The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-06-25
The Botbamley Mmuer
Mystery.

reer Of the woman whom BothamIey
had introduced as his sister and with
| whom he was making the Journey 10
| Texas when he met his death. Prom
all l was able to learn of the dead Eng
| ii6hTndn ne was man who was more
| likely to meet his death through en-
| tanglement with a woman than at the
hands of Indians or iesperadoes. [ had
! studied the probabilities of murder at
| the hands Of the last two agencies and
| found them weak. There was no evj-
| dence that an avenging hand had
reached across the Atlantic to punish
| Bothamley for the ruin of two homes.
In liascn in force at the time of his
| death. therefore. L expected to find the
| evidence desired
/ AT Skeleton ranch there was a post
| office presided over by d woman. From
this source it was learned that some
little time before the death of Botham-
( ley his companion had mailed two let
1 tiers. The post is not overburdened as
an Office like Skeleton ranch, and the
poStmiStTeSS had plenty of time to in
/ Spect addresses of incoming and ont
| going mail In this case she was also
garTUlOuS and of retentive memory
From her 1 learned that one of the let
! tiers mailed by the supposed sister of
BOthamley was a bulky one in legal
| envelope and addressed to the clerk of
LEGATION to have been a deed made by
Sarah a. Laws, spinsteT, of Sedgwick
county, Kansas, to Bertha L. Botham-
ley Of Harvey county, covering 400 acres
of land in the latter county. The con-
| sideratiOn in the deed was given at
So, 800. The description of the land in
| the deed conceded with the legal de-
! scription OF the ranch on which Both
| amley had lived.
! This discovery raised the question of
/ the identity of Sarah A Laws Diligent
/ inquiry failed to reveal such a woman,
/ and, had she lived in the county claimed
! 1t was unlikely that she could not be
| located The identity of the Laws wo-
man therefore became a problem The
! TACT that deed TO the Bothamley
| ranch, however, had been forwarded
| for record by BothamIey's woman COM
paniOn invested that person with even
| greater interest.
The discovery of her real identity was
not a matter calling for any great eff
fort While at the BOthamley ranch,
! where she had passed as his sister, she
had been identified as Mrs. Nellie Bal
| ley, the daughter of a Kansas rancheT
and carpenter named @. F. Benthuson.
| The whereabouts Of her husband was
unknown for the remarkable reason
! that viii appear later.
Important chapters in her life were
/ not known to her acquaintance in
/ Kansas At this time the circumstan-
I tidl case against her seemed TO be grow
4 ing stronger In fiction the shrewd de-
! tectIve would have gathered a number
/ of discriminating circumstances. grouped
them into narrative which he would
! have Tecited to the suspect who. there
/ upon. as a tribute to the skill of the
/ detective. would have broken down and
| tearfully confessed the crime. Had in
! telligent work been done Immediately
/ after the finding Of Bothamley's body
/ some such method might have been
4 used with the results desired. But I
/ doubt the effect Of the deduction and
/ accusation" method on Nellie Bailey.
/ At every intimation of her guilt she
/ looked at you squareIy with the bluest
/ of blue eyes and protested innocence in
a way that left the man who was firm
/ ~ convinced of her guilt i'm doubt In
I nocent or guilty, nature had given her
/ a nervous system on which threats. in
/ situations or other attempts to pierce
/ her COmpOSUTe had not the faiutest ef-
{ feet believe she would have gone to
/ the gallows, had fate so decreed. with
| the same air Of injured innocence that
she had maintained since the Indian
( police had taken her into custody be-
cause she was the logical person to have
Z guilty knowledge Of the crime.
She was shrewd enough to know that
Z the dreary plains had furnished no wit
ness TO what had transpired in the lit
| tie house on wheels on Oct Z. She knew
/ that any case made against her must be
/ purely CiTcumstantiaI. And she also
knew that which 1 did not realize at the
| time-that in a country where women
are few, a pretty wOmaH-even If she is
| bad-is practically immune from the
/ dangers Of circumstantial evidence in
a criminal trial Therefore she stood
pat in her innocence or guilt. placing
! IL squarely up to the government to
make it's case.
Inquiry in the county in which she
| had lived developed several interesting
and suggestive facts concerning her.
She was an expert markswoman with a
revolver and daring equestrienne. She
rode astride, shooting with accuracy at
wolves and other game from the saddle
She usually carried a revolver slung to
a cartridge belt buCkled around her
waist Small of stature, exuberant of
. health, daring in spirit, clad in short
skirts and sombreTo. she was figure
not soon forgotten by those who had
seen her Despite her manuishness in
the saddle and with the pistol. she had
played a part IN numerous love affairs
for 10 must be remembered that on the
frontier a woman in sombrero is not
a rarity, and one that can rope pony
or shoot straight Is not classed as mas
culine- These were traits of the plains
desirable rather than otherwise, even
in a pretty woman
From the time Nellie Benthuson had
gone into long skirts she had associated
principally with men, among whom she
was a favoTite; and neighborhood Cos
sip recorded numerous love affairs of
more or less earnestness. In all she
/ had earned the reputation Of being
| tickle, quick in forming attachments
and equally quick in dismissing them.
/ These love affairs had eliminated in
| her marriage to Shannon Bailey.
young lawyer, good looking, of some
means. giving promise of rapid adj
vancement in his profession and in
tensely in love with the spirited,
hoydenish Nellie.
During the courtship Bailey had been
the victim Of at least one of that nu-
merOus class of individuals who delight
in carrying gossip to the person most
fiicous chatter-boxes whispered things
TO Bailey about his fiancee that adoring
lovers do not like to hear. These whis-
perings had the usual effect. Instead
Of breaking the attachment il strength
ened IL, but at the same time II planted
seeds OF distrust that later bore their
fruit in a most gruesome way.
Bailey promptly married the girl. but
decided that they could be happier were
she taken away from the scene of her
girlish attachments. The Pacific coast
was decided upon. and to the coast they
went They spent two months in Cali
f0rnia. Oregon and Washington. Over
this trail I did not follow them They