Daily Los Angeles herald., 1884-03-29


"a, 1884, at o o'clock, A. M. :.
Admit one. e.................
j. b. BURKHART, .
Sheriff.
................ ................
HISTORY OF THE CRIME.
William K. Mcdowell, the central
figure in the judicial tragedy, was born
in San Diego County, about twenty-six
years ago. At an unwontedly early age
he began to develop those vices whose
indulgence had their sequence in death
on the gallows, and all the awful
obloquy which attaches to such a fate.
His father bore an evil though not q
criminal reputation. His mother, on the
other hand was all that o good mother
could be to bad son. At an age when
other boys still shuddered at ghost
stories, unflinching he listened to tales
OF blood from men old in crime. No
wonder that with such rearing, despite
the tender watchfulness of . loving
mother he should expiate the crime OF
murder ere he had fairly entered upon
mans estate. As Q lad of sixteen, or
less, he left school, to which his mother
sent him. in this city whittier they
moved upon the fathers death. There
he went TO work earning by times his
livelihood, at others eksing out the
means of pampering to his debaucheries.
He secured employment in the livery
stable of George X. Butler, ON Main street,
when about twenty years OF age and
while thus engaged made the aoquaint-
ance Of Maggie McCurdy, after Maggie
O'Brien, whose terrible death was yes
terday avenged by outraged justice.
Billy, as he was called in this city,
where he was widely known, became
apparently
DEvorEDLY ATTACHED TO MAGGIE,
Who was comely, pleasant hammered
girl. She. in turn, with all her heart re-
ciprocated his love. Thus things con-
tinued, their mutual loves an open Sc
cret to their friends, till Mcdowell sud-
denly determined to leave here and seek
q more profitable employment, and .
community affording fewer temptations
than those with which he was surround
ed In this city. He went into San Luis
Obispo county, where he met the woman
who afterwards became his wife, the she
devil. Rosa kearney.
There Is an incident connected with
this creatures introduction to Los Ange.
les which foreshadows the end that will
be hers. She, and her younger sister,
between two days, took couple of their
fathers best horses and rode away to
this city in search Of adventure. They
were arrested on their arrival on . charge
of grand larceny, information of their
crime being furnished the authorities by
their father. For some reason they were
never prosecuted, and the younger sister
returned to the paternal roof. Rosa,
however, inherently vicious stayed, and
then began
A LIFE OF SHAME,
Which she was leading when Mcdowell
deliberately married her. During BiIly's
absence Maggie married man named J i.
j.. O'Brien. She lived with him but q
short time when Billy returned to the
city. A hiatus In the history Of the two
occurs here. Suffice it, however, that
Rosa Mcdowell was now full launched
on sea of degradation, drifting resist
lees to an awful crime. O'Brien
left town and went to work at stage
station on the Mohave. About the same
time Mcdowell was at work in that part
of the country. O'Brien suddenly diaap-
peared and neither his employer nor any
Of his acquaintances knew whittier he
had gone; many supposed he had left
for Arizona. In the light of subsequent
events it has grown to conviction that
he was
MURDERED By M'DowELL.
A telegram, purporting to come from
O'Brien somewhere in Arizona, shortly
after the killing Of Maggie, was pub
lished, but there are strong reasons to
! suspect that O'Brien was not its author,
and that on the contrary it was soncoct.
cd 10 divert public opinion from the only
motive which can be ascribed to the
commission Of the diabolical butchery of
trusting and infatuated woman.
But to return to the history of the
three principal actors in the bloody San
Bernardino tragedy. Mcdowell, upon
marrying Rosa Kearney, took her to his
mothers house. Almost upon the in.
stant of her entering the residence COM
menced that bitter war Of jealousy be-
tween Maggie O'Brien, who was now o
servant in the employ Of Billy's mother,
and Rosa Mcdowell. 1t is said that in
an angry feud jealous words led to blows
between the two rivals, and in the en-
counter Maggie gave Rosa
"A TERRIBLE BEATING.
1t is pretended by some that it was
this beating which was the moving
cause of Maggies death, and that iu re-
venge for it Rosa Mcdowell struck the
fatal blow which killed her. This the.
ory was absolutely refuted on tas trial
BY the evidence of medical experts, who
showed from the fractures in the dead
woman's skull that they were made by
revolver, held by the muzzle in the
hands OF q person Of considerable
strength. The wounds were just the
Distance apart that separated the butt
from the trigger-guard of McDowell's
pistol.
Mcdowell and his wife, some two
years ago, moved to San Bernardino.
There Billy led shiftless life of dissipa.
tion, and, according to his wife's own
repeated declarations, lived on
THE WAGES OF HER SIN.
At any rate she was, beyond q
doubt, the inmate of q house OF
prostitution in San Bernardino. The
quarrels between the husband and
the wife were now frequent and violent.
What their import was or what their
cause seems uncertain.
In the month Of January of the wear
Of grace 1888, Maggie received . sum-
mons from Mcdowell to meet him at
Cotton. He had, since his marriage,
frequently urged and implored her Ia
come and live with him. but she was in
exorable in her refusal 30 to do until he
had obtained divorce from Rosa. This
condition Mcdowell never complied
with. Whether he induced her to leave
this city on some such promise il un-
known. At any rate on the 18th of JAN
uary, 1883, she took tho local for Col
ton, reaching that station about duak.
Mcdowell met her at the train, took hs =
over to the hotel, whjch is in the imms.
diate vicinity of the depot. Here they
ate supper and about o'clock took q
buggy and drove south, towards River
side. Maggie O'Brien was never seen
alive after that night. Less than an
hour after her manglsd corpse was
THROWN INTO A RAvINE,
About four miles south of Cotton, only
to be seen again by human eyes after a
lapse of nearly thirty days. At the end
Of that time Rosa Mcdowell sent for
Under Sheriff Joe Brown and
then revealed TO him the his
tory Of the awful tragedy. Her
story Was that Billy Mcdowell hired q
buggy At Cotton, at the same time en-
gnging Saddle horse for her; that he
forced her to come along and witness
his killing of his former sweetheart. She
L anid that McDoxzall sfrucl MAMMA nm