Around 7 pm on the night of June 30, 1914, the pregnant Lulu Bailey went to the home office of Dr. Carman for treatment. As she was leaving, a shot was fired through the office window, fatally wounding Mrs. Bailey. 

Suspicion turned towards Dr. Carman’s wife Florence when it came out that she had lately installed a Dictaphone in his office to listen in to his conversations with female patients. The morning after the murder Florence arose early and took the Dictaphone from the office and hid it under the floorboards in the attic. She claimed that the Dictaphone was installed merely to put to rest claims by gossipy neighbors, and  that she was not jealous at all.

The district attorney went on the say that a few days before the shooting Florence had watched Edwin through the office window with a different female patient, a nurse named Elizabeth Varance, and seeing something she did not like, she came in and slapped the faces of both the lady and her husband, and then demanded the woman hand over a sum of money given to her by Dr. Carman.

 Dr. Carman was in the office when the shooting took place and claimed that all he saw through the window was the gun and a man’s hand. He told investigators that this was his first time ever seeing Mrs. Bailey and that she was not a regular patient.

A principal witness for the prosecutor was Celia Coleman, maid of the Carman house, who first said at the inquest that Mrs. Carman had retired to her bedroom directly after dinner the night of the murder. However, once Celia had left the Carman home, she changed her story and claimed she saw Mrs. Carman run through the kitchen and up the stairs from outside the home after the gun was fired, and that Mrs. Carman showed her the gun. Frank Farrell, a tramp who happened to be wandering by at the time also claimed to see Florence Carman outside as well.

Lack of evidence led to the acquittal of Florence Carman after two trials.