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THE MYSTERIOUS MURDER
OF
Pearl Bryan,
OR:
THE HEADLESS HORROR.
A FULL ACCOUNT OF THE MYSTERIOUS MURDER
KNOWN AS THE
Fort Thomas Tragedy,
FROM BEGINNING TO END.
Full Particulars of all Detective and Police
Investigations.
Dialogues of the Interviews between Mayor Caldwell,
Chief Deitsch and the Prisoners.
Copyright by BARCLAY & CO.
Illustration: PEARL BRYAN.
Engraved after the only Photograph that she ever had taken during her
life-time.
THE MYSTERIOUS MURDER OF PEARL BRYAN,
OR:
THE HEADLESS HORROR
Fort Thomas, Kentucky, is most beautifully located near the banks of the
Ohio river, on the Highlands, just above and on the opposite side from
Cincinnati, Ohio. Although a comparatively new U. S. Military Post, it
has long been a historical point, and in the early days of the
Corncracker State, and while yet a portion of the County of Kentucky in
the State of Virginia, was the home of the red men. There are persons
yet living whose parents fought bloody battles with the Indians on the
ground now occupied as a U. S. Fort, and that adjacent thereto; a
picturesque portion of which is the scene of this true narrative of one
of the most terrible tragedies of the nineteenth Century.
The tragedy referred to was committed at the dead of night in a lonely
spot near the Fort, January 31st, 1896.
By the manner in which it was committed, it re-called the days of old,
when tyrants beheaded their victims, and the murderer at heart, who was
yet too cowardly to commit the deed, hired some one to do it, requiring
in evidence that the deed had been done, that the head should be severed
from the body and returned to the employer.
To re-call such deeds of horror to the minds of the people of a highly
civilized nation at the close of the nineteenth Century by the actual
commission of a similar deed, struck horror to the hearts of the people,
and they were worked up to a pitch that had never been witnessed in this
country before. Telephones and telegraph were called into service, and
the finding of the headless body of a young and doubtless beautiful
woman in a sequestered spot near Fort Thomas, was flashed around the
world. So shocked was the country over this ghastly find that the
metropolitan papers from one end of this country to the other informed
their representatives in the Queen City to wire full particulars of the
horrible deed, without any limit to the words to be used.
It was the most diabolical cold-blooded premediated outrage ever
committed in a civilized community. The entire surrounding country,
including the three cities, Cincinnati, O., Covington and Newport, Ky.,
were startled from center to circumference and aroused as it never had
been before. The Sixth Regiment U. S. Infantry, commanded by Col.
Cochran, which is stationed at Fort Thomas, was astounded that such an
outrage should be committed almost within the guard lines of the Fort.
Aged and battle-scarred veterans who had gone through the great civil
war, only a generation before, when brother stood in battle array
against brother, father against son, neighbor against neighbor, flocked
to the spot where the headless body lay, and stood with blanched faces,
struck dumb with amazement, at the boldness of the deed and horrible
manner in which it had been committed.
In an old orchard in the confines proper of the Fort, about midway
between the Highland and Alexandria pikes, on the farm of James Lock,
and near the fence which acts as a boundary line for Mr. Lock's farm,
was found by James Hewling, a young man, on Saturday morning, Feb. 1.,
1896, the decapitated body of a young woman of venus-like form, the
headless body lying with the neck in a pool of blood.
From the position of the body it was evident that the woman had been
thrown down violently and then her head deliberately severed with a dull
knife. The severance was made below the fifth vertebra. Judging by the
pool of blood, life had been extinct from four to eight hours when the
body was found.
The clothing of the woman was of poor quality. The dress was light blue
and white, small pattern check, of cotton, worn tight across the back
and loose in front. She also wore a dark blue skirt and a union suit of
underwear. On her hands was a pair of tan kid gloves, well worn. The
black, cloth-topped shoes were of fine quality, in contrast to the other
clothing, and were marked within "Louis & Hays, Greencastle, Ind.,
22-11. 62,458." Her stockings were black and blue, new. The rubbers were
old and worn at the heels. The corset had evidently been ripped open and
torn from her body during a struggle which took place near where it was
found. Close by was a piece of the dress, also with blood on it.
In an almost incredible short time after Hewling gave the alarm, the
soldiers from the Fort, the citizens surrounding it, and hundreds from
the city near-by gathered at the spot and were awe stricken by the sight
which met their eyes.
Who was the murdered woman and who could have committed the horrible
atrocity? These were questions which were on the lips of every one, and
for the answer of which a most thorough and searching investigation was
at once begun. The best detective talent was immediately put to work. The
people were thoroughly aroused and determined upon having the headless
body identified and the cruel, heartless murderer or murderers brought
to swift justice.
