Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-12-04
Police Seek Husband and
Mother of Bathtub Victim.
$24.5OO INSURANCE ON LIFE
If Woman Was Murdered, Motive Is
Proven, Say Police.
FORCED TO DIE OR KILLED.
Method of Her Taking Away Baf-
FERROUS Life Of Family.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, December 4.-The most
complicated mystery that has attended
| death in many years of police work con-
| fronts the authorities today I'm the case
| of Mrs Ocey Wardlaw Martin Snead.
found dead in a bathtub in a bleak house
at 50 North 14th street. East Orange.
The police have established that, IL the
young wife was murdered after being
systematically starved. there was album
dant motive for the deed That motive ID
| the one that has always been most potent
in the affairs of men and women
money.
To be exact, it was $245OO. the amount
so far determined as representing seven
teen insurance policies on the dead wom-
ans life.
Those Implicated in Tragedy.
Miss Virginia Wardlaw. aunt OF tho
dead girl, is in the Essex county prison
awaiting examination Monday, charged
with "willfully and feloniously. and OF
| malice aforethought. having killed and
murdered" Ocey W. NJ. Snead.
The mother Of the girl, Mrs Caroline
B. Martin, is missing, and sought Dy
police Of thousand LOCALITIES. ,..,,.
| Fletcher Snead, the husband, 10 missing.
Whether he is alive or dead and wnetnee
| he knew or was ignorant OF the eram
tragedy that was occurring among ms
own blood relatives Is more tnan man
| There remain Mrs. Mary Snead. mother
in-law of the dead girl and the aged
grandmother, Mrs. Martha Wardlaw.
They are at 466 West I'D us street Ne"
The police, in support OF their theory
that the woman was the victim OF CON
spiracy, have patched UP history OF the
Wardlaw family that, In their op, pm H.
hold the other women as material WIZ
neSses.
$24, 500 Insurance on Her Lie.
The death Of the young woman came at
| the very time that a vast financial struc-
ture Of insurance was apparently about
| to 20 to pieces. In one way or announcer
| with little or no financial backing. the
three strange old women in the Wardlaw
family had made the life-or death-of
Ocey Snead worth $4,000.
The first step was taken IN iSV' Wnon
| Ocey was fifteen years old and student
at Nashville. A policy was taken out
with the New York Life Insurance Com
pany. The maker Of the contract end
| heneficiarv was her mother, for whom
| the police now search.
From them on policy after policy was
obtained until the total reached $24boo.
Are there more? 1t Is perfectly posi-
BILE say the authorities. Police and In
surance men are searching records.
How did a young woman, who la1er
married her cousin. a smail-salaried
| member of her own family. get the
policies? is asked The evidence 30 far
| brought to light by lawyers. landlords
and friends discloses. say the police, that
the elder female relative of the insured
L~ t.1r tNy0H NfNyY
| temporization with creditors. loans out Of
hand and loans on the strength or poll
| cies already held
Physician Goes Unpaid.
Take a typical case. say the police. that
of DR.. NJ 8. Gabriel OF 412 West 23d
street. The women needed a physician.
| They called on him. He attended them.
Time came for his fee.
He was shown three insurance poll
cies :You see we're good for your Fee"
| That was as much as he ever saw.
And SO 1t was with each creditor Of the
Wardlaws that has volunteered evidence.
They were shown insurance policies In
lieu Of liquidation Of the debt. And some
of them were told that the money on
those policies would be realized shortly.
The next thing known in this curious
history is the finding Of the insured
young woman dead In a bathtub. Exam
inafion by physicians disclosed that. IL
she had not drowned. she had starved to
death.
/ A note was found saying, over the
woman's signature, that she had COM
mitted suicide.
Doctors and lawyers come forward with
stories of strange domination over the
deceased while she lived with her elder
kinswoman in this bleak place at East
Orange.
Was she driven to kill herself? Was
she Systematically starved to death? Was
she murdered by stronger hand that
held her head under water? Or did she
die a natural death?
Those are the questions that the police
may some day solve.