The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-08-03
WAS It SUICIDE ?
Mystery Surrounding Purse
and Letters Found on
a Ferryboat.
BEACH DIVORCE CASE RECALLED
Supposed Woman Claimed
That She Had Been
Hypnotized and
Led Astray.
BEACH DIVORCE CASE RECALLED


A well dressed man walked into the
West Twentieth street police station,
New York. about 10 o'clock last night,
and placing a bundle on the Sergeants
desk, said
81 guess / have a case of suicide for
you. My name is Donald Mclean, and
I live at No. 24S Fourth street, Jersey
City. I'm employed as a time-keeper by
p Sanford Ross. a contractor of No. 277
Washington street, Jersey City. | just
came over to New York on the Erie fer
ryboat C~hautauqua, which landed at the
foot of West Twenty-third street. When
i got aboard the BOAT l walked through
the cabin to the front deck, where /
found a woman's handkerchief. When
I went to pick UP the handkerchief saw
a pocketbook near it. l picked that UP
and found a letter, which was addressed
to the public. I put all these things in
my pocket and, without notifying the
~deckhands of my ind. 1 came here to
turn them over to the police
The Sergeant opened the letter. 1t was
as follows
To the Public
My only regret at parting from this
world by having the dark waters close
over me is that l did not have the
courage to end the existence of the
only man I ever really loved to pre-
vent him from installing in my place
the girl he c~aptivated by his strong
power, and now has domiciled in a
nat on East T~wenty-eighth street
somewhere. Farewell to all Fare
WE'LL Oracle BEACA
The pocketbook contained a small pho
tograph of a good-looking woman. On
the back of it some one had written in
pencil the name Oracle" Newspaper
clippings referring to Mrs. Beach's di-
vofce case" were in the pocketbook, to-
gether with a note written evidently by
a man. The note was as follows
Darling
Leave key in letter box. May not be
home till late. Be a good girl. Go to
bed. Don't sit up for me.
Your Hubby"
There were also in the pocketbook sew
eral scraps of verse. including the fol-
lowing:-
Go, Forget mel Why should sorrow
Ger that brow a shadow fiing?
~ smile and sweetly sing;
Smile, though ! shall not be near thee!
Sing, though | shall never hear thee!'
"When the Grass Shall Cover Me- was
the title of another piece of verse in the
pocketbook. One of the newspaper clip
pings consisted of a single sentence,
which read as Notwithstanding to
Mrs. Beach, she was hypnotized and be-
trayed.'
A second clipping read
a - Foo $50 - tho +r;o1 mill no
the exhibition of photographs taken in
New York. representing Mrs Beach be-
ing kissed by a young man. 1t is a very
realistic scene. Mrs. Beach does not deny
that she plays the woman's part. She
says that it was purely a matter of bust
ness and had the encouragement of her
husband Each time she posed she re-
ceived S., she declares. She say she
will produce the persons who conduct the
business at the trial"
After reading over the contents of the
letter the Sergeant called Detective Perk-
ms and said
This looks as if Mrs. Beach commit
ted suicide. There is a mystery for you
to clear up. See if you can clear it."
The supposed suicide was the wife of
Joseph j. Beach of Newark.
Last May, when testifying in the di-
vorce suit, she told a remarkable story
of having been h~ypnotized by a woman
and also a man who was known as Char
ley.
After investigation the police have
doubts as to whether Mrs. Beach actually
suicide. The deck hands of the
Chatauqua say that no one could have
.--.uaI 9 4rora 4la farrx7hna+ ON Inct
nights trips without having been seen.
The trial of the Beach divorce suit is still
pending. and it is believed that Mrs.
Beach. dreading further publicity in con-
nection with the trial has made an at
tempt to make it appear that she is dead,
and thus cause an end to further divorce
proceedings. The New York police are in
clined to think that Mrs. Beach had been
led to this step after reading the Meri-
wether case at Coney Island.
Oracle, Beach separated from her
husband. Joseph 1. Beach, in March last.
Beach began a suit for divorce against
his wife in May following, in the Court
of Chancery, in this State. He named as
correspondent Henry Barnes. Part of the
evidence submitted was a photograph
showing a mar IN Inc act Oh KISSING MIS-
Beach.
Mrs. Beach in her answer declared she
had been hypnotized by one Katherine
Lubbe. an alleged mind reader, who
practised under the name of Madame
zena. Mrs. Beach averred that the ma
dame cast a spell over her. She was
subsequently found by her husband and
father-in-law in the company of a man
whom Madame Lena had introduced to
her.