Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-03-28
A ONE-ARMED ENCHANTER,
She Proposes to Start a Fund for the
Protection of Women From
THE WILES OF JAMES C. TAYLOR.
Very RiOtous Times on Sunday in Lower
st. Clair Township.
WHAT THE POLICE DID YESTERDAY

Ihere Is much-married man in hoe il
New York, James c. Taylor by name, VIII,
has been furnishing the metropolitan re
porters with columns of matter for severa
weeks. He has one arm chopped off
short distance above the wrist, bald heat
and sanctimonious face
Well, Mr.. Taylor had one experience il
PittSburg last November that will probably
keep him in prison for some time. He il
supposed to have GO wives, but that fac
did not deter him from giving one of hi.
aliases to Mrs Walker, Mansfield widow.
He was married to her at the St. Jane.
Hotel under the name of Benton
and he claimed to be
wealthy ranchman from Texas. His
engaging manners and fluent conversation
completely captivated Mrs. Walker, and
when be asked her to become his wife she
consented. Shortly after the ceremony he
crossed over to the Union station with $3.50
OF her money ostensibly 10 buy tickets to
California, and that was the last he saw
of him. Since then he has had several
victims, but the last one landed him in the
clutches of the law.
Widow Walker Bars the way.
Taylor has offered wife No (unknown)
$3.50 if she will absent herself from the next
hearing, and allow him to escape If she
NAV be willing, Mrs. Walker, of Mansfield,
is not. She has written letter to Tavlor's
lawyer, stating that she would be on hand
at the hearing next THURSDAY, and
could swear that she married him
on a certain date. She is a strong
minded women, with female suffrage style
of thinking. In her letter she saws: 81
don't know how we poor women are to de-
fend ourselves against monster like Tay-
lor. He is really a charming man to speak
to, and would captivate any female heart
What am about to do is to advertise all
over the country for the villains wives and
form them into a protective association. 1
know this NAV seem absurd, but 1 have the
means and will put down $1,000 for the
purpose
Frank Newell, the clerk of the st, James,
remembers Taylor, or Benton, very we'll
About two months ago he received a paper
from Suspension Bridge, giving an account
of one-armed man who had married a
French girl She had been a servant in
Senator NcMilian's family, of Michigan.
He had succeeded in getting several diamond
rings and $3.50 in money from her and
then deeamped.
Running Town the Deceiver.
The paper was sent by drummer who
had been at the st. James when Mrs.
Walker was married. and he thought the
description of Taylor Tailed perfectly with
Benton. Mr.. Newell concluded also that it
was the same man who had vietimized Mrs.
Walker These facts were published in
THE DISPATCH at the time, and the next
day Mrs. Walker appeared at the ST.
James, and told Mr.. Newell that the Sus-
pension Bridge man was surely her husband.
His capture resulted since then.
Taylor is now prisoner in the Jefferson
Market Police Court Jail in New York.
He is not unhappy, but refuses to speak to
reporters He talks freely, however to his
jailers, and he thinks the marriage laws are
all wrong. 'Why, for instance" he asks
'should j be prosecuted as j am now for
marrying old women if they desire to be in
the state of matrimonyo 1 simply accede
to their wishes
Letters about TAYLOR are constantly being
sent to the New York police authorities,
Colonel Tryou, of No. 1857 Broadway, who
has his case in hand, receives letters almost
every day going to show that James C.
as his calling in life. But all that the de-
tectives are able to find out up to this is
that man answering the description of
Taylor is to be found in many places as
having married women with regulations for
wealth. The last complaint comes from
Ohio, and runs in this way:
sANDusKY, March "a.
Colonel Tryon, No. 1867 Broadway, New York:
DEAR SIR-Your favor of March 10 to hand
and contents noted Miss Amelia H., of our
city. married ON November a man of the
same description as the one you give but
under the name of Charles T. Benton =
Miss II. is now in California, but would, |
l think come forward were she required
and although she loved old Taylor very
much when they were married, she is highly
A. H. RuENERLE.
Chief of Police.
Eow Taylor Lost His Arm.
As regards the loss of his arm, he tells |
some lurid stories. 1t was torn off in va |
rious places, few of which are here given: |
Battle Of Five Forks, shot off by rebel can |
non ball; Pennsylvania Iron Works, taken |
of by buzzy saw; broken off by Third ave- !
nue. street car; eaten off by shark on coast
OF Brazil: bitten and poisoned by his wife:
cut in pieces by st. Louis ferry boat. Tay-
lor mentions in memoranda he keeps for
reference several other ways in which the
arm had been taken of, but in most in
stances tells the woman he is proposing to
that he is an ex-United States Colonel. and
that if he dies his widow will be entitled to
a pension nj s45 per month. This, with the
pile of bills he shows and his sanctimo-
nious appearance, captures the female
heart. and accounts for his 60 wives
j. B. Dean, President of the White Star
Sand Company, of Cheshire, Mass, is the
latest person to take hand in the discus
sion. He writes long letter telling of
one-armed man who beat him out of 500 in
1850.
Looking Up His Relatives.
He claims to have been a cousin of Mr..
Dean, as he travelled under that name, and
he lost his arm in the battle of Lookout
Mountain. Later, Mr.. Dean discovered his
alleged cousin was an impostor He fol-
lowed mp the record of his quasi relative,
and boiling down bis long story he saws he
his career to his knowledge in
S65. Then he married a woman, fieeced
her, engaged himself to another. and, hav-
ing broken that Off was detected in a plot
10 elope with five seminary girls, fieeced a
business man and hotel keeper in Spring
field, wrote his own obituary as having been
drowned, and resurrecting himself, turns
up as a prodigal son in Pennsylvania, after
ward going out West and disappearing
With a watch and money belonging
o supposed cousins there. Then there
s blank space of many years Two
Years ago begins in Pennsylvania the
-ecord of the one-armed man again. He
married six women in this State. Mr.. Dean
in the letter that his alleged
cousin fooled more people than any other
nan he ever heard of He had good man.