Question: Who is Louise Foucar Marshall? I know she has a building named after her, but what did she do?

Answer:

This was exactly something I was wondering about.

This case starts off simply enough. Louise Marshall was the UA's first female professor and the founder of the Marshall Foundation in 1930, a nonprofit organization to whom most of the businesses in Main Gate Square pay rent.

Fifty to 60 percent of the foundation's net revenues goes into scholarship funds for the UA, according to a Wildcat April 17, 2002, article. In 2001, for example, the foundation donated $176,021 to the UA.

I found out the details of another event in a January 2, 2004 edition of the Arizona Daily Star. But there's no need to check out the other Tucson paper - all your questions will be answered here, in the Arizona Daily Wildcat!

"In the early morning hours of April 27, 1931, wealthy Tucson businesswoman and former UA professor Louise Marshall shot her husband three times. Tom Marshall died 24 days later in a Los Angeles hospital, after an unsuccessful operation to remove one of the bullets," the Star reported.

At her trial, Louise Marshall claimed they were meant to be warning shots. She also claimed that Tom, her junior by six years, and their young comely housekeeper were slowly poisoning her with arsenic.

On September 24, 1931, a Nogales jury acquitted Louise Marshall of first-degree murder after less than an hour of deliberation. Louise Marshall died in 1956 at the age of 92.

The Marshall Foundation has donated $8.8 million, since its inception, to the UA, according to the Star report.

Case closed.

- Investigation by Detective Kris Cabulong

If you've got a campus-related mystery or conspiracy, e-mail catcalls@wildcat.arizona.edu