Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1906-02-15
STORY No. 2
The BOthamIey
MurderMystery
Being an Account of the Efforts
Made by This Government TO Bring
to Justice the Murderer of Clement
L. Bothamley, an Engllshman Killed
in Kansas.
By CAPTAIN PATRICK D. TYRRELL

copyright, 1905, by Marion G. scheitlin.l
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. 1t
was not difficult to imagine, however,
the lengths to which such a 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 Inordinate
love of feminine finery, 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 BAILEY had
baen murdered by his wife.
From tire depths of his infatuation
for his wayward wife l 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
could find no trace of any exchange of
letters between them, a fact that still
further strengthened my belief that if
the facts could be obtained they would
tell story of peculiarly deliberate
and atrocious crime.
At this juncture a bit of informa-
tion-startling 10 me in view of the
theory l 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, 31a miles
from De Smet, the bones of a man.
All the parts had been heaped together
b 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 it was
found that they had been the bones
of a man about the height of Shannon
Bailey. There all clews were lost.
1t seemed to me that the most prom
Using channel for investigation from
this point was a search of the premises
formerly occupied by the Baileys
Ruth accompanied me in this search
and, that no unjust suspicious should
I,o ,;
former mistress Of the house, we went
about the task quietly The house had
of course, been dismantled of the fur
nishings 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 10 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-
mained uneXplored, the small area un-
der the wooden stairway that formed
the cellar entrance. As a last resort
l thrust a spade into the floor under
the stairs. 1t sank deep into loose
dirt. Quickly we removed tie top soil.
and as we did so the awful. sickening
odor of decomposed flesh became al
most overpowering.
At a depth of a little more than
two feet the spade struck a mass of
flesh. Although almost overcome we
completed the excavation, to find a
mass Of flesh buried in quckline.
Not a bone was there TO be found
in this sorry grave! There was not
the slightest doubt Of the flesh being
that of 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 work
well enough TO obliterate opportunity
for Identification.
In the meantime a woman In De
Smet had been found who had had a
letter from Mrs. Bailey in which the
latter said her husband had just spent
some time with her in ElgiE. This
indicated two things: First, that Mrs.