The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-08-17
A WOMAN IN THE CASE.
Maxweps Infatuation~ That Helped
Him to an American Gallows.
ON the Neap York Herald.

41llu 10 HI NTdlloWS.
From the Ne,o York Herald.
PITTsBURG, PA, Aug. 12.-Just as in
every other case of public note, there was a
woman in the grotesquely horrible story of
crime to which the hanging of Maxwell at
st. Louis has put final period, and her
name was Lillian Hoyle.
The curious episode in which she figured
has never before been brought to light, but
it is by no means the least interesting chap
ter of this strange and celebrated case.
After the murder. when Maxwell thrust the
corpse of his friend into trunk and fled,
he did not stop or pause until he reached
the city of San Francisco, but there he
stopped two days before he set sail for
Australia
What was he doing!
He was in the company of Lillian Hoyle,
a beautiful and abandoned woman. whom
he met by chance upon the streets and with
whom he tarried in this perilous time of
flight, when pursuit might be at any instant
close at his heels. The little, half demented
chloroformer forgot everything in presence
of this woman. She was of the Spanish
type; black hair, brilliant eyes, creamy
skin and voluptuous form. Moreover, she
was gifted with a singular fascination of
manner that really covered the cool, keen,
calculating instincts of woman of the
world in the worst acceptance of the
term. She was half surprised, half
amused at his protestations, ard carefully
sounded him to see how much money he
had. AT this the murderer suddenly re-
vealed himself, and i'll a passionate outburst
told her what he had DONE going into the
minutest details, and urging her to join his
flight and go with him to the southern part
of the state, which he fondly believed was
a thinly settled Wilderness where they might
al<r aI1ync 10
thought he was crazy-either that or a
drunken braggart, and made haste to show
him the door. A few hours afterward,
upon the impulse of the moment, and with
out a vestige of plan, he bought ticket for
Auckland, N. z.
AN UNNECESSARY WITNESS
This was the story learned by the detect
ives, and it is scarcely necessary to add
that on the lists of the prosecution Lillian
Hoyle figured as a most essential witness.
But she was never called. The district
attorney who prosecuted Maxwell at st.
Louis was Ashley Ii. Clover, young man
not only of great determination but of con-
siderable wealth; and out of his own pocket
he paid many of the extraordinary expenses
of the case Thus, among other things he
deposited several hundred dollars to pay the
expenses of the Hoyle woman from San
Francisco, and it was understood that she
NOulo pun III uil5
time. But when the case was called she
had disappeared, and it was finally learned
that she had sailed for Hong Kong the
week before with the first officer of
Pacific Mail steamer.
1t is fact not generally known, but
China is regarded as a Mecca by the upper
stratum of the scarlet women of the Pacific
coast In nearly all the great cities of the
Celestial kingdom are to be found circles of
wealthy and dissolute Europeans, and at
Canton and Hong Kong their club rooms
are fitted up with princely luxurjance and
barbaric splendor These establishments
are out of the pale of law, and are unham-
pered by the canons of civilization. The
inmates, therefore, are restrained by moth
ing save the bounds of their caprice, and
live perpetual orgie, hideouS in its realism
1t was to this life that Lillian Hoyle was
directed. She had with her New York
woman known as Pearl Ardine, and fate
had in reserve a curious career and tragic
end for both of these women.
THE woMAN's FATE.
Conrad Hoff, an agent of the German
government located at Singapore, wrote to
friend here letter giving the conclusion
of their career, which was received to-day.
He states that the Hoyle woman became
a recognized leader of the demi-monde at
Hong Kong; and, clad in a native dress of
extraordinary richness, she finally grew to
be such a conspicuous figure upon the
streets that the authorities forbade her ap-
pearing on them in daylight.
On the night of June she was in COM
pany with a party of friends, including
Pearl Ardine and a young American named
John Ledger, at native tea garden, which
was large enclosed place thickly planted
with shrubs Toward midnight these two
women and Ledger were missed, and after
a search their bodies were found in dark
corner of the garden. All three were dead
and covered with knife wounds. The head
of the Hoyle woman was, in addition, en-
tirely severed from her body. Who did the
bloody work could not even be conjectured,
but it was charged that jealousy was at the
bottom of it. No arrests had been made up
to the time the letter was written.
This has of course but little to do with
the case of Maxwell, for the evidence of the
woman, thus tragically placed beyond the
reach of subpoena, was, after all, not needed
to convict. But it seems a strange turn of
destiny that the California siren into whose
ears Maxwell poured the story of his crime,
was doomed to die in midnight revel on
the other side of the world, where she had
refused togo with the murderer.