The Cooperstown courier. (Cooperstown, Griggs Co., N.D.) 1902-1913, 1905-11-09
By CAPTAIN PATRICK D. TYRRELl

[CopvriPht. 1905, by Marion G. Scheitlin.1
Her death was followed by a season
of physical and mental suffering on the
part OF Bothamley, and this fact was
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 his
family under stress of mad infatua-
ton for the wife of another man,
should suffer a mental wrench at the
death of his inamorata that might un-
balance his mind and drive him to
suicide in the solitude of 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 a bullet through
his own brain. I believe the records
OF crime will bear me out in this gen.
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 a man must be essentially
selfish: and selfishness of this kind
does not beget self-destruction. To my
mind 1t was more probable that Both
aMley had formed another liaison than
that he had DESTROYED himself on &C.
count of the tragic ending of the first.
Suicide under these circumstances
would have been the natural refuge
of woman-not of a man.
In additional support of my belief
that Bothamley had been murdered,
there were several corroborative phys
zeal circumstances. One of the most
convincing of these was the fact, we'll
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 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
Tar as to claim that such a course
would be impossible: To press the
muzzle of the weap-n against the
forehead or the temple, thus hiding It
from the vision, in common; to point
the weapon at the eye is uuheard of.
Another circumstance going to dis
prove the suicide theory was the find
Ing of the pistol, self-acting Colts
OF As caliber, by the side of the body
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 J. r. Hallowell. but the
local authorities had done about ali
that lay in their power. Col. Hallowel]
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 I saw
but one promising path to travel, and
that was an investigation of the caree,
of the woman whom Bothamley had
introduced as his sister, and will
whom he was making the journey t.
Texas when he met mis- death. From
all was able to learn of the deat
Englishman he was man who wa
more likely to meet his death through
ENHANCEMENT with a woman than a
the hands Of Indians or desperadoes
! had studied the probabilities of muir
der at the hands of the last tw,
agencies and found them weak. Their
was no evidence that an averagin,
hand had reached across the Atlanti
to punish Bothamley for the ruin O
two homes. In liaison in force q
the time of his death. therefore, I ex
pected to find the evidence desired.
At Skeleton ranch there was DOS
once presided over by woman Fron
this source i vas learnsd that som
VIC IN f4g T. s,