Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1889-06-20

09z:z---M'M ~
''T SEEMS PROBABLE now" he SAID.
five hours to cover up all traces Of his
| crime"
| ''But,' suggested the chief, sit is not
conceivable that, having committed the
| crime in the house, he could have carried
| the body on his back through the streets of
New York. He would have been obliged to
! take a carriage. He could not have put the
| body into a carriage and taken it out again
| without making the coachman his accom-
| plice. Now, he had had no time to prepare for
| this completely, as he did not know an hour
before seven o'clock that all the servants
| were to be out that night. There is just a
| bare possibility, however, that he may have
planned this thing deliberately, for you will
remember that he permitted his own coach
man to go to the theater of his own free
| will, and it looks as if he had dismissed him
for the evening with special purpose. 1t
certainly follows that his coachman was
| not the one who conspired with him to DIS
| pose of the body. Therefore, although I
| agree that the house should be most thor
oughly searched, it IS highly important that
we should look after all the hack-driverS in
| the neighborhood, if not all in the city and
| vicinity
The next day the search was begun as
Ketcham had suggested. Almost all the
| detectives were confident that in the
| thorough search men of their calling know
| how to make they should find some direct
! clew to the crime in the house. For al
| though hackman might have been in COM
| plicity with Mr.. Brownlow in the terrible
| affair, every thing pointed to generalization,
| inasmuch as he had arranged matters 50
| that he could be alone with his wife for
several hours.
| The police searched not only every corner,
every armoire and cupboard, from cellar to
| garnet, and all the barrels and boxes and
| packages; they sounded the walls; they
dug up the stones of the cellar that seemed
to be loose; they ripped up the floors and
the steps Of the stairs: for three days they
devoted themselves to a systematic and
unremitting search, and literally left no
stone unturned that might by any possibili-
ty conceal clew TO the CRIME. They
| found nothing.
They had to come back to the first hypothe-
| sis that Mr. Brownlow had induced his wife
to leave the house and had led her to some
out-of-the-way spot and there murdered
| her, where eventually they would find the
| body in such state of decomposition that
its identity could not be established. 1t
would only be one more body to add to
those which are found daily in the river and
| by the docks and in out-of-the-way places.
1
Office, in fact, they were held every day,
but at this one new theory was suggested,
this time also by Ketcham
cit seems probable now,'' he said, ''that
| this deed could not have been committed
| IN New York at ali. Brownlow must have
known how difficult it is to hide for any
| length of time the traces of a murder upon
ground which is traversed daily in all direc-
tions and watched over by a police whose
effective force is the standing admiration
| of the entire country. He had plenty of
! time not only to get out of the city but to go
for a long distance. There are a great many
railroads running from New York with fire.
| quent trains in the early evening. He could
have taken any one of those and gone out a.
far as from fifty to one hundred miles and
| yet have had two hours or more In which to
carry out his purpose and return to the city
| by the last train and reach his home, as the
| servants will testify that he did, at three
o'clock in the morning It will be necessary,
then, to have the search proceed until all
ground Is covered within a radius of one
hundred miles from New York"
| This plan Of the campaign was so expen-
sive and 50 difficult that if the murder had
not been one of unusual interest the detect
ives would never have thought Of under
| taking it. But the popular clamor was
so great, the newspapers were so constant
! in their publication of sensational clews,
| and editorials were hurled in such volume
upon the department as to compeli it to take
every chance, no matter how chimerical it
might seem, to ferret out the truth Of this
mystery. The general cry was: LET there
| be the same law for the rich man as well as
Tor the poor" The widest sort OF stories
were circulated and even published to the
eject that the wealthy friends OF Mr..
Brownlow had bribed the police, from the
chief to the humblest patrolman, not to find
evidence IN this case. Smarting under this
sort OF criticism, therefore, and with a nat
ural PRIDE IN their work, the detectives put
their most earnest endeavors into the case
and studied and worked night and day to
| get at the truth.
! One OF the detectives who had been au-
thorized to make special investigations into
the family of Mrs. Brownlow reported one day
that the theory of sudden anger would real
| ~ not hold in this case; that there must be
some other satisfactory motive for the deed,
| and that he believed that it would be found
! by examination of the papers Of Mrs.
Brownlow. Up tothis tune all the private
| documents found in the Brownlow mansion,
when it had been searched, had been care
fully kept without examination. The de-
| tectiye averred that the CdaS9ion family
feit so strongly that Mr.. Brownlow had
married their daughter for the sake of her
money that he now believed that he had
been instrumental in putting her out Of the
way for the sake Of getting a secure and
undivided hold upon it. Accordingly, an
examination was made of the property
which Mrs Brownlow held It was found
that nothing had been touched by Mr..
Browniow, and that the property which
stood In her name consisted almost entirely
OF unregistered bonds. which, as every body
knows, are good for their face value on pre-
seDtation. M
Among the papers, however, was win
made by Mrs. Brownlow, in which her hus-
band was nominated as her sole heir, and
this will bore date six days previous to
the crime The finding of this testament
created sensation among the detectives,
but its discovery was for q considerable
period kept from the public. They knew
now what interest the husband had in tho