The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1905-05-12

with "endeavOring to blackmail Mr.. o.
borne's estate" Hopkinson induced
Alice Osborne to leave the Desplaines
boarding house. She set up an estab-
lishment of her own and lived in consid-
cradle luxury. Some years later, when
Hopkinson tried to drop her acquaint-
ance, he took the precaution to have pa
pers duly drawn up and signed in the
presence of his attorney. The woman
acknowledged that she had never been
his lawful wife, and for two or three
years he heard nothing more of her.
Then he began to receive gentle requests
for money, and in 1898 the woman, as
Mrs. Hopkinson, began her action for
alimony against him, saying that she
had married Hopkinson on November
"a, 1878, when she was 10 years old.
HopkinsOn denied ever having married
her, said that she was at least rs years
old at the time he met her, and generally
exposed the woman's character in court
The questionable authenticity of her
marriage resulted in his attorney having
the suit dismissed in 1885,
1t has also been learned in the inves-
tigatlon of the woman's record, that
Alice Webb married Edward H. Powell,
hotel clerk, in Pittsburg, Pa, in 1895.
Powell is now believed to be in Chicago
or Allegheny City.
The "Doctor's'' Story.
Further light was thrown on this re-
markable case by man named Or" E.
T. OsbaldestOn, who was employed as a
nurse in the Duke apartments during Mr..
Dukes indisposition after his marriage.
He told the criminal authorities that
when he first saw Duke he was under the
influence of liquor or drugs. MRS. Des-
plaines," he testified to the district at
torney, mixed something, put what
looked like whisky in one glass, and
took from another what seemed to be
milk. Soon after this was given to Mr..
Duke, he fell back on his pillow, his jaw
dropped and he was asleep and breathing
hard.' The nurse also declared that on
the day before the marriage he found
Duke so near death that he insisted that
doctor be called. The next day Mrs.
Desplaines told him Duke and Miss
Webb had gone away to be married, and
the day after the marriage, so Osbaldes-
ton told District Attorney Jerome, Mrs.
Duke came to him and showed him her
marriage certificate, saying:
Nov address me as Mrs. Duke with
the $20,000,000. Oh, my God, what have
gone through and suffered in the last
few weeks to get this can't tell you.
But, thank God, it is over"
1t is curious part of this extraordin-
airy case that nearly everybody connected
with it has record Osbadeston admits
that he was once arrested in Montreal
with a woman named Louisa Weiss, who
was accused of theft, and that he spent
several years in an insane asylum there.
In August, 1892 he was shot while inves-
tigating suspected dive in New York
city. Later he hal (. silver plate inserted
in his skull to cover the hole mace in it
by a colored man who shot him while he
was thus engaged in another raid. In
1901 the Weiss woman went to Germany
where Osbaldeston follow ed her. There
in the course of his life of adventure
he was assaulted by a man named We'll,
whom he shot dead Osbaldeston was
chased by a mob and fired and killed
the leader. Subsequently he was set
free on the ground that he fired in self
defense. He was also once arrested in
Washington, D. c., for extorting money
from the owner of massage establish
ment. but this case was dismissed.
While the examina ton of the persons
principally involved in the Duke mar
rage tangle was under way and evil
dence was being prepared for submis-
sion to the grand jury District Attorney
Jerome was Informed that Mrs. Duke
did not own the valuable tobacco lands
in Texas which had figured in her bust
ness relations with the impressionable
Mr.. Duke. She once held title to- some