The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1881-01-06
THE ABE R0THScHiLD CASE.
History of the ccse-A Long and Yexatious
Trial Ends in the Discharge of the Pris-

History of the Case-A Long and Yexatous
Trial Ends in the Discharge of the PTs-
oner.
On Sunday, January 81, 1877, near Jefferson
Texas, woman named Bessie Moore, better
known as Diamond Bessie" an inmate for
merly of a house Of i'll repute in Cincinnati,
most brutally murdered by, as it appears
from the verdict of Texas jury, some unknown
party. The story, as related on the 18th of
February nearly month after the murder,
was to this effect: January 10 q commercial
traveller, accompanied. by an evidently aban-
doned woman, arrived in Jefferson, from Mar
shall, Texas, and registered as A. Monroe and
wife, st. Louis, No., at the Brooks House, JEFF
ferson. That night the servants in the house
heard them quarreling continually. On Sunday
the 21st, they went into restaurant and drank
considerable. About noon, taking . bottle of
beer with them, they crossed the bayou near
town, and the same evening the man returned
alone wearing couple Of fine diamond rings
which had previously been noticed on the fin
gers OF the woman. In explanation of the ab
sence Of the woman, he said she was with rela-
tives across the bayou. He was observed to
be very restless and paced his room most of the
night, and in the morning said he had not slept
very well. There being no northbound train
the next day, Monroe, or whatever his name
TX,
when he left alone, checking his trunk to Little
Rock, Ark, and from there to Memphis, Tenn.
On February 6, negro woman found the body
of the woman a little back from the
road across the bayou, near Jefferson.
When examined a bullet hole was found
downward and the hair singed by the powder
of the pistol. No clue whatever could ut the
time be found as to the whereabouts of Mon
roe, but after some detective work had been
brought into the case it was ascertained that q
party had registered at Marshall, Texas, on
January II, as A. Rothschild and wife, Cincin-
natl, Ohio. An examination of this register
and the one at Jefferson satisfied the officers
that they were written by the same person.
Then Chief of Police Ira Wood of Cincinnati
was written to for the purpose of ascertaining
il there was an A. Rothschild there. Before
Superintendent Wood had completed his in
quiries young Israelite well known about the
city, Abe Rothschild, son of M. Rothschild,
s.nfd h street Fbgs1 sws early in in the h. mens of
of Augs Club House, attempted to
commit suicide by shooting himself
in the head, but only succeeding
in destroying his right eye. While Rothschild
was laid up at his home from the effects of his
self-inficted injuries, Sheriff Vine, of Marion
County, Texas, arrived with requisition for
Rothschild, claiming to identify Rothschild as
Monroe. Rothschild's father, being at that
time wealthy, retained Major Blackburn, of
Clnclnnat1, ana IOuSnJ tno requlBlClOn, Dut on
March 8, of the same year, Judge Avery, Of
the Hamilton County Common Pleas Court,
turned him over to Vine, granting, however, a
stay Of proceedings until Major Blackburn
could appeal to the Supreme Court. Within
the time allowed for the appeal, Major Black
burn applied to Judge Matson for a writ of hd-
beds corpus, which was not allowed, and Roths-
child was remanded to the custody of Sheriff
Wallace, who, it was claimed at the time, sur
reptitiously turned him over to the Texas
| Sheriff, Vine. Once back in Texas, all the
legal bubbles known to the attorney,
| were put in use to acquit Rothschild,
and several trials were given him, the first be-
| ginning May "a, 1877, and resulting in dis
| agreement. Two or three other trials resulted
| in a similar manner, and on the 18th Of Decem-
| ber another trial began which ended on the
| 30th in a verdict Of honorable acquittal, as is
shown by the following dispatch received by his
| father at Cincinnati
JEFFERSON, TEXAS, Dec. 80.
M. Rothschiid, Cincinnati o.:
Mossetof-Abe honorably acquitted amidst
the excitement Of friends. Tell uncle and
| friends. Z. EBHRsTADT.
Thus ends a case which, for almost four years
past, has excited not only the attention Of Gin
cinnati where the prisoner belonged and the
State Of Texas, but nearly all the Southern
and Western portion Of the country, Rothschild
| being well known throughout these parts Of the
| United States as q travelling salesman.