The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-04-17
FINDING A NEW HER,
Story of a Beautiful Woman
and a SCheming Adj
ventures.
SHE CLAIMED NOBLE BIRTH
History of Once Prominent
San Francisco Woman
Revealed.

The story of an INSCRIPTIONS woman
bright, fascinating and intelligent to an
extraordinary degree-and weak, crafty,
selfish man, reputed to be public-spirited
and charitable-a DR.. Jekyll and Mr.. Hyde
sort of fellow-wiIl be found in suit bear
ing the title of ''E. A. MacMahon' VS.. B. 6.
Chandos ct al, )" filed in the Superior Court
yesterday afternoon.
The hearing of the suit will bring to the
surface again few things already told and
an explanation of great many points that
have been shrouded in mystery since hand
some Mrs. Greyille came to San Francisco
in 1863, from nobody could learn just
where, wooed and won John Bensley and
settled down to the enioyments of married
life, backed by respectable bank account.
The property involved by the action
brought by -MacMahon through his at
torney, George c. Perry, lies in the
Potrero, the principal part of which is
known as the Ludlum.
This property has been in litigation for
the past twenty years, though had it not
been for MacMahon's appearance on the
scene the present owners would doubtless
renamed in practically und isturbed poses
sion.
The death of John Bensley at Centralia,
Wis, in 1889, followed by that of his wife,
Marian L. Bensley in Decem Der of the same
year at Las Vegas, n. Mex, is still fresh in
the mind of the public, mainly on account
of the litigation for the possession of the
valuable estate and which only ended in
1893. In order that clearer understand
ing of the present suit may be had it is
necessary to go over little of the earlier
history of Mr.. and Mrs. John Bensley.
When the fascinating Mrs. Greville came
to San Francisco her pleasant manner and
elegant presence soon gained her an entire
in the fashionable -Four Hundred. Bens-
ley was just the type OF a man to be at
tracted by this self-styled descendant OF
nobility and claimant to untold wealth,
and ere many weeks had passed the widow
had the refusal of his hand and fortune.
He proposed, and she accepted on condi-
ton that he journey to England and marry
her under the ancestral roof.
When Bensley arrived in London he was
astonished to find his future wife quartered
in clearinghouse far removed from the
mansions of the nobility. She ex-
planned this state of affairs by saying
that her family objected to her mar
riage with an American, and then
throwing herself into the anxious arms of
the would-be groom, declared that she had
given up home and friends to be his alone.
The couple were accordingly married, and,
after brief tour OF England, returned to
America, spending a few days with the
groom relatives in New York.
This visit seemed to have opened the
eyes of Bensley as to the true character of
his wife, and his people also formed very
unfavorable impression of her. One of
them, in letter written in 1890, says:
We soon set her down as an unprincipled,
crafty, vile adventures and an unmitigated
impostor. John seemed grief-stricken, but he
was too proud to acknowledge his error. or to
expose her and secure q separation. Her siren
property she ever had she obtained from John
Bensley by fraud, deceit and false pretenses.
Before many months had rolled by a