Daily Los Angeles herald., 1879-09-18
THE WHEATLAND MYSTERY.
Arrest of VI. G. Rollan and Wife by the Do
tecliges.


inst, to the San Francisco Chroni.
Gle, gives the latest phase of thu
Whealland mystery:
Wheatland was greatly excited
this morning by the announce
ment OF the arrest Of w. j. Roddsi
and his wife for lie murder0us as
sault on Ida Dunn aud Cora Hes
lep, committed In their house, in
the month of June last. 1t was dis
cussed everywhere, in quiet homes
aud by excited crowds on the street
corners. OF course, great sympathy
was expressed for the family, but
there was not that universal feeling
at the time of the commission OF
the crime. Mr.. and Mrs. Roddan
slrenuousIy assert their Innocence.
| There are now Two parties in the
town and neighboihood, one OF
which still thinks it impossible
| they should have been guilty OF
such an atrocity, and another,
which, considering the house and
its surroundings, deems any theory
| of the crime which frees them from
participation, entirely urtenable.
Ida Dunn and Cora Heslep, it will
be remembered, lived in the house
of young Roddan, assisting In the
housework. Cora is Roddan's
wift's sister. Somewhere about
midnight on the night mentioned
Mrs. Koddau was awakened by
groans. She walked her husband,
and both went into the adjoining
| bedroom occupied by tho girls
the doors of the two bedrooms be.
| ing only few feet apart and both
open. Cora was found lying on the
bed nearly lifeless from n terrible
wound in the temple. Ida was af
terward found lying in the open
air on the other side of the house,
also terribly wounded about the
forehead and eyes. Roddansand his
wife fingered awhile over Cora, and
tLen Mrs. Roddan went to alarm
the family Of the elder Roddan,
living at a little distance and Just
oyer the slope Of an ascent so grad
ual that it could scarcely be called
hill. The nrighburhood and the
town, two miles distant, were soon
in state of wild excitement. The
next day the whole State was
startled by the news, and half u
dozen detectives were on the
ground to aid in unraveling the
mystery. They made slow pro.
gress. Suspicion was first direc, ed
toward a negro who had called at
dusk on the evening preceding the
deed and asked for q drink of water.
He was kept in prison for some
weeks, had trial and was at last
discharged. A Chinaman was ar.
rested on the theory that he had
committed the assault to intimi-
date the girls from homework, and
so create market for cheap Chi.
nese labor. A demented French
Canadian was appiehended, who
wildly fancied that he was the
guilty party. He was not long
held in durance. These we've the
only arrests made until the pres.
ent. The huge piece of iron which
did the deed and which had been
used as pin to fasten "a threshipg
machine, has figured all along in
the theories of the detectives. 1t
has never been definitely traced, at
least no testimony authenticating
it has thus tar been made public.
A piece of IRON used to curl the hair
has suggested the theory that a
woman had something to do with
tue CRIME, and may have led to the
apprehension Of the Roddans, who
are as yet only beld under surveil-
lance. From the first suspicion
has attached to the RDddan house
hold, chiefly because it seemed in
credible that in wooden house
hardly twenty feet square, with all
the doors and windows open,
with thin board partitions,
with distance of not more than
six feet between the victims and
the foot of the bed of the only
other inmates of the house, aud
amid the deathly stiffness of u
country summer night, deed with
such peculiar circumstances could
have been perpetrated At first i
was suggested that the wife of viii
liam Roddan was jealous of hel
husbands attentions to Cora, and
employed a confederate to do the
deed. From young Roddtn and his
wife suspicion extended to the fam
lily of the elder Roddan, whose
wife, aunt of the two Heslep girls
it was said wished to have q
younger brother marry Cora, and
he preferred Ida. An attempt t.
violate the person of Ida excited
strange theories. AS possible &C
completes in the crime several per
SONS have been mentioned, among
them u blacksmith aud Portu.
guese employed on the farm OF til,
elder Koddan, Of which William
Ro idan had the uperintendenee
These are some of the chief the
cries, though there have been many
Others. The mysterious man sect
looking into the window of VIII
liam, soon after he says he discov
cred the comm ission of the crime
has not since been heard from
When the Chronicle first directed
suspicion where it now seems I,
rest, the Call and the Record Unio,
both, it viii be remembered, as
persed its motives, although tn,
representatives of both papers, VIII,
had investigated, acknowledged
that the crime must have beef
committed by some one living no
far distant. We shall not have
much longer to wait, probably, TO
the reason of this arrest, and som,
lew light on the crime, AS they
will come into court and plead t.
morrow, and the time of hearing bt
definitely fixed.