Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1920-12-08
Wife of Wealthy Oil Mans
Nephew UncOvers Fam
lily Skeleton.
NEPHEW PAID TO WE'D
CLARA SMITH HAMON
Gave Her Family Name SO That Jake
/. Hamcn Could Take Her Into
Home as Mistress Without Great
ing Scandal-J. /. Hamon's Wife
Paid Pension Of $1,000 Per. Month
to Live Separately.
By Associated Press.


San Francisco. Dec. S.-An inter
view with Ruth Walker Hamon, said
to be the wife OF Frank Lewis Ha-
mon, former husband of Clara Smith
Hamon, sought in connection with
the death of Jake l.. Hamon, million
aire oil operator and republican ma
tional committeeman of Oklahoma,
was published by the San Francisco
Examiner this morning.
The interview. dated at Sacramen-
to. C,,lif., quotes Mrs. Hamon as say
ing her husband, at the behest of
jake l.. Hamon, married Clara Bar
ton Smith ana in return was given
$100 month from that time by the
oil operator
Frank L. Hamon and Clara Barton
Smith. according to the published
interview, were divorced at Weather
ford, Tex, on May %, 1917, and
never lived together.
The intervies. further alleges that
Mrs. j. l.. Iianon, widow of the mil
sionaire, was paid $1,000 a month to
I've III Chicago by her husband.
Frank Hamon Missing.
Frank Ramon, according to the in
teivlew. disappeared five weeks be-
ioie the death of his uncle, after
having declared he was going to see
the millionaire and have it out with
him.
The Examiner, quoting Mrs. Ha-
mon, said in part:
i.At first Frank tried to make me
believe he had married this woman
while under the influence of LIQUOR.
4. doubted this. as he never drank
while he wsls with me. Later / per-
aseiyed that he was getting a check
from his uncle for $10O every month,
and | wanted to know why. 1t was
then that he admitted that he had
married the Smith girl merely as a
convenience to his uncle so that she
might bear the name of Hamon and
live with the oil man without arous-
ing public suspicion. The monthly
check, he confessed, was his regard
for this accommodation.
He frequently declared that his
uncle was not sending him an ade-
quate payment for what he had done.
think he was more and more in
censed after he learned that Mrs.
Jake Hamon was getting $1,000 for
the support of herself and child in
return for tacit con- vance in Jake's
dual life.
Abandons Legal Wife.
In August, 1913, my husband went
10 Ardmore and Jake Hamon gave
him job in the oil fields. He wrote
to me to come out and join him, but
when Jake heard that I was coming
he told him, so Frank says, to clear
out and never come here with that
woman. Later Frank was told that
Clara Smith was receiving mail un-
der my name and using it generally
to avoid suspicion, and that a second
Mrs. Frank Lewis Hamon in the
community might cause lot of
trouble.
Shortly after my husband came
back from Ardmore his mother
bought the ST. Elmo ranch. few
miles from Vacaville, and I came
here to live with Franks brother
Raymond and his wife
"F'rank came to me ore day early
in October and told me he was going
away to marry a rich woman and he
wished I would find somebody else.'
"The very rich woman was Clara.
learned. He disappeared then and
the next thing | learned was that
Jake had hec~ murdered and Clara
had disappeared. Frank is still miss
ing"