Bio: Koscielny, Eva (Divorce - 21 Mar 1922)

Contact: Robert Lipprandt
bob@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Koscielny, Risjord

----Source: The Sheboygan Press - Telegram (Sheboygan, WI) 03/21/1922

Husband Wins Divorce from Convict Wife

Medford, Wis. - A re-echo of the tragedy on the Koscielny farm, near Medford, was heard in Circuit court here when Thomas Koscielny was granted a divorce from Eva Koscielny, who is serving a twenty-year term at Waupun for burning her three children to death in a barn last summer.

Three women served on the jury which found Mr. Koscielny entitled to a decree of separation. Judge G. N. Risjord presided at the divorce trial.

Mrs. Koscielny pleaded guilty to the charge of setting fire to the barn and burning here three children before Judge Risjord in Ashland on Sept. 3, 1921. She was found guilty of murder in the second degree.

The reason for burning the barn given by Mrs. Koscielny in her testimony was that she wanted to make trouble for her husband with whom she often quarreled. She said she thought that the blame for burning the barn would be traced to him, and that he would be arrested for trying to collect the insurance. She testified that she did not know the children were sleeping in the barn.

Two of the children were Mr. Koscielny’s by a former marriage and one was Mrs. Koscielyn’s by a former marriage.

It was disclosed at the divorce trial that Mrs. Koscielny became acquainted with Koscielny through a Polish matrimonial agency.