Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-01-29
Lincoln Calmly Directs
Search but ColIapSes
When Gruesonne Find Is
Made by Illinois Police

AORoIlEa, LII, jail. GV'--\Ioy Iilc
Associated Press. )-Sealed in a con-
crete block on the city dumping
grounds, the police today found the
heads of Mrs. Lima Lincoln and her
brother, Byron Shoup, missing for
nearly a year and for whose murder
the woman's husband, Warren ].
Lincoln, eccentic lawyer and horti
culturist, is in Jail here.
A new confession by Lincoln that
he killed both-although he previous.
ly had said he killed his wife in self
defense after she had shot and killed
her brother-led the way to clearing
up much of the long mystery that
has interested this county and has
made the Lincoln mystery one of in
terest in many states.
After days Of contradictory state
ments only to end in Lincoln return
ing to his original confession, that
he killed his wife when he saw her
kill her brother and expected her to
attack him, the wracked mind OF the
man tore out his story OF the double
murder and disclosed what he had
done with the bodies.
Lincoln COlIapses
Just as he told of Remembering
the bodies an sealing up the heads
In a concrete block, the police rush
ed to the dumping ground and found
the block, chunk of concrete about
"a inches long, Is inches wide and
II inches thick. When the police
Clipped off the hardened plaster, the
heads Of the two victims were barred.
Lincoln calmly directed the search.
but tainted as the heads, were re-
vealed.
In the finding of the heads the
authorities at last had the evidence
of the killings which they have
sought for months.
The Lincoln mystery had its be
ginning in the disappearance OF the
lawyer horticulturist from his little
home and greenhouses on the In.
dian trail near here last year, under
circumstances designed to make 1t
appear that he had been murdered
or kidnapped. Bloodstains, which he
afterward admitted he had made aft
err killing chickens, first pointed to
theory that Lincoln had been MUIR
dered or at least seriously maltreat-
ed and his body, dead or alive, hid
den and carried away.
Lincoln's wife and her brother
could not be found and it waJ upon
those two that Lincoln, according
to the authorities, sought to throw
suspicion for his disappearance. A
few months later Lincoln turned up
alive and the mystery was regarded
by many as a hoax.
Lincoln again later last year
dropped out of sight. Letters signed
with his wife's name were received
by her relatives in Mount Pulaski,
Ills, and elsewhere, asking for
money. Through these letters the
suspicion rose that Lincoln was hid
ing in Chicago as the letters were
mailed from Evanston, a suburb.
In that manner Lincoln was
traced and arrested and taken to
Aurora where he made his first con-
fession that his wife had shot and
killed her brother and believing that
she was about to turn on him he
killed her with poker and burned
both bodies in the furnaces of his
greenhouse.
But neither the bodies nor trace of
them could be found.
Admits Killing Both
The double killing occurred on
January 10, 1923, according to Lin
coins new confession in which the
police say he admitted that he shot
and killed both.
Prosecution Of the murder charges
against him were admittedly weak
prior to today, in the absence OF
proof that murder had been done
and the mystery surrounding dis
posal of the bodies. Lincoln him
self had rather slyly declared that
he was a lawyer and knew how to
take care of himself and that his
first confession made a clear case
of self-defense.
The question of motive for which
the authorities had sought was an
other myStery although there were
evidences that Lincoln held hatred
against his wife and her brother
He had declared they often had beat
him and had wanted to get rid of
him.
Mrs. Lincoln is said to have owned
land near Roosevelt, Okla, valued at
5000 and this property was held
by some investigators to have been
q sufficient motive.
Lincoln himself directed the hunt
for the rude sarcophagus containing
the heads of his wife and brother
in-law. Dressed in his best clothes
and smoking a cigarette he stood at
the top of the dump and from time
to time told the searchers when they
were getting warm" When the
find finally was made. however. he
tainted.
Used Block as Pillar
The block which Lincoln moulded
about the heads he used as a sup
port for the front porch of his house
for same months after the Staying.
He did not take the block to the
dump until after he had reappeared
in June. following the disappearance
April so. when he framed the set
ting to indicate he had been MUIR
dered.
Lincoln said he hid the bodies
under a coal pile in his cellar and
later dismembered them. He buried
all the remains. except the heads. He
has not yet revealed the location of
the graves.
Were it not for Lincoln's confc.-
sion it would be difficult to identify
the heads found today. The face Of
Mrs. Lincoln was practically beyond
recognition. Shoup could be recog-
nized from the shape of the skull
and his red hair.