New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-08-23
Drowning of
Mrs. Cheatlaanl
Called a Hoax
Mayo Insists Mother-in-Law
Is Hiding in Effort to
Help Daughter Regain
Possession of Her. Child
Charges Plot to Kill Him
Food Poisoned, He Asserts,
in Reply to Wife's Plea
for $4,000 Alinaony

The woman's clothing found Sunday
night in a bathing locker at Coney
Island was identified yesterday as be-
longing to Mrs. Z. S. Cheatham, grand
m other Of the much kidnapped Charlotte
Mayo. Mrs. Charlotte Mayo, daughter
OF Mrs. Cheatham, identified the gar
ments and said she feared her mother
had disappeared because of sudden i'll
ness. Almost simultaneously. with this
development. Roy Alfred Mayo,
wealthy investment broker, filed with
Justice Burr an answer to his wife's
request for $4,000 aInony and $4,000
counsel fees.
In it was contained an affidavit
charging that Mrs. Cheatham's dsap-
pearance WAS hoax, that she had also
disappeared from his home in Chicago
on March %, 1917, and that he had
discovered five days later that she was
serving q twenty-five day sentence in
the Bridewcll for shoplifting. At
tached to the affidavit was a receipt
from the Chicago Department of Cor
rectlon for $3.50, the amount of fine
Mr.. Mayo declares he paid in order to
free his rnother-in-l after she had
served her sentence
Charges Plan to Deceive Courts
In q statement made by Mr.. Mayo to
a reporter for The Tribune he de-
clared that Mrs. Cheatham had caused
to be circulated recently report tn at
she had died in Mississippi, in order
to bring her daughter to that state.
and that the woman's present disap-
pearance was for the purpose of de-
ceiving the court
Mrs. Cheatham, l believe, was
aware Of the fact that | was to-day
fling my answer to my wife's charges.
and that it contained afidavits made
by relatives showing that she is a
police chara ter, and an evil influence
over her daughter" said Mr. Mayo.
She knew that no court would grant
the custody of my baby to my wife
so long as she was about to influence
her, and this is a trick to remove
the obstacle which her presence lends
to my wifes effort to gain the child.
The woman is not dead, and will ap-
pear in good time"
Contained in Mr.. Mayo's answer is an
AFFIDAVIT signed by former Mayor T. ].
Williams, of Memphis, Tenn, a broth
crin-law Of Mrs. Cheatham, and by two
married sons, declaring Mrs. Cheat
ham to be a 'police character" in Colo
RADIO and California and asserting that
she has led an "evil and reprehens:
bic life"
These relatives also charge that while
the present Mrs. Mayo was of tender
years her mother used her in various
Matchmaking schemes against unsus-
pccting travelling men, and they refer
to affdavits made by Chief OF, Police
J. III. DAILY of Pueblo, Colo, to the
effect that the woman is known tc
the police of that city, and that
a man arrested there on charge Of
blaclsmailing had named her as his &C
complete.
Mr.. Williams says that he went to
California and brought Mrs. Cheatham
and her daughter back to Memphis in
order to protect the name of the fam
lily. He was at that time the legal
guardian of Charlotte Catherine Cheat
ham, now Mrs. Mayo, and as such he
put her into boarding school in
Tennessee. Later her mother appeared
accompanied by a man named Golden
whom she declared to he her husband
and took the child back West, where
it is asserted she was used in the
matchmaking plots.
Charges Poisoning Attempt
Mrs Cheatham is charged by Mr.. Maye
in his answer with having attempted
four times to rOison him while 1iv;no