The Cooperstown courier. (Cooperstown, Griggs Co., N.D.) 1902-1913, 1905-11-16
aa STORY No. >
The BothanIev
MurderMystery
Being an Account of the Efforts
Made by This Government to Bring
to Justice the Murderer of Clement
L. Bothamley. an Englishman Killed
In Kansas.
b. CAPTAIN PATRICK D. TYRRELL
By CAPTAIN PATRICK D. rYRRElL

The facts gathered up to that time
touching the career of Nellie Bailey
were such as to strengthen my rapidly
forming opinion that the woman was
capable of deeds more desperate than
flirting, although nothing in itself
more serious had been unearthed. It
was not difficult to imagine, however,
the lengths to which such 3 woman
might go to free herself from the
thralldom of marriage to jealous hus-
band for whom, was convinced, she
bore no real affection. Her husbands
possession of several thousand dollars
in cash, coupled With her 4nordinate
love of feminine flnery. rendered
stronger any other motive she might
have had for wishing her husband out
Of the way.
The withdrawal Of his funds from
the bank and his sudden disappearance
from De Smet presented themselves to
me as additional grounds for harbor-
ing the theory that had been forcing
itself on me-that Shannon BaileyS had
been murdered by his wife.
From the depths of his infatuation
Yor his Maynard wife I found it diff
cult to believe that he would volun-
tarily absent himself from her for two
months While she claimed to have
been in communication with him I
could find no trace of any exchange of
letters between them, fact that still
, further strengthened my belief that II
the facts could be obtained they would
tell a story of a peculiarly deliberate
and atrocious crime. i5
At this juncture a bit of informa-
tion-startling to me in view of the
theory held-was introduced into the
investigation by Mr.. Ruth. A few days
before my arrival in De Smet It seems
there had been found in an unfre-
quented place on the prairie, 35k miles
from De Smet, the bones of man.
All the parts had been heaped together
without even pretense at burial. The
skeleton had been dismembered and
the flesh scraped from the bones. But
there was nothing in the heap of bones
which might establish the identity of
the victim. by measurement il was
found that they had been the bones
of man about the height Of Shannon
Bailey. There all clews were lost.
E It seemed to me that the most prom
ising channel for investigation from
this point was search of the premises
formerly occupied by the Baileys.
Ruth accompanied me in this search
and, that no unjust suspicious should
be given circulation concerning the
former mistress of the house, we went
about the task quietly. The house had.
Of course, been dismantled Of the fur
nishinss used by the lawyer and his
wife. On the first and second floors
nothing whatever was found that
might, by any stretch of Imagination,
lend color to my suspicious
Armed with spades we then descend
ed to the cellar. Carefully testing the
condition of the dirt floor, we again
met with failure. But one spot re-
NAMED unexplored. the small area I'M
der the wooden stairway that formed
the cellar entrance. As a last resort.
thrust a spade into the floor under
the stairs. It sank deep into loose
dirt. Quickly we removed tie ton soil.
and as we did so the awful. sickening
odor Of decomposed flesh became al
most overpowering.
At depth of a little more than
two feet the spade struck q mass of
flesh. Although almost overcome we
completed the excavation, to find a
mass Of flesh buried in. auicklime.
Not a bone was there to be found
in this sorry grave! There was not
the slightest doubt of the flesh being
that Of a human being, and the guam
tity indicated clearly that it had been
stripped from the bones of a full
grown man. The action Of the lime
and decomposition had done their ssor6
well enough to obliterate opportunity
for Identification.
IN the meantime woman in De
Smet had been found who had had a
letter from Mrs. Bailey in which the
latter said her husband had Just snent
some time with her in Elgin. This
indicated two things: First, that Mrs,