The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-05-01
WIFE ASKS FREEDOM
FROM 7. L. REYNOLDS
Ethel May, Cabaret Singer, En-
hibits Sears as Ground
for Annulment.
CALLS HIM A GAMBLER
Alleged Ambassador From
Amazon Republic Posed as
ellis Excellency.'

Four tiny scars marred the beauty OF
the pretty and much admired shoulders
OF statuesque Ethel May Reynolds.
cabaret singer.
Incidents leadng, up to the acquisition
OF these blemishlng marks are related in
papers filed yesterday in Supreme
Court in an action she has started
AGAINST her husband, Thoms Lennon
Reynolds, an oil operator. politician and
broadway figure, who, his wife alleges.
represented himself to her as ambassa-
DIR plenipotentiary from the Amazon
Republic and as ex-ambassador to Rus
STA from the United States.
She alleges he deceived her and IL a
common gambler. with convictions
against him in the New York courts. and
that the dsflgurIng scars on her
shoulder were caused when he, In a vio-
lent ft of rage. hurled largo carving
fork at her with such unerring aim that
tho prongs were embedded deeply in the
tesH. II she cannot be the consort Of
tho man of affairs he represented HIM
nc'f TO be. Mrs. Reynolds prefers to be
single and asks that the marriage per-
formed year ago be annulled-
Il was while she was singing in the
c-oarct ut Rectors that the plaintiff
riot Reynolds and she admits she was
suppressed Immediately He presented
his visiting card. on which was engraved
tn words His Excellency' before
i yno'ds name. He was addressed on
az sides az Senator" she alleges and
tod her he was a power in Tammany
H'h, former associate in business Of
Tmothy D. Sullivan and that he had
an European title. being a landed pro-
meteor in England
We're Married in Newark.
All these things she believed, She
states in her papers, and following Q
"lirlwind courtship, they went to New
? X at the conclusion Of the cabaret per-
formance in which the plaintiff figured
and were married by the Mayor Of that
city on May 81, 1918
Reynolds continued his deception Of
hes after the marriage, his wife alleges,
aud explained his source of income by
saying he was an officer in several oil
companies. with offices at Broadway
and Forty-second street, and was also,
through political connections, a lobby
list at Albany and Washington for sew
eral large corporations. He received
100000 for distribution among legts-
lators from one of these, Mrs. Reynold
says her husband told her.
She was disillusioned on her return
to her home in IS West Sixty-eighth
street one night when she found DO
licemen in possession. Doors were
broken in and windows smashed, while
several men were moving roulette wheels
and tables from the house. She was
then informed there had been gam
bling raid, and although all patrons had
been arrested, her husband had escaped
He was later arrested, and she be-
lieved his story that the raid was
frameup to ruin him politically. she
says. His conviction as a common
gambler in the Court OF General Ses-
sions did not shake her belief In him the
plaintiff states. Reynolds was dned $3.50
and sentenced to three months In prison
on the story OF a New York business
man who had been swindled of $4,000
in Reynolds's house.
Alleges Crooked Gambling.
Shortly afterward, the plaintiff says,
she obtained a confession from her hus-
hand in which he admitted deceiving
her. She says he told her he was a
gambler and showed wires attached to
storage batteries by which he manlpu-
lated roulette wheels and other gambling
devices. To silence her threatened ex-
posture of him, she says, he gave her sew
eral thousand shares OF oil stock and
an automobile. y period Of abuse fol-
lowed, during which time. Mrs. Reynolds
alleges, she was the subject of various
acts OF cruelty. among them the wound
ing with the fork. Additional punish
mont was threatened. she alleges, II she
made complaint.
His statements that he was a man
of means, a graduate OF Vanderbilt Uni
versity at Nashville, Tenn. an attor-
ney, a delegate to the National Demo-
cratic Convention which nominated
President Wilson and a business asso-
ciate OF the Goulds and Rockefeller in
duced me to marry him" Mrs. Reynolds
alleges in her complaint. Instead, l
ascertnined that he is a common gambler
and an associate OF gamblers and Is
without means of income. He Is a
swindler and in constant litigation in
actions brought against him for fraud {;
has no sense of moral obligation, and
is constantly soneming to defraud all
with whom he comes into contact"
Reynolds was sued in 1912 by jacques
Bustanoby, restaurateur. for the alien
alton of the affections OF HID young wife.
The sum OF $4,000 was demanded, but
the suit was never brought to trial The
defendant is 90 years old and his wife
10 II.