Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1924-05-09
Identified as Chester Brigham
With Two Companions
Had Been Drinking Heavily
Three Had Started on
Auto Trip-Brigham Baked
And Left in ROad-Body
Badly. Mangled

Especial to The Kennebec Journal)
Waterville. May S.-The finding
of the body of an unknown man on
the Belgrade road this morning
about 4.S0 caused a mystery that up
to late tonight remained unsolved,
although County Attorney Walter
Sanborn and Sheriff Henry Cum
minGs were able to identify the man
as Chester Brigham of Oakland,
aged about 30, after working on the
case for several hours yesterday
morning. DR.. John G. Towne, coun-
ty medical examiner, was called to
the scene of the tragedy about 4
o'clock yesterday morning and he
pronounced the man dead, and the
body was later removed to the I'M
dertaking rooms. The horribly mu-
tilated condition of the remains has
led the authorities to believe that
Brigham was either the victim of
foul play or that he was struck by
an automobile going at a rapid rate
OF speed.
County attorney Sanborn and Sher-
if Cummings found Francis Bickford
and William Chamberlain both of
Oakland, who admitted having been
with Brigham on the Belgrade high
way that night. Both men were in
toxicated and Constable j. Judson
Gleason3of Oakland arrested them and
brought them to the municipal court
OF Waferville yesterday afternoon
where both pleaded guilty. Judge
Charles w. Atchley sentenced both
men to 80 days in jail straight. Bick-
ford appealed but was unable to fur
niSh $1,000 bonds and beth men were
taken to the Augusta jail.
1t seems that Bickford, Chamber
lain and Brigham had been together
the night before and all three had
been drinking heavily. Early this
morning they started out for Fair
field, Chamberlain and Williams rid
ing in q cart behind q horse and
Brigham sitting in two wheeled gig
that was hitched on behind the cart.
The two men with Brigham claimed
that he refused to go with them after
they had gone a little way and they
left him standing in the road and they
continued toward Fairfield.
The place where the body was found
is about a mile and half from Oak
land on the Belgrade macadam high
way near the Edward Benson farm.
According to the story told by MIR.
Benson two young men who were
found later to be James Greenieaf and
Bert Dyer, employees of the Hollings-
worth and Whitney Co. who had
started on an early morning fishing
trip, came TO his door and told him
very cXcitedly that dead man was
lying in the road nearby. Mr.. Benson
called the Waterville~ police and Dep
uty Marshall George Fl. Simpson tele-
phoned at once to Medical examiner
Towns who hurried to the scene.
A fracture in the back of the skull
near the base of the brain that looked
as though it might have been caused
by sharp instrument had led some to
believe that Brigham might have been
murdered. but bad bruise on his hip
has also led to the theory that he was
struck by an automobile the occu-
pants of which did not stop to find
out whatthey had done. There is lit
tie question but that Brigham was
run over by an automobile for his
body was cut and bruised, one leg
broken in two places and the side of
his face badly scraped. DR.. Towne
stated that he thought the man must
have been killed about three hours be-
fore. He also declared that evidences
about the body indicated that the
man had been drinking heavily.
Brigham is not known to have any
relatives in this vicinity. People who
knew him say that he was somewhat
Of a shiftless character and did not
work regularly. A nickel, n penny and
a French ten centime piece were
found in one pants pocket The
French money led at. first to the belief
that he might have been n World War
veteran but DIR. Towne said that judy
ing from the mans physical condition
he could not have passed herequire-
ments necessary for a soldier.