Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1893-05-20
SHE LOVED CARLYLE HARRIS
Mysterious Miss Jones" Gave Her Heart tc
the Wife Poisoner.

hUC WIZ TStooHCbs
New YORK, May 13.--Carlyle w,
Harris was the hero of romance while
he was awaiting death in the Tombs
prison.
A girl, who met him by chance one
Sunday in one of the gloomy corridors
fell in love with him, visited him daily
and fondly awaited the moment of his
release, when shs expected that he
would marry hN. Her devotion to
him was as great as his mothers, and
she is believed to he the young
woman dressed in deep mourning"
who accompanied Carlyle Harris
cousin. L. NJ. Hill. alias Edward Nor.
rill, from New York - Albany and at.
tended the funeral of the executed
criminal. At the Tombs the girl
called herself Carrie Jones" That
was not her real name.
Nina Van Zandt's mad msrriage to
August Spies, who was one OF the con-
demned Chicago anarchists, was not
nearly as peculiar ms Carrie Jonesi'
infatuation for the convicted murderer.
Miss Van Zandt was not promised in
marriage To any other man when she
fascinated the anarchist leader and
married him in his cell beneath the
very shadow of the gallows. Yet the
girl who offered herself in marriage to
Harris deliberately broke an engage
ment of marriage with a worthy and
estimable young man III order TO be-
come the aiiianced bride OF a man who
L. - e.. Il, L.. L..
istering poison to his schoolgirl wife,
so that she died. Her only excuse was
that in him she had found her affinity.
"As nearly as any one about tha
Gombs can remember, the grewsome
love affair began some time early in
December, 1891. Carrie Jones had
visited the gloomy old prison with a
baud of young women and "a few men
who had volunteered to cheer the in
mates by singing hymns to TO the ac-
compartment of small organ. Miss
Jones was apparently fascinated by
the handsome, plausible, soft-voiced
young prisoner. She fingered longer
than any Of her companions, and iiar-
ris' protestations of innocence aroused
her to enthusiasm in his behalf She
returned to the Tombs with the band
OF hymn-singers on the following sun.
dav. Somehow, with the help of that
diplomacy which only women und ar.
stand, she managed to enjoy ten min.
utes of conversation with Harris alone.
Shrewd and clever as he was, il did not
take him long to discover that she was
infatuated with him. When she asked
whether he would see her If she could
come some time before the next Sun
day, he answered that he would be
charmed to receive her as best he could
amid his poor, wretched surroundings
Miss Jones, "called on the condemned
wife-poisoner the next day. She no
longer wore the diamond set in a strip
of gold that marked her as the atfianced
bride of another man. She had told
her promised husband very plainly that
she could never marry him because She
loved another.
When Harris was removed from the
upper tier of cells down to the "con-
demned row" in the Tombs she began
to call upon him every day. They
talked in whispers for hours. Whether
she proposed marriage to him. or
whether he with unbounded faith in
his good fortune, asked her to be his
wife, is secret which now rests in her
keeping alone, But it is certain that
the pair became engaged to be married.
Mrs. Harris frequently saw her son
in the counsel room of the prison
during Warden Osborne's administra-
ton. Carrie Jones" had, it Is believed,
the same privilege occasionally. But
when Warden Fallon took charge OF
the prison he changed all that. Harris
was never taken 10 the counsel room"
except to consult with his counsel.
EsSS SiSs,16S abSe tias ths layers met ~ the,
Those who have seen the girl scores
of times describe her as of more than
| medium height, slender form. fair
! complexion and raven black hair,
| slightly, but prematurely tinged with
gray Her age was somewhere be-
tween % and q. She had apparently
enjoyed good surroundings all her life.
She was intellectual without priggish-
ness and her manners were refined and
/ charming. In the presence of Harris,
| however, all reserve forsook her. She
seemed to forget all about the presence
of strangers. Carrie Jones" paid he;
/ last visit to Harris after Recorder
Smythe had refused to grant him a new
trial. Prison discipline forbade his
/ Neeing any strangers after that and
under the rule Miss Jones" was o
stranger. Up to the last moment she
never lost hope that Harris life would
be saved. She was one of the hardest
workers in bringing forward new evi
dence to help him to a new trial.