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

The outfit" consisted of $500 head of
sheep. four yoke of oxen. some horses,
buggy and wagon boxed in with
ceiling. This wagon had been used by
an itinerant daguerreotyper. The house
part was seven feet high and wide and
ten feet long. It was supposed to fur
nish shelter for BOthamley's sister and
10 protect the owner of the outfit from
wet weather as he suffered from rheu-
matism. The start was made the lat
ter part of August, with Vetter and
another man, William DOdsOn. 10 help
care for the sheep. Little progress was
made at first. as Bothamley va at
tackled with rheumatism and had 20 be
taken back for treatment. . October
found the outfit at blackberry Creek, on
the Arbuckle trail, the scene of the
murder
Vetter and DodsOn seldom slept more
than 125 feet from the car. the woman
sleeping on a raised couch in the car
and Bothamley on d "shake-dOwn' on
the floor. or in the covered buggy close
by. Early in the morning of Oct :
DOdsOn and VetteT, who. contrary to
their custom, had gone to sleep some
distance from the car, were aroused by
cries from the woman, who was rush
ing toward them.
Something awful has happened at
the car she cried.
She was much excited and dazcd
complaining that something allied her
head" Vetter Immediately went back
to the car, found the door shut and re-
turned TO the others without attempt
ing to investigate. The woman urged
DOdsOn TO go to the car. He opened the
door and saw BOthamley lying on the
blankets on the floor. dead. A bullet
hole under the right eye told the man.
ner of his death.
When Dodson informed the woman
that BOthamley was dead she became
hySterical and WeDt violently. DOdsOn
saddled horse and rode several miles
to the camp of d man named Collins.
BOthamley's body was prepared for
burial, the funeral taking place the
same day at Skeleton ranch with the
woman DOdsOn, Veeter and Collins in
attendance. The next morning DOdson
and the woman washed the blood stains
from the bedclOthes. After three days,
during which Bothamley's supposed sis
ter said she had written TO England
concerning the death Of her brother.
preparations were made to continue the
journey TO Texas
Meanwhile. however. news of the
finding of Bothamley's body had trav-
eled over the thinly settled country and
reached the ears of the Indian police,
the regularly constituted cOnstabuIary
of the Indian Territory. Just as the
outfit was about to move on the woman
and the two men were taken into Gus
tody by the Indian police and sent to
the Wichita Jail pending an investiga-
ton of murder All three stOutly pro-
tested innocence. There was no general
belief that either Of the men had any
guilty knowledge of the crime. but
many thought the woman had commit
ted the murder. This remained TO be
proved or disproved-
Eliminating the possible guilt of the
murdered mans supposed sister, the
most teuable theory of the suicide was
suicide This was the belief held by
those who did not think the little. mild
hammered woman guilty. Steps were
immediately taken to learn BOthamley's
history. and this investiga ton was not
without results Through different
agencies it was found. first. that Both
amley had deserted his wife and two
children in London. and. second. that
the woman with whom he first came to
Kansas was not his wife. but a Mrs
Harriet Miller. an English woman of
wealth and position who had deserted
her husband In London in order 10 flee
with BCthamley to a country where
they could continue their guilty love af-
fair without the ostracism and punish
ment with which they would have met
IN their native land. They had burned
all their bridges behind them and start
ed their new life in a spot where II was
not customary to Dry too deeply into
the affairs of ones neighbors. Then
death took hand. Thousands Of miles
from the home she had deserted for love
Of another wOman's husband, Mrs. Mil
Ter died ard was buried under the name
of the man for whom she had sacrificed
all
Her death was followed by a season
Of physical and mental suffering on the
part of BOthamiey, and this fact Was
one OF the strongest arguments pro-
duced by the advocates of the suicide
theory II was entirely Feasonab bic to
suppose that a man of BOthamley's
evident refinement. after deserving his
family under stress Of a mad Infatu-
alton for the wife of another man.
should suffer mental wrench at the
death Of his inamorata that might IN
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
sentimentaiists-
Personally [ did not believe that the
Englishmdn had sent a bullet through
mis- own brain. ! believe the records OF
crime viii bear me out in this general
ConclUsiOn-that the man who filings
moral. legal and social obligations TO
the winds, as BOthamley had done when
he eiOped 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
selfishness of this kind does not bsset
lf-destruction. To my mind it was
10
formed another liason than that he
had destroyed himself on account OF ,le
tragic ending of the first. Suicide IN
der these circumstances would have
been the natural refuge Of a womaIr-
not of a man.
In additional support of my belief
that Bothamley had been murdered
there are several corroboratfng physical
circumstances. One Of the most con-
vincing of these was the fact. well Is
tablished by science. that the human
animal instinCtiyely shuns the pointing
of a pistol TO the eye when about to
take his own life The bullet had en-
tered BOthamley's face just under the
right eye. Scientists assert that there
is not a single record of suicide by
shooting in which the weapon has been
aimed at the eye, and they 20 Sd far
as TO claim that such a course would
be impossible. To press the muzzIe Of
the weapon against the forehead o. tie
temple, thus holding II from the vision.
is common: to point the weapon at the
eye is unhsard of.
Another circumstance going TO dis
prove the suicide theory was The find
ing Of the pistol. a self-acting colts of
As caliber. by the side of the body in
such a position that IL seemed Impss-
sible for it TO have fallen there mad
the shot been fired by RnfhamInV him