The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1911-10-24

ports have been circulated, some of
which have proven on investigation to
be unfounded, that Chief Dugan, of the
bureau of criminal investigation, was
asked to-day to tell exactly what the
police have discovered. aside from the
conjectures they have made
The story" he said. begins with
the arrival of the Baptist minister at
Hyannis about three years ago. AL
most from the first he began paying
attention to Avis Linnell the prettiest
girl In his congregation, who was
then only seventeen years old. Before
the year was out he gave her a ring,
and 1t was generally recognized that
they were engaged. In fact. we have
plenty of Witnesses to the fact that
he publicly acknowledged her as his
fancee. They were together constant
ly. and because of the engagement
nobody thought there was anything
between them.
Then Richeson got in trouble with
his church at Hyannis and left, get
ting the church at Cambridge. 1t was
then that, returning to Hyannis on a
visit, he Borrowed the ring from the
girl on the excuse that the diamond
was loose in its setting and needed
repairing. 1nat was the last she saw
of the ring.
Meanwhile Richeson had met Miss
Edmands. one OF three children of
Moses Grant Edmands. millionaire
Without the knowledge of Miss Lin
nell he paid court to her, and one day
last March his engagement to Miss
Edmands was announced at the same
time the betrothal of her sister to
another Baptist minister was made
public.
But even then he was not willing to
rv,,-
he assured that the announcement of
his engagement to Miss Edmands was
untrue. He went back to Hyannis
early last July on visit. and we have
learned that at least three times he
was with the girl. once at least dining
at her home and making her family
believe they were to be married, even
though the date for his marriage to
another girl had been virtually set.
Remember that we have him def
nitely located at -Iyannis and spend
ing much time with the girl. Then re-
member that Miss Linnen would have
become mother in about six months
from the day of her death. There you
have the motive for his regarding her
as a stumbling block to vie success of
his plan to marry the heiress, Miss
Edmands.
The girl did not take even her
mother into her confidence, but we do
know that when the formal announce
ments of his marriage to Miss Ed
mands We're sent out--more than 500
of them-two weeks ago, Miss Linnelrs
condition was desperate.
That was the situation, all OF the
facts of which are subject to legal
proof. when he went to his old friend
Hahn, the Newton Centre druggist for
poison to kill the dog that he said
was annoying him. We have the drug
Eist's statement that when chloroforra
was suggested. Richeson asked for
something stronger. and was given
enough cyanide of potassium to kill
ten dogs We know that his last words
TO the druggist were a request not to
say anything about the purchase of
the poison.
The Telephone Episode.
The next step in the case we have
proved. not by surmisc but by wit
nesses against Richeson. is his calling
the number of the Young Women's
Christian Association, where Avis Lin
nell lived. on the telephone from the
house of a neighhor of his in Cam
bridge, who was made sufficiently cur
ious by the conversation she overheard
TO look UP the number and find that it