Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-08-30
WOMAN MAY SOLVE
DEATH OF BERGEN
E.w Witness Declares She
: Heard Dying Words Of
t the Film Actor
sToRY BY JEALOUS GIRL
Ry Associated Press

~
r,,ire. last week. mas vecn found
g. Tho police. they announced today
T.,.ecutor Hart would not disclose her
a.m. hut said he believed the state.
.nt mas heard BY the woman. who found
,r.rs.n living on the steps OF tho Cline
or,s infer the shooting. would hclp
rsst,v in clearing the mystery.
NJ Hart said he found discrepancies
,he story told yesterday by Miss
ki,eo Thornton, Bergens former sweet
ksort who was in the Cline home when
@ersrn was killed.
"cne point is Of the greatest i'm. 4.
xo,,snce in the story" lie said. "nnd
&bst Is whether there were sounds Of Il
lssrusrlc in the room upstairs while
i,trren and Cline were closeted there.
i,otb Emil Iurllo.. the moving picture,
6reworkp expert. who was present. and
Miss Thornton agree that there was
'seuiling' on the floor above. Whether,
4 struggle took place. neither knows. y
What is looked upon as all impor.
..,, link In the chain Of circumstances
.@urromndine @ the death Of Bergen. was
snrnlied Yesterday by Alice Thornton,
trpwn as the mysterious blonde" who
,sr.sled that she was n former lover
~ Berren and that jealousy prompted
Ssr 70 hint to Cline Of Bcrgcn's rela-
lions with his wife.
Yopng, pretty and light hearted. the
~,rl pictured herself as the sweetheart
ff R.rcen before she discovered his
sHs;r with the married woman. adding
tbe character of the jealous woman 10
tbs other dramatic personao in the
mnrder mystery. Thus she filled in the
can that had existed in the continuity
4or. while It wns already known now
N. had told Cline about Bergen and
Mrs. Cline and how she had been In.
yit.d TO the house on the Palisade cliffs
last Friday night to confront Bergen
with what she had seen. II had not
set been told why she had played the
rart Of the informer.
From Miss Thornton's interview. and
from an interview given by Mrs. Cline
Yesterday, II appeared that Miss Thorn
ton also played an innocent part in
sending Bergen to his death on Friday
night. For, Mrs. Cline says. when Bcr-
zen finally agreed to her husbands pro.
posal of a duel in the dark bedroom up.
stairs, and said. "All right. all right"
Mrs. Cline tried to throw herself be.
tween the two men, hoping to induce
her husband to send Bergen out of the
house unharmed, but Miss Thornton got
in her way and held her back. Miss
Thornton admitted that she did this.
lind said that the reason was that she
was afraid the two men would begin
to shoot before they went upstairs and
that Mrs. Cline would be hit.
Cast Light on Affair
The interviews given by Miss Thorn.
ton and Mrs. Cline. and also an inter-
view given BY Iurillo. of what hap.
pened in the house just before the
shooting cast light on the affair much
more favorable to Cline than had been
indicated In statements made public by
The New Jersey authorities.
According to Miss Thornton. she met
Bergen through a girl friend about two
years ago, and went about with him a
lSreat deal They were swecthearts.
,''Some time ago. she went on. Il
learned that he was married I asked
him IL it was true, and told him didn't
want to be going around with a married
man. He said he had been married.
but claimed that the marriage had been
annulled. ! believed him and did not
know until ! saw il In the nnpcrs tho
other day that be had deserted his wife
and baby"
Miss Thornton revealed that the story
She had told to Cline dealt with an
episode that occurred fully month
before the Saranac Lake incident. 1T
was one day last June" she said.
Bergen had introduced me to the
ICllpes, and We had gone on several
parties together. I gradually began to
suspect that Bergen was paying more
attention to Mrs. Cline than he ought,
eometimes he would neglect me and
devote himself to her. On this day in
June the three of us were at the
'Clines' house In Edgewater. Mr.. Cline
was away. ] discovered their relations
then, and I don't think either of thcu
knew ! had found out.
;. Il did not tell Mr.. Cline about 1t at
arst. Several weeks later, however,
one night in July--some of us we're
G5ancing in Fort Lee. Cline and were
oancing together. Ever since had dis.
covered what kind of a man Bergen
was had been cold to him. and Cline.
who was loyal to his friend. tried to
make things up between us. He did
'not know what tho trouble was. told
Nun there was another woman, and he
wanted to know her name. but did
laos tell him ut first. He had no sus.
pcGns at all.
Finally, however, it made me Sc
I mad to think Of Bergen being so de-
s;ttu! while Cline was 70 loyal to him,
!ea!ng me all the time what q enc,
yIoyal friend he had in Bergen. that
exploded: Don't trust your friends !
LUIS let the. cat out of the bag. He
oycame suspicious, pressed me to tell
wat ! meant, and finally I told him
woat had seen that time when be
was away from home.
\. Zine appeared to be all knocked out
ov what ] had told him. He didn't
SN SssN ANYTHING more about 1t that night.
Eat ne must have begun investigating.
- :. vas little. later that they all went
10 saranac Lake. did not. go. but I
SSssra Ssnna atterward that something had
sssppencd up there also. When they
Sa~e Se pack bergen called me up one
70 SaI and told me that ! was n fine one
70 aaTe told on him and Mrs. Cline.
~ think that Bergen and Mrs. Cline
a mGst nave denied that there had been
Ss'nlng H.. wrong when Cline questioned
ta, |Ihat was the reason, ! believe,
Mat cline asked Bergen and myself
Th TSJ.h TO the house last Friday night.
~ ~ wanted TO ask Bergen for the last
@ Wme whether he had been intimate with
ss Mrs tllne and he wanted me to be
present to tell what I had seen in
~ iS'e bergen denied it. Cline telephoned
n. .ne afternoon and asked me to come
s,er " that night Tle did not say in
:. :. many words what he wanted. but he
iam mat Bergen was to be there and
th.o .onaerstood that he wanted to settle
'Ae whole thing.
!, Nlne' who was in his shirt sleeves,
meH accused Bergen point blank of hav-
m ,"S han improper relations with his
rnne, Bergen appeared as If he thought
~. IT, could brazen it out. He threw back
~; ~ cheSt and admitted it. Then when
I'm, Sne denounced him as rat and a
ior ifa'or he admitted it, saying: I know
elmo then produced his pistol. He