Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-05
A HUSBANDS
The Murdered Goodwin Was Writing
to His Wife When Shot.
A TENDER AND PITIFUL LETTER.
His Slayer Still at Large and the LatterS
Alleged Wife Held.
THEIR MARRIAGE A THING OF DOUBT
ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE pIspArcH.1

ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DISPATCH.1
NEW YORK, Aug. 4.-When Charles E. Good
win, heretofore supposed to have been
bachelor, was shot in the Percival on Sun
day night by Bertram C.. Webster, he was
writing letter. This is the letter:
SUNDAY, Aug. 2.
my Own Precious, Darling Wife:
81 never sat down to write you with my
heart SO full of tenderness, sympathy and
love as tonight l never loved you more or
needed your love more than now, and
yet 1 don't know when or how to
begin my letter. 1t seems as If l
had lived years in the last few days,
and yet don't know when or how to begin
my letter. 1t seems as If 1 had lived years
in the last few days, and as if the experience
of lifetime had been crowded into them
My brain seems like a tangled skein, and it
is impossible to find an end that
might follow up, without intersec-
tion, any particular thought Everything
only by this preface that can hope to un-
ravel my thoughts and lay them down
separately and side by side, to take up one
by one until have mastered them oil. and
have them on paper for You my beloved
Ess1e, to read and understand.
PANG OF REMoRSE.
81 have not appreciated in the last two OF
three weeks the damage was doing you;
could not very well write you when ought
to and want to, darling, said. "1y wife
knows me, knows 1 would write II 1 well
could; knows that nothing wrong is
keeping me from her, and will fret at
the obstacles in my way, but hold me blame
less. did not know what L was doing. 1
did not know the doubts, an1ieties, fears
and tortures / was causing you. You know
why did not, dearest, for l have already
written you at length and by degrees.
II (we) want to drop the subject and put
it all behind us. But not dear, until 1 have
dwelt on it sufficiently for you to understand
how keenly feel the sorrow untold that
have brought to you. It was not at once.
dear, that grasped the situation. l could
not appreciate at first the true state of your
feelings, but soon 1 did and then came my
agony. All the time l thought of you,
nestled in that little home, with our dear
babies around you, fixed OF purpose, conf
dent, unswerving."
DEATH CAME SUDDENLY.
At this point he was killed. While Good
win was lying on the lounge in his room
after he was shot he asked Mrs. Simpson to
take charge of his papers, and mentioned
this unfinished letter. Mrs. Simpson locked
the desk where the letter was lying, and
later in the evening took charge of all the
papers. This morning, when Detective Hays
asked her for the letter, she refused to give
1t to him. and only surrendered it when he
The police have not yet located the muir
derer. This afternoon Betty Green, or
Evelyn Granville, or Mrs. Webster and the
Percival chambermaid, whom she calls her
maid and all the other witnesses in the case
were at Jefferson Market, where Justice
Hogan is sitting 1t was after o'clock when
the. Justice decided to take an affidavit
against Webster, and to hold "NIrs. Webster"
and the chambermaid on the affidavit of the
detective that they are material witnesses.
After Justice Hogan finished the examina-
tion of the witnesses, Lawyer Dittenhoefer
asked him why the women were detained.
Justice Hogan replied that he thought that
the women were material witnesses.
"But Mrs. Webster cannot be q witness for
the prosecution" said the lawyer.
"Why?"
because the statute says that wife can
not testify against the husband?"
NO EVIDENCE OF MARRIAGE. bls
"There is no evidence here" said the JUS
tice, "ofa marriage. I asked her to-day
when and where the ceremony was per-
formed, and she said that there had been no
ceremony"
But a marriage by contract is valid, is it
not?"
There is nothing here to show that there
was even contract. l shall require that
these women give bail for $500 TO appear
when wanted"
about Goodwin's wife or where she is. He has
lived there for nearly year, and has always
appeared as a bachelor. The fact that the
letter is broken off as it is in the middle of
a sentence is looked upon as bad for the
story of Mrs. Webster that Goodwin came in
her room on Sunday night. She said that
when Webster opened the door Goodwin ran
back to his own room and Webster followed. |
The shooting followed Immediately
A bright-eyed and nervous woman ac-
companied by man and chambermaid
walked up to the box office of Palmer's
Theater tonight. The nervous woman
was about to apply for tickets for
the play, and the man and the
chambermaid expostulated with an
earnestness that attracted the attention
of all the loungers in the lobby. She walked
away finally. Manager Askin said after
ward that he recognized her as "Evelyn
Granville the ex-actress of the Casino, who
has been living with Webster,