Evening journal., 1915-09-14
HOUSEKEEPER SAYS
SHE Loved JUDGE
Wont Believe He Was to
Marry Another" Cries
Mrs. Wardwell
IN TEARS WHILE
SHE TELLS STORY

1AAAl Il AlAlAAeJ ~ Il NSlA |
( PROVIDENCE. Sept. Al loved |
him dearly, and could never believe /
after the way he has treated me all
these years that he was engaged to
another woman"
So said Mrs. Cora E. Wardwell. |
housekeeper for twenty-one years for
Judge Willis S. Knowles, who was
shot to death near his home in
North Scituate on Labor Day, when
she was asked by Chief Inspector
O'Neil if she knew the judge had
promised to marry another woman.
The question came as the climax TO
a sensational grilling of the middle
aged housekeeper in the judges law
office in this city Scattered about the
room were scores OF letters received
by the judge. Standing near we're the
judges two brothers-HoTace G.. and
Benjamin of New York-who have
sworn to devote their lives to tracing
and furnishing the judges slayer,
Daniel P Macdonald, the judges law
partner, Chief of Police Cuff and In
q, spoctor Debow, of Cranstoon. chief OF
: Police Kimball, of Johnston, and In
spectors Ahern and Godfrey of this
city.
chief O'Neil, who was ordered to take
,, charge Of the search for the judges
slayer by the governor. had been hrlngI
questions at the little woman for an
hour when he snapped out the one re-
corded above.
She Will Not Believe It.
Tears came from Mrs. Wardwelps eyes,
then, and she sank back sobbing into
Judge Knowles leather bottomed swivel
chair.
=, 81 most certainly did not know the
judge was engaged TO another woman"
, she said unsteadily; "and / do not be-
lieve it. Chief O'Neil ! admire you for
o your duty ms a policeman. but | will
Z never believe you when you make such
a statement
Whether Won believe it or not. it is
true" was the chiefs blunt rejoinder. q
have talked with the young woman and
=. she has proved TO me that she was en-
gagged to marry Judge Knowles"
1T isn't true,' Mrs Wardwell cried.
"Why, if that woman should walk right
into this room right now and tell me
that-even then ] wouldn't believe il.
On the morning the Judge was murder
ed" she continued, putting a handker-
chief to her ewes and rocking back and
forth in the big chair, she kissed me
eoodby as sweetly as any time that rve
known
HE had left the house TO have
some papers signed, and l walked to
: the gate with him where he kissed
= me goodbye. After that turned
. ar nd cfa ~ 81 BIZ,
/. house. when I heard three shots l
= ran back to the gate and looked down
the road and saw the judges body
lying there. No one was in sight. /
! hurried to the house and telephoned
> for the doctor, and then / ran back
= and threw myself on his body and
! asked him to speak to me. But he
!, was dead"
No Woman In the Case.
This story is slightly different from
{ that she had previously told the po-
, lice, but Chief O'Neil said he is posi-
: tive she knows nothing more about
g the judges death. In fact. he ad.
mitted that theories that a woman
: might have been concerned, either
consciously or unconsciously, in the
murder have been dissipated One
< woman who. according 70 the police
l. threatened Judge Knowles life in
his court room three years ago. has
= been located in the Middle West.
Horace G. Knowles sale he had dis.
continued using private detectives
not because he wished to hush up
3 the investigation, but because his
l. father. seventy-eight years old, had
told him private detectives only
y would interfere with the police.
p He added that search Of the Judges
D. effects had disclosed a will drawn in
1911, but said he would not discuss
y its contents until search of the
ST judges safety deposit box in the
Rhode Island Hospital Trust Com
L pany was searched tomorrow, when
n he expects that another will will be
discovered.
4 Judge Wasn't Afraid.
ID II is understood that Mrs. Ward
we'll is a beneficiary under the 1911
= will; that Benjamin Knowles. who is
/. said to be wealthy, is not mentioned
1t but that Horace. who is not so vel
to do, is The latter also is named as
beneficiary in an accident policy fol
:. $4,000 found in the office.
~ 81 have absolutely no suspicion a.
to who is my brothers murderer
=, During the month I spent with Willil
before the murder he never said one
thing about being threatened. nor die
- he express any fear. The statement
n printed in the newspapers that h
G wished to accompany him to th'
car every morning is false.
G Frequently he spoke of the sho
A that narrowly missed him three weeks
before his death. but he always saiC
that must have come from the riff
of a careless hunter"
, The police said that the wealth,
m lawyer of Boston" who was suppose,
- TO have been a rival of the Judge
~ existed only in the mind Of the youn!
~ woman who told Chief O'Neil thu
y, Judge had promised TO marry her al
- "soon as another woman in whom h
~ was interested married a wealthy out
y of-town professional man."
IT. TROLLEY VICTIMS IMPROVE.
IIosrf