Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-04-24
73-YEAR- OLD ROMEO,
HELD AS B|GAM|ST.
SILENT ON CHARGES
Police Probing Amazing Mat
rimoniaI Record Say Civil
War Veteran Welded
Thirty Times

WILKES-BARRE, Pa, April I'll
A little old man sat bumped UP in
his cell in the Luzerne county Jail
Saturday and refused to say word
when confronted by the police with
two letters from Ohio purporting to
establish the identity of his nine.
teenth and twentieth wives.
The man is Charles w. Davis, sew
enty-three-year-old Civil war, veteran,
who is being held here pending com
plete investigation Of his matrimo-
NAL career, which the police declare
is amazing.
The police have established def
initely that he married eighteen
women, they claim, and they are
confident, from clues they have OBJ
tanned, that the complete list will
run to thirty.
About six weeks ago, Mrs. Emma
Segar, of this city, came to police
headquarters with fantastic story
Of how she had met man through
matrimonial agency, and how,
after she had married him in Cleve-
land last fall and come here to live,
he had deserted her, taking all her
jewels and several hundred dollars.
New York Claimant
Later, she said, she met a woman
from New York who had married
the same man under similar circum-
stances, and they decided that Mrs.
Segar should advertise under an
other name in the matrimonial pa
per through which they had first
met him. In spite of the million to
one chance, it worked, and after a
correspondence, Davis came here to
marry her. He walked into the arms
of the law instead of the arms OF
another bride.
From papers, letters and photo
graphs found on him, police were
Of the opinion that he had been
marrying women all over the coun'
try, and after few days of WED
ded bliss walked out in each case
with money and jewels. Much ladies'
jewelry, including five ladies'
watches and four rings, were found
on him, police said.
Following the publicity given
him, wives popped up from every
where, but PeRnsy lvaaia, New York
and Ohio led. Women wrote in from
a dozen states giving details and
dates and lists of their losses, offer
ing to come here to testify against
him. His alleged operations extend
ed from Texas to Maine.
According to letters, Davis usu-
ally travelled under his ownN name
or that Of Taylor" and represented
himself as a rich scenario writer
with a mansion in California, as
retired doctor or a globe-trotter.
Police Found Inside Story
Police uncovered the inside story
Of how he operated. This is their
story Of Davis:
He often worked as a nurse in
various hospitals throughout the
country, and while thus in retire
ment" he bought his matrimonial pa
pers and made out his list OF vic
tins. After culling the list over he
would write to five or. six women,
always picking lonesome. middle
aged ones. After a correspondence,
he would travel to the city where
his latest ''intended" lived and marry
her, if she still was willing. The
letters received by the police today
were from Mrs. Lena Robinow1tz,.
of Columbus, who alleges she mar
ried Davis in June. 1922, and from
a woman in Dayton, who said she
married Julian Brown, a roomer at
her boarding house, in Akron last
July.
One woman he is alleged to have
married said that one rainy night
five days after they were married,
he borrowed an umbrella and said
he was going to get her some corn
plasters at the drug store. He new
err came back, and on checking up
she found that he had even taken
her night gown. A woman in Bing-
hamton, N. Y, was the largest in
dividual loser. She reported that
Davis took $1,000 in cash and some
iewelry when he left her.
It will take months to unravel all
Of his amazing adventures, the au'
thorities say, and perhaps the entire
story will never be known il he
keeps to his determination not to
talk.