Cottonwood report. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1893-1901, 1896-04-17

Bryan, who left home January % to go
to indianapolis to visit Mrs. Louisa w.
Fisher, of No. 10 Central avenue She did
not go there, but, as subsequently learned
by the detectives working on the case,
went to Cincinnati, where she met Scott
Jackson.
Pearl Bryan was the youngest of u
children, of whom seven daughters and
son are stll living. The girls all enjoy
ed local celebrity for their good looks
and their accomplishments. Pearl, the
child of her parents old age, was even
handsomer than her sisters and her edu-
cation had received careful attention. In
the neighborhood she was widely popular
She graduated from the Greencastle high
school four years ago. and since that
time had studied much at a college, In
person she was small and graceful. Her
beauty was of the pronounced blonde
type.
The Jackson family had it's origin in
Maine, and lived for some time in New
Jersey prior to coming to Greencaste
Jackson, when in the east, became in
volved in the embezzlement of $24 900 be
longing to the Pennsylvania Railroad Co
He and his partner in guilt, Alexander
Let's, squandered the money at the race
nished the evidence which convicted Let's
and the latter is now serving a sentence
in the New Jersey penitentiary. AS his
reward for testifying against Let's, Jack
son was permitted to go free He came
west to friends in Indiana. He entered
a school of dental surgery at Indianapolis
and made frequent visits to his friends
in Greencastle. There he met Pearl Bry-
an, and they became intimate. The coun-
try maiden was not able to resist the
wiles of the race track plunger and tough
ened man of the world. Their Illicit con-
nection began last September. Later in
the fall Jackson went to Cincinnati to
prosecute his professional studies. He
| was informed by Miss Bryan that her dis
grace could be concealed no longer Then
was opened correspondence in which in
structions were given the girl which she
| followed to her death. The girl was to
leave ostensibly for a visit to Indianapo-
| lis, but was really to go to Cincinnati
where Jackson said he had made the ne
| cessary preparations for a criminal oper-
| alton. He had taken into his confidence
| Alonzo Walling, a fellow student at the
| Cincinnati dental college They had been
at the Indianapolis institution together,
| and in the Ohio town were room mates
| The week before the girl came Jackson
had been reading up on poisons and their
| effect. He had made special inquiry as
| to cocaine and pTussiac acid Monday Miss
| Bryan reached Cincinnati and went to the
| Indiana house. She saw Jackson and
| Walling several times, and Wednesday
went to Indianapolis, returning Friday.
| Friday night she met them at a saloon,
whence they told her they would take
| hn,, 1,nl III
| she would be cared for. Their stories
| conflict to such an extent that the truth
can only be surmised. Jackson says Wal
| ling was responsible for the young wom-
ans condition, and Walling asserts it was
| jackson. As to the fact, there is little
doubt that Jackson was the author of her
! ruin. Each accuses the othe: of the prin-
cipal share of the murder. 1t is believed
| no operation was ever intended
| Taking all the confessions and stoto-
ments and circumstances into account, it
is almost certainty that jackson gave
| the girl twenty grains of cocain in a l,I1ss
of soda water when they were in the sa-
loon. Walling had left them there to-
| gether. Then the two took n carriage and
We're afterward joined by Walling. They
| drove over to the Kentucky side of the
! river near the point where the body was
! found. The girl was dying from the ef-
fects of the drug, but was still able to
walk. They conducted her distance
from the roadway, and, when the drug
! overcame her, they cut her head from her
body with a razor which jackson had
carried for that purpose. The girls clothes
such of them as could be recognized
were taken from the body. Her satahel