Imperial Valley press., 1913-11-19
Three Women are
Accused Of Murder
(By United Press Associations,

(By United Press Associations)
San Francisco, Nov. 19.-Califor-
MIA women have been unpleasantly
free in their use of firearms recent
ly. Three of them are in as many
different jails today awaiting trial on
murder charges. They are:
Mrs. Edith Ivy, Los Angeles.
Miss Leah Alexander, San Fran
cisco.
Mrs. A. G. Drown, Oakland
Mrs. Ivy was the4wife of rich Los
Angeles real estate dealer. She was
separated from her husband, who was
her victim, and gave as her reason
for killing him an salleged wrong he
had done to their Daughter, a young
girl in her teens. She had worked,
she said as domestic in Los Angeles
to get money to pay for a pistol and
for thetaxicab in which she drove
one morning recently to his suburban
home. Calling him to the door she
shot him through the body and turn
ed to flee. She dropped her pistol as
she did so and Ivy snatched> it, as he
lay prostrated across his own thresh-
hold, fired after her. The shot missed
but the chauffeur seized her as she
ran from the gate and held her until
the police arrived. Ivy died few
1uxyc lot rp1ol &c l..
ed the woman, when she heard the
news.
Miss Alexander shot Joseph Van
Baalen, an advertising agent in his
office in the Chronicle building. She
had lived with him, though he wa,
a married man, and said that he had
promised to make her his wife as
soon as he could get divorce. This
promise he failed to keep and to make
matters worse Miss Alexander was
driven frantic by Jealousy at the at
tention she sair he was paying to a
third woman. When she called at
his Office to expostulate with him and
he spoke roughly tssascr,,~slre drew a
pistol from the folds of her dress and
shot him three times. Van Baalen
died the next day. Unlike Mrs. Ivy,
Miss Alexander was frantic with
grief at her victims death and re-
fused for a long time to believe that
he had succumbed to his wounds.
The Drown case was perhaps even
more remarkable. Mrs. Drown and
her husband had always, everyone
supposed, lived happily together. The
wife, it appeared, suspected her hus-
band, however, of infdelity. Arising
early one morning about a month ago
she shot her husband through the
head as he slept, killing him instant
ly. She calmy left her palatial home,
for the browns were rich and spent
the day with friends. Late in the
afternoon she attempted to shoot the
woman she suspected had her dead
husbands affection. She only failed
because she had omitted to release
the safety catch of her automatic
pistol. She fled, joined a party on
its way to the Portola festivities in
San Francisco and was apparently
enjoying herself to the utmost when
she suddenly burst into tears and con-
fessed her crime to her astonished
companions, as they stood in the
midst of the merry-making crowd.
The dead mans brother was hur-
riedly called on the telephone, and,
with him and Mrs, Drown, the party
hastened to the Drown home. 1t was
early on the morning following the
tragedy when they entered the bed
room to find Drown dead in bed, ex-
actly as his wife had said. Mrs.
Drown has been nearly prostrated
since the shooting.
The three cases followed close on
the heels, too, Of the killing of Louis
Belmont by his wife, Leah, who shot
him to death in Los Angeles for urg-
ing her, she said, to support him by
living life of shame. She was ex-
onerated by a coroner's jury.
A fifth case, in which woman
was involved, though in that instance
it was woman, too, who was killed,
was that Of Cleo Sterling, denizen
of the underworld, accused of COM
plicity with Sam Raber, a cabaret
singer, and Jack Drumgoole, Chica-
go prize fighter, in the robbery and
murder of Cherry de St Maurice, the
proprietress of Sacramento red
light dive.