The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-01-19
SHE THINKS HE IS ALIVE.
MRS. MARY T. KEEP WANTS CHAS.
D. KEEPS BODY EXHUMED.

She Says He Was Seen in New York
When He Was Supposed to be Dying
in Elberon, and He Often Talked Of
Feigning Death.
From the NeG York Sun
Application was made yesterday to Coro-
nor James Robinson, Of Long Island City,
for an order to have the body OF Charles
d. Keep, who was the proprietor Of the
val Street Ne,Cs. exhumed. The body was
inferred in Calvary Cemetery on June IL.
He died at Elberon, " j., after a weeks
illness Of acute rheumatism on June .. The
application for the exhumation is made by
Mrs. Mary T, Keep, who got divorce
from Mr. Keep and afterward tried to have
the decree annulled.
Mrs. Keep asserts her belief that her nus
band is not dead, and that he simulated
death If he is dead, however, she alleges
that he was murdered by poisoning. She
wants the coffin opened that She may iden-
THY the body if it is Keeps, for the purpose
Of furnishing legal proof Of death, which is
necessary in certain suits now in progress.
In support o. her application she has made
ali affidavit in which the following allega-
tlOns are made:
On Aug. 81, 1872, she was married to
Charles D. Keep. In 1873 each made a will
70 the other. Upon the report of the sui
eide OF the elder Ralston in California. Keep
said that he Keep would not commit sui
eide, but that, in like emergency, he would
conspire with certain physicians, and that
with their aid he would teign death that
while The fraudulent funeral was in prog
ress he would escape and take up his resi-
dence in the Thousand Islands or sewhere.
Again. uDgn the report of the suicide of
Nine. Restell he reiterated his determination
to feigu death,
Keep, she adds, maltreated her, and also
avowed his determination to defraud her,
living or dead, of her lawful estate. She
says Keep was seen and spoken to in New
York city on June s, the day before his al
legged death, although he was supposed to
have been sick in bed for a week before his
death
She says business is advertised and cor
reSpondence is conducted in the afiice at 40
Exchange place, as if Keep were alive. She
believe, she is entitled to an action in the
Supreme Court for the possession of Keeps
estate, but that she must, in such an action,
adduce evidence of his death.
To Coroner Robinson Mrs Keep said that
the man who, as she alleges saw Keep on
June 8, is the janitor at 40 Exchange place.
Two days before the alleged death her coun-
sci appeared in the Supreme Court in pre-
liminary proceedings, and Mr.. Keep and
his partners and the woman he called his
wife knew, she said, that, it would be ruin il
the suits were continued. If Keep were dead,
then he was murdered by those who con-
spied to poison her nine years ago, and who
had been instrumental, she said, i'll defraud-
ing her of her rights She said she was
pushing her suits to regain her legal status
as Mr. Keeps wife or widow, and to recover
the property by a revocation of his will of
1881. There was another strange thing in
connection with Keeps death, she said In
the books of the Register of Monmouth
county, and in the burial permits, he is de-
scribed as IS years old and as having been
born in II Gland. He was 43 wears old, she
says, and native of the United States,
having been born in Iockport in 1914