Los Angeles herald., 1906-11-06

the officers 1t supplies the motive for
the murder of Ttrs. Claddie Besold A
motive already selected was to the eff
feet that Beso,d accused his wife of be-
ing untrue to him, and further accused
her of having spent his money reckless
ly and with having bee ma bore to him.
since she was slowly dying of consump-
ton. Such motive might have found
weight with jury, but the motive of
ridding himself of one wife to marry
another with money is said to be the
real motive in the case, backed by the
strongest of testimony
According to the statement of Of
ficers, Besold, like Johann Hoch also a
Bavarian, has been marrying women
and securing their money and deserted
or killed them The Chicago man mar
ried about twelve women, most of whom
were murdered before the monster was
hanged.
Was In the Philippines
An entire history of Besold cannot
be established at present, and how far
his system of marriage was carried out
may never be known. The first known
of his matrimonial ventures was his
marriage to Claddie Alderman at Fort
BMdy, Mich, in 1901 Besold had Just
returned from three years service in
the Philippines at that time, and it is
alleged that while in the islands he
mated by racial ceremony with one or
two dusky beauties.
Then he came to this country again
and married the Alderman girl in Mich
igan. Besold alleges that he took the
girl out of disorderly house to marry
| her.
At Caspar, wyo., Besold remarked his
wife because, as he alleged, he wanted
| to re-establish his credit. He was mar
ried under the name of Arndt. He
further alleged as his reason for that
marriage that some travelling men had
recognized his wife as an inmate of a
disorderly hoTse She was a divorced
woman at the time of the marriage,
having secured legal separation from a
man named William Brady.
Body Found in Canyon
Evidence demonstrates that the same
| woman is the one whose body was
found in the depths of the Temescal
| canyon, rotted away by exposure to the
weather and bearing the ugly hole of
a. bullet in the whitened skull. 1t is
alleged that Besolde took the little
woman to the lonely canyon and killed
! her so that he might marry Mrs.
Pickett, who had little money, and to
whom he was engaged at the time of his
wife's disappearance.
1t is further alleged that before his
arrival here Besold proposed to a
Washington woman who had a little
money, but who rejected the Bavarian.
Following his wife's sudden disap-
pearance on July II, Besold went north.
He visited his old friends in Belling
ham Bay, Wash, and as result of that
visit he is charged with having alb
seconded with $500 belonging to a Mrs.
McFadden. The woman later brought
suit, but thus far has recovered moth
ing.
Besold returned here and married
Mrs. Pickett whom he left when
thwarted in an attempt to secure her
money. He fled to Washington to avoid
| arrest and was arrested there just six
days after his arrival.
According to the statement of Sheriff
White yesterday he interviewed a
woman in Washington, d. c., who did
not deny that Besold and she were to be
married wit in a few days. She also
was widow with few thousand dol
lars.
Enlisted in the Army
BY Besold's own confession he had
taken out enlistment papers at that
time to go to Cuba with the army, so
it is believed that he intended to con-
tract last marriage with the Wash
ington woman, secure what money he
could and seek 7, cuge in the army,
| where no civil law could touch MIN
unless the colonel of his regiment con-
sented to give him up. and that would
have been improbable with as good a
fighting man as Besold appears to have
been.
The only question which remains a
mystery is how Besold gained power
over the women whom he courted.
Most of them were we'll into middle life
and had but small prospect of another
chance. Most of them had been mar
ried before, and all had little property.
Besold is above the ordinary height,
with muscles like iron and a frame Of
steel. His long service in the army has
made him as hard as steel trap, and
his powerful strength may have made
him a winner with the women. Aside
from his build he possesses distinctly
Teutonic set OF features, ruddy COM
plexion and a light mustache.
|, Besold has secured the courts con-
sent to bring Mrs. Charles Nobbman
from San Francisco to testify that she
saw Mrs. Besold after the murder was
alleged to have occurred. But Mrs.
Nobbman has denied that allegation
and so Besold may have but little d.
! Tense to offer when the preliminary ex-
tmination is resumed Friday morning IN
, Justice Young's court.