Edith Small liked Big Julie, too, almost from the moment she met him last spring in Miami. After three dates, Edith decided she wanted to marry him. But when she told her husband, back in Detroit, he did not take it well at all. Last week Dentist Kenneth B. Small told how Edith had asked for a divorce, as they sat in their bedroom on the afternoon she got back to Detroit from Florida. "I don't love you anymore," she said. "You don't know how to live. You're small. I want to live big now." Later, she confirmed Small's suspicions: "I might as well tell you, there is another man, Jules Lack. He makes $55,000 a year. At nightclubs, waiters know where to take him. He knows Leon Henderson. His two children are nicer than ours."

"Do you mean his children are dearer to you than your own?" Dr. Small asked. "Yes," said Edith. "You don't know how to invest. Buy electronic stock and get ten percent." Just to prove she knew how to invest if her husband didn't, Edith gave Jules Lack $10,000 of her $125,000 inheritance. He promised to pay her back, with 8% interest, in September.

Pretty Edith, mother of three, continued to meet Jules in Detroit and Chicago, and when he suggested they spend Memorial Day weekend together at a house party, she was willing. After a wild, 200-mile drive across Michigan, Dr. Small caught up with them at a beach cottage near Allegan. Jules was playing cards with two other men when Dr. Small entered the house. "Which one is Lack?" asked the dentist. "I'm Lack," said Big Jules, flashing his warmest smile and extending his gladhand. Then Dr. Small fired two bullets, and Lack dropped dead.

Last week, in a steaming, overcrowded Allegan courtroom, Dr. Small gave a rambling, weeping, shouting account of how it all happened. Edith, who seemed to relish the publicity, testified in his defense. After five hours of deliberation on the first-degree-murder charge against Dr. Small, the jury brought in its verdict: Not guilty, by reason of insanity. As soon as he can prove he is again rational, Dr. Small will go free.

Time Magazine 26 July 1954

" I just want to start forgetting, " said the trim dark haired wife of Dr. Kenneth B. Small, the handsome Detroit dentist found innocent by reason of insanity in the slaying of her suitor. While her dentist husband was attending church services in his cell at Allegan awaiting further disposition of his case, Mrs. Edith Small held an interview Sunday with reporters in the couples in a fashionable northwest Detroit section. " I just don't know what will happen to our marriage" she said "but whatever happens it will be what is best for the children." The couple has three sons, Steven 7, Billy 4 and Clifford 2.

Mrs. Small appeared listless as she sat in the living room while cars of the curious drove slowly by the house. She was wearing a blue denim sundress and on her finger was the sapphire ring given her by the slain Jules M. Lack, 45 year old New York playboy-industrialist. The 30 years old brunette said she and her husband would remain separated while they undergo psychiatric treatment. We both need treatment, she said.

Mrs. Small visited her husband at the Allegon county jail Saturday after the jury's verdict. They reportedly embraced and she begged forgiveness. Then the 31 year old dentist thanked her for testifying during the five day trial. Allegan county sheriff Walter Runkel said Dr. Small is definitely making plans to continue his marriage and will be the happiest boy in the world to get her back. But the dentist told reporters "Its to early to say - we've both got a lot of thinking to do."

Dr. Small was sent back to jail following the trial to await action by his attorney Leo Hoffman who said he intends to ask a sanity commission hearing Wednesday. The law specifies that Dr. Small be committed to an institution, but if the commission finds him sane he goes free.

Dixon IL Evening Telegraph 19 Jul 1954