The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-09-03
Two Women Play Part i'm the
Broadway Case.
j. Norman Cook Believed To
Have Committed Suicide.
GIRL FEARED FATHERS WRATH
Letters From Norma Cook and
an Actress Found.
Broadway Was Found Stabbed
on His Own Steps.

Chicago, Sept. 3.-Temptation, ac-
tresses, murder and suicide, love notes
to Honey Boy from Ethel, and des-
perate missives to BILLY dear" from
Your Norma" combined under SEN
sational new disclosures made by Chief
of Detectives Mooney to make the Will
liam E. Broadway murder case the
most mysterious and remarkable Of
recent years.
While police searched the morgues
of seven states on the theory that ].
Norman Cook, believed a suicide,
would be found in one of them, let
tiers were made public by Chief Moon
ey showing that Cooks 19-year-old
daughter Norma had a premonition
that her father might murder not only
Broadway, but also herself and her
mother. Norma and her mother are
now at the home of Mrs. Cooks father
in Columbus, Kan.
An Actress in Case.
A touch of irony was added to this
mess when a short note from Ethel
Ashley, performing in vaudeville at
Madison, Wis, telling Broadway, Her
Honey Boy" how she missed and loved
him, was simultaneously made puenc
by the detective chief.
Ethells letter was written from
Madison, Wis, September 9, 1917, and
asked that the reply be sent her to the
Palace theater at Milwaukee, where
her act would play next. She be-
moaned the fact that she was in a dry
town. Not even glass OF beer, she
said.
In sad contrast to the flippant fun
loving Ethel, the desperate letter OF
Norma Cook reads as a sincere, PLAIN
tive communication in which the trust
ing girl writes to one whom she not
There
plainly evident the knowledge that
Broadway is almost three times her age.
as there is the fear that what nap
pened last Thursday night when Brau-
way was mysteriously stabbed TO
death, would happen.
Norma's Letter.
Her letter, dated THURSDAY, august
is. follows: ,,o,.
somehow / can't see my way thru. Mother
told me tonight that she could not ~
back to New York without first gong ~
chicago. getting a separate maintenance
and 6ossession of our things: Grandpa
would not accompany us and then go on
to new York; am t afrai4 this si stsp
oh. tell me what to 90. would mn ei
rather lose all these things than to thins
Of living in horror Ss and ch hfaF Please
write me and tell if you think that IL Woulu
be wise, and f you don't think as 90
Write note TO mOCHer III Ohe VI ny ~,
fers and try to make her see how much
wiser it would be to go on to New YORK.
/ am simply all upset, the first time IL
a long time.
1 have tried not to let things worry me
but mother acts like she is losing heI
mind. and Billy. not one said one encolr-
aging word to me except you. Mother
always talks discouragingly, always tells
me how blue she is and how she just can
stand to give up her things: Grandma and
and me against them all. and 1 have stood
and tried to be happy until now; nothing
/ say, nothing 1 do, ever pleases anybody
and it seems every way 1 turn ] am con
fronted by a stone wall as high as the
sky, and for the first time l feel so help
less
oh. Billy. dear. tell me, tell me what tc
do. I really must, and the thought of go