Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1905-09-02


one of the strongest arguments pro-
duced by the advocates of the suicide
theory. 1t was entirely reasonable to
suppose that a man of Bothamley,s
evident refinement, after deserving MS
family under stress of a mad infatua-
ton for the wife of another man,
should suffer a mental wrench at the
death of his inamorata that might I'M
balance his mind and drive him to
suicide in the solitude Of a frontier
trail This was an easily spun theory,
and one that appealed strongly to the
sentimentalists.
Personally, | did not believe that the
Englishman had sent bulHat through
his own brain. I believe the records
of crime will bear me out in tn S gen.
eral conclusion-that the man who
filings moral, legal and 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 selfshness of this kind
does not beget self-destruct;on. To my
mind it 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 a WOman-nOt of a 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 it's own life. The bullet had
entered Bothamley's face just under
the right eye. Scientists assert that
there is not single record of suicide
by shooting in which the weapon has
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, self-acting Colts
Nf oo1i hxy kho ~ 10 80 h. No. xv
in such 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 it 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 ] 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 l 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 mis- death. From
all / was able to learn Of the dead
Englishman he was a man who was
more likely to meet his death through
ENHANCEMENT with a woman than at
the hands of Indians or desperadoes.
had studied the probabilities of MUIR
der at the hands of the last two
agencies and found them weak. There
was no evidence that an averagir 2
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 had plenty of time to
inspect addresses of incoming and
outgoing mail. In this case she was
also garrulous and of retentive mem
Dry From her / learned that one of
the letters mailed by the supposed sis
ter Of Bothamley was a bulky one in a
legal envelope, and addressed to the
clerk of Harvey county. This proved
on investigation to have ben 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,S00. The descr pt'on Of
the land in the deed conceded with the
legal description of the ranch en- which
Bothamley had lived.
This discovery raised the question
of the identity of Sarah A. Laws. Dill
gent inquiry failed to reveal such a
wOman and had chn lived in tha nOun-