The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1892-12-21
4 PRINCELY 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 Ne,Us.

tuning of the two wives of the bogus
Count Kookogey to release him from
State Prison on parole. The story OF the
many escapades of this princely convict
is only eclipsed by the story Of the strng-
giles of his two wives who prayed for his
release under many romantic conditions.
The story of K~ookogey's dual marriage
and the infatuation 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. II. 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 bigamy. In spite of his present
garb he is still a handsome fellow, Ches-
terfieldian in his tanners 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.
AOOhOECy Hdu HO DuSllCS51 anu 40 ouio v
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.
WIFE 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 x
planned that he had lived with the girl
and that she had a grandmother in Della
ware who 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 NJ. 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
mau's pardon in one Cour and asks to be
| divorced from him in the other. In her
letter urging his parole she says that her
brothers interest in the prosecution of
her husband was against her wishes and
she did not want her husband sent to
the prison. The goes on and says hat
"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
il [ can forgive the offense OF the biGarn'
| Gus marriage the State has a right to dc
So" She then explained that he had
acquired the opium hab 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 moi
sane when he married the Wingate
woman. James NJ. Scovel, the father oil
the girl, in a letter in which he writes
Familiarity to the Governor, says:-
PROTECTING HIS SISTERS HONOR.
The continued Imprisonment of this man viii
dethrone my wife's reason and will cause the
death of Kookogey's mother and the child (noU
critically ilD, 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:-'1 can not lose sight of the fact that my
sisters life has been ruined, nor can | feel that
Kookogey 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. My
I =. t. Ts-e Mil K0Ato-Ar prhN no
ruined more than one woman in the State he
never works and has lived on his shape, hunt
ing for girls to ruin. | think such hbertine
should not be released to prey on the communi
ty." This earnest protest OF the brother for
long time stood in the way of Koogogey's re
lease, but the mother. who has keenly ielt TIN
disgrace brought upon the family, pleaded witt
her son and succeeded in getting him to with
draw his protest, which was filed before the
court. This he did on December IS, in a letter
the text Of which is IF it is your desire that
withdraw my opposition 1 am willing to do SO
although 1 feel as if Kookogey should sta.
where he is.
THE FATHER-IN-LAw's PETITION.
James M. Scovel secured a number o.
good strong petitioners to the petition
which was placed before the Court, ant
among the signers are B. F.. Starr, Con
gresham Bergen, J. G. Roberts, Jr.
Harry M. Shelton. Escher Doyle. G. Y
Taylor of Haddonfeld, John Hood, c
V. D. Joline, N. Bergen of Merchant
vile.
The other woman, sc anxious to hav
this man released. states her case in
very lengthy letter sent to the Governor
In the evidence taken before Philip S
Scovel in the divorce suit brought b
Mary Scovef KooKogey against the con
Wet. James M. Scoyel testified thai til
woman, Eleanor Wingate. which is hi
second wife, lives at 2010 Carlisle street
Philadelphia, and that her residence is
house of i'll repute, and was such at tn
time when Kookogey lived there, becaus
he has made it his business to ascertain
that fact, and that it is kept by he
under the name of William d.. Cook
The second wife, writing from No. pol
Carlisle street, tells how she came fror
Delaware. and the first day that she wa
in Philadelphia was introduced to KooA
ogey. Then he gav her much attentio
and finally married her; that he comes o
one of the first families of Philadelphi
and has a rich mother in Paris, who sur
ported him. She then pleaus for hi
parole, and says that she Will regard Gov
ernot AbbetJ "as my God On earth to lv
and worship" She wants him paroled S
.hat he can be restored to her becaus
the frst wife does not want him
as she has applied for a divorce
!, and that he never loved her, an
it is quite probable that. owing to th
liberal use of opium and morphine. b
weakened his mind and submitted to tn
second marriage; that she is an orpha
Girl has no one hut her QrAndmOth