Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1894-08-23
CLEARING UP 4 MYSTERY.
Strange Story of a Maniac Who Was
Supposed to Have Killed His Wife

John Darby, who has for many years
been considered hOpeleSSly insane, is
once more in his right mind. and the
return OF reason GRABBED him to give
the solution of his wife'S death. which
has long remained a mystery, says the
Reno, New, correspondent of the Gin
cinnad Enquirer. She was supposed
to have been murdered, as her body
was found badly mutilated and partly
covered with earth, while her husband
was caught roaming through the for
est with an Ak on his shoulder, raw
ing maniac. The woman was killed
and the man CraZed in a fight with a
bear In detail it is perhaps the most
pathetic story of life ever known, and
would furnish a theme for a novelist's
pen. John Darby came 10 California
when a boy, 80 years ago, travelling
with his father and mother, the
former an invalid seeking a climate
where he might be restored to health.
He died suddenly in the little town
of Grass Valley. His widow could not
survive the shock, and in a few days
she rested by the side of her husband,
leaving the son, then but IA years of
age, alone in the world without friends
or money, all of their means having
been exhausted in the expenses of the
sickness and death of the parents
The boy worked at anything he could
do, drifting eventually into Nevada.
Here he met a girl as poor as himself,
and they were married, going to house
keeping in a small cabin with a few
acres of cleared land around it. They
prOspered on the little place, and it
used to be common expression
among the settlers of that community:
las happy as John and Mary Darby"
One day young pig disappeared,
then another, and another, and bear
tracks We're seen. The husband and
wife started together to hunt the war
mint" he carrying the Ak and she til
rife, with which she was an expert
John in some way became separated
from his wife, and was some distance
ahead OF her when he was suddenly
confronted by bear. 1t was too close
quarters for fight with nothing but
an ak as a weapon, and he climbed
a tree, calling to his wife to be care
full, that the bear was there. In some
way she misunderstood him and
thought that he wanted her. Not
SuSpecting that the bear was there,
she was within a few feet of the ami
NAL before she saw him. Hastily
raising the rife the woman fired, but
only succeeded in maddening the
brute, and a moment later he was
crushing her in his ponderous paws.
The husband, when he saw his wifeS
fate, jumped from the tree to get his
AK, but the animal had carried his
victim into a thicket. and the man,
crazed with grief, could not find him.
1t was noticed that the Darby house
was open, and yet no one appeared
to be there, and in few days a search
was made, resulted in finding the mu-
tilated body of the woman in the
thicket and the marks of the death
struggle. The next day the husband
was seen roaming through the woods
with an AK upon his shoulder, alter
nately moaning and shrieking. He
was captured by strategy, several men
appearing in front of him to attract
his attention, while others lassoed him
from behind. For five years he was
a raving maniac, but two years ago
he began to show signs Of returning
reason, and is now cured, but is a
brOken-dOWn old man at the age of
40 years, and will never again be fit
for work. His recollection is vivid up
to the moment that the bear seized his
wife, while beyond that he remembers
nothing.