Omaha daily bee., 1918-01-10
ARMY OFFICERS FILE BIGAMY
CHARGE AGAINST GIRL WITH
PAIR OF SOLDIER HUSBANDS
Fort Omaha Lieutenant illustrates Alleged Scheme of
Mrs. Frederick Rayome Alias Mrs. William
George, to Defraud Government; First
Case of Kind in This Section.

Mrs. Frederick ]. Rayome, alias
Mrs. William A. George, girl-wife Of
two husbands, one of them a soldier
and the other drafted man, has been
arrested on complaint of Fort Omaha
army officers in an effort to discour-
age possible frauds upon the govern
ment.
LIEUTENANT FILES CHARGE.
First Lieutenant Samuel T. Moore,
commander of Company c, Third bal
loon squadron at Fort Omaha, filed a
charge of bigamy against the lo-year-
old wife of one of his men, Frederick
]. Rayome, who was married to her
December %. She represented herself
to be an unmarried woman, the COM
plant alleges, when in fact she was
the wife Of William A. George, chef
at Creighton college.
- COMMON IN EAST.
"The army has had numerous cases
of the kind in the eastern and souths
ern concentration camps" Lieuten-
ant Moore said. Women have made
q practice of marrying a soldier and
getting him to assign them one-halt
OF his salary so they can get the gov
ernment allotment OF SIS per month.
, In some cases similar to this they
have married two or more of the
boys for the sake of the money they
can get out of it when the men are
ordered to another post.
"Rayome told me he was married
and at his request | transferred his al
1otment from his mother at White
Plains, N. Y, to this woman. We
find now that she was already mar
ried, and that her first husband, Viii
liam George, is drafted and expects
to be called soon. George knew moth
ing of his wife's second marriage. She
could have arranged to draw both al
lotments after George went to camp
if we had not nipped the case in the
bud.
Confined in Barracks. WI. .
"This is the first case Of the kind in
this section and we aim to put stop
to the practice before it becomes pop
ular."
Rayome met the woman and had
frequent appointments with her and
had made plans to get married, but
Lieutenant Moore discouraged the
project and confined him to barracks:
Mrs. George went out to the tort and
i,nportuned Lieutenant Moore to re-
fa,ra har "suae athaar RI " "-
"She wept all over the Office for
him and / finally let him out Fri
day night before Christmas" the
lieutenant said. Saturday morning
I learned they had been married..
First Husband Acts.
William George, her first husband,
learned Of the marriage when he saw
a notice of it in the newspapers. He
has flied a suit for divorce, alleging
tKf his wife has fraudulently con
tracted marriage with Rayome. lie
saws that Mrs. George became dissat-
isfed with married life in general
about April 2, 1917, when she began
to insist on going to dances with
other men. He asks that she be de-
MED all right, claim and interest in
his real and personal property.
The girl-wife of two husbands gave
ner maiden name as Mary Waneta
Pratt when she was married to
George in September, 1915, at St;
Savior church. In her license to wed
Rayome she gave her name as Mary
7. Proytt.
She was arrested late Tuesday
night at 1l6 North Twenty-sixth
street on a bigamy charge filed by
Lieutenant Moore,
She pleaded not guilty when she
was arraigned in police court Wednes-
day morning. The case was continued
until Friday morning. Bonds were
sa+ AZ $750