The Cairo bulletin., 1911-11-18
BRASS CRAFT
WIDOW freed
IS REARRESTED|'
Wife OF Former caroite, Acquitted
By Judge, Wanted In
Kansas City
USED THE MAILS 70 LURE MEN
Posed "a Widow And Got Money
.7eOn The Promise OF I.
Marriage
USED THE MAILS TO LURE MEN

st. Louis, Mo, Nov 17-Fannie *.
Morton, the brass craft Widow" on
trial for fraudulent use Of the mails
was acquitted this afternoon by a
jury on instructions from Judge
! Dyer in United States District Court
who ruled that the Indictment was
defective. She was immediately re-
arrested to answer another charge In
Kansas City.
Mrs. Morton says her real name is
Mrs. Leon Alden. She was charged
with using the mails In promoting
an alleged matrimonial agency in
St. louis. Leon Alden, who former
ly resided in Cairo, declares the wo-
man to be his wife, but despite his
statement she was tried under the
name OF Morton
Joseph Neimeier OF Tulsa, Okla,
who declares that he advanced the
widow" $3.50 on the strength Of her
promise to marry him, was the first
witness examined. He testified that
he met Mrs. Morton, or Alden
through newspaper advertisement.
The government charged that the
womans brass craft business con-
sisted chiefly of boxes and matrimo-
nial correspondence.
judges Son Her Counsel.
In ordering the acquittal of Mrs.
Morton the Judge sustained two Of
three objections to the indictment
made by his son, Horace l.. Dyer,
Mrs. Morton's attorney.
lie ruled that the Indictment was
faulty in that it alleged that Mrs
Morton had obtained money from
Joseph Neimeier and from Others" !"
He upheld the defense's contention
that the indictment should have con-
taincd the names of these others or
that no reference to them should be
made.
An objection to the indictment on
the ground that 1t did not specifical-
~ state the letters written by Mrs.
Morton were mailed with intent to
defraud was overruled r..'
As Mrs. Morton stepped from the
court room she was arrested and
taken to the United States marshaI's
office on a warrant issued in Kansas
CITY. Mo. alleging that she fraudu-
lently obtained money there from
Jesse +. Guyer, !. J. Meehan and w.
S. Risden.
Marriage An Inducement.
The indictment alleges that she
held out marriage as an inducement
to men who would put money into
her brass craft business" and a
beauty parlor which she conducted in
Kansas City. 1t is also alleped that
she used the name of Anna b. Tay-
lor" in her Kansas City operations.
Information on which the Kansas
City indictment was based was that
Jesse Il. Guycr of Lanesville, Tex,
sold his cattle for 1880 which he
put into Mrs. Morton's business with
the belief that he was to marry her
and that ]. J. Mcehan OF Oklahoma
city and w. s. Risden Of Princeton,
Kansas spent her 5000 each.
Mrs. Morton was taken before
United States Commissioner Adkins
for a preliminary hearing on the
Kansas City charge On her state
ment that she was not ready for trial
she was released on $500 bond to ap-
pear Nov. z.
She Describes Herself
Letters Mrs. Morton had written
from Kansas City under the name OF
Anna B. Taylor" to the three men
mentioned in the Indictment are in
the hands Of postoffice inspectors
She wrote to J. 10 Meehan In Okla
homa City, Okla. Oct. 2. 1909, ack-
nowledging his inquiry about her ad-
vertisement and continuing, IN part,
she wrote;
Il am a widow, thirty-one years
old. brunette type, black hair and
dark brown eyes: height 8 feet,
inches; weight $50 pounds but not
fat. enjoy the best Of health and
have never Known what n head or