Daily Arizona silver belt., 1910-05-08
Wednesday Set for Hearing of Greatest Crime Mys-
 tery of Season
OCEY SNEAD FOUND
 DEAD IN BATHTUB
Three Near Relatives of the Victim Indicted Charged
 with the Deed

NEWARK, N. J.. May G-lnterest in the mysterious death of Mrs. Ocey Wardlaw Martin Snead at East Orange, N. J., in November last has been re- vived by the near approach of the date set foE the opening of the trial of Miss Virginia O. Wardlaw, Mrs. Caroline B. Martin and Mrs. Mary w. Snead, who are charged with the murder of the victim of the famous bathtub tragedy. The case has been called for trial on Wednesday of next week and there is every indication that the case will be strongly fought and will go down in the annals of criminal history as one of the most puzzling and peculiar cases ever known in this country.
 Mrs. Ocey Snead was found dead in the bathtub of the house No. S9 West Fourteenth street. East Orange, on November 29, 1909 and so peculiar were the circumstances surrounding her death that the authorities began an in- vestigation to ascertain the true facts in the case In the afternoon of No vember 29 some woman called up the police of East Orange, asking for the address of the coroner. When the wo- man was informed that there were no coroners in New Jersey, she informed the police that a woman had committed suicide at No So West Fourteenth street. Dr. H. NJ. Simmons, one of the deputy county physicians was sent to the house and found the body of the young woman in the bathtub. The tub was full of water and the entire body of the woman was submerged. At first the physician did not suspect that there was anything wrong, especially as he found, pinned to the clothes of the woman, note stating that she had com mitted suicide. Closer investigation convinced him, however, that the wo- man had been dead more than twenty four hours. As the bath room was the only one in the house it seemed strange that the body had not been found soon CT. The explanation offered by the three women in the house did not satisfy the physician ana upon his report careful investigation was begun by the police authorities.
 It was ascertained that the victim of the tragedy and her aunt, Miss Vlr- ginia Wardlaw, had moved into the house on West Fourteenth street ten days before the finding of the body. They had no furniture except cot and soap box, which served as a table. The two women had no money and sub n. ,tc onI fpNV oranges. The investigation was con tinued and an amazing mass of material was brought to hght. It appeared that the three women indicted for the mur- der of Ocev Snead were near relatives of the victim. The aunt of the dead woman, Miss Virginia Wardlaw, comes from well connected southern family and at one time was president of Soule college, at Murfreesboro. Tenn, and later a member of the faculty of Roam oke college, Salem, Va. The exact cir. cumstanees which led to the decline of the family fortune is not known, but it seems that Miss Virginia Wardlaw, acompanied by Mrs. Caroline B. w. Mar tin, the mother of Ocey, and Mrs. Mary w. Snead mother of Ocey Snead 's hus- band, Fletcher w. Snead, came to New York some years ago probably in the hope of recovering their fortune. At first they lived at the Waldorf Astoria, later at the Manhattan hotel, but as their funds began to run low, they rent ed a modest house in Flatbush. After two months they moved to an even less pretentious house in Brooklyn and after a few weeks to the house in East Orange What became of Ocey's hus- band has not yet been definitely as certained. He has not been seen for a long time and his next of kin pretend to know nothing of his whereabouts.
 It has been ascertained that the wo- men have been in desperate financial condition for several years and have borrowed from many wealthy persons, giving their notes as security. As a strong moment of suspicion is consid cred the fact that the life of the victim of the bathtub tragedy was insured in ten companies for an aggregate of $32,- GOO. The insurance companies at first suspected that the body of the young woman in the bathtub was not Ocey Snead. but the body was positively identified by several persons, among them by the doctor who had treated Ocey Snead when her baby, who died about a year ago, was born. Another strange feature is the fact that six or seven wills, purporting to have been signed by Ocey Snead, and making her