Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-09-12

ana one that appealed strongly to the
sentimentalists.
Personally, did not believe that the
Englishman had sent bullet through
his own brain. l believe the records
eral conclusion-that the man who
filings moral legaland social obligations
to the winds, as Bothamley had done
when he eloped with Mrs. Miller is
seldom nodded Of such delicate clay
as to blow out his brains when his
companion in sin dies. To follow the
course that Bothamley had followed
in England man must be essentially
selfish; and selfishness of this kind
does not beget self-destructon. To my
mind 1t was more probable that Both
amley had formed another liaison than
that he had destroyed himself on ac-
count of the tragic ending of the first.
Suicide under these circumstances
would have been the natural refuge
OF woman-not of man.
In additional support of my belief
that Bothamley had been murdered,
there were several corroborative phys
ical circumstances. One of the most
convincing of these was the fact, well
established by science, that the human
animal instinctively shuns the point
ing of pistol to the eye when about
to take its own life. The bullet had
entered Bothamleys face just under
the right eye. Scientists assert that
there is not single record Of suicide
ch In, xrhio hn hoc
been aimed at the eye, and they go so
far as to claim that such a course
would be impossible. To press the
muzzle of the weapon against the
forehead or the temple, thus hiding it
from the vision, in common; to point
the weapon at the eye is unheard Of.
Another circumstance going to dis
prove the suicide theory was the find
Ing OF the pistol, a self-acting Colts
OF As caliber, by the side of the body
in such a position that it seemed i'm
possible for it to have fallen there had
the shot been fired by Bothamley him
self. And, further. there were no
powder marks. according to Vetter and
Dodson, on the mans face when
found
But the murder, if 1t was such,
could never be established and the
guilt of the murderer proved. with
theories The case was under the gen.
eral supervision of United States Dis
trict Attorney j. R. Hallowell. but the
local authorities had done about all
that lay In their power. Col. Hallowell
left me to my own devices in the work
that followed, merely saying that the
department of Justice very much de-
sired to have the murderer punished.
Truth compels me to say that saw
but one promising path to travel, and
that was an investigation Of the career
OF the woman whom Bothamley had
introduced as his sister, and with
whom he was making the journey to
Texas when he met nis death. From
all I was able to learn Of the dead
Englishman he was a man who was
more likely to meet his death through
ENHANCEMENT with woman than at
the hands Of Indians or desperadoes.
had studied the probabilities of muir
Ger at the hands Of the last two
agencies and found them weak. There
was no evidence that an averaging
hand had reached across the Atlantic
to punish Bothamley for the ruin of
two homes. In a liaison in force at
the time of his death therefore, ex-
pected to find the evidence desired.
At Skeleton ranch there was a post
office presided over by woman. From
this source it was learned that some
little time before The death of Both
amley his companion had mailed two
letters. The post is not overwhelmed
at an Office like Skeleton ranch, and
the poStmistress hal plenty of time to
inspect addresses of incoming and
outgoing mail. In this case she was
also garrulous and of retentive men,
DRY. From her | learned that one of
the letters mailed by the supposed sis
ter Of Bothamley was bulky one in g
legal envelope, and addressed to the
clerk Of Harvey county. This proved
on investigation to have been a deed
made by Sarah A. Laws, spinster, of
Sedgwick county, Kansas, to Bertha L.
Bothamley, of Harvey county, covering
GAO acres Of land In the latter county.
The consideration in the deed was
! given at $12,S0O. The descr ption of
the land in the deed conceded with the
legal description of the ranch on which
Bothamley had lived.
This discovery raised the question
of the identity of Sarah A. Laws. Dill
gent inquiry failed to reveal such
woman, and, had she lived in the coun-
ty claimed, it was unlikely that she
could not be located. The identity of
the Laws woman therefore became a
problem. The fact that deed to the
Bothamley ranch. however hid been
forwarded for record by Bothamley's
woman companion invested that per-
son with even greater interest.
The discovery of her rsal identity
was not matter calling for any
great effort. While at the Bothamley
ranch. where she had passed as hi
sister, she had been identified as Mra.
Nellie Bailey the daughter CT Kan