Omaha daily bee., 1921-08-23
Mystery Of Neal
Death at Peru
Grows Deeper
Letter Found in Home Re-
veals Family Affairs-Step-
son Shares in
Estate.

after the word that the man ha
killed himself was absolutely clear
There were no powder burns o
stains,
DR.. Vance said that when he ar
rived at the place of the TRACED
about so minutes after the alarm ha
been sent in he found Neal cold an
stiff. Rigor morts had set in ant
the tongue OF the dead man wa
swollen. The alarm was sent il
shortly after l:30 on the night o
August II. Within 50 minutes ther
were persons at the house.
Time Of Tragedy Varies.
Mrs. Neal fixes the time Of th'
tragedy at about 1880 o'clock. Ye
the body had the appearance OF hav
ing been dead two hours. Mrs. Nea
said she heard only one shot in the
g bedroom which she occupied witt
her husband. Her lo-year-old daugh
ter, Ava, said she heard two shots
and then noise as though some one
had fallen. Both Mrs. Neal and her
daughter testified that they ran from
the house as fast as they could to
the home OF a neighbor, Charles
Buck, 800 yards distant, and made
no investigation nor observation oi
what had happened to Neal.
Ava Neal testified that on the way
to Bucks she asked her mother what
had happened and her mother told
her Mr.. Neal had shot himself or
! some one had shot him.
Denies Talking to Daughter.
Mrs. Neal denies that she talked
with Ava on the way, but says she
did tell Mr.. Buck, the neighbor, that
Mr.. Neal had shot himself or some
one had shot him. She gives no
reason for the latter statement or
conclusion on her part and said her
husband had no great enemy.
She swore that he occupied the in
side of the bed. There were blood
stains on the sheet where it Tapped
over the bed on the side on which
she says she slept. The bed, when
examined by the party called to the
home after the tragedy, showed no
signs of having been disturbed.
There was also no trace of the bullet
which Ava says was fred. There
were other splotches of blood on the
floor, small splotches leading from
the side of the bed. where Mrs. Neal
alleges she slept, to the place at the
foot of the bed and the door of the
bedroom where Neal was found.
There was the imprint of human
hand on the door casing and faint
bloodstains on the wall paper on the
south wall of the room near the floor.
Imprint Of Left Hand.
Hans Nielsen. Bertillion expert
for the State Bureau of Criminal
identification and connected with
the Office of State Sheriff Hyers,
says the latter imprint is of the lett
hand of some person. There was
no blood on Meals left hand. 1t is
said, although his right hand was
bloody.
1t is alleged that when Mrs. Neal
heard Nielsen was coming to
examine the finger prints in the
room she called Sheriff Davis and
asked tie latter to go to her home
in Brownville and there try to find
a pistol, the property of her former
husband, John Wright, which she
said was in a chest in an upper room
of the house. She told the sheriff
that the pistol had been in the chest
a few weeks before and that she had
handled it. 1t is alleged and that
ker finger prints might be found on
the pistol. She described the gun
as cheap. small callbered, nickel
plated affair.
The sheriff made a search of the
room and chest and found no pistol:
The state alleges that the pistol held
in the hand of Ben Neal when he
was found dead was the pistol that
had been owned by his predecessor,
John Wright, first husband OF Mrs.
Lucy Neal.
Jealous of Wife.
These bits of circumstantial evil
dcnce, together with mass OF other
evidence which the state claims pos
session of and whicsh it i guarding,
Will make the case against the
woman Men who are familiar with
the temperament of Ben Neal and
who understood the details OF his
tempestuous marital career say that
he would never have committed sui
eide without first having killed his
wife, OF whom he was insancly Jeal-
Gus. He had been an old-time GAM
bier, it is said. and also something
of gunman and had the contempt
Of his class for small-calibered,
cheap. uncertain pistols. Acquain-
tances contend that such weapon
would have been the last that he, in
his peculiar PSYCHOLOGY, would have
selected as an instrument of death.
Sympathy With Mrs. Neal.
Public sympathy is more or less
in favor of Mrs. Neal and she will
possess this to the end, except in
the event that a conspiracy against
the life of her husband in cold blood
can be proven against her, the ma
,ority of persons here recalling her
unhappy life and its frequent quar-
rels and near tragedies with her hus-
band. 1t is contended that in a
tight with him she might have been
driven to defend her life, or that in
a fit of emotional insarity. caused
by a succession of troubles, she may
have been tempted to do away with
Rim and they contend that, should
such have been the case, jury
would exonerate her and hold her
blameless.
But the story that she told at the
inquest is one they feel was incom-
plete and showed that she had men
tally reserved much that was im-
oortant for fear of consequences and
in this they think she has made a
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