Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-03-22
EntangledNartaiI AtJatrS
OfCarlD. Ford End MIN
Sentence to PenltentlQrv

The entrance of Carl D. Ford into
| the United States pentltentlary sat
| urday night to serve fourteen months
| for violating the Mann white slave
act constituted the final chapter OF
| the most remarkable story of entan-
! gled marital affairs that Atlanta has
| ever known.
Three wives-all of them young
| and pretty have fought over
! the handsome war veteran for sew
| eral months as though he were the
| last man in the world.
With a deduction from his prison
| sentence for good behavior, Ford Will
| have to serve four months for each
wife. His first wife, and therefore,
| his only legal wife, who he married
| before he went to France as cap
| tain in the army, now is living with
| Ford's s@a-ents in Hamilton, Ala
| When agents Of the department OF
| justice visited her and told her OF
| the existence of two other wives, she
| did not weaken.
mo matter what he has done, |
| love him, and he is mine-I married
| him first" she asserted, according to
| the officers. She refused to come
| to Atlanta to testify against him,
| and said she wanted him back and
| meant to have him" when his prison
sentence is served.
Second Marriage in Europe
While overseas, Ford married his
second wife, Mrs. Katherine Maugh-
an Ford, of London. She believed he
was single, and he admitted in his
| plea of guilty that he sWore to her
| he was unmarried.
| After the war, Ford and his Eng
! fish bride returned to Atlanta, where
| Fcrd had served for almost year
as finance officer at Camp Gordon. He
notified Wife No. I of his return, it
is said, but led her to believe he
was on special duty in Atlanta. In
! his letters to her, he also neglected
to mention his second marriage.
Ford had winning ways with
| women-with all types of women.
Wife No. 2 is a blonde; No. is a
| brunette. No. l is neither-her hair
| is red.
The dasning young captain left
| Mrs Ford No. 2 in their apartment
| On Peachtree street and chased down
| to Tampa, Fla, a few months after
! returning to Atlanta, where he met,
won and married his third wife-the
charming young daughter of bank
er. This young woman had been di-
vorced, it is said.
They came to Atlanta and took an
| apartment on Peachtree street al
most a stones throw of the apart
| ment in which he had left Mrs. Ford
No. 2. No. had not been told there
| =
. The English wife found them by
| chance in their apartment-and two
days later the department of justice
investigation was under way
| Another Bombshell
| State officials also got busy, add
soon warrants were out for Ford and
| wife No. 3, charging them with llv-
| ing together as man and wife with
| out the sanction of the law, in view
of the existence of the English wife,
| The first wife had not been found
| at that time.
When the court action began, Ford
| denied he was the husband of any
| woman except his third wife.
That caused No. Q to get busy and
| very soon she confronted him with
| certified copies of their marriag
certificate, received from the rigis-
| trar's office in London.
| The next bombshell exploded when
| federal agents announced they had
| located another wife-his first one
| in a small town in West Virginia
! Up to that time, wives two AND
| three, had openly asserted their love
| for Ford and each had challenged the
| legality of the others marriage to
| him.
But when No l doomed up, and it
| was shown conclusivelY by govern
| ment agents that she was the only
| woman of the trio who had a legal
claim on the prisoner. the third wife
withdrew from the controversy.
"I will give him up and go back
home and have my marriage an
nuled," she said. my heart is al
most torn out thought he was
single"
Mrs. Ford No moved next. She
| began action for alimony and got it
that is, she got court order grant
ing it.
| Pleads Guilty in City Court
Then the former captain was TAX
en- before Judge Calhoun, in city
| criminal court. He pleaded guilty to
! the statutory charge against him and
| drew a sentence of one year on the
| changing. The case against the
dicted with him, was dismissed.
| In view of his poor physical con-
| dition, steps were then taken to have
suspended the state sentence, so
of guilty in United States court. Mrs.
Ford No. 2, at whose instance the
| charges which resulted in the SEN
| tence were preferred, Joined in the
move to have the state sentence
| transferred to the federal court so it
| tertiary instead of the changing.
Ills physical condition would not
| permit him to serve a year on the
! chaingang," she told Vincent Hughes,
| OF the department OIL justice.
| Wife No. wrote a card Saturday,
| declaring she ceased to care for Ford
| when she obtained proof of his
'faithless and criminal conduct" and
that her interest in him and his fu-
| ture was at an end.
! AS result of conferences between
| state and federal officials. Ford's
state sentence is to be served con-
| currently with the federal sentence
| of fourteen months imposed Satur-
day by United States Judge Samuel
H. Sibley.
Thanks Officers
Ford will be able to make time"
much easier in the federal Enclosure
than as a prisoner on the Fulton
! county changing.
| While wife No. 1, down in Ala
bama, was asserting her steadfast
devotion. and while No. was active
in the move to have his sentence
transferred from the changing to
the federal prison, Ford's thoughts
seemed to be only of the third wife
who recently gave him up and went
back to her Florida home,
TT made me very happy when the
| ii >,