The Washington times., 1912-04-14
MATTE HACK[TT
i MAY Be AVENGED
!. AFTER. I YEARS
~ 80 -.y
Maine Murder Mystery, Long
Dormant, Step Nearer
- Solution.
lcontinued from First paee.l !

Continued from First Page.)
when the village rang with cries that
Matte Hackett- had been murdered-not
by q pistol, not by knife or poison, but
by the strange means of a cord, knotted
so closely about her neck and tied so
quickly with a "weaver's knot" that
she had been able to make but one out
crys nts,t sasaat"
:, -.--.aA ~" Gossips Talk.
The girls body was found shortly
after dusk on that August evening. BE-
fore midnight the village gossips had
begun to talk, laying the foundation
for the earlier suspicion that has result
ed now In the indictment of Mrs. Ray
mond on. the theory Of newly discov-
cred evidence Mrs. Raymond, they
shid-every village has "they'-was
Jealous of the Hackett girl because Bert
Raymond had once taken her to ride.
Mrs. Raymond was not in her home
81 the time the murder was committed.
Suspicion became conviction in the
minds Of many. and from that moment
Mrs. Raymond. guilty or innocent was
doomed to walk under a cloud, to trust
no one, and to feel always that she
must suffer the social ostracism that
might come to a leper
The grand jury met heard a dozen
or more witnesses, but failed to indict.
Each moment, almost, Mrs. Raymond
awaited the summons. When the weeks
wore on fancied security brought no
peace Of mind. The detectives left
Kent's Hill. but their clues and their
innuendos remained. The county Of
hcers resumed the even tenor of their
uneyentful official careers, the village
resumed it's wonted calm-except that It
gossiped more than usual--and yet Mrs
Raymond and her husband, living much
70 Themselves, knowing what the world
thought, courted arrest, anything to re-
heve the waiting. and to solve the mys-
terry Of who had garroted Matte
Hackett a..
For nearly seven years the husband
andwtfe lived in the constant dis
tresstng knowledge that Elsie Hobbs
Raymond was under continued sus-
plcion, even espionage. In every glance
OF friend or stranger they imagined an
nnktnd thought directed at the alleged
rival of the murdered Hackett girl. The
parents of the victim were bitter; they
rallied at the delay and the apparent
helplesspess. OF the law; they demand
retrfbutfon, for the crime was one to
stir the resentment not only of a father
and mother but Of law abiding people
everywhere. Matte Hackett had been
strangled almost under the very eyes
OF her people. for she did not die until
she had been brought back to the house
She might have been saved had the
father been able to see in the dark the
garroter's rope.
/. The human fiend who lured the girl
10 her death had drawn the thongs
30 tight that the cord had been i'm
bedded and hidden in the swollen flesh
The deed would have done an Apache
proud.
4 Find New Evidence.
Just a few days ago the authorities
came into what they believe to be i'm
,portant-ne new evidence. 1t is alleged that
d missing link in the chain of evil
dence against Mrs. Raymond has been
found. A, grand jury has acted. They
have spanned seven years of indecision
and finally have laid the restraining
arm of the law upon the woman who Is
said to have hated Matte .'because she
went to ride with Bert"
Tnis. ItdyIHOuu ndQ long waited Tor
the fate which overlook her only last
week, By day and night. she wondered
II the officers had come. A strange
footstep caused her to start. The sight
OF any representative of the law
caused her to question when her turn
would come. 1t Is, no wonder, then,
when the dreaded, the expected, hap
pened, Mrs. Raymond cried out in relief:
Thank God"
The overwrought woman will soon
know her fate. The people OF Readfield
and Kent's Hill have revived their gos-
siping, Was 1t Mrs. Raymond, was it
q tramp, was it rejected suitor, who
strangled pretty Matte Hackett?
At first the detectives believed the girl
had been killed by tramps, Several had
been In the neighborhood that day, and
four were eventually arrested, only to
be released later on.
"1t was woman" the officials said,
finally. Look at that 'weaver's knot
A woman tied that cord"
Levi Hackett insisted from the first
that woman was guilty of the hend-
fish murder of his daughter and that
rbaseless, senseless jealousy brought 1t
about" Mrs. Hackett simply wrung her
hands, looked at the swollen neck OF the
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