New-York tribune., 1921-02-12
Camden Man Gone Since
January p, Two Days
After Wedding, Returns
in Night to Bride, l6
2 Women Identify
Body as Husband
Mystery Deepens as to
Identity of Dead Man
Found Near Wilmington

CAMDEN, N. j., Feb. 11.-William F..
Walker, who had been missing from
MS home here since January 27, two
days after his marriage, walked in on
his slxteen-year- r-old bride at / o'clock
this morning and was arrested at once,
largely because he had failed to COM
nit suicide.
There is said to be no evidence upon
which to base a definite charge against
him, but it is hoped that his arrest
will help in solving the mystery sur
rounding the discovery of the body of
man near Wilmington, Del, who had
been shot through the mouth, within q
few miles of where a suicide note, to
which Walkers name was signed, was
found.
Mrs. Walker, who used to be Dorothy
McCabe, mission worker, lives with
her mother at 243 Kaighn Avenue, in
this city. In tellM the police of her
husbands disappearance last month
she said that he had been attentive
to her for some time, and on January
70 announced that he was desperate
enough to shoot her and her mother,
too, unless she married him at once.
Hurry to Parsonage
This startling proposal, the girl said,
was made during dinner at restau-
rant to which Walker had invited her
and her mother. 1t spoiled the dinner,
the trio leaving some Of the dishes
untouched and fastening to the parson-
age of the Kaighn Avenue Methodist
Episcopal Church, where the Rev. Will
liam G. Rum performed the ceremony.
When questioned by the police, the
clergyman said that the youthful bride
was crying, but that he put that down
to nervousness and saw no reason not
to marry the couple, as the girl ex-
pressed her willingness and was ac-
panied by her mother.
On January 27, Walker vanished.
from Wilmington, Del, that man had
been found dead in Brandywine
Springs, near that city, shot through
the mouth, and that beside the trolley
tracks, about two miles away, lad been
found q note, addressed to Dorothy
Walker, of Camden, and signed Frank
F. Walker, the writer of which ex-
pressed his determination to enc his
life.
Mrs. Walker hastened to Whining
ton. She examined the body of the man
found at Brandywine Springs and dis
covered that it was that of man about
fIFtU old rthi1a Lop
thirty-siX. The note, however, was in
her husbands writing, she said. It re-
lated the circumstances of their mar
rage and asked her to forgive him.
Shortly after Mrs. Walker had failed
to identify the body, Mrs. Charles
Smith, of Wilmington, went to the
morgue and identified it as that of her
husband. She said that her husbands
home was in Coffeyville, Kan; that
they were married in June, 1920, and
separated the following month.
Second Identification
An account of the mystery was read
by Mrs. George Rigley, of PHILADELPHIA,
whose husband also was missing, and
she went to Wilmington and identified
the body as that of her husband. Her
Identification was no less certain than
that made by Mrs. Smith. She said
that Rigleys home was in Coffeyville,
Kan, and that they had been marriet!!
several years and never divorced. The
initials &C. R." were found in hat
lying beside the body.
In the mean time Mrs. Walker had
received an unsigned note from Read.
ing, Pa. which she thought was in her
husbands writing. She took it to the
police. and detectives have been posted
at her mothers home ever since, conf
IDENTIFY awaiting the temperance of
Walker.
The man who met his death at
Brandywine Springs took his own life,
according to the verdict of a Coro-
ner's jury, and that solution has been
accepted by the police of Wilmington.
Attorney General Townsend, however,
is convinced that he was murdered.
Police Reopen Case
Although the bulle. went through his
brain, the Attorney General said, un-
doubtedly causing instant death, his
limbs were composed, his hands at his
side and his body lay on carpet of
which scarcely had been
rumpled. The revolver lay beside the
body in a position which indicated that
it had been laid down deliberately and
not dropped
At the request Of the Attorney Gem
eral, the Wilmington police reopened
the case, and are of the belief that the
man killed at Brandywine Springs was
a bigamist, known both as Smith and
as Rigley.
Walker is being held at Police Head
quarters here to await instructions
from Wilmington.