San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1926-01-17
Didn't Intentionally Pick Killers
Once) but Cupid Played a Series
CHASTITY Jokes on Her and N0W
Her Fifth Husband
Is Wondering If
He, TOO,----
MFRS. CALVIN CHESTER WILL

the hangman's moose divorced her from
and married again.
Her fifth and last, or at least latest,
husband is no murderer and vows that no
matter what happens he will break this
homicidal sequence and die in bed re-
specially. Mrs. Williams hopes so, too,
though all her murdereus mates have
made tender, loving and attentive hus-
bands. She loyalty maintains that they
were as nice as anyone could ask except
for that one drawback.
Alfred Bollinger, husband number four,
who so recently left her "hemp widow"
was perhaps the most affectionate of all.
Mrs. Williams, at that time Mrs. Boil
linger, paid last call on her husband at
Folsom Penitentiary, in California, just
a week before he was due to be hanged.
This tender-hearted murderer who had
killed a man with an axe, simply could not
bear the thought of leaving his dear little
wife behind. She would be all alone in
cold world and she might marry someone
else who would not be so kind as he had
been. He urged that on the day of his
hanging she commit suicide. She was
so touched by this devotion, together with
the fact that she was almost pennless
and nervous wreck from all these kill
ings, that the distracted woman came near
doing it. But Williams came along and
pursuaded her to take another chance
and took one himself IN
Mrs. Eva Williams was born in a little
Texas town, where the cow-puncher and
the two-gun man were still to be seen
and the lounge lizard was unheard of.
At the age of seventeen she met Charles
Neff, mighty figure of man. His
wrist was bigger than her fathers ankle
With his two hands he could span her
waist. He could bend horse-shoes in his
fingers and in the saddle he could make
broncho scream with the grip of his
leg muscles, but with her he was as
gentle as he was strong. In dancing with
this mountain of muscle she seemed to
be drawn after him like a newspaper
after a railroad train.
Neff was blacksmith, as always re-
spected and profitable trade, especially
in the less settled parts of the country
There was no doubt that he could protect
and support a wife. Life looked pretty
Sdlt anu IOSy W VII lHe OF
July, 1906, when she married the biggest,
strongest and yet gentlest herman she
had ever seen.
He was a steady worker and a good
one, but once in while he would go on
drinking spree. She did not know that
alcohol made the gentle man boastful
and quarrelsome, because he carefully
concealed that side of his character from
his wife. Three years later their daughter,
Vera, was born and right there the luck
turned.
Neff lost an excellent job that was
leading to partnership and for reasons
that he considered unjust. Instead of
getting another he brooded and drank
Men realizing Neff's strength knew better
than to argue with him when he had been
drinking. One day stranger, ignoring
the warnings of the bartender and other
pacfists, gave him back word for word.
That evening the blacksmith did not
come home for dinner. Instead there APP
peared party of four men who had forti-
fled themselves for their painful errand
with large number of drinks. She read
tragedy in their faces and cried OUT
Charley has been killed"
"No he amt" blurted out one of the
men whose befuddled mind had been
wondering how to break the news. "He's
only been arrested for murder. He
knocked strangers head off with one
punch"
Eva Neff tainted at this and after the
notification committee had revived her,
the spokesman went on to explain that
her husband had not literally knocked the
mans head off-but he had broken his
neck.
Mrs. Neff sat through all the agony
of murder trial, comforted by the faith
that a jury would not do anything to
such a kind and loving husband just for
one mistake. But that one mistake was
such big one that it was thought best to
teach Mr.. Neff to keep his huge fists in
his pockets when arguing, and so he was
given eight years in prison.
OF course it was not right for girl of
twenty with little baby to wait all that
time, so with deep regret she got d.
vorce. Still for three years she carried
in her heart the picture of her strong
but gentle murderer behind bars that
even his mighty hands could not bend.
Then, in 1913, came Roe Damon, home
steader, another strong and self-reliant
character, but of quite different type. He
was moody, temperamental and wooed
her with a passionate fire not at all like
the deliberate courtship of the tremend-
Gus Neff.
Damon's courtship was so fast and furi-
Gus that it could not last long. She had
to quickly accept or reject him absolutely.