Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1921-08-22

Los Angeles. Aug. 21.-(Spe-
cial )-On what grounds do Los
Angeles authorities hold Mrs.
Madalynne Obenchain and Arthur
C. Burch in connection with the
murder of j. Belton Kennedy,
young insurance broker who was
shot to death, at his summer cot
tage at Beverly Glen, twelve miles
southwest Of this city, while in
company with Mrs. Obenchain on
the night of August 5?
Here is resume Of the case
from the hour when neighbor of
Kennedy's heard the fatal shots
and called the police:
Following the traditional course
the detectives seized the murdered
mans companion first. Half hys-
terical, she told them that she
loved Kennedy and had hoped to
marry him. She divorced Ralph
B. Obenchain of Chicago for Ken
nedy's sake. All that stood be-
tween their marriage was the OBJ
lection of his mother who did not
broker, she said. Madalynne is %.
All this the police listened TO
with attention blended with pa
tience. Time was precious at that
moment and they urged her to talk
facts about what had happened
in the automobile which had
brought her and Kennedy to the
cottage and on the lawn just be-
fore the shot was fired, and the
woman said:
Did Not Know the Murderers.
I'VE had been to a beach party
together and went to the Country
club for dinner, but it was too late,
so we drove to the Glen to dine.
When we stopped at the door of
the house l delayed Jack a mo-
penny that had lost.
"a shot was fired. 1t seemed to
come from a clump of bushes.
Then another shot sounded and
John fell. / saw two men hurry
from the bushes. They were
dressed roughly. l did not know
them AS went to Mr.. Kennedy,
he smiled, and said, Good night,
Madalynne.' and then he died"
Examination of the clump Of
bushes referred to by the young
woman showed that they had been
trampled. Medical experts esti-
mated that the shots which killed
Kennedy were fired from about
thirty feet.
Then Sheriff It. A. Tatten or
| dered Madalynne held without bail
as a material witness, and COM
mented:
Il guess you know who commit
| ted this murder"
The nerve-wracked woman de-
MED and added:
Our home was broken up by
my love for this man. Mr.. Oben-
chain was willing that / should
obtain divorce If it would make
me happy, but he loved me. He
would take me back tomorrow.
II have known Mr.. Kennedy for
five years, since before l was mar
ried, when we were in college. i
would have been married to him
now were it not for his mothers
attitude"
Burch's Trail.
Backtracking over the woman's
story, the woman found it to pe
substantiated by many facts. But
| suddenly they came across the
trail of a new figure in the mys-
terry, the remarkable figure of Ar
thur Burch, also Chicagoan, son
of a minister, the Rev. william A,
Burch of the faculty of North
western university in Evanston,
Ill.,, where the Obenchains, the
Burches and Kennedy had been on
the friendlisst terms a few years
| ago.
The trail Of Burch was struck
In Los Angeles, a warm trail that
wound through the city in way
that excited suspicion. The detec-
tives found that he had been call
ing on the Obenchain woman, un-
known to Kennedy, and that she
had been returning his visits.
So they took the minister's sor
! off train in Nevada and brought