New-York tribune., 1922-02-24
Mrs. ChcatInan,
Believed Dead
Found
Mother of Mrs. Mayo Says
She Vanished From Beach
10 Help Solve Daugh-
icr's Matrimonial TapgIc
Discovered i'm Chicago
SOn-in-Law Insisted Dis
appearance Was Il Hoax:
Wife Expresses Surprise

CHICAGO. Feb. 23 Mrs. +. s.
Cheatham. wealthy New York widow,
who for several months was believed
TO be dead, was found here to- day liv-
ing in Il rented room in Il South Side
residential section inhabited largely
by persons Of only moderate means.
Mrs. Cheatham said she had nurposcly
hidden herself in tho hope that her
disappearance would prevent a divorce
between her daughter and son-in Law.
Mr.. Mayo. my son-in-law. blamed
me for all tho trouble with his wife.
my daughter Charlotte, and I thought
that if they bclicv , me dead therc
would be no more didiculty,' Mrs.
Chcatham told reporters after con-
dragged and dragged and ! do not
know what will happen now. van
ished to make things easier for my
daughter. She did not know but what
had been murdered ] shall return
TO New York Tell Commissioner En-
right to stop his search for my 'mur-
derers.'"
Mrs. Cheatham related her expert
cnce on the day of her disappearance,
saying that without consulting any one
she took some old clothes down TO the
beach with her, discarded the new
ones she WAS wearing. left them in a
locker and went forth in the old ones.
She wanted to stay away until the
divorce proceedings were settled. she
said For a week she stayed at a
boarding house in the East Seventies.
Then She left for Memphis and finally
landed in Chicago. where she took II
room with Mrs. Catherine Buck, 5522
Dorchester Avenue.
Mrs. Cheatham, who is forty-twc
years old, vanished on August 2l Hcr
clothes were found in locker at Coney
Island and she was believed to have
been drowned. A thorough search was
made for her by the police, although
Roy A. Mayo, a broker, of 924 West
End Avenue. her sou-in-law, declared
all the time that her disappearance was
hoax He said that she had dropped
from sight once before, in 1917 in Chi
cago.
Mr.. Mayo said yesterday that hi.
wife, whom he is suing for divorce
knew of her mothers whereabouts al
the time and went to Chicago to SEE
her last December. Mrs. Mayo vigor
ously denied that she knew anything o.
her mothers whereabouts or even tha
she was alive.
When informed at the st. Regis Ho
tel. where She lives. that her mothe,
had been found, Mrs. Mayo expressed
surprise and relief.
Il can hardly believe that it is true,
she declared. "My mother has sent M
no word yet and | am just waiting 70
her to get in touch with me. i an
| OvorioVpH n |. hot ~bo ,c
/ never really gave up hope, although
her strange disappearance puzzled m
greatly"
Mrs. Mayo went to her husband
home on West End Avenue yesterda,
to see her three-y -year-old baby, Char
lotte, who is in the custody of tn
father.
ut was through me indirectly tina
my mother-in-law was discovered i,
Chicago said Mayo Yesterday. Il wa.
pretty sure that she went there at tn
time OF her disappearance and wollle,
quietly through detectives until
found that she was living somewhere
on Dorchester Street. under the Us
sumed name of Holiness | could 10
find more definite trace Of her thai
this for some time. 1t was photo
graph that finally gave Us the clu
that my wife was registered at tn
Blackstone Hotel on December 70 an,
that both she and her mother ha,
photographs taken. Through the pho
tographer we were able to trace Il
to the number on Dorchester Street
where she was living. She was founi
at o'clock in the morning and did no
attempt to deny her identity.
Il should think the whole matter j
one for the police now ! do not Sc
that it can have any effect on the di
vorce suit now pending, which come
to trial soon"
The preparation of this hoax !
merely an additional chapter in tn
exciting history of the Mayo family
Charlotte, the little girl who is nov
with her father, was twice kidnapped
On the first occasion Rutledge Ro
Mayo, Roy A. Mayo's son, who is i
business with his father, kidnappe
the child in Memphis. Her mothe
kidnapped her bacl; again from tn
home in West End Avenue. The cour
finally gave the child into the custod
of Mr. Mayo, granting her mother per
mission to see her.
In the divorce suit brought by hin
against his wife, Mr.. Mayo charge
that she was married once before an
concealed the fact from him. He
! former husband, he swears, was Josep
p. Archulta, to whom she was marie
in Memphis. Mayo married her i
Boulder City, in 1916, five years afte
the death of his first vile Mr.. May
is more than fifty years old and Mrs
Mayo is twenty six.