The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1892-12-22
A PRINCHLY SCAMP.
Count KookogeY Released
From the State Prison
on Parole.
BOTH WIVES LOVE HIM.
History of a Professional Masher-
Father and Son Opposed
in Court.
Special to The Jersey City News.

@NOA JOoOClodJ yAOA0O0 w "A
tuning of the two wives of the bogus
Count Kookogey to release him from
State Prison on parole. The story of the
many e~scapades OF this princely convict
is only eclipsed by the story of the strug-
giles Of his two wives who prayed for his
release under many romantic conditions.
The story of Kookogey's dual marriage
and the i~nfatuat1on of both of the women
is lest told by the records that are on file
in the Court of Pardons and in the Court
of Chancery. w. H. Kookogey, who
styled himself a Count, now wears the
stripes IN the New Jersey State
Prison, where he was sentenced
for three years. from Camden county,
for bisamy. In spite of his present
garb he is still a handsome fellow, Ches-
terneldian in his amer and brilliant in
his conversation. He became quite a
deceiver in Philadelphia and Camden,
and he met and married Mary M. Scovel,
the daughter of James Matlack Scovel,
formerly President OF the New Jersey
state Senate, and a lawyer and journalist
of considerable reputation. On July IA,
1887, at No. 1,437 South Broad street, the
Rev. DR.. Wylie married them. and the
ceremony was witnessed by the family.
kookogey had 40 business, and is said to
have thrived upon an income received
from his mother. an elderly lady residing
in Paris, France. A child was born to
them. which is now sickly and in the
custody of the mother.
WIFI NO II.
kookogey in his MASKING tours met a
Miss Willis Cook from Delaware, with
whom he became infatuated and with
whom he afterwards took up his resi-
dence. Notwithstanding he had a wife
and child in Camden He subsequently
married the woman under the name of
Eleanor Wingate, the ceremony being
performed by William II. Burrell of
Camden. When questioned by James
Scovel for his strange conduct he eX-
planned that he had lived with the girl
and that she had a grandmother in Della
ware "'ho was going to leave her money,
and that he married her for the purpose
of giving color to their relation SO that
the girl would not be disinherited.
When kookogey was placed upon trial,
James Matlack Scovel defended the bogus
Count, but Harry M. Scovel, brother of
his first wife. prosecuted the case. and the
contest between the father and son was
not without sensational incidents. Koo-
kogey was convicted and sent TO the State
Prison for three years., and for the past
four months a lively contest has been
going on to secure his parole. Both
women join in the petition to the Court.
but malign each other in their efforts to
impress upon the Court that the other
woman was responsible for the strange
condition of affairs.
THE WIVES APPEALS.
Mrs. Mary ScOvel Bookogey's position
is peculiar, in SO much that she seeks the
mans pardon in one Court and asks to be
divorced from rim in the other. In her
letter urging his parole she says that her
6rof n nrfl In a~arF ~ fh0 80
her husband was against her wishes and
she did not want her husband sent to
the prison. The goes on and says that
"He has already suffered a Thousand
deaths and has been punished enough to
satisfy the ends of Justice" In a later
later she writes and says:-"I feel that
if [ can forgive the Cffense of the bfgam-
GUS marriage the State has a right to do
So" She then explained that he had
acquired the opium habit which weak
ened him morally aud mentally so that
he was easily coaXed into the second
marriage; that his brother recently died
in an insane asylum and that he was not
sane when he married the Wingate
woman. James NJ. Scovel, the father of
the girl, in a letter in which he writes
Familiarity to the Governor, says
PROTECTING HIS SISTERS HoNOR.
The continued Imprisonment of this man will
dethrone my wife's reason and will cause the
death of Kookogey'S mother and the child (now
critically LID, whose fortune as far as his grand
mothers estate is concerned depends on Koo-
kogey's parole" But the girls brother protests
to the Court of Pardons against Kookogey being
allowed to go at large for very startling reasons.
He states that he prosecuted the case against
Kookogey alone and unassisted, and further
says:-'I can not lose sight of the fact that my
sisters life has been ruined, nor can feel that
Kookugey should be released, for l think it is
the duty of a father to protect the good name of
his family, and if he won't do it, then it is the
brothers. place to protect a sisters honor NV
sister is infatuated with Kookogey, who has
ruined more than one woman in the State he
never works and has lived on his Shape, hunt
ing for girls to ruin. 1 think such libertines
should not be released to prey on the
ty." This earnest protest of the rother for a
long time stood in the way of Koogogey's re-
lease, but the mother. who has keenly ielt the
disgrace brought upon the family, pleaded with
. her son and succeeded in getting him to with
court. This he did on December Is, in a letter,
the text of which is IF it is your desire that /
withdraw my opposition l am willing to do so,
although 1 feel as if Kookogey should stay
where he is.
THE FATHER-IN-LAw'S PETITION.
James NJ. Scovel secured d lumber of
good strong petitioners to the petition
which was placed before the Court, and
among the signers are B. f. Starr, Con-
gresham Bergen, J: G. Roberts, Jr.;
Taylor of Haddonfield, john Hood, G.
V. d. Joline. N. Bergen of Merchant
Vile.
The other woman, so anxious to have
his man released. states her case in a
very lengthy letter sent to the Governor.
In the evidence taken before Philip S.
Scovel in the divorce suit brought by
Mary Scovel Kookogey against the con-
Wet. James M. Scovel testified that the
woman, Eleanor WinGate. which is his
second wife, lives at 2010 Carlisle street,
Philadelphia, and that her residence ls a
house of Ill repute, and was such at the
time when Kookogey lived there, because
he has made it his business to ascertain
that fact, and that it is kept by her
uLder the name of William d.. Cook.
The second wife, writing from No. 2010
Carlisle street, tells how she came from
Delaware. and the first day that sue was
in Philadelphia was introduced to Kook-
ogey. Then ne gave her much attention
and finally married her; that he comes of
Que of the first families of Philadelphia
and has a rich mother in Paris, who sup
ported him.. She then pleaas for his
parole, and says that she will regard Gov
ernor AbbetJ 'as my God on earth to live
and worship" She wants him paroied SO
hat he can be restored to her because
the first wife does not want him,
as she has applied for a divorce,
aud that he never loved her, and
it is quite probable that. owing to the
liberal use of opium and morphine, he