The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-12-08
BELLE HOUSER IN COURT
THE WOMAN WHO HELPED START A
MATRIMONIAL AGENCY HERE.
Many Love Affairs Rehearsed Before
Judge BakeP-In the County
Courts.

The trial of Belle Houser for using the
United States mails for fraudulent purposes
consumed the whole day in the Federal
Court yesterday. The story of innumerable
love affairs as brought out by the evidence
provoked constant laughter from most Of
the people in the courtroom, and were it not
for the sickly appearance of the frail pris-
oner and the almost CHASTITY look of her
features as the realization of her terrible
position broke over her the situation would
have been humorous.
Mrs. Houser was introduced to the court
under several names, among them being
Houser, Bracket and Weise, and while the
district attorney and the local police claim
to be able to identify her under all these
names with the charge against her, the gov
ernment's case yesterday was made largely
on the testimony of John It. Hoffman, of
Hamilton, o., who was one of her CORE
spondents, although he says he never gave
her any money.
The story of the case is that Mrs. Houser
was the daughter of a Traverse City. Mich,
marble dealer who died and left his business
to her. She married a man named Houser,
from whom, however, she shortly afterward
was divorced. She then advertised for a
partner to help her in the marble business,
and Harry Richmond responded and was
accepted. TIL business did not prosper,
however, and Richmond came to Indianap-
oils, the woman following shortly after
ward with her child, which died here last
winter. Here she found hat Richmond was
a married man and that his right name was
John M. Craig. For a time she worked in
an overall factory, while Craig kept a
saloon on Washington street. They finally
came together again and Craig prevailed on
her to begin the matrimonial business by
sending advertisements to the matrimonial
papers and the personal columns of the big
dailies in different cities. That the scheme
worked is proved by the large stack of let
ters secured by the police and government
secret service men. What the actual size
of the operations were can only be guessed,
as it is not likely the government secured
a large portion of the correspondence of the
pair. Mrs. Houser said yesterday that she
and Craig secured between 500 and $500, all
of which she divided with Craig except $40
received from Dave Burke, of Silver, Wash.
This she kept with the purpose, as she says,
Of keeping her word with Burke and marry
ing him. Before. she could do so, however,
she was taken i'll and had hardly recovered
when she was arrested.
The main defense offered by Attorney
Spaan was that Mrs. Houser was the vic
tim of designing people and did not herself
have such a knowledge of the world as to
be aware she was committing a crime in
sending the letters through the mails. He
also averred that a woman of Traverse City
named Cora White was the real writer of
the letters, but that she had left the city
as soon as Mrs. Houser was arrested. A
| letter from the postmaster of Traverse City
was shown, stating that Mrs. Houser's rcpu-
tation was bad and thai she had tried to
play the same game there on u man in Rus
STA, Mimi.
During her operations in this city Mrs.
Houser received letters at different adj
dresses on Meridian street, Wilkins street.
Prospect street and West Washington
street. The testimony was concluded last
night and Judge Baker charged the jury in
a manner considered fair by both attorneys.
Craig was in the courtroom during the lat
ter part of the afternoon, but did not speak
to Mrs. Houser, although he carried on an
animated conversation with Attorney Spaan
at different times.