Leaving the investigation of the deed, we will now go with the reader to
a happy home of a happy family, ranking among the oldest and best
connected families in the state of Indiana, and living on the father's
farm near Greencastle, Putnam County, Indiana. Alexander S. Bryan, and
his wife who had lived to honorable old age, respected and loved by all
who knew them, owned this happy home and were the parents of twelve
children, of which at the time of this writing, seven were living, Pearl
being the youngest, of a fine, voluptuous form, with a sweet, lovely
disposition and manners, popular with all who were acquainted with her,
cheerful and happy at all times and was first entering her twenty-second
year. The Bryan family, taking all the relations into account, is the
largest in the state of Indiana, and its standing of the very highest.
Pearl the baby of the family, petted and feted, had graduated from the
Greencastle High School in 1892, with the highest honors and was the
special favorite of her graduating class. Beautiful in form and
features, highly accomplished, well educated, with a doting father and
mother, well provided with this world's goods, and with whom she was a
favorite daughter, Pearl Bryan had much to live for.
From the time she left school, aye, even before her graduating year
arrived, she had many admirers, and to look on her was to love, to love
was to lose. She counted her admirers by the score, but to none did she
give her heart, or encourage them in any serious intentions. She was
liked by all, but while she was of a lovable, affectionate disposition,
she allowed none to go beyond the line of admiration, and cupid's swift
and seldom erring shafts, fell harmless by her side.
Three long years had passed since Pearl had bade "good bye" to her
studies in the Greencastle High School, and although a leader in
society, a guest of honor where-ever she visited, none of her ardent
admirers had made a deeper impression upon her, and her heart was still
her own. Men of high moral character, well supplied with this world's
goods and standing well in business and social circles, would have
eagerly jumped at the opportunity to claim her as their wife. Their
protestations of love however seemed to have no affect upon the mind or
heart of Miss Pearl Bryan.
Money and position did not have any effect upon her favors, the young
man, struggling hard to make his way in life, was as graciously
received and as well treated by her as the young swell, rolling in
luxury and wealth.
Will Wood, a second cousin of Pearl Bryan, was one of her ardent
admirers, but was treated as one of the family and in no sense as a
lover. He was treated rather as a favorite brother by Miss Pearl, who
made a confidant of him. Wood's father who was a good old Minister lived
only a half mile distant from the Bryan's, and Will spent much of his
time at Pearl's home, and was in her company a great deal. Nothing was
thought of this, at the time, although evil tongues wagged rapidly
afterwards, and many were ready to lay at the door of Will Wood in less
than a year thereafter, direct connection and complicity with a crime
unparallelled in the criminal history of the Nineteenth Century.
Along in the latter part of 1894, Scott Jackson with his mother moved to
Greencastle, Ind., from Jersey City, N. J. One of Mrs. Jackson's
daughters, the wife of Dr. Edwin Post, of Depauw University, had lived
at Greencastle for many years, and Mrs. Jackson moved there to get near
her daughter. Scott Jackson belonged to a good family, his father being
Commodore Jackson, who commanded many vessels and who stood high in
social circles in New Jersey. Scott cut quite a prominent figure in both
the social and business world. He went to Jersey City with splendid
recommendations. His career there was considerably checkered however,
and he only escaped a long sentence to the penitentiary, which his
partner Alexander Letts is now serving, by turning State's evidence in a
case of embezzlement in which Jackson and Letts had embezzled a large
amount, said to have been $32,000 from the Pennsylvania Railroad
Company.
Jackson and Letts, it appears, obtained employment of the Pennsylvania
Railroad company, in the Jersey City offices. One of Jackson's duties
was to receive and open the mails.
BIG EMBEZZLEMENTS.
After a few months extensive robberies in the railroad office were
discovered. They were said to amount to nearly $32,000. They were traced
to Jackson and Letts. It was found, according to testimony during the
two trials that followed, that Jackson abstracted checks from the mail,
and that Letts, to whom he handed them, had them cashed.
Meanwhile the saloon which they kept had become notorious. They were
acknowledged high flyers in sporting circles. Both had become "plungers"
on the race tracks. It was reported that they made much money, owing to
their lavish expenditures. They "entertained" liberally in their own
particular way, and for a time were looked upon as "good fellows" among
the sporting fraternity, who sought the privilege of their acquaintance.
Jackson was a prominent member of the Entre Nous, an exclusive social
club.
Suddenly, the Pennsylvania Railroad officials discovered that these two
young men were "sporting" at the expense of the company. Their arrest
followed. At the first trial the jury disagreed.