Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-12-03
FATAL DUEL IN THE NIGHT.
One of the Participants Found Dead
the Next Morning-The Other as Yet
Unknown-The Mystery and Romance
surrounding the Death of Young
Telegraph Operator In Michigan.


Surrounding the Death of a Young
Telegraph Operator In Michigan.
MARSHALL t1hicd.) Special to v. Y. Sun, esth
The dead body of Byron NJ. Sibley. a
young and goOd-looking operator, was
found near an old manufacturing estab-
Hshment near the depot. He Law upon
his back with a bullet hole in his temple
and notfar away was his revolver, with ali
except one OF the cartridges discharged
There we've footprints in the partly frozen
earth, indicating a struggle; but the
motive OF the murderer was not robbery.
for the young mans watch and money
were undisturbed. As ne was universally
esteemed and not known to have an
enemy IN the world, his friends and ac-
qualntances, save one, were at a loss to
account for the tragedy. This one. Will
liam Ward, a hotel clerk. was able TO
throw some light on the tragedy, but only
enough to invest the case with a thrilling
interest, and throw around it enough of
mystery and romance to set the town wild
with excitement.
Ward explained that the day before the
tragedy Sibley had told him that he was
in trouble with a prominent citizen of the
place, who accused him of improper init
macy with his wife, based on the woman's
confession. The injured husband had no.
tlhed Slbley two weeks before of his dis
eoYery, and had then threatened to kill
MN II he did not leave town. Sibley had
protested his innocence of the charge. but
the husband refused to believe him and
insisted that Marshall was not large
enough to hold both of them. Sibley had
gone to Detroit to secure a transfer to
some other town, but, falling in this, had
returned to Marshall on Monday last and
resumed his work. That afternoon he had
received letter from his enemy saving
that he was sorry he had come back, and
giving him until the next day to leave
town. Sibley told his friend that he had
written the man q note saying he had
made up his mind to stay; that he was
innocent of the charge, and that if the
husband did not stop dOgging him one or
the other would have to suffer for it.
ward asked the mans name, but Sibley
refused to give it to him. He showed
Ward his revolver, and said that while
his enemy had a self-cocker he would. if
1T came TO that, make the best fight he
could with his old style weapon.
SIbley had the letter, unaddressed,
IN his hand as he went out, and the next
morning 1t was found, still with no in
scription, on his body.
When news of the murder spread
throughout the town many people remem-
bered that about 8 O'Clock the previous
evening they heard two pistol shots in the
nelghR0rhOod of the depot. One family
living near the scene of the murder say
that they heard the shots, and soon after
light footsteps on the sidewalk as of some
one running in slippers or very light shoes.
a woman testihes to having passed the
mandatory just before the shots were
hred, and being seized roughly by we'll
dressed man who came out from a lumber
Vnrn np1F thnrn ht1t VUb L.
face, liberated her with an apology. The
theory having the most supporters is that
Slbley and the unknown husband met in
the lonely spot described by appointment,
and that. becoming involved in a scuf-
fe, both fired, the young man
falling victim. 1t is certain that two
shots were fired, and from the fact that
Slbley's death must have been instantane-
Gus, it is believed that he fired first, and
that before he could draw again his ad-
versary killed him. Another theory. and
one that is we'll sustained by several de-
tectlves, is that Sibley went to the old
manutactory to meet the recreant wife 1;
that her husband learned of the appoint
ment and followed them; that he was the
man who seized the passing woman sup
posing her to be his wife, and that the
hurried footsteps after the shooting were
those of the guilty woman, who, seeing
herself discovered, fled for home while her
husband was engaged in his encounter
with her lover.
The morals of the upper crust society
here are not so spotless as to preclude the
possibility of several families being sus-
pected as chief actors in this tragedy
but as yet public suspicion is divided be-
tween two. The detectives claim to
know who the man and woman are, but
say they will not make any arrest for the
present, as they are convinced that Sibley
fired first, and that the husband shot in
self-detense. There are hints that the
young telegrapher was, in fact, guiltless
OF the intrigue charged upon him by the
wife, and that she made use of his name
to cover up the tracks of much more
prominent man, who is just now in terror
over his threatened exposure. The fact
that previous to his death young Sibley
had not been known by any of his friends
to be ON intimate terms with any married
woman gives color of reason to this sug-
gestiOn