The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-11-18
QUESTION RAISED BY THE RELA-
TIvEs OF THE LATE BANK
Err KETCHAM.
BUTLER PLAYED THE PART
UP IN REALITY MARRIED A
SERVANT.
THE WILL IS TO BE CONTESTED.
Dead CIubman, 1t Is Alleged, Had
Been of Unsound Mind for
q Year.

CHICAGO, Nov. 17-Additiona mys-
terry Is thrown about the case of John
B. Ketcham with every development
brought forth by the police in their eff
forts to ascertain the facts surround
ing his death at the home of Miss Min
ME Wallace Joseph Keller, the butler
at the home Of the woman, who now
claims to be the widow of Mr.. Ketch-
am, disappeared Tuesday evening after
having been held for some time by
Police Lieut. Creighton, undergoing
cross-examination Of the most severe
character regarding the circumstances
Of the alleged marriage of Mrs. Wal
lace to Ketcham last September. The
police declared that he had been ques-
toned and allowed to depart at 10
o'clock, while, as a matter of fact, KEEL
Ter was locked up on suspicion aroused
by his own story. The suspicion had
been growing upon the police as the re-
suit of rurnors started in Milwaukee
that Keller appeared in the role of
bridegroom at the wedding and that
he and not Ketcham stood before the
minister with his face concealed under
the folds of a scarf. AS the result of
this suspicion he was held over night
and at II o'clock this morning was
driven away in charge of an officer.
He is now held by the police who are
able to produce him at any time he
may be needed The alleged wife of
Ketcham is Ill in bed with nervous
prostration, the ordeal which she has
undergone since the death of Ketch
am having been too much for her
strength.
CHICAGO, Nov. 17.-Relatives of the
late John B. Ketcham will contest his
will. if such an instrument is in exist
erce on the ground that he was not
only of unsound mind at the time he
may have signed it, but for ten months
previous. Ketcham's two brothers and
two sisters will also deny that their
brother was legally married to Minnie
Wallace Walkup. They will claim that
he was entirey incapable of making
any kind of a contract at the time OF
the alleged marriage, or indeed for
nearly a year previous. Attorney James
E. Purnell, who has charge of the case
for the Ketchams, says he has album
dant proof that John B. Ketcham has
been mentally unsound for almost a
year, and that there has been no proof
of a marriage with Mrs. Walkup Of
fered by the alleged wife. The attor-
ney has already served notice on the
Illinois Trust and Savings bank to re-
strain Mrs. Walkup from having ac-
cess to the safety box in which the
dead club man kept his securities. At
torney Purnell will also notify the
court that the will will be contested as
soon as filed.
Mrs. Walkups butler, ice Keller, has
suddenly become a very important fac
tor in the pending litigation. Keller,
according to his story, accompanied
John Ketcham and Mrs. Walkup to
Milwaukee on Sept. "a and was witness
to the ceremony which made them man
and wife. Rev. Mr.. Roberts, of Mil
| waukee, who performed the ceremony,
opens up rather startling possibilities
by saying, when shown a photograph
of Keller, that the picture much more
resembled the man whom he married
to Mrs. Walkup than did the picture OF
John B. Ketcham. Several of the but
ler's prominent features, including a
small mustache, which was not a Pc
culiarity of Mr.. Ketcham, were care
| fully noted by the Rev. Mr.. Roberts
as common to both Keller and the
| bridegroom of Sept "a.
The butler had little to say on this
subject, but volunteered much infor-
nation concerning the events of the
wedding trip. He claimed that Ketch-
am and Mrs. Walkup went to a Mil
Waukee hotel, and hurried from there
| to the parsonage, and that Mr.. Ketch-
| ANS face was not wrapped up in any
way. The Rev. Mr.. Roberts says that
| the bridegrOOms face was partly muf-
fed in a shawl, not however, con-
cealing the mustache. AS to this
phase Of the situation, however, Meth
er Mr.. Purneu nor Mr.. Ketcham's rela-
| tives have anything to say. The at
| torney would neither affirm nor deny
| the statement that the pending con-
test may devolve upon the question
as to wheather John B. Ketcham or the
butler, Joe Keller, was the bridegroom
on Sept. "a