New-York tribune., 1920-07-28
Former Soldier
Held i'm Trunk
Murder Mystery
Prisoner Seized i'm Kansas
as LIE Roy Insists Name
Is Ashley and Discharge
Papers Are in Omaha
Real Husband Is Found
Friend Here to Identify
Body Says Girl Was
About to Become Mother

A man answering the description of
Eugene lie Roy, the supposed husband
and slayer of Katherine jackson.
whose mutilated body was found in
trunk shipped to this city from De-
troit, was arrested near Lawrence,
Kan, yesterday. He gave his name as
billiard Ashley, of Sadler, KY, and said
q record of his identity and discharge
from the army could be found at
Omaha.
He was seized while working with
threshing crew. The arrest was made
on information from Kansas City and
the man is being held awaiting the ar
rival of Kansas City officials.
While the police of the country con-
tinued their search for Leroy, Mrs.
Marie Trumbull, an acquaintance of
the victim, arrived here last night to
make the Identification of the body
complete Mrs. Trumbull had recog-
nized several articles Of clothing found
in the trunk with the body as having
belonged to Mrs. lie Roy, whom she had
known since last December.
To View Body To-day
Mrs. Trumbull will be joined by her
husband, Leo Trumbull, a member of
the Detroit police force, this morning,
with whom she will view the body.
The authorities have no doubt of the
womans identity, but wanted the
Trumbulls to identify the body in
malities necessary to clinch the case
against the murderer when he is
caught.
Mrs. Trumbull last night added some
details to those already made public
of her knowledge of the lie Roys.
Among these was the fact that the
girl shortly before her murder had
confded to her that she was about to
become a mother. She had also told
Mrs. Trumbull on June 8, the day be-
fore her body was shipped to New
York, that she could no longer bear
LIE Roys threats, and was going to tell
him that night that she would leave
him the next day Mrs. Trumbull is
convinced that these facts, combined
with the element of jealousy over the
girls alleged affair with A. A. Tatum,
of Birmingham, Ala, resulted in her
murder.
Mrs. Trumbull was accompanied by
Detective Wencil, of Detroit, and was
said she could identify the body, no
matter what condition it was in, and
referred particularly to two protruding
teeth and scar on the left breast.
The body, after the Identification, will
be kept a few days longer, and, if there
is no claimant, will be buried in pot
ters' field. From Birmingham, Ala,
however, comes word that the relatives
and real husband of the victim have
been found. and that they want the
body forwarded to them for burial.
From the little Southern town came
also for the first TIM the real story of
the dead girls life. II is the old ro-
nance of the little country girls illu-
sions about the enchanted life of the
big cities, her impulsive flight to the
longedfor fairyland and the tragic
ending.
She was Katie Lou Fondren, the
nineteen-year- daughter of farmer
with a few acres near Sturgis, Miss,
a small town about twenty miles from
Starkville. Her father was Hampton
Fondren, better known as clamp"
among his neighbors. He died when
she was seven years old.
little affair with an awkward
country boy, a neighbor, and then her
Sturgis, on May 26, 1918. But Katie
the neighbors said, and so the matri-
monial venture came to a close six
months later. The dull life of the
countryside was little solace for the
girls visions of the glitter of the cos
mopolitan cities and, packing bag and
baggage, she fed to Nashville, Tenn.
After three months as a waitress IN a
restaurant there the novelty wore off
and she returned to her home.
The girls mother died in April and
soon afterward she packed her suit
case once again and went to Birming-
ham. Here she met A. A. Tatum, the
linotype operator, whose name was
placed on the trunk by the slayer &c
divert suspicion toward him and who
had visited the girl in Detroit. Katie
Lou then Journeyed to Nashville and
from there to Detroit, still in search
of the city's pleasures.
Husband Grief Stricken
A photograph of the girl was iden-
tilted by cousin, Deputy Sheriff Nc
Gee, of Starkville. Her husband, Kid
Mccoy Jackson, was also found, as was
her stepfather Alfred Vaughn;
Eyes, it is my wife" cried Jackson
as his eyes filled with tears. God, how
i loved her! | have waited and waited
believing all the time she would return
She knew | wanted her and would take
her back at any time and that's why
she didn't divorce me. | can hardly
believe that she has come to this."
jackson wants her body brought home
and given proper burial, and he WoulC
forget the sordid end and waywardness
of the little girl he had loved anc
waited for since she left him two years
ago.
With every effort being made to draw
the chain of evidence tighter about the
slayer, there are still bits Of vital IN
formation which the police have failed
to find. These are the organs of tn.
body, which, it is believed, were shipped
IN another trunk from the lie RoS
apartment, at 105 Harper Avenue, De
troit
The destination of this trunk remain.
unknown and call has been issued t,
every express company in the countr,
to examine all baggage uncalled TO
within the last six weeks.
The authorities are sure that th
girl was killed in the lie Roy apart
ments, having found blankets simila
in design and texture to that foun,
in the trunk with the dead body.
Late last night woman, giving he
name as Mrs. Anna Falk LIE Roy, wake
into Police Headquarters at Buffalo
n. Y, and told the authorities she wa
convinced the man accused of tn
trunk murder was her husband whom
she had married five years ago. Ac
cording to her story, she married al
Abraham lie Roy after knowing hin
only a short time. She left him sever
months later because, she says, of hi
rafty apnOvnpces and fepdich plao s,1 y,