The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1912-10-02
Led Helpless Woman and
Man to Death.
AUTO PLUNGE OVER PREC|P|CE
Ended All-Letters Left Be.
hind Bare Hearts of
Victims.
TRULY UNSELFISH SACRIFICE


Death in weird mountain-side
tragedy came to Niles c. Folsom, a
young lawyer and Deputy Consta-
BILE of this city, and Thelma Bartee,
Of San Diego, early to-day, when
Folsom, with the consent of the wo-
man, deliberately drove an automo-
bile off high precipice at Topango
Pass, at the mouth OF Topango Can
yon, about seven miles from Santa
Monica, killing himself and the wo-
man.
Love, with the threads crossed
and recrossed, caused Folsom and
his woman companion to end their
lives, and yet It was not love for
each other which led them to seek
death.
Folsom, according to letters left
by him and the Bartee woman, was
infatuated with Ethel Jones, a Los
Angeles chorus girl, who lives at
sos California street. Because she
had repulsed his suit, he sought to
die.
The Bartee woman, in a letter
which bares the innermost secrets
of her heart, shows that her love
for the young lawyer was so great
that she tried to bring him and Eth
ell Jones together, and, failing, de-
cided to share his fate rather than
grieve over his great unhappiness
and certain end.
An automobile party found the
wreck of the automobile and the
bodies at a sharp turn on the road
up the pass.
The machine had been run off
the turn and lay 10 feet below.
Beneath it lay Folsom. A few
feet away, her dress badly scorched
and singed, lay the corpse OF the
woman.
Thelma Bartee, the dead woman,
barred her heart to a friend of Fol-
SONS and this man produced a let
ter that the woman had written to
him a few days ago, which shows
that she was willing to die if she
could shed but one ray of light in
the pathway of the man she loved,
but who loved another.
The letter frankly states that the
writer was old enough to be Fol-
SONS mother and that she knew he
loved Ethel Jones and was drink
ing himself to death because he
could not win the girls affections.
She speaks of Folsom's wanting to
die and says she would be only too
glad to give him and his love into
the keeping of the girl IL by doing
so he could be broken of the drink
habit.
The letter left by Folsom in the
hands of the same friend to whom
Thelm Barbee wrote her sorrow,
throws a peculiar light upon the
mind and actions of the young law
yer.
He was only % years old and the
Bartee- woman was past 40. He
frankly wrote her that he loved the
Jones girl and that with her re-
fusal of his affections, he hated all
women and intended to drink him
self to death with absinthe.
Folsom wrote: 81 don't want an
enemy in the world, but as for COM
ing and living with you or marry
ing you-never, nor any other wo-
man, except. one, and I'll never be
able to get her
The Bartee woman wrote: Nov
I have failed in everything l have
tried, | want you to bring him and
Miss Jones together again. You
can show this letter to her or her
folks, il you think necessary, or tell
them as much as you think neces-
sary, but show it to no one else"
"Mr. Folsom told me he could
never marry me-" Mrs. Bartee's
note read, "for reasons known to us
both. was old enough to be his
mother, but l loved him. He did
me a service greater than that ever
performed for another woman in
my position by a man, and l could
not help but love him."
Mrs. Bartee's note said but for
the influence of a certain gang,
the ringieader OF which was once
hired by San Francisco crooks to
put Fremont Older out OF the way"