The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-08-24
PLOT TO ROB GOULDS
HUGE CONSPIRACY EXPOSED BY SA-
RAH ANNE BROWN ANGEL.
Confession in Which She Says She
Never Was Married to jay Could
PIOtters to BE Prosecuted.

Mrs. Angells confession that she was
never married to Jay Gould. There seems
to be no hope for pressing the case. how
ever, and there may be a counter prose-
Cution against the conspirators. The Gould
lawyers have taken the matter under adj
visement and they intimate that the mat
ter will hardly drop where it is now. If
they carry out their intentions a second
trial of great interest may follow the col
lapse of the first.
1t is settled beyond dispute now. on the
authority of Mrs. Angel, the duped plain
tiff in the case. that Jay Gould was not a
bigamist, the Gould children are not lille
Ultimate and Sarah Anne Brown Angel
herself was never married to Jay Gould
The confession in full is as follows:
II never was married to Jay Gould. No
I married a man named Derusse in Cham
plain, in 1858, and a fine bit of a man he
was, too He came from Europe, and he
came near having $50O0.O0O. and that's the
way Mrs. Cody got mixed up. Yes, Mrs
Pierce is my own child, from Derusse She
is my daughter. My sister, Mrs. Walker
could not say she was present when Mary
Jane was born, for mother sent all the
children out of the house until it was all
over. My sister is only six or seven years
older than my daughter. No, Derusse was
not home when the child was born; he
came home two or three days afterward
Then, if l had been married to Jay Could
how could 1 have married John Angel
while he lived. What kind of a woman do
they take me for, anyway.
Eyes, think l saw Gould once or twice
when [ was young girl and he was look
ing around these parts. Well. how about
my daughter? Just this way. 1 never had
any education, and | made up my mind
she should have learning and be brought
up lady. After her father died | gave
her to a family by the name of Morton,
living in Ridgeway, Canada. and they
brought her up as Mary Jane Morton, and
she is married to a very good man and
we'll to do, and living out in Wyoming.
BASIS OF THE PLOT.
How did L ever come to hear of the
Goulds? Well this way. Some twenty years
ago L heard that a very dear relative of
mine was in trouble and 1 went out to
Caldwell, Mo-. where she was, to see her.
l found she had been betrayed under prom
Use of marriage, and that the father of the
child was near relative of the Goulds.
Then when they came to me to prove my
self Jay Gould's wife / never swore that
1 had married Jason Gould, never said
that I had but 1 felt that | had a right
to some of that money, and if George Gould
would only come to me-he should
GOMEZ would explain it all and then this
the other party they put it all on my
shoulders
How did it come my name used to be
Sarah Anne Brown and now it is Mary?
Well. ] never was baptized and when l
was did not like the name of Sarah Anne.
and took that of Mary. 1 became a Catholic
and my daughter was baptized one De-
russo was one. too. | don't go to church,
but | am good woman for all that.
NO. she said finally, Il never married
Jay Gould. You tell George or Helen Gould
to come and see me and | will explain
everything, and then this will die out"
The famous case began two years and a
half ago, when woman calling herself
Mrs. Cody, spoken of by all to-day as that
detective. woman" by many as the di-
her appearance in the village of Rouse
Point She was looking for woman called
Sarah Anne Brown. She proved to her
satisfaction that Mary Brown Angel and
Sarah Anne Brown were one and the same
person, and so she went to see John An
CELLS wife This was the beginning of the
conspiracy.
Mrs. Cody declared that she had authen-
tic proofs which went to show that Mrs.
teen and sixteen years of age. had married
certain Jason Gould, who had been sur
veying in that part of the country at that
time; that she had child by him and
that he had deserted her a few months
after they had been married. Jason Gould
the poor boy of seventeen, an apprentice
20 a surveyor, and the millionaire Jay
Gould were proved to be one and the same
person. Therefore, if Mrs. Angel had mar
Jay Could who had been a bigamist and
his children, therefore. were illegitimate.
vast wealth to be shared among the con-
spirators and Mrs Cody set to work to
gather up her threads.
She found the minister who had married
them, she recovered a copy of the 7stroyed
certificate of marriage. she found men and
women living in the immediate neighbor-
membered him marrying Sarah Anne
Brown, and even located one man in Can
ada, about eight miles across the line who
made an affidavit that he had stood up
as best man with Jason Gould when he
had married Sarah Anne Brown.
GREAT FIELD FOR LAWYERS
When these threads were all gathered up
Mrs. Cody retained lawyers on behalf of
Mrs. Angel. Amasa j. Parker and Amasa
j. Parker, jr., of Albany, and Lawyer
Stearn, of Rouse's Point, attended TO her
side of the case. The little hut on the
Champlain road became a Mecca for these
learned men of the law, and the woman
who hired them, who knew neither how to
read nor write, who had never been twenty
five miles from her native place except
once, when she had jOurneyed to Missouri.
was the queen bee around whom they all
buzzed.
AS matter of fact Jason, or Jay, Gould
was in Rouses Point surveying in 1853. He
was seventeen and Mrs. Angel was then
fifteen. There never was any marriage or
other relation between them. The con-
spirators state there was a certificate,
since destroyed, but that the memorandum
was preserved by old DR.. Leighton, of the
Presbyterian Church. The reporter who in
vestigated the case had thus two Clews to
work on--the old lady herself and the min
lister. Strange as it may seem it was a
matter of difficulty to find the Angel house
in the village When discovered at last
this is what Mrs. Angel had TO say:
so you came as friend? That is what
they all say. l have had lawyers and
judges and ladies and gentlemen here. and
a
who came was such a nice spoken young
man. about two years ago, and he said he
came from these parts, and then he went
back and printed a lot OF lies about me,
and such horrd picture of me.
George Gould ought to come and see me,
where the mistake has been made, and if
he would come and me l would
straighten it all out for him. He could
give me a little money, enough to make me
comfortable for the rest Of my days and
it would be all right. He's the one ought
to come.
In reply to the question, Did you ever
Piled Il amt never said l married Jay
Gould"
At Champlain the next day the reporter
saw Mr. Fraser, the Presbyterian minister
He showed the church record for the year
1888, and there was no notice of any mar
rage between Sarah Anne Brown and
Jason Gould After leaving Mr.. Fraser the
reporter drove over to Mrs. Angels. She
commenced to talk Of her case herself She
still kept reiterating that George Gould
should come and see her" and that she
did not want to hurt the Goulds
"Will you really tell me the truth, Mrs.
Angelo" the reporter asked. You know
aatf tfrQcr h fal1