After jury selection, the trial commenced. In light of the media firestorm around the case, Judge Potter insisted that the jury must reach a decision without being influenced by the media or the opinions of others. Eleven reporters sat in the front of the courtroom, representing local and state newspapers and the national news syndicates that pumped information out via telephone and telegraph.
The attorneys for Ralph and Annie announced on the first day of the trial that they would argue self-defense. As the Pittston Gazette put it, “the woman and her boy lover were in mortal terror constantly that Harvey Willow would do violence to them both.” But the defendants were not working together; their lawyers showed that they’d use each other to try to avoid the death penalty.
Outside the courtroom, the town of Middleburg was thronged with visitors, mostly from the region but in some cases from distant cities. The popular short story writer John Antonio Moroso toured the area and wrote about his impressions. When he visited the Marburger farm, where Ralph and the Willows had lived, Moroso turned melodramatic: “In the great hay loft I found a bower, straw-covered, straw-walled, heavily bedded, a nest for rustic love. There could have been no practical purpose for it. Here came the soft sound of the distant falling water, the cooing of the doves, the stridulations of the insect seeking warm places against the coming winter. Here the uncontrollable passion of the farm woman took the country boy who had never kept company with a girl and to such music, more seductive than the music of Tristan, he started the way that led to murder and the penitentiary.“
Ralph had signed a confession while in custody. His defense counsel argued that the confession was given under coercion from Sheriff Gemberling, who gave Ralph the “third degree.” However, Judge Potter ruled the confession admissible, due to proof that the sheriff had given Ralph plenty of time to consider his decision.
Ralph’s additional defense was that, despite his age, he was mentally inept; this caused him to be seduced and coerced into his relationship with Annie, and consequently into murder. Reporters tended to portray Ralph as a bewildered yokel, too dumb to grasp that he was in serious trouble. “He sits immediately to the rear of his counsel,” one paper wrote, “but he might as well be fishing alone along some creek, as far as showing any realization of the drama being enacted for his life.”
Ralph’s attorney’s opening statement included this passage: “This young boy had but three years in the public schools and at the age of 13 years was at the bottom of his class in competition with boys of 7 and 8 years. He was a member of a large family deprived of any advantages in life…His mind did not keep pace with his years. He was 16 years of age when he went to work for Harvey, but his mind was of a boy of 11 or 12…The wiles of this wicked woman of 38 years was an overpowering influence on the mind of this boy.”
His closing statement took it even further: “The boy’s downfall was caused because there was a temptress in that home. Men have been saved from the death penalty because they were intoxicated with alcohol. How about this boy intoxicated with that greater stimulant, a bad woman?“
The following week, when it came to Annie’s trial, there was little letdown in the public interest. Moroso described Annie as “a woman of the soil,” someone who “knows when and how to plough, when and how to plant, when and how to reap.” Her eyes were “dark and liquid female eyes.” The jury of twelve was selected only after the attorneys sifted through a pool of fifty-seven potential jurors. The jury for Annie’s trial was statistically younger than Ralph’s jury, but it was a tiny difference (an average age of 52.9 years, compared to an average age of 52.3 years). Every single juror was a man.
| JUROR | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| Phares Walters | 67-year-old farmer from Middleburg |
| George Hassinger | 60-year-old laborer from Middleburg |
| David Spaid | 61-year-old carpenter from Spring Township |
| Charles Bingaman | 67-year-old "gentleman" from Beavertown |
| Samuel Hackenberg | 46-year-old jeweler from Middleburg |
| Jerre Snyder | 52-year-old merchant from Port Trevorton |
| JB Ewing | 56-year-old farmer from Spring Township |
| Oscar Smeltz | 57-year-old farmer from Monroe Township |
| WD Harner | 57-year-old farmer from Franklin Township |
| John Miller | 38-year-old teacher from Paxtonville |
| Harvey Moyer | 46-year-old farmer from Beaver Township |
| Reno Bowersox | 40-year-old clerk from Middleburg |
When she took the stand, Annie told of repeated abuse at the hands of her husband. “He was cruel to me, kicked me, choked me, and then threw me down the steps,” she said. She estimated that this had first happened in 1912, but that wasn’t the end of it. Annie’s attorney portrayed Ralph as a schemer who saw Harvey as standing in his way. She didn’t know a thing about it until Ralph returned home and told he had killed Harvey. When she urged him to tell the police, Annie’s attorney claimed, Ralph had said he would kill her and hang himself.
By the last day of Annie’s trial, empty seats had begun to appear in the courtroom. Local residents who had crowded the trial were losing interest, as it was clear that these were two desperate people living unhappy lives, and not romantic heroes off sharing adventures. As the end approached, the Selinsgrove Times dumped all that it had at local readers who were still following the action, including a full-page photo spread:
Ralph and Annie were both found guilty. The jury found Ralph guilty of second-degree murder, a conviction that carried a minimum of ten years in prison and a maximum of twenty. Judge Potter sentenced him in this way, leaving the door open to release from prison after ten years of good behavior. The judge told Shadel, “there was sufficient evidence to convict you in the first degree. It was only through sympathy and pity that the jury took the view for a second degree verdict.” After six hours of deliberation, the jury also found Annie guilty of second-degree murder. She received the same sentence as Ralph: ten to twenty years in state prison.