The White Pine news. [volume] (Treasure City, Nev.) 1868-1906, 1890-08-16
THE FAwCETT MURDER.
The Mystery Solved by Newspaper
Reporter.

The San Francisco Examiner has
solved the mystery which enshrouded
the murder of Miles Fawcett at Carlin
and explains the remark made by
Fawcett the day he was murdered
when he said, II know enough about
that woman to send her to the Peni-
Tertiary" The Examiner says:
after Josiah Potts and his wife,
Elizabeth Potts, we're hanged in Elko,
New, on the Goth of last June for the
murder of Miles Faucett, some of the
dead mans friends began to inquire
into the relationship which they sus-
pected had existed between Mrs. Potts
and the dead man. An incautious re-
mark dropped by Mrs. Potts intimat-
ing that woman would not kill a
man to whom she was married, led to
an investigation of the marriage re-
cords of Sacramento and this city.
"An Examiner reporter Thursday
ascertained that license was issued
on the 29th of March, 1888, authoriz-
ing the marriage of Miles Fawcett,
aged fiifty-six, resident of Fresno,
and Mrs. Elizabeth Atherton, a widow,
aged thirty-eight, resident of Eng
land. The Recorders books show
that they were married the same day
by Justice of the Peace 4. Burke, the
only witness being "Miss" Lizzie
Thomas. Papers left in Fawcett's
house disclosed the fact that Attorney
Wickliffe Mathews of this city had
been engaged to attend to legal affairs
for the murdered man. Mr.. Mathews
was asked If he had any information
with regard to the matter.
"Miles Faucet was one of my cli-
cuts and had considerable acquaint-
ance with his affairs replied Mr..
Mathews, 1T was not until he had
been dead over a year and after the
the persons convicted of killing him
had been hanged that his identity came
to my knowledge. In 1887 Fawcett
asked me to help him out of a diff
Guilty. He said he haa paid Mrs.
Lizzie Thomas, marriage broker at
G071a Washington street, $105 to get
him wife; that he had married the
Woman supplied, but that from mutter-
ings in her sleep he was convinced that
everything was not right. lie employ
ed me to investigate, and my inquiries
resulted in my reporting to him that
his bride already had husband iv.
ing ut Carlin, New, named Josiah
Potts. Under his direction | gave
notice of suit to recover the money
and was about to begin proceedings
to annul the marriage when the wo-
man modified HIM by paying back the
$105. They also wheedled him into
stopping all legal proceedings against
Mrs. Potts.
"After living with Mrs. Potts in
this city short time, Fawcett took
her to his home near Fresno. She
soon went back TO her husband at
Carlin. Fawcett was madly enamored
of the woman, and his glowing words
of commentator vividly recalled the
rapturous praises showered by Marc
Antony upon Cleopatra. He was so
thoroughly infatuated that he sold his
property near Fresno and bought a
place close to the residence of the
Potts family so that he could be near
his charmer. What passed between
them after he went to Nevada, of
course nobody knows, as both of
them are dead, but it is probably that
his dark hints that he would expose
her had reference to the fact that he
was able to prove against her the crime
of bigamy. Maybe he talked too free
ly on that subject on that fateful New
Years night, and thus brought upon
himself the consequences of his temer-
ity."