DR. C.L. WISH
Arizona Republican Newspaper
January 26, 1904

One of the most sensational killings ever enacted in Graham 
County occurred in Safford Friday afternoon at 8 o'clock.  
Lawrence Wish shot his stepfather Dr. C.L. Wish, through 
the heart killing him instantly says the International 
American.  The doctor had been calling upon a patient and 
as he emerged from the door he was shot down.

Various rumors are rife as to the motive for the killing.  
It is rumored that the doctor had been making systematic 
efforts to poison his wife and son and that the latter, 
hearing of it, took revenge on his stepfather.  Lawrence 
Wish was a resident of Morenci, where he is well and 
favorably known and where he has the reputation of being 
a peaceful citizen.  He is married and has a wife and one 
child.  Dr. Wish is well connected in the valley and was 
one of the most prominent physicians.  The preliminary 
hearing was to have been held yesterday.

This news, received in Phoenix yesterday, was a great 
shock to friends of Dr. Wish who live here and know the 
family well.  Among them is A.O. Walbridge who considered 
Dr. Wish one of his warmest friends.  He did not know however 
that the doctor had a stepson.  Mr. Walbridge has been 
well acquainted with him over six years and every time 
he has visited Safford he has been a welcome guest of 
both Dr. and Mrs. Wish.  The former was at one time 
greatly addicted to the use of liquor but on the 
recommendations of a friend came to Phoenix to see 
Mr. Walbridge who is the local representative of a 
company making a remedy for the cure of the liquor 
habit.  Dr. Wish took the treatment and has since 
been a total abstainer, frequently writing to Mr. 
Walbridge and referring to a debt of gratitude which 
he could never discharge.

His last letter from Dr. Wish was written on the 11th of 
this month. In it he stated that Mrs. Wish was suffering 
tortures from neuralgia of the stomach and he was almost 
distracted lest she might not recover.  He recounted at 
length what a good wife she had been to him and how 
desolate his life would be in the event of her death, 
mentioning also, with fatherly devotion, a son, Walter, 
who is yet a boy of tender years.  He referred to the 
fact that he was at the bedside of his wife constantly 
and that he had three other physicians in attendance.  
He also relates at some length his own shortcomings 
previous to his reformation, with the statement that 
since that time his home had been a happy one in 
every way till his wife was stricken with disease.  
The tone of the letter certainly indicates that he 
would be the last man in the world to attempt the 
poisoning of his wife and his friends here refuse to 
believe such a suggestion.