The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-07-02
HUSBAND SLAIN WIDOW ADMITS MURDER PLOT Woman and Lover, Held for Cheshire Mystery, Make Confessions Follow
 ing Arrests Victims Body Found in Woods, Where He Was Lured to His Death After Being
 ChlOrofOImed

open the way for further friendship between them, it is believed, James H. PleW, a Middlebury farm hand, and l Mrs. Bessie Wakefield, of Bristol, on Sunday morning, June 22nd, carefully planned the murder of the latters s
 husband and that night carried out their plan, according to confessions
 said to have been made by them last night to Coroner Eli Mix. The body of the man found in the Cheshire 1 woods last Saturday night was identi- fled early yesterday morning as Mrs. Wakefie1d's missing husband, William O. Wakefield, and this Identification, coupled with alleged revelations by
 the two prisoners, clears up the so- called Cheshire Mystery, which has
 appeared SO baffltng for three days. According to the stories said to have
 been told by the two under arrest, the
 original plan was to chloroform Wakefield. This proved difficult, how
 ever, and after a struggle between
 Wakefield and Plew in the formers
 home, Wakefield was finally given just enough ch1oroform to stupefy
 him. Plew then forced him to walk
 through the woods towards Cheshire
 at the point of a revolver. While pass ing through what is known as the
 Southington woods, Wakefield made
 an attempt to escape and .P1ew shot
 him once in the back. This one bull
 let, a small 22-caliher shot, failed to
 have any serious effect on Wakefield
 although it stopped his flight. By
 threatening to shoot again, Flew made
 the wounded and bleeding man con
 tinue the walk to Cheshire. In the
 woods there. thinking that he had got
 him far enough away from Bristol to
 escape detection, Plew, it is alleged:
 killed him.
 There, in the spot where the body
 was found, Plew, it is alleged, shot the wounded and stupefied Wakefield twice in the head and once more in the
 back. After he fell to the ground, PleW made sure of Wakef1eld's death, it is said, by stabbing him in the heart with a pocketknife. He then took several leather thongs, such as Wake field used for shoe strings, out of the latter's pocket and made a moose and slipped it around the neck of the dead man. He hitched the loose end to the stump, it was found when the body was discovered. This was done with the avowed purpose of making it ap- pear as though Wakefield had com
 mitted suicide.
 The walk from Bristol to Cheshire, where the body was found, is about nine miles. Wakefield was so stupef1ed by the chloroform that he walked like drunken man, with P1ew sup porting him. Several people whom they passed on the road probably thought that Wakefield was drunk and that Plew was taking him home. A short distance outside of Bristol P1ew struck straight across through the woods.
 Fight Precedes Trouble.
 The fight between Plew and Wake field occurred in the Wakefield home on South street, old house known as the 'tKilduff home formerly spacious old farm. house but lately turned over to the use, of several families of working people, about 11:3e o'clock Sunday night, June p, Plew left the house with Wakefield about 12:30 o'clock and probably did not get to Cheshire until 1:30 or 2 back in Bristol and told Mrs. Wake
 field of the affair about 7:15 o'clock on the following Monday morning.
 Plew and Mrs. Wakefield left Bris
 toI that day and went to Middlebury, where the former was living They evidently feared that the body would be discovered, however, and planned between themselves how they could avoid suspicion if the body was dis covered. On Wednesday, June 24th, Mrs Wakefield at the direction of Plew went to Chief Belden of the Bristol police department and report ed to him that her husband had dis appeared and that she thought that he had committed suicide. Question
 ed by Chief Belden, she didn't tell a very connected story and the latter l became suspicious He investigated nished by some of Wakefeld's neigh bors he became even more suspicious l Some of the neighbors told of 8, fight l on Sunday night between Plew4 and l Wakefield and one neighbor testified 1 that he heard Wakefield cry: My God, James; don't choke me to death J | Chief Belden didn't tell Mrs. Wake field of his suspicious, but quitely de l tailed five policemen to search through 1 the woods around BrisEo1 in the hope of finding the body. He told Mrs | Wakefield to come back and see him l again. She came back the following day and he then told her to come 1 back again on Saturday. In the mean | time he was making every effort to l discover Wakefield's body. if it was in l that locality. The search around Bris- l tol was fruitless, however. When | Mrs Wakefield saw Chief Belden last l Saturday he told her to come and see l him again on Tuesday, that is, yester- 1 day. In the meantime Mrs. Wakefield l was spending most of her time in | Middlebury with Plew.
 l On Monday night Chief Belden hap | pened to read a story about the body | found in Cheshire in the Journal-Cour- l fer, and noticed that the description 1 of the body tal1ied with that of the
 missing Wakefield. Yesterday morn l ing he called up Coroner Mix on the l telephone and had him go to Bristol Coroner Mix took with him the cloth | ing and belongings found on the body | in Cheshire.
 ] By a peculiar coincidence Mrs 1 Wakefield arrived at Chief Be1den' 8 office a few minutes after Coroner 1 Mix arrived. Without telling her that 1 there was any suspicion of murder the clothing and belongings found on the body were shown to her and she 1 imm ediately and positively identified them as her husbands.
 Secures Confession.
 Coroner Mix, Chief Belden and Prosecuting Attorney James T. Ma