The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1913-12-25
WOMAN CONFINED
IN SECRET ROOM
EAGER FOR DEATH
Jprist's Hidden AfiIity .C.tempts
Hanging When Body is Taken
TO Grave.
HER SLAVERY WAS SWEET
SAYS DEAD MANS s0ULMATE
Declares She Let Lawyer Lock Her
N Room Because of a Love
Spell.

Monticello, \. Y, De-. 2i.-As
additional pages of tne Sc rcI nae
history were displayed today for the
inspection Of ncighbols who had
hcnored and respected him, the
body of Melvin II. Couch lawyel
and jurist, was borne to its last rest
ing place.
True 10 him in dea Ii as She had
hecu through life, Mrs. Couch
bravcd Il driving snow and hail
torn to pay q last tribute to tho
athc~ CT her chi drcn. The grief
ickcl wife was CONFERRED by the
presence OF scores who, like herself,
ad lived in ignorance Of the law
-er's strange dual personality.
Denied the privilege Of attending
he funeral and burial Of the man
or whom she had sacrficc9 as a
iilling slave of love the best yeaI1
{ her life. Mis- adelaide NJ. Brancc,
Who cha~actcrizes herself his wife
t tho heart" viewed the cortege
rom q barred window Of the county
all. She wept as this lasi chapter
the e&tFaordinafy lo@c 7dfaHla N. .s.
eing enacted.
indicated of Death.
Just twcleve hours. before tho
ody of Couch was lowered into his
rave Miss Brance, after a trying
bird degree ordeal in her cell, con
'uctcd before a secret court of in.
nj, iton, was vindicated of all re-
possibility for the death of The man
he had loved, She was also freed
the technical charge of petit lar
eny and told that She was at lib
rty to leave Monticello.
Miss Brance collapsed under The
everc cross-examination, and two
hysicians, Drs. Curlctte and Cauth,
+, and MIS-, Andrew Dunn, the jai'
ursc, remained at her bedside in
ne hospital ward until morning,
he was not physically able to leave
he prison.
She begged nr, Curlet e, a brlthc"
Mrs. Couch, to give her sufficient
olson to end her life.
Give me poison, Doctor she
loaded. Il want to die End NJ
fe now or ] will kill myself when
leave here. les. | will die on the
rave of Melvin"
She declared he was her soulmate.
Miss Brance attempted TO hang
lcrself in the hospital ward of the
all. Sheriff Kinney, however, de
lied the story. Her father, %squire'
william Brance. hanged himself tcE
ears ago in Hartwick, where Miss
9rance was born. Her brother Her
bert O. Brance, is now postmaster
at Hartwick.
Here is Miss Brance's story as she
alatcd it today:
81 ww happy in my prison be-
ause | loved | am Adelaide
rance My family is not to be dis
used. Who they are and where
hcv are mah5s no difference. 1t is
efficient to say that my father and
lothcr are dead.
"Nelvin Couch held me in spell
f love andd | did not rebel. | loved
i'm more than life. liberty or that
hing which the world calls virtue.
Nv slavery was sweet; my memory
,weeter.
There were days of agony. but al
vavs there arose higher the love
made me forsake my freedom.
"She (Mrs Couehl may have been
his wife in the eyes of those Who do
not know the supreme right of love,
But in his Heart he acknowledged
but one companion. | held that
place in his life.
would a wife live in coop like
the one in which I lived? Would
she be thus seff-denied Would size
be a willing slave? Would she wear
the clothes that you now see on me
and care for him like I have? I will
lIAncluded ON SiYfh pa