Wichita eagle., 1889-03-13
TO COVER his FATHERS GRIMES.
Why a Prominent Cincinnati Lawyer
Committed Suicide.

CINCINNATI O., March 12.-On Thanks
giving morning Charles A kebier, one OF
the brightest and most successful lawyers
at the Cincinnati bar. committed suicide.
1t was discovered that he was forger OF
deeds and mortgages to the amount OF sew
eral hundred thousand dollars. The mys-
terry surrounding his death has never been
fully explained until today, when reason
for the tragic act was made plain by
an entry in the circuit court. Simply
stated, it is that this man dared
to assume the burdens the death of
his father had left unsettled, and ever
since all that was mortal of John Kebler
was laid in the tomb this son, who was
appointed administrator, stepped into his
fathers shoes and without a complaint
that penetrated beyond the privacy of the
sacred family circle, offered himself as q
sacrifice to the criminality and folly of his
father. 1t has been fact accepted among
those acquainted with the affairs of John
Keller, that he in his lifetime was
forger, and that he resorted to what may
be deemed the desperate measures OF forg-
cry to acquire money and to cover the
footsteps be made on the quicksands of
illegality. The father was one of the most
highly respected men in the community
and enjoyed large practice. To cover up
the family skeleton the son resorted to
forgeries, expecting to pay up the 1ndebt-
edness, but he became SO involved that he
killed himself to escape disgrace.
The facts attending the finding OF the
body have been to this time SO carefully
suppressed that but partial and hence
incomplete history has been given. In the
decree entered in the case of Coppeck vs..
Kuhn this morning. it is set forth that as
early as $50 on the day OF the death the
drug was taken by Charles and he died at
1:30 o'clock the same afternoon. When
Mrs. Henrietta d. Leonard, his mother-in-
law, entered the room where he had been
conveyed, he was lying on his bed in his
night clothes. He was then almost nm
conscious, but had sufficient strength to
raise his head and move his body as a
token that he recognized her. In his eff
fects were found communications adj
dressed to Mrs. Leonard.
One of them is the article of conveyance
upon which Mrs. Leonard founded her
claim to recover for money loaned against
the collateral hypothetical with Kuhn &
Sons. and which the circuit court has set
aside because the conveyance was not
complete in that Mr.. Kebler never handed
it to Mrs. Leonord.
Another communication is the confess
sion of his life and his dying declaration.
1t has been in the possession of Hon. /. NJ.
Jordan, counsel for Mrs. Leonard, and
while Mr.. Jordan did not care to disclose
its exact contents. still he was not averse
to giving its substance. The letter was
written in most pathetic strain, and ev-
cry word seems to record a heartbeat of
the most agonizing sorrow. Mrs. Loen
ard is addressed in affectionate terms, and
her son, as he calls himself, hopes she will
not think him the scamp he may seem to
be in the light of future developments, for
he found his fathers estate in precisely
the same condition that ''you will find
mine"
Another letter and the one which seems
to reveal the true character of the man
more clearly than everything else combin-
ed, is a few short lines. almost poetic in
beautiful in thought, breath
ing as it does a spirit of true devotion to
the memory of his wife and children. Such |
is the legal explanation of the reason that
inspired the self-murder of Chas. A. Keb-
Ter. -
A motion for new trial has been filed !
for the Coppeck-kuhn case, and if granted |
it is said that great deal of new matter !
can be readily adduCed, including 81 900 |
forgery of John Keller, which Charles
paid interest on during its life, and then |
assumed at its maturity, rather than al |
ow its public exposure to become stain |
upon the name of the father he loved SO |
Al