Sheriff Jule Plummer of Campbell County, Kentucky, and Detectives Crim
and McDermott of Cincinnati, who had gone to Greencastle, were kept
thoroughly posted as to the work being done on the Cincinnati or rather
Fort Thomas tragedy. Not a clew or theory with the least resemblance to
truth was neglected.
The first persons seen were Messrs. Louis & Hays, the shoe dealers from
whom the shoes worn by the victim were supposed to have been purchased.
Mr. Hays said that the shoes were manufactured by Drew, Selby & Co., of
Portsmouth, Ohio, and showed Sheriff Plummer a telegram from the latter
firm which was received that morning. In this it was stated that in the
entire lot of shoes which had been especially made to order for Louis &
Hays, but one pair was numbered 22-11, which is the Portsmouth firm's
mark for size three. This pair was found upon the unfortunate girl. Upon
this theory Sheriff Plummer and Detectives Crim and McDermott went to
work. Of that whole lot of shoes made for Louis & Hays by the Portsmouth
firm, the officers located seven pairs, leaving but two unaccounted for.
The clerks in the shoe store were shown the muddy shoe taken from the
girl's foot. They all recognized it at a glance.
The articles of wearing apparel which were also brought along were shown
to nearly all of the leading dry goods merchants. None of them were able
to recognize even one of the articles. An effort was also made to
identify the gloves worn by the murdered woman. In none of the stores
could a similar pair be found.
The officers were not discouraged however. The proof was positive almost
beyond a doubt that the shoes worn by the murdered girl had been sold to
her by Louis & Hays in their store at Greencastle. This was the only
tangible clew they had to work on and with it properly run down, they
were perfectly satisfied, they would secure the identification of the
beheaded woman, if not fix the guilt of the crime on some one in the
immediate vicinity.
Another visit was made to Louis & Hays store at night, the books of the
firm were carefully gone over again and again. Only seven of the nine
pairs of the Drew, Selby & Co., shoes sold by Louis & Hays could be
accounted for, and none of those were the ones worn by the murdered
woman.
The Fort Thomas tragedy, and the coming of Sheriff Plummer, Detectives
Crim and McDermott to Greencastle, in search of the identification of
the shoes had aroused the people at that place, especially so, the
suspicion of a Mr. A. W. Early, Manager of the Western Union, to whose
noble work, the officers owe nearly all their success and information.
The description of the body of the dead girl, especially that part,
which described her fingers as resembling those of a seamstress, and the
little wart on the finger, aroused the suspicion of Mrs. Alexander S.
Bryan, whose daughter Pearl, was, as the mother thought, visiting
friends in Indianapolis, Ind. Nothing was mentioned of these suspicions
outside the immediate family, but so strong were the suspicions with
them, that Fred Bryan a brother of Pearl telegraphed to Indianapolis to
Pearl's friends, asking if she was there. The answer came that Pearl had
not been in Indianapolis, although she had left for that city, Jan., 28.
A. W. Early, the manager for the Western Union Telegraph Company at
Greencastle, saw the telegram and answer from Indianapolis. It was then,
he knew, that he possessed positive information, not only as to the
identification of the headless body at the Morgue in Newport, but also
to the fixing of the guilt on one or more persons, one of whom at least
was Early's intimate friend. Realizing this and awe-stricken with the
horribleness of the deed in which his friend was, to say the least,
indirectly implicated, he rushed at once to the hotel and in an excited
manner called the officers out to tell them his story. After a very
hurried conference with Early the officers all left the hotel to go with
Early to his office where he gave the first real clew to the victim and
upon which information, three men Scott Jackson and Alonzo Walling,
students at the Ohio Dental College, in Cincinnati, and William Wood, a
medical student who was with his uncle in South Bend, Ind., were on that
same night arrested, charged with the murder and complicity in the
murder of Pearl Bryan, whose headless body lay at Undertaker White's
Establishment in Newport, Ky.
Early's story was that he came to Greencastle Oct. 4., 1895. "Soon after
my arrival at Greencastle I made the acquaintance of Will Wood, a
student at Depauw University. This acquaintance soon ripened into a
friendship which brought us together a great deal and made us confide to
each other much more than is ordinary among young men.
"So fast did the friendship between Will Wood and myself become that he
would show me his letters. Among those he showed, I remember one from
Scott Jackson, a young man from Greencastle, who is in Cincinnati
attending a dental college.
"In this letter Jackson confided to his chum, Will Wood, that he,
Jackson and Pearl Bryan had been too intimate, that she had loved not
wisely, but too well, and as a result he had betrayed her, that Pearl
would soon become a mother, and asked Wood's help in this matter.
"He admitted his intimacy with Pearl, and his responsibility for her
present condition. He quoted recipes calculated to prevent the evil
results of their indiscretion, and asked Wood to get them and give them
to Pearl.
"Wood did this, as he said he was willing to do anything he could for
Jackson and especially for Pearl, who was Wood's second cousin.
"These drugs however did not have the desired effect of reversing the
laws of nature.
"One letter, I remember was in answer to one which Wood had written to
Jackson, informing him that Pearl Bryan was showing the effects of her
indiscretion and intimacy with Jackson, and telling him that the recipes
sent by him had been furnished by Wood.
"Jackson regretted that his recipes had failed but said something must
be done and suggested that the girl be sent to Cincinnati, stating that
he could arrange to have an abortion performed on her.
"Wood told me afterward that Pearl had gone to Cincinnati to have a
criminal operation performed, and had told her parents she was going to
Indianapolis to visit friends. She had money with her, sufficient to
cover any expenses she might incur in such an undertaking."
He then told of Fred Bryan the brother of Pearl, telegraphing to
Indianapolis inquiring about Pearl and receiving an answer that she had
not been there.
It was midnight when the detectives heard of this and went to the house
of Mr. Spivy, of Louis & Hays, and got him to go to the shoe store with
them. On arriving there the books of the firm were again examined and
the name of Pearl Bryan was found on them, and the fact that she had
bought a pair of No. 3 shoes was found. In all their scrutiny of the
books this fact had escaped the detectives and shoe dealers.