A WALK IN THE WOODS: Accident, Suicide or Murder?
Accident, Suicide or Murder?
Part Two
Marion Lambert lived with her parents on the Jonas Kuppenheimer estate. Marion’s father was the estate superintendent, a position that paid handsomely in 1916. Jonas Kuppenheimer was one of the son’s of a very prominent and wealthy family that owned Kuppenheimer & Co., a men’s clothing manufacturer and retailer based in Chicago, 30 miles to the south of Lake Forest.
In February 1916, Marion was a senior attending Deerfield-Shields High School in Highland Park. Those who could bear the expense sent their children to more sophisticated schools outside the city. By all reports, Marion was good student, a “beautiful young girl” with short, light brown, wavy hair. She was called vivacious by those who knew her well. She was an only child and, thus, given adulation by her parents, especially from her father. Marion’s life became especially enjoyable when, in recent years, an older boy was infatuated with her.
The boy, William “Will” Orpet, was 3 years older; the two attended the same high school for a time before Will left for the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Will’s father, like Marion’s, was the superintendent of an estate owned by Cyrus McCormick, the farm equipment tycoon. McCormick eventually became International Harvester Company.
The Lambert and Orpet families were likely acquainted and possibly friends, professionally .and socially, probably through the North Shore Horticulture Society. Unlike Marion, Will was not an only child; Will had a brother, Edward, three years older.. Marion did have a best friend, Josephine Davis, with whom she did everything, including walking to the Sacred Heart Station, as it was called in 1916, each morning to commute to Highland Park. Marion and Josephine were like sisters and exchanged their most personal thoughts and desires.
Will was a journalism major at the University of Wisconsin. Email and text messages are the conventions today to communicate with a love-interest; in 1916 the written letter was the practice of the day to express thoughts and feelings toward another person. The couple communicated by letter with some regularity when Will was away at school. Whenever he commuted back to Lake Forest, Will made a point of being with Marion.
old spirituals 
Another brilliant story from Nicola Di Crescenzo! The image of the girl standing in the rain and smiling with a black-stained mouth is very creepy!
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I am humbled by the compliment and very appreciative.
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Will definitely murdered Marion. If she lied about being pregnant, she was probably desperate to stop his new relationship. Who knows what else she would do? That was probably Will’s thinking anyway. Great story, Nicola!
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Thanks you, Ruby.
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What a sad story! Both Will and Marion seemed to be troubled young people. Possibly faking a pregnancy to win a boyfriend back isn’t the portrayal of a stable person. Will’s changing story of the meeting with Marion is troubling. Whatever happened, both families lives were destroyed. Will also lived a very unstable life after the tragedy. I’m not sure what really took place in those woods that day, but the jury must not have been convinced of murder beyond a reasonable doubt.
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You’re right about Will. He exemplifies the consequences of a bad life decision. He wanted to become a journalist to write stories, instead he became the story for other journalists to write about his entire life.
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Great research on this, Nicola! I’m always interested in what becomes of people after the story.
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That’s a great point. He escaped prison but there was some bit of justice. What a life he could have had!
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It’s a little creepy to think that Marion can still be seen off the side of the road. It’s hard to say what truly happened since we only know Will’s side of the story, although it’s odd his story kept changing and the case changed the trajectory of his entire life. I believe it was an accident whether it was him that gave her too much poison or her that took to much. She wanted love, not death. Will didn’t want her dead, he just wanted someone else. It seems like whatever she had planned to do, she would have told Josephine.
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Those are very good points! There was no malice between them. And Will told many versions of what happened but he certainly never told the truth. Curious what the author will say.
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I believe we have a meeting of the minds.
While researching this story, by pure coincidence, I spent a week in and around the Lake Forest area. I even drove Sheridan Road. I wasn’t aware of Marion’s apparition until later, so I didn’t try to experience it for myself. Suffice it to say, Will was Marion’s first true love which made him irresistible. I believe she would have done anything to continue a relationship with him. However, I do not believe she would have INTENTIONALLY committed suicide.
Conversely, I do not believe Will would have INTENTIONALLY poisoned Marion. Whatever the sequence of events, I believe the consumption of cyanide was intended for a reason other than murder. For me the case is a confluence of actions that resulted in an unintended consequence.
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just seems odd that Marion went into the woods by herself with an angry ex and didn’t ask her best friend to come with. Also seems odd that she actually did have a letter to send and still had it in her hand. It seems odd that Will only remembers walking off and then something happening to Marion after he turned around, it also seems odd that Josephine Davis her best friend didn’t go with her and also changed her story halfway through the trial and devastated the family. Weird
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I think so too! This is a Nicola post, I’m curious what he thinks!
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