St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-08-05
DR.. A. A. AMES AGAIN
He Asks the Court to Give
Him His Late Wife'S
Body.
But the Body Has Been In
TERED and He Is
Beaten.
Comment on the Close of
the Democratic Con-
vention.
Fort Smelling Shooting Has
Stopped--Sehool Board
Finances.

"He who could be so cruel to the
living can have no claim on the dead"
was the sentence written across the face
| of letter returned to DR.. A. A. AmeS
| by his daughter, Mrs. Effie Rockford.
The letter was received by her on the
| the contents could be nothing pleasant
| she returned it unopened. 1t seems
| that this letter contained de-
| mand on Mrs. Rockford for the
| body of her mother, which lay
| stiff and stark within the white shrouds
of the grave. The strange and awful
denouement TO the episode occurred
yesterday when an attempt was made
by DR.. Ames to wreSt the body OF his
dead wife from the burial vault at
Lakewood. In the early morning he
of the man in charge of the vault to be
given his wife's body at once. He was
refused peremptorily.
DR.. AmeS next went to the health
Office and requested DIR. Kelly to grant
! him a permit for the removal of the
body. He desired, he said, to have it
iHtClICo III llldll D CClUClCIy, anu
needed the permit to satisfy the ScrupleS
Of the Lakewood vault superintendent,
Mr. Hobert. The doctor gave him a
permit. or rather note to the Superin-
tendent stating that as there was no
danger of infection and as the
body was in good state of
preservation. he would have no objec-
ton to the removal. Armed with this
permit DIR. Ames went pack to the
cemetery and presented himself before
superintendent Hobert. He was again
| refused his wife's body, and this time
| he repaired to the district court. In the
mean time Superintendent Hobert tele-
| phoned to DR.. Rockford and informed
| him of the actions of DR.. Amcs. DIR.
| Rockford did not waste time in idle
! thought, but grasped time by the fore
| lock, and together with his wife and
| Attorney A. f. Helmick and DR.. Kelly,
] of the health board, hurried to the Gem
etery. Upon their arrival the remains
of the poor little woman who died of
broken heart were taken from the vault
ana inferred in q hastily dug grave in
DR.. Rochford'S family lot. There we're
no lengthy rituals reads; the body was
simply lowered into the fresh dirt and
covered up from mortal view. Mrs.
Rockford did not witness the burial.
On the request of her husband she re-
manned in the vault with the stranger
dead. Previous to the burial DR.. Kelly
told the cemetery officials that it was
his desire that the permit issued by his
office should not be honored, for it had
been issued under mistake. He did
know DR.. Ames' purpose when he gave
the permit to him.
At the district court DR.. Ames was
successful as far as he could be. He
fnA ff, Ir,1 I
requesting permission from the court to
remove his dead wife's body TO Lay
mans cemetery, where the family lot
was located, and where his wife had
signified during life that she desired to
be buried. 1t was her last request, he
said, that she might be buried there. for
the lot contained the remains of her
two dead boys and her two brothers.
His petition was accompanied by bond
of $3.50 signed by Sam Stems.
saloonkeeper, and L. E. Bishop,
OF the american Building and Loan
| association. Judge Lochren upon the
| pleadings set forth in the petition and
| recognizing that in law the body of
wife is the property of the husband,
| granted DR.. AmeS an Injunction re-
| straining DR.. Rockford. his wife and
the cemetery authorities from inter-
fering with him in taking away the
| body of his wife. This injunction was
placed in the hands of the sheriff with
| instructions to serve 1t on the persons
mentioned. Copies were made from it
and given to deputy sheriffs to serve at
5 o'clock in the afternoon.
But neither DR.. Ames nor his attorney
| knew what was transporting at the GENE
terry while they were taking legal meas
| ureS at the court house. During their
| stay at the court house the body had
been buried and DR.. AmeS was outwit-
ted. The whole aspect of the case had
undergone wonderful change, so won
derful in fact that the body it is thought
is safe from proclamation for ever more.
The lot IN which it was buried. is, as
stated before, the property OF DR.. Roch-
ford, and the only way of locating
it is by the plat, and this DR..
Rockford has in his possession. The
lot is unmarked, not even slab
marking the grave of the wife of the
man who was thrice mayor of the Flour
City. The lot is DR.. Rochford's private
property, and is, therefore. beyond the
reach of any law technicality which DR..
Ames may hope to take advantage of.
Mrs. Rockford was seen last night by
a GLOBE reporter, and spoke very feel
ingly on the tragic events surrounding
her poor mothers death. The article
|
false from beginning to end. and
was either written by DIR. AmeS
or his lawyer. The statement made
by the doctor iii his interview
that he had beer refused admittanc
to the house on the day of the fu neral
was utterly false. She had given Or
derS to allow him to come in if he asked
for admittance. for it was her wish that
peace should reign in the house, at any
rate after her mothers death. Her
mother had expressed no wish to see
DIR. AmeS at any time, in fact she had
told her daughter she never wanted to
see his face again. He knew of his
wife's death. for she had Informed him
of it by letter. The letter was
another of the kind he had been
wont TO send her mother during her
life. 1t reached the house on the day OF
her mothers death. so she wrote across
the unopened envelope Mrs. Ames is
dead" and returned it. Mrs. Rockford
spoke very bitterly of her father, and
SAID she knew his desire to secure pos
session of her dead mothers body was
not actuated by any pure motive. Sne
said in conclusion:
"Dr. Ames will have to kill my hus-