The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-03-27
IS SOLVED
MIey. RUSSELL CULBERTsON KILL
 ED HERSELF.
The Chief Of Police Of vineennes, Ind., Says He Is satisAeA IL Was
 . Pure Case Of Suicide.

mystery, suicide brids of three months, was not murdered bus self-siain. There Is no doubt. Her husband
 tearfully acknowledged today that the suspicious that she was killed at the
 instigation of another woman for jeal-
 ous revenge. were unfounded. The body of a miniature skeleton, which
 had been attached to the skull found by
 Mrs. Culbertson when she was discov-
 cred gagged in the shed near her home
 last Wednesday, after swallowing car-
 bolic acid, was picked up late today
 near the scene of the tragedy. It lay
 concealed beneath pile of debris.
 where the disheartened girl had placed
 1t after she removed the head and at
 tached it to the threatening letter
 which she thought would lead the au-
 thorities to believe she was murdered for revenge.
 Positive. proof that the suicide wrote the anonymous threatening letters to herself has also been established. The
 husband and his parents late today si-
 lently yielded to the revelation that
 there had been no murder committed.
 "But." said Cuibertson, T wish Mrs.
 Longwell. in Chicago, would write an
 alibi so that I would be satisfied that
 she has been cleared of suspicion" It was Mrs. Etta Longwell 70S Mad
 ison Street. Chicago, formerly of Vim
 cennes, whom the Culbe-tsops and
 Joshua Brazelton, the step-fatherv of suspect.
 "I cannot understand why. Jessie should kill herself. She never would tell me about her past. except in a gem eral way" said her husband. A letter written her husband last summer is cited as proof of her dolo- rous state of mind:
 My dear Russell--Dazed. mystified, we'll, yes, far more than I can now ex- press. I think. dear, what you have done. I awaited your letter with hap py anticipation, and~oh! the stab 1t contained. cannot recover from 1t as yet. My dear, why did you hurt me | 90? cannot believe you meant to. You were not yourself. Your anxiety and watchfulness for your mother has caused you. to misconstrue my letter. When you have rested sufficiently, read 1t, dear, and see If you can't read between the lines that which I dare | not put into words. Dear. I could not trust you quite, and pride asserted it. | self and I could not reveal my happy | thoughts. not even to you; could not wear my heart on my sleeve, as 1t were. I hate weak. slmpering people, but love battle when hardest tough l., and you and I have had hard strug- | gle. I, too. have fought against the l dictations of my heart. Don't think I don't know you struggle also. There | Is coldness all through your letter | that hurts more than you could ever know. Don't you know me well enough | to know that If your expressions were all in vain that I would not bother 1 about you, fin fact. not make an effort l to write you, though take my much needed rest In which to do so? You | know I would not; it is not my nature | to deceive myself or others I trust l | am above that act Dear. don't ever l become an unwilling slave to anyone | It must be a free and unconditional
 surrender to satisfy the longlngs of | my heart. think well of all you say In your last letter which there Is yet time to retrieve. This is the finish--I | know you did not like the influence I | exerted over you and now, dear, you | are sorry, sorry it has ever been. l think understand so. Am not right?
 It was what I thought the non.exlst-
 ence of belief and trust that caused me l to take frmer hold on myself at times
 and forced back the thought that at l times would assert Itself in spite of all my strategy. I trust you win under l stand this letter. It Is possible you
 are sorry and wish to retEact all that | you have said. Do you, Russell? Mind
 nothing but the truth will suffice. I | was very sorry and enyious if you we're
 disappointed, sorry for both parties 1 concerned and very envious of the true
 one, because you could find happiness
 If you so desired. How could you mis-
 understand? I hasten to finish this be-
 cause I want you to get it tomorrow.
 Glad your mother is improving. Must
 quit now. The doctor is coming Your sad little girl.
 (Signed.) Jessie" Ataf g. 1o4. ,aI the letter, but shows that the girl was
 worried. Who she meant when she
 spoke of the true one," Culbertson | says he does not know.
 I've are through with the case"
 said Chief of Police Evans tonight,
 and the coroner may now conclude the inquest"
 The locating in Chicago of a woman
 suspected of implication in a plot to
 murder Mrs. Culbertson and the decla- ration of this woman that she had not
 been away from Chicago since last
 July that she could prove an alibi and
 would be willing to come to Vincennes to allay suspicion aroused against her, also served to indicate that the tragic
 end to Mrs. Culbertson's life came by
 self destruction.
 "A man and a woman dragged me there and made me swallow poison,
 were the last words of Mrs. Culbert-
 son. No trace has yet been found that
 any strangers were near the Culbert- son home Wednesday afternoon when
 the tragedy occurred. Neither is there any definite trace where the carbolic acid, Mrs. Culbertson's death poison,
 was purchased A canvass of drug stores in Vincennes has failed to throw any light on the mystery. If Mrs. Gull bertson purchased the poison herself, the police believe, she may have se- cured it in Lawrenceville, H., where her husband is employed. She visited him there a few days before her death and the authorities here have heard tat a Lawrenceville druggist recalls
 that Mrs. Culbertson made some pur- chases in his store. Officers will fnves- tigate this report. The plaster of paris
 skull and cross bones found with the anonymous threatening letter in Mrs.
 Cub ertson's possession. the police have 1 been informed, was her own.
 That Mrs. Culbertson was unhappy
 as result of her marriage was de-
 clared to be a fact by Mrs c. w. owens. of this city. with whom the dead woman had lived for more than
 two years Said Mrs. Owens:
 Jessie was most unhappy before she
 was married and after her marriage
 she was disappointed. tried to dis
 suade her from marrying. but could
 not. She was a strange woman with something in her past life that she
 guarded religiously."
 Mrs. Jessie Overton Culbertson Is
 now reported to have come from Dub lin Texas Relatives are said to live there now The local authorities are