Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1907-11-18

anxious to find out for your own sat
1sfact1on and that you would gladly
90 everything in your power to do so,
only that it will place you in an aw-
full position in the eyes of the people
until they know the truth. That is,
until they know that you are work.
ing as detective under the direction
of the officers, and tell Mckinney
that you must have such a statement
for your final vindication. But i'm
press upon him that if he wants you
to do anything it must be done soon,
for you think l am going to leave the
country and If | do it will be all off.
If should get out of work | won't be
here more than one week longer,
Well, for fear this may be ny last
word for you in several months, |
will bid you fond goodbye.
The letter, which was neither ad-
dressed or signed, was clearly writ
ten for Mrs. Todd, wife of the mur-
dered man, and shows plainly that
they were on intimate terms, and
that the murderer desired to get her
and her money, out of this part of
Mrs. Todd was giving Marshal Nc
Kinney the double cross in her de-
tective work, when she was supposed
to be acting under that officer for
the purpose of extracting a confess
sion from Steele.
Herbert Norman, who changed his
name to Ralph w. Steele, after get
ting into trouble at Portland over the
sale of fraudulent mining Eek, was
about 35 years of age, and his moth
er lives at Hillyard, a small town
near Spokane. He was committed to
the county Jail from Hoquiam in
July, 1905, for exhibiting a danger
Gus weapon in crowd, and has gen.
orally been regarded as an unsafe
man to have trouble with. He had
been on Grays Harbor since May,
1905, and roomed at the Todd house,
when not working in logging camp
until the late Mr. Todd drove him
from the house with a gun, about six
weeks before the murder.
When Mrs. Todd was told of the
death of Steele Saturday, and asked
for a statement, she said she pre-
ferred to say nothing, but added that
Steele had killed her husband because
she had refused to leave her home
and go off with the murderer.
Frank Todd was found on the
morning of September 1, brutally
murdered in his own yard. He and
his wife had been out together that
evening, and on going home, Mrs
Todd retired, while the murdered
man is said to have sat up to read
while. 1t appears that his absence
from bed was not noticed by Mrs
Todd until morning, when his body
was found in the yard. Steele was
suspected from the discovery of the
crime, c.. T. Hall denouncing him as
the murderer to the police of Ho-
quiam on the day of the Todd fun
eral. Later he was arrested and re-
leased, and publicly exonerated for
the purpose of throwing him off his
guard, and Mrs. Todd was induced
by Marshal Mckinney to undertake
to secure confession from him. The
letter printed above would appear to
indicate a degree of friendliness, to
say the least, between the murderer
and the widow of his victim that has
a strange appearance.
All through this case the press of
the county has been asked to publish
only such news of the affair as the
police chose to give out. Every
newspaperman knew he was not get
ting all the facts, and that part of
the information was pure fiction. This