Before the second trial took place the railroad company discovered such
proof of Jackson's guilt that he found it healthy to turn state's
evidence against Letts. The latter was sentenced to a long term in the
State Prison. Jackson went free and also went away from Jersey.
News of this escapade and his career in Jersey City never reached
Greencastle and his family there ranking among the best. He was at once
given an entree into society which might well be envied by any young
man. Will Wood, who lived a near neighbor to Mrs. Jackson, and who as
stated was a particular favorite with Pearl Bryan, took a great liking
to Scott Jackson. They were very intimate, in fact became chums.
Jackson entered the dental college at Indianapolis, and Wood being of a
rather reckless disposition would go to Indianapolis to see Jackson, and
together they would have a big time in the city. Both being fond of
ladies' company, they spent much of their time together in the company
of women of loose moral character and were in several very unsavory
escapades, escaping notoriety however under assumed names, which
prevented their families and friends at Greencastle from hearing of
them. With no knowledge of his former career and ignorant of his
escapades while at college at Indianapolis, it is no wonder that he was
a favorite in society when at home. Belonging to an exellent family, he
was outwardly a man whom any father would be proud to have his daughter
associate with. With dimples on his chin and cheeks, a childish smile on
his lips, frank, beautiful, pale violet-blue eyes, he had a most winsome
countenance. But behind the angelic front was hidden a very demon.
Jackson was a monstrosity if you will, a whited sepulchre, and one of
the unaccountable freaks of nature. To those not knowing his habits, a
handsome, affable, pleasing man of fine form and features; to those who
knew him truly, a villain of the deepest dye, a very demon in human
shape.
Illustration: The Home of Pearl Bryan at Greencastle, Ind.--Drawn by
our special Artist.
Notwithstanding Will Wood knew him as he did, and that Pearl Bryan was
Wood's second cousin the same blood coursing through their veins, Wood
introduced Jackson into the Bryan family in the spring of 1895. It was a
case of love at first sight. From the first meeting between Scott
Jackson and Pearl Bryan, at the colonial mansion of the Bryans on the
hill, Pearl showed that she was most favorably impressed with him. She
who had refused to listen to the wooing whispers of men in high rank and
station in life by the scores, fell at once a victim to the darts from
cupid's shafts sent from Jackson's lips, for after occurrences proved
conclusively that the honeyed words and winsome smiles, which won their
way so easily into the heart of Pearl Bryan, came only from the lips and
never from the heart of him who lent his every effort to win the heart
of the belle of Putnam County, as Pearl Bryan was known, but with no
manly or honorable purpose. Scott Jackson was void of moral principle
and honor, and never did anything with a manly purpose, he was incapable
of such action.
THE RESULT OF AN EXAMINATION OF JACKSON, BY THE BERTILLION SYSTEM, AFTER
HIS ARREST FOR THE MURDER OF PEARL BRYAN.
After the arrest of Jackson for the crime, he was turned over to
Sergeant Kiffmeyer, of the Cincinnati police force, who has charge of
the Bertillion system of measuring and identifying criminals for the
local Police Department, and who is recognized as an authority on
criminals.
After he had completed the measurement of Jackson he said, "Every man's
head tells its own story. Jackson is another H. H. Holmes.
"Jackson has the cunning to plot and plan, and to conceal.
"Jackson is a mind far beyond the ordinary. He has a head such as
Napoleon would have.