Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1891-03-10
DAFFLED HER FOES
Mrs. Mowry, Kidnapped from
Chicago, Gets Free.
AN AMBIGUOUS AND INFAMOUS PLOT

Arrested on the Street on n False War
rant and Taken to Wisconsin, the v c.
tim OF the Outrage Manages to Out
wit Her Enemies and Secure the As
sista of Officers-The Kidnapers Get
Away-Further Facts in the Mystery.
who was kidnapped last Saturday, is a
guest of the sheriff of Columbia county,
Wisconsin. at Portage The Chicago DO.
are not taking any active interest in the
case. although there is evidence, verbal
and written, to show that there was con-
spiracy to forcibly seize and carry the
woman from this state into Wisconsin.
The motive has not yet certainly APP
peard, but that herpresence in the Badger
state was earnestly desired by certain par
ties appears from the facts and CORE
spondence. Yesterday morning corre-
spondent visited Mrs. Mowry at the ONE
of the sheriff in Portage
Story of the kidnapping.
She told the following story of her alb
duction: Il left my home at ITO West
Polk street early on Saturday morning to
two men stopped me. One of them was
dressed in ordinary clothes, but the other
wore police uniform. The man in uni
form produced paper, which he said was
warrant for my arrest on a charge OF
forgery, and told me that would have to
accompany him. | attempted to resist
him. but ne said II ! did not come with
HIM III " carriage which was waiting near
by he would call patrol wagon.
told him that he had made mistake, but
that sooner tnan be put in patrol wagon
| would go with him.
Struggles Out Two kilograms
"When we were in the carriage the man
exchanged the uniform coat for a citizens
coat He told me | was to De taken 20
small town outside the city, where would
be tried, We We're driven to a station on
the Wisconsin Central road, where the
man in citizens clothes left US after put
ting me IN train. When we reached
Rugby junction we stopped at hotel,
where / managed to smuggle out tele
grams, one to my mother and one to the
officials IN Portage, where We went from
Rugby. The man accompanying me said
he was going to take me to PacIwaukee
to my husband, and that he would drive
S'SH ~ Va as.
Rescued by the Omcers.
When he left me to find a team at Port
age two officers came TO the depot and
took me 10 jail. My captor did not re-
turn after he saw that the officers had
come TO my protection, and they have not
seen him since l believe the man who
wore the police uniform is William Sc
cord, brother of my husband, although
he told MO no Ia. IL 90,
Twenty-second street, Chicago The other
man dc not know Mrs. Mowry said
that she was trapped into marrying Sc
cord last May while she was at Packwau-
kee doing detective work on the Banker
Meade III urder case.
They Wanted John Bonfield
Detective John Bonfeld says that last
fall detective agency in Wisconsin at
tempted 20 employ him to secure the per-
son of Mrs. Mowry and take her to Wis.
consin on the pretense that she knew
something abolt. the murder of Banker
Meade. There was considerable CORE
sDondence, in which Secord took part, but
MIR. Bonfield declined to have anything
to do with the case, except to induce
her TO 90 to Wisconsin voluntarily THIS
dld not suit the plotters, and the matter
was dropped. On March two men, one
Of whom s believed to have been Secord,
tried to induce the Veteran Police Patrol
agency to undertake the job of landing
Title Mowry in Wisconsin, but in this
case they failed again. Other similar eff
forts have been made
What DO They Want of Her?
The question most discussed is what do
these people W mt OF Mrs. Mowry: Sac mar
ried Secord, so it Is said, having been
tricked into doing so. When she discovered
the trick she refused to live longer with
Secord. and came to Chicago Since then
Secord has ben persistent in his efforts to
obtain possession OF her A story was
current to tie effect that her first hus-
band, Mowry, was an Englishman whose
family had disowned him, and that
Secord was Mowry' valet When Mowry's
parents died he learned that they
had relented and left him large fortune.
He had never told his wife who he was,
and no one except Secord knew. and the
widow could not get her husbands inner
itance except with Secord's assistance.
The story was that Secord proposed to be
paid for his testimony. and that is why
he trlckeo Mrs. Mowry into marrying
him, and has since been so persistent in
attempts to get her to live with him. This
story is nor confirmed
The Latest Explanation.
1t is staCea also that Calvin Mowrv,
Titles first husband was a native of
Ohio. His parents are natives of Penn
sylvania, and are now living in Fairbury,
Ills. Mowry had no money and no ex
pectations. Sykes says that his daughter
knows nothing whatever about the Meade
murder, that she has no fortune in pros
pect and that Secord's attempt to kidnap
her was due entirely to motives of revenge
and to cause ner trouble