. The Manhattan Daily Nationalist described Mrs. Lee as “a small,
frail, overworked, nervous woman who feared her husband, and was kept in a state of subjection
and fear by the threats of her husband.” 155 She was right to be afraid of her husband. Although
she used the court system to begin the legal process to terminate her marriage, the distance
153 Manhattan Daily Nationalist, 26 February 1923.
154 Ibid.
155 Ibid.
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