Aquilla Wren accused his wife of committing adultery with four men in the year the couple lived in Springfield, of committing adultery with his Peoria store clerk Jacob Darst, of peeping through a keyhole to "see a young man undress and go to bed", and of asking a neighbor where another man "got his skin now that his wife was dead". Aquilla Wren further accused his wife of telling others that she wanted to "ruin" him, that she "could stand over him and see him draw his last breath with pleasure", and that she wanted his brother to die as well.