The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-09-26
CLEARING UP A MYSTERY.
Strange story of Maniac who Was sup
posed TO Have killed His wife.


posed to Have killed His wife.
John Darby, who has for many
years been considered hopolessly IN
sane, is once more in his right mind.
and the return OF reason enabled him
to give the solution of his wife's death
which has long remained a mystery.
says the Reno, Nevada, correspondent
OF the Cincinnati Enquirer. She was
supposed to have beer murdered. as her
body was found, mutilutc4 and partly
covered with earth, while her husband
was caught roaming through the for
est with an ak on his shoulder, a 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 novelist's
pen. John Darby came to California
when boy, thirty years ago. travel
ing 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 q few days
she rested by the side of her husband,
leaving the son, then but Il years or
age, alone in the world without friends
-
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 few
acres of cleared land around il. They
prospered on the little place, and it
used to be a common expression among
the settlers of that community; "As
happy as John and Mary Darby"
One day young pig disappeared,
then another, and another, and bear
tracks were seen. The husband and
wife started together to hunt the
warmth, = he carrying the ak and she
the rifle. with which she was an ex-
pert. John in some way became sep
arated from his wife, and was some
distance ahead of her when he was
suddenly confronted by a bear. 1t
was too close quarters for a fight with
nothing but an ak as a weapon, and he
climbed a tree, calling to his wife 90
be careful, 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 flle the woman Hfels bub
only succeeded in maddening the
brute, and moment later he was
crushing her in his ponderous paws.
The husband, when he saw his wife's
fate, jumped from the tree to get his
ak, but the animal had carried his vic
tim into thicket. and the
man, crazed with grief, could not find
him. It was noticed that the Darby
house was open, and yet no one APP
peared to be there, and in q few days
a search was made, resulting in find
ing the mutilated 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, alternately moaning and
shrieking. He was captured by STRAIT
egg, several men appearing ia 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 he is a broken-down old man at
the age of 45 years, and viii 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.