The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-10-17
Photograph Of Charlotte.

ceeded to illustrate the point Win zen
infscences of bis career as sheriI o.
Boulder county in the early days of the
mining boom.
Verde threatened to be a big camp
at that time and we county officials mao
more trouble with it than all the rest
of the county put together. The town
hadn't been organized, and as IL was
only fifteen miles from the county seat
1t kept US busy. Like all new mlnihs
camps, it was full OF ODD chdidSteAs.
there were plenty of fights, a rev OUT
and out murders, a number of robperlSs'
and then the suicide of which M TAIN
ing. There was roomlng mousse oNel
the general store in which the pOst-
master held forth, filed mostly with en-
gineers, assayers, surveyors ana thS
better class Of men Who are atuacteu
by the development Of new mlhins
country. One morning the landlady, VINO
was in the habit of making up the
rooms herself, was unable to open the
door Of a roOmer named Jackson Inc
keyhole was plugged with DIT OF WooH
like d sl1ewer that resisted all her at
tempts to remove it. Finally, suspecting
that something had befallen her lodger'
she summoned the postmaster, and ne
assisted by a clerk and customer,
forced in the door and found the dead
body of Mr.. Jackson on the floor.
"As I got there with the coroner l had
q good chance to inspect the surround
ings of the corpse, and. like him, made
up my mind at once that it was a plain
case of suicide. There was letter on
the table. or rather the beginning of
letter. in which the unfortunate young
man. addressing some woman named
Charlotte, saidi L hate t. part from
you, but you have made it necessary.
The future And. there the Wrltlne
ended The mans effects had been neat
~ packed as in preparation for death
On the bare mantel. ready for mailing,
was a sealed letter to the suicides
brother 1t was opened at the coroner
instructions. and contained all that we
~ Ion Of he 7
despair and of the address of his rela-
tives The pistol with which he had
killed himself. with two empty cham
bers lay beside the body The single
window Of the room was not only fast
sned securely on the inside with a latch
but the felt packing which had been
placed there to keep out the cold was
wedged in so tiughtly and so swollen by
the feather that we had to take out
the window casing to remove the sash
Il suppose we were all guilty of neg
lgence according to the modern Idea
but as a matter of fact. at the time, the
coroner at least was proud: we got
Jury, held the inquest and gave a YER
dict of suicide within four hours after
the body had been discovered In my
official capacity L communicated by
telegraph with the brother and was bit
surprised to get an answer inStructing
me to have the body preserved for
post-mortem and to keep secret the
brothers intention of coming in person
thinking, and. whether l became NOR
bidly observant or whether l was only
awakening to the full necessities of the
case. I began to notice and set down
number of puzzling circumstances that
had been overlooked.
In the first place I remembered that,
though his trunk had been neatly pack
ed, it was open and the key was miss
ing. Diligent search failed to discover
it. SO 1 made I'D my mind that Mr..
Jackson had himself lost the KEY. lust
as he had probably lost the key to his
room, which was also missing. Then it
suddenly dawned on me that if he had
no key to his room he couldn't have
locked the door and it was certain he
yOnd all cavil that the door had been
locked with a key befouN Jackson's body
had been found. The plug in the key
hole had been neatly trimmed off at
both ends. so it was impossible to tell
whether it had been hammered into
place from within or without. l made
a careful inventory of the trunks con-
tents and found in the bottom of il 81
photograph of a pretty woman, sub
scribed Charlotte There were a few
valuables also. mostly medals won at
college, an old-fashioned gold locket
with the miniature of a white haired
woman and a little silver and inlaid
match safe with a fine solitaire diamond
in the monogram. 1 had a key made
for the trunk locked it uD, got the
landladys kew TO the room. had the
the room waiting for the brother I
spent most of my time there pu1ling
over what I now regarded as a mys-
terry. if not a cold-blooded murder. and
on the afternoon of the dav when he
was to arrive by late train went
over the contents of the trunk checking
them off and coming to myself the
least chance of a hint at the possible
motive for the crime. I had put Jack
sons watch. about $50 in money found
in his pockets and few private letters
into a cigar box, which / slowed in the
hat box inside the trunk
LAS robbery had certainly not been the
purpose of the murder, I made up nv
mind that Charlotte whoever she might
be, held. innOcently perhaps but surely
the secret Of the murder And so I made
q special study of her face. of the hand
writing, of her garments. ornaments and
attitude as lmned in the photograph.
Then I locked up the trunk and went "a
meet the brother. We came back to the
room together about 70 o'clock that night
about four hours after l had left it. We
sat down to smoke and discuss the case
behind the closed and locked door and
finally agreed that Charlotte was the
password Of the mystery I opened tho
trunk and found it apparently just as
had left it, but the picture of Charlotte
was gonel Wei, there isn't much more to
It. except that both Mr.. Jackson and
were utterly convinced Of our theory OF
murder when we exhumed the body which
we were led to expect by the two empty
chambers of the revolver found near the
body. Unlike the alleged discovery in Tho
Remington case, the three bullets We're
of the same caiber. That's all Of that
story"
But how about Charlotte? Didn't you
do anything. Cap?"
I'VE did everything We knew" oonclud.
ed Captain Quinn. but we never got anv
nearer to the truth. l never had heard OF
Charlotte and neither had the murdered
mans brother. The pistol was forty-hve
and every man in Verde had one. Tn
sure that the man who carried off thai
photograph had the room key. the TRUNK
key, and murdered poor jackson. usine
two pistols for the job. But what's tn,
use? suppose Jackson was ready e
leave Verde, and had just begun his letter
to the woman when the murderer carns