The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-10-05
Was CAPT. MILLS INSANE
WHEN He FIRED SHOT?
Belief of Those Who Arc Familiar With All of the
Facts In the Case.
Theory That Mills Was Enraged BY O'Feyeney's Aten
tons to Hrs. Mills DiScredted BY the Facts.

Mills, are at a loss to account for the
crime From the very fact that the
motive for the shocking tragedy IS so
incomprehenSible. the theory of tenn
porary insanity is being discussed by
those who are in possession of all the
known facts in the case. That Mills
shot and killed O'Melveney on account
of his wife may be true, but it is de-
clared that if he did so because of any
intimacy that the dead man may have
had with his wife, that he was far from
being justified in his act, for the reason
that there are strong reasons to be-
lieve that there are two other men
against whom he might have laid the
charge of being unduly intimate with
Mrs. Mills. One of these was a lieu
tenant in the battalion of engineers,
who was with Mills at Honolulu, and
the other is reported to be prominent
doctor of Salt Lake City. There are
facts connected with the guilt of the
latter, if it be true that he was init
mate with Mrs. Mills, which will miti-
gate his offence, but these cannot at
present be made public.
The beginning of the trouble that led
to the recent separation of Mills and
his wife, so far as known, began at
Honolulu, when, it is said, Mrs. Mills
received questionable attentions from
Tie ueQltIdIlN. AL lillS Illll6 II WAS sup
posed that she had gone to Honolulu
for the purpose of nursing her hus-
band, who Was sick in the hospital
there. She did nurse him, but she was
also in the habit of receiving at the
same time such attentions from the
lieutenant as were most Objectionable
to her husband, who. on several occa-
sions, reproached her for her unseem-
ing conduct in the presence of third
parties. It is said that Mrs. Mills
would go out at night with the lieutenA
ant and remain out with him until the
wee" small hours, and that she was
continually making dates with him for
clandestine meetings, and that they
were in the habit of visiting the festive
resorts of the Honolulu tenderloin.
These statements are made upon the
authority of a returned volunteer who
was in the hospital at Honolulu when
Mills was there, and who was present
when Mills and his wife frequently
quarreled over the subject of the lat
ter's escapades.
1t was while at Honolulu, when he
had recuperated sufficiently to be able
TO get out of the hospital, that Mills
remarked to a man in the engineer
corps that his marriage had certainly
been failure. AS far as the intimacy
with the doctor of this city is con-
cerned, 1t took place after Mills de-
parture for Honolulu and prior to Mrs.
Mills going there to nurse him. From
all that can be learned. Mills did not
know of the doctor being in the case
until his return to this country, and, in
tact, 1t is reported that it only came to
his knowledge very recently If it is
true that prior to his killing O'Mel-
Veney, Mills knew of his wife having
been intimate with two other men.
there would seem to be no Justification
for his singing out O'Melveney as a
victim
A gentleman who has visited at the
home of Mills in this city after his re-
turn from Honolulu remarked yester-
day that II was apparent to him that
the relations between Mills and his wifo
We're very strained, and, as he put it,
II was evident to me in the action of
the two little boys that they regarded
their father as the mother of the home.
SO apparent was this that L remarked
upon 1t at the time to a friend"
1t Is also known that upon her re-
turn, Mrs. Mills said that she did not
intend to live with her husband. This
was after he had accused her in Homo
lulu of misconduct with a lieutenant
The separation took place some little
time ago, although there was no legal
separation, and as far as can be learned
II was not Mills intention to secure a
divorce from his wife. 1t was the lat
ter who desired the separation.