The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1909-02-09
Charles B. Geisenhainer, Whose
Father Was Former Com
gresham, in the Tolls.
ILLEGAL MARRIAGE
AFTER LATE AUTO RIDE
Divorced by No. |, He Says She
Was Married When He Led
Her to the Altar:
Especial to the Evening star.l


FREEHOLD, Feb. 9.-Freehold So
ciety is talking today about the blgamy
charges against Charles B. Geisen-
hainer, son of former Congressman
Jacob A. Geisenhainer, of this place,
who surrendered yesterday afternoon to
District Attorney Winslow in White
Plains, N. Y.
Back of the proceedings are a mld-
night automobile ride, a secret mar
riage to a young Manhattan girl, a corn-
mitment to a sanitorium, a long search
by a wronged wife, a divorce proceed
ing, a hunt by the police and finally the
surrender.
On the night of April %, 1907, Gels
enhainer stepped into an automobile
in front of the Hotel Navarro, New
York, with Miss Lillian Cornwall
Knight, of 361 West Fifty-eighth street;
James S. Lee, a hotel clerk, and Miss
Julia A. Budd. They drove to Yonkers
and awoke the Rev. Alleyn C. Howell,
curate of st. Johns Episcopal Church.
Geisenhainer and Miss Knight were
married at the stroke of midnight, the
bridegroom giving his name as Carlos
Won Geissenheimer, and his residence as
231 West Fourteenth street, New York.
Returns to First wife.
Returning to New York, Mrs. Won
Geissenheimer took up her residence at
the Navarro, and Geisenhainer @
back to his first wife, at the Wyoming,
Fifty-fifth street and Seventh avenue.
On June 8 a lawyer named Lippincott
sent up a note tc the apartment saying
he had something TO discuss concern.
ing your wife" Geisenhainer was
asleep, SO his wife opened the note and
read it.
II am his wife. What have you to
she said. You may be Mrs.
G~eisenhainer," he replied, "but you are
not the Mrs. Geissenheimer L repre-
He said he had been retained by
Mrs. Lillian c. Won Geissenheimer, of
the Hotel Navarro.
Mrs. Geisenhainer visited the No
varre, met the second Wife, and was
of the auto trip and marriage.
Then she confronted her husband, who
Explained, size said, that while out auto
riding the machine broke down. II was
a late hour, and fearing he could not
get back to New York he married the
girl to save her good name"
Mrs. Geisenhainer took the case into
and had her husband committed
to a sanitarium for treatment for alco-
holism.
Wife No. ] went to Yonkers, searched
the records and finally found a certif-
cate showing hat Carlos Won Geissen-
heimer, of 81 West Fourteenth street,
was married on April 25, 1907, 10 Lillian
Cornwall knight. She recognized the
address as her father-in-law's winter
She had a transcript made
of it n appeared before City Judge
Beall, OF Yonkers, where she made an
alfidayi that the man named In the GER
tlficate was her husband. A warrant
was sworn out, charging him with big
amy.
Mrs. Geisenhainer next brought an
action for a divorce, naming Lillian C.
Knight, and a decree was granted BY
the Supreme Court.
Says Wife Was Already Wed.
When arraigned yesterday Geisen-
pleaded not guilty, and was
paroled in the custody of his counse
who stated that part OF the defense
you'd be that the first Mrs. Geisen-
hainer was already a wife when Geisen-
hainer married her. and that the mar
riage was not legal.
Geisenhainer mn from a distin-
guished family. His father is a law
yer. with offices at 6S William street,
New York. In winter he lives in New
York, and in the summer here. The
young mans mother was a Burkhalter,