The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1909-12-23
WOMAN IN WAR.
R|NER CASE

Cincinnati, Ohio, Dec. ga trial
that will be watched with interest all
over the country will begin before
Judge Woodmansee in the criminal
court here Monday, when Mrs. Jean
cite Stewart Ford, who has been
styled the queen of blackmailers,"
will be placed on trial on a charge of
attempting to blackmail Charles l..
, Warmer, eX-treasurer of the Big
| Four railroad, who, it is alleged,
stole $643,000 from the company.
The mystery of how one subordi-
nate official could help himself to
| more than half million dollars of
the railroad company's money will !
probably be disclosed for the first
| time, but of still greater interest 10
the public will be the story of in
! trigue. love and tragedy, stretching
| back over ten years and said to in
| volve dozen men of high standing
in business and social affairs, which
the trial is expected to reveal through
evidence which will be introduced n
regard to the extraordinary career of
/ the woman in the case
The career of the woman who
next week is to face the judge and
jury ready like rOmance-a ro-
nance of love and death, intrigue,
suicide and blackmail. According to
his own statement Warmer gave
| the woman, who was absolutely moth
ing to him, sums aggregating $780,
900 to keep silence.
Mrs. Ford is a native of Ohio and .
has passed the greater part of her
life in Cincinnati, with periodical |
trips to Chicago or New York for "a
good time" While she was still in |
Der teens her father died, leaving a
fortune of SIS 900. Her extravagant
mode Of living soon exhausted her |
fortune Then she met Billy" Ford, |
a man we'll known about town, with /
whom she fell in love and whom she |
claims in the father of her child. !
. One of the mysteries of her life is
the fact that she did not marry Ford
but did marry his brother, who later
secured a divorce from her. Then
she met Edgar. s. Cooke, a man OF
family, who was employed in the Big
Four offices with Warriner.
Things went smoothly for a time.
until Cooke desired to rid himself
of the woman. Then the trouble be-
Il gan. Cooke is alleged to have dis
covered that something was wrong
with WARMERS books and to have
told Mrs. Ford. According to War
riner's statements the woman then
used her knowledge to extort money
from him, her demands increasing
in frequency and amount until the
total reached into the hundreds of
thousands of dollars.
Hints have been dropped that hith-
erto unknown chapters in the story
of alleged theft and blackmail will be
revealed when Mrs Ford is placed on
trial. It has been intimated that the
woman did not act alone in her al
legged blackmailing operations, but so
far she is the only one against whom
direct charges have been made. That
the accused woman is "holding some
thing up her sleeve" as she has init
mated more than once since her ar
i rest, is believed by those who have
followed the case closely This is one
of the features of the case that has
aroused great interest in the coming
I trial.
| Mrs. Ford's perfect self-possession
and cool demeanor have been cause
l Of wonder on the part of all who
Il have come in contact with her since
II her arrest. Never for a moment has
she shown any signs of breakdown
Since her release on bail she has
n taken her daily drives about the city
in an expensive automobile and has
never left off in any particular the
! luxurious life that has been hers fot
many years past
Meanwhile Warmer, the alleged
defaulter, who is said to have given
Mrs. Ford as much as $4,000 at a
time, was lodged in a cell because he
! found it impossible to secure bail in
the sum of $4,000. He says he is
! ready for trial and anxious that the
whole story be told And the indica-
tions are that a good part of the
story will be told when Mrs. Ford is
put on trial next week