Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-12-18
WOMEN'S CHARRED
BODIES FOUND IN
SHACK NEAR ATHENS

ATHENS, Ga, Dec. 17.-An arrest
with the deaths of Mrs. Mag Sim
mons and her fifteen-year-old daugh
ter, Resale, whose bodies were
round IN the burning ruins of an
abandoned farm shack about eight
miles from here yesterday, Sheriff
Collier, of Jackson county, said this
morning.
He had under surveillance, he
said, a man acquaintance of Mrs.
Simons whom his Investigation
points to as having enticed the wom-
an and her daughter to Athens
through a message purportinS to be
from Mrs. Simons' daughter, Mrs.
John Dostev.
With all indications pointing to
the couple having been slain, placed
in the abandoned shack and the
building fired, the sheriff said his
trail of the slayer led definitely from
Athens. The woman and her daugh-
ter left their home in Jefferson, near
here, Saturday night, he said, the
husband and father having brought
them to the station and put them
aboard q train after a note had been
received supposedly from Mrs. ST.
mons daughter asking her to come
to Athens. The conductor of the train
at first told the sheriff that the
couple had not boarded it, but later
informed the official that he was
mistaken and that he remembered
having brought them to Athens.
At Athens, the sheriff's investiga-
ton discloses, they were met by a
man who took them about four miles
out in the country, where they were
slain and their bodies placed in the
shack, to be burned almost beyond
recognition.
The sheriff said he believed rob-
berry figured in the motive, as the
woman drew about $3S from the
bank before leaving Jefferson. No
money was found in the ashes of
the burned house.
WOMEN ENTICED FROM
HOME ON SATURDAY
JEFFERSON, Ga, Dec. 17.-Sher-
IF Collier and his deputies today con-
tinued their investigation into the
finding of two bodies, believed to be
those of Mrs. Maggie Simmons and
her fifteen-year-old daughter, in the
ashes of an abandoned farmhouse
near Clarksboro, yesterday morning.
The authorities have established
that the woman and her daughter
left their home here Saturday night
to go to Athens in response to a
purported invitation from relatives.
fhe invitation did not come from the
elatives, Sheriff Collier. said he had
armed, and with all indications
Uniting to the women having been
lliced from their home, robbed and
ain, his investigation centered
aout the slayer.
The husband of Mrs Simmons has
entitled the body as that of his
fe He told Sheriff Collier that
,e tool his wife and daughter to
re station Saturday night to board
train FOR Athens.
Takes Money From Bank
Officers learned that Mr.. and Mrs.
:mmons had a quarrel Saturday
forming, and it WIS said that Mrs.
immons went to the bank for the
purpose of withdrawing money.
presumably to take on the trip to
Athens.
Farmers in the neighborhood of
At5ica saw the fire Saturday night
but knowing that the house had not
been occupied for months, they did
not go out in the rain to investi-
gate. Sunday morning about 8
o'clock, Fred Hardy went out and
examined the ruins, finding the
bones of the women, a pair of ear
rings and the half of a comb and
q hairpin. He Immediately sum-
moned the sheriff who took a ply
sician to the scene, about eight
miles from here. The doctor said
The bones were those of white wom-
IN, and when the party got back to
Jefferson. Mr.. Simmons told him that
his wife and daughter had gone to
Athens the day before. but had not
arrived. The countryside was comb
I'd for clews to the slayer, but with
out result.
The women came to their death
from causes unknown in a fire of
lnestablished origin" according to
The verdict of a jury empanelled ly
Coroner Wood Sunday afternoon.
The bodies were buried a short
time later in a graveyard on the
Bennett farm, not far from the scene
IF their cremation. Quite a crowd
witnessed the simple rites, despite
The pouring rain.