Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1917-07-09
Brookline, Mass, Has
Real Mystery; Try To
Solve Women's Death
(By J. Herbert Duckworth.)

pride Of a~ristocratic and
Brookline, the richest
in the world has received a
blow in the Keyes murder
mystery. 81
This Boston suburb of private parks
and mansions, ruled by three very Sc
lect selectmen. strictly representative
Of its silk stocking millionaire towns
men, tried hard to censor, all news of
in the sensational and
tragedy, but in vain.
When the case was reported as one
of suicide Brookliners gave a sigh OF
That was better than murder.
They didn't want a big trial to focus
the attention of the country upon
them. But murder will out.
Cultured Brook1ine nov has a
full-sized, unsolved murder mys-
terry to- cope with, the principals
of which are q man of many love
: affairs whose young and hand
some wife was found shot, and
his wife's young and beautiful
rival.
Who bought the gun from which
the shot was fired that killed Mrs.
Keyes?
That's what Brookline's police
are trying to find out, while fash
ionable and fastidious Brookline
shudders in it's new-found and sor-
did n~otoriety.
I First clues that a pawn-broker
knew who bought the gun have
developed nothing.
Who bought the gun?
Who fired the shot?' ''
When Pauline Biesenbach Reyes
was found dead in her home, 70 Ken
wood street.. June 10, Brookline bum
bledom said Suicide" There was the
suicide note" to prove it. But a hand
about to take her life would have
shown SO steady a hand.
Investigation into the life Of the
husband then brought to light the
fact that George H. Keyes was a New
England Don Juan. Here, right in the
midst Of Brookline's blue-blooded
families a man had been living a dou-
BILE life!
On reconsideration, too, it was
decided Mrs. Keyes could not
have fired the two shots through
her hand into her temple. Thai
vas a physical impossibility.
Who, then, fired the fatal shots?
A mysterious woman, had been
seen by neighbors prowling around
the Keyes home a few days before the
murder.
Then Keyes was closely quizzed. He
finally betrayed Miss Harriet A. Var
ney, hospital nurse, who quit her job
at 5 a. M. the day after the murder.
Miss Varney for six years had also
posed as Mrs Reyes" Keyes used to
visit her two or three times a, week.
| %~~1r ILL., - l~- -k-A-.D-
home at West Upton. Miss Varney
was arrested and put in Jail.
Miss Varney's alibi is that she ar
rived in Boston from North Grafton
at 1915 about the time the murder
was committed Inc lunched later in
a Boston cafe with Keyes. In a letter
she sent her sister that day she said
Keyes couldn't eat"
When inquiries were made of Reyes
he produced a dentist who said he
was in his surgery at the time of the
murder.
This is the matrimonial career of
Keyes:
Married Helen P. Provan in 1899.
In 1910 she left him. In 1914 he OBJ
tanned a divorce.
In the meantime he had become in.
terested in Pauline Biesenbach, his
s~tenographer, who was to become the
Inflated wife No. g."
Also, it is said, within this time he
became friendly with Helen Varney,
a hospital nurse and photographers
model.
In August, 1916, Keyes, in New
York, married Miss Biesenbach, 26
years old, and IL years his junior.
These are the highlights in this
complicated murder mystery hat
has besmirched BrookIne's "mor-
al Observation-Disclosures hat
have leaked out in spite Of the
secret manne of conducting the
inquest in this ultra exclusive
community, and the almost COM
1cal deaf and dumb attitude of the
local police.