Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1916-04-30
FAITHFUL GIRL IS
WEDDED TO 'LIFER'
Loves Devotion Again
Wins Out. This Time in
Penitentiary.
A STRANGE ROMANCE
Groom Met Bride in st.
Louis While IA Fugitive
From Justice.
A STRANGE ROMANCE
Special 10 The World.

Special 10 Inc MOfld.
M'ALESTER, April 2s.-Devotion
as steadfast and undismayed as that
which prompted Mary Magdalene to
follow through trials and tribuation
the footsteps Of the Savior claimed its
hour of triumph within the gloomy
gray walls of the Oklahoma state
prison when John Cieloha, serving "a
life. sentence for murder, and Miss
Eta Martin of ST. Louis, Mo-, were
made man and wife.
Majly in love with the young Bo-
hemian who had wooed and won her
while at liberty following a desperate
escape from the penitentiary here.
pretty Eta Martin rushed to his side
when he was recaptured, came from
st. Louis on the same train which bore
him back TO his prison cell, worked
here four months as servant girl
during which time she exhausted ev-
cry resource to secure from Warden
X. w. Dick and Pittsburg county Of
ficiaie a sanction to their marriage,
and finally went to the state capital
at Oklahoma City and threw herself
at the feet of Governor Williams, who
lent a kindly ear to her remarkable
story Of love and devotion and sent
her back to McAlester with the COW
eted permit to wed the man whose
home and life she can never hope to
share.
Story Of Crime.
A little way out of the Midland
Valley railroad from the city of Mus
kopee big bridge spans the Arkansas
river and Just at its edge huddles Il
little red shack where David Conway.
the aged bridge-keeper made his
home in other days. The old bridge
keeper kept much to himself and a
story went the rounds that he had a
small fortune hidden away in the lit
tie shack. Early one morning train
men missed him from his lookout and
o search revealed his corpse, cruelty
mangled with gaping bullet hole
through his head.
= Suspicion pointed to John Cieloha,
tcalled Chilly -hah), and three other
young men said to have been seen in
!. the vicinity, apparently under the IN
fluence of liquor, on the night OF the
tragedy. One of the four made a
confession in which he swore that
the party had gone to the bridge with
the intention Of robbing Conway and
had beaten and done to death the
aged man when he protested that he
had 10 money. Cotton Taylor, re-
puted to be the coolest and brainiest
criminal who ever did time in the
Oklahoma state penitentiary and now
a fugitive from justice, being the only
lfer to ever escape from its walls and
remain uncaptured, and John Cleloha
were charged in the confession with
being the actual murderers. Cieloha
has always maintained that he and
the fourth man did not go with Taylor
and the confessor on the mission of
sdeath and so declared following his
, marriage today.
So il was that John Cieloha, black
of hair and eve and seeming too boy
ish and slight to commit homicide
SO ehastly and premeditated, at the
age of eighteen stood in the district
court AT Muskogee and heard the
words pronounced which consigned
him to life Imprisonment in the gray
tomb on the bleak hills overlooking
McAlester
Dash for Liberty.
The years rolled by uncounted to
the men behind the prison walls. Cot
ton Taylor came to be known as
f1 rless and desperate man. Despite
constant watching he crawled a mile
through a sewer to liberty. He was
CAPTURED and came back declaring he
would he out again in thirty days. He
= was. The manner of his going remains
"a mystery and the man himself re-
mains at large. John Gieloha, his pal,
pursued an opposite course. He was
tractable and Obedient and won the
confidence of the prison officials.
Last September. after seven years he
found himself trusty, though with
very restricted privileges. Telling the
story on his wedding day. he said that
he and fellow trusty while outside
the walls secured some liquor. Half
DRINK thew made a dash for liberty.