The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-10-25
IS FOUND.
One Margaret Van ROyen Was
Writing When Shot Down.
Was to Married Sister and Told
of Trouble.
CAUSED BY BROTHER.
CAUSED BY BROTHER.
Placed Much of Blame on Pat
rick Mcmahon.
Said She Couldn't Continue to
Live i'm Such Misery.


Margaret Van Royen was murdered
in her home on the Reidy road in
Kansas City, Kan, last Tuesday she
was writing a letter to her sister, Cy-
rilla O'Brien. who lives in st. Joseph.
Mo. That letter, half finished. and
stained with her own blood. was
lie administrator of Wyandotte coun-
ty, in the Van Royen cabin.
The letter. written with a lead PEN
Gil. speaks of the trouble she was
having with her own relatives, the
Mcmahon family, and especially of
trouble that she and her husband
were having with her brothers, Pat
rick and James Mcmahon. She speaks
of the misery in which she was living
because of this quarreling and bicker-
ing, and she wrote that she and her
husband were going to sell out and
move away to escape it. She wrote in
this letter a moment before she was
murdered:
II couldn't live in such misery, not
knowing what minute he and the kid
would get into it,
He is her husband, and "the kid
is her brother Patrick.
The last words she wrote in this let
ter before the murderer entered was
the name of her brother, Jim M"
This letter was found by Mr.. Cox
folded and laid on two-by-four be-
hind and on a level with the table at
which she was sitting when murder
ed. The first searchers of the house
overlooked it in their haste.
The first person to enter the house
after the murder was the coroner, DR..
J. A. Davis. He found the body of
Mrs. Van Royen lying just inside a leg
of the table and the wall. Her posi-
ton showed she had been sitting in a
chair at the table and that as she sat
she was facing the south door. On
the table before her, where she sat
was the back and one sheet of tab
band had used when they had a groc-
cry store in Mount Washington. On
this one remaining sheet of the tablet
she had done some figuring with a
lead pencil which lay on the table.
The public administrator, in search
a two-by-four which crossed just be-
hind the table, and within reach of
her hand as she sat, the two sheets
of paper torn from the same tablet
on which she had been figuring.
This letter to her sister. Cyrilla. was
was murdered Tuesday, October 19.
She evidently had begun this letter to
her sister and after she had written
the two pages, had run out of paper;
had laid the letter on the scantling
and had begun figuring something on
the remaining sheet, which was torn
and not fit for letter writing. On the
first sheet of the letter were some
spatters of blood, each one not larger
than pin head.
The kid referred to in the letter
is brother, Patrick Mcmahon, the
Dick" spoken of is Richard O'Brien,
husband of her sister, Cyrilla. Nam
is her mother, lin Mack" is her
brother James, Lon" is her husband
Alonzo, ]. Downs is her uncle, who
Noperates a saloon on Union avenue.
The letter follows:
The Last Letter.
Mount Washington, Mo.
Bell 1sO Fairmount.
Kansas City. Kan, Oct. 18th.
My Dearest Sister: AS I got your
letter the day l posted my last one I
will ans. now.
Well Cyrilla 1 just stop and think
and think and think I have to pack
up again and strike out west. While
it makes me feel awful 1 can't help
but think it will be for the best, be-
cause after the way Nam, Jim & the
Kid have acted to Lon he would never
L.
and 1 could not live in such misery
not knowing what minute he and the
Kid would get into it, as he said he
never would take anything from any
man.
OF course 1 think he shows his
manhood there. He won't speak to
the Kid now and he tries to act so
nice and I just wish you heard how
Jim Mack apoIogized to Lon, how he
treated him last spring. Now didn't
l.
was just simply down and out and
didn't have penny on earth and the
way he was imposing on him in every
way, half the time not talk to him like
the Kid.
1t was the lies H. Smidtz was telling
him and from the way J. Downs talk
ed to me I think ]. Mack was telling
him. Oh 1 tell you ]. Downs and
had some pretty hot words and the
way j. Mack is talking to Lon about
what things Jim D. says I am afraid
he will have them scraping. ]. NJ
said to J. D. said we lost everything in
the store, that we did not have a
thing after the fire and saying what
he advised me to do, that he didn't
advise me to sell the Mont. (Mont-
that to me too and said we paid too
much for it. I told him all the rest
paid too much then on that street. I
was telling him how Jim NJ.
All agree on the time the first shots
were fired that killed Van Royen. and
this testimony of these witnesses es-
tablishes beyond a question of doubt
that he was murdered at least an hour
before the women were slain.
Expect Arrest Soon
Although there were rumors of an
expected arrest today in the Van Royen
murder mystery. Sheriff Becker OF
Wyandotte county declared his office
was not yet in possession of sufficient
facts 70 warrant such a move
II think" said he, that we are or
the right line. but there will not be an