Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-02-17
LEFT BY
GAS VICTIM BARE
NAME OF F|ANCE
Notes Found in Room OF Milliner
Tell Tragic Life
Story.

Letters in the room of Miss JAM
Kennedy, whose body was found at rs
Park street last night. where she had
been accidentally overcome by gas, fur
nished clues from which was built up
today her most interesting life story.
Among the letters were several bear
ing the signature of Mrs. ]. w. Stein
metz, of 81 Warren place: Miss Mary
l.. Shipman, of 14S Washington street,
intimate friends of Miss Kennedy, and
ex-Judge Thomas S. Henry, an ac-
quaintance. 1t vas from them that
the woman's remarkable story was OBJ
tanned.
Miss Kennedy, according to her
friends, was conducting a prosperous
millinery establishment in Hoboken,
where h was born, when one day a
carriage drove up to the door and she
was told the Judge wanted to see her.
She was driven straight to the county
jail, and a few days later was sent
to the Hudson County Asylum for the
Insane, where she remained eighteen
months. While in jail she appealed for
help to her fiance, and when the po-
lice were unable to find a man of that
name they believed he was n of her
decisions. 1t has been discovered that
the young man gave Miss Kennedy an
assumed name. but her friends now
know who he is.
Upon her release Miss Kennedy
sought out Judge Henry and sought
through him to bring suit against the
Hudson county authorities and her
brother-in-law, Michael Cannon, of Ho-
boken. alleging false imprisonment.
She aaid ohn ho1 soffanda1 ha- hrotLar
in-law by refusing to assume q portion
of her fathers funeral expenses, and
that he a threatened to get even.
There was 10 question: said Judge
Henry today. "but'that the young wom-
an was committed to the asylum in a
most summary n She seemed
not only rational to me but very in
telligent. After an investigation I found
her case would have to depend upon her
unsupported word. n l did not feel
justified in going ahead with it. / re-
turned her retainer of $50sssi a.l "a
Miss Kennedy cameeto Newark from
Boston a few months ago. She had
been employed at various times by real
estate companies n was well supplied
with n She was to have spent
last evening with Miss Shipman.
Mrs. Laura Ward, who conducts a
rooming house at that address, found
the body when she returned from New
York.
Miss Kennedy vas on the bededresseb
in a bath robe. On the wall there was
a gas jet with two openings. One of
them supplied the jet for lighting and
the other had been used to attach a
hose to a gas stove The stove had
beer removed, it was this stop
cock that was partly opened. A win
dow in the room was open and 1t Is
believed that the woman came to her
death by accident.
Isaac Durie, a nephew of Mrs. Ward,
saw Miss Kennedy Thursday night.
Yesterday morning Mrs. Ward went to
her door at 8 o'clock and found it
locked. She thought that her guest had
gone out, and did net investigate. Mrs.
Ward then vent to New York, and
did not return until 9 o'clock last night.
The room was dark. and, as Miss
Kennedy usually spent her nights at
home, Mrs. Ward became alarmed. and,
getting another key. entered the room.
County Physician William II. McKen-
zie gave his opinion that the woman
had died from accidental causes. He
learned from in the house that
she had complained of a weak heart.