Evening star., 1940-01-22
! Mary McE|roYkiIIs
Self; Broodedl0ver
Her kidnapers' Fate
They Are the Only Ones
Who Don't Consider Her
A Fool, Note Says
4y the Associated Press.

: 1y the Associated Press.
! KANSAS CITY, Jan. 22.-Crushed
by the death of her father and
brooding over the punishment Of
the men who kidnapped her, Miss
Mary McElroy, daughter of Kansas
Citys ousted city manager, shot
herself in the head yesterday. Her
maid found the body, a small pistol
nearby.
H. r. McElroy, stormy autocrat of
the City Hall. had been both father
and mother to his daughter and
son. Their mother died when they
were babies, and Mr.. McElroy
brought them up, dressed them,
bathed them, supervised their edu-
cation. Mary and "the old boy" as
she called her father, had been in
separable companions for years.
Mary McElroy, slender 32-year- old
brunette, had seen the will to live
ebbing from her father after former
Mayor Bryce B. Smith moved him
and other Pendergast organization
men out of Office last spring. Mr..
McElroy died during the summer.
Body Found on Divan.
Seven years ago, during the kid
napers' trial, a defense attorney
asked Mr.. McElroy: But your
daughter was not harmed?"
"Yes," Mr. McElroy answered, "my
daughter has been injured to the
extent that fear she never will
get over it,"
Yesterday morning Miss McEl-
roy's maid found her body on
divan on the sun porch of her
home, a .25-caliber pistol on the
floor. A police examination showed
powder burns on her right hand.
She left note, unaddressed:
my four kidnapers are probably
the only people on earth who don't
consider me an utter fool.
''You have your death penalty
now - So please give them q
chance"
Tried to Reform Kidnapers.
-Four men kidnapped Miss McElroy
from her bath, May ~, 1888. They
chained her in the basement of
house near Shawnee, Kans., for
nearly 80 hours.
They asked $4,000 ransom, but
her father settled for $4,000.
Three of the men were appre-
hended and convicted. Walter Nc
Gee was sentenced to the gallows,
but Miss McElroy herself appealed
to Guy B. Park, then Governor, and
Mr.. Park commuted McGee's sem
tence to life imprisonment, the same
as imposed on his brother, George.
Clarence Click, who lives in the
farmhouse, was sentenced to eight
years, but was released in 1888.
Clarence Stephens still is at large.
Miss McElroy, declaring II have
no personal hard feeling against
those men and I'm sure they do
not hold hard feelings against me-"
devoted herself to remaking them
into normal, acceptable citizens"
She visited them. got them inter-
ested in studying high school sub
jects, took them books, cigarettes
and candy.
She suffered numerous nervous
collapses. Once she vanished for
IL days and turned up in Nor
NAL, Ill.
Like Sister to Captors.
The MCGEE Brothers lips trem-
bled when they were told of Miss
McElroy's death.
II wouldn't have felt the loss of
my own sister more" said George.
80 She was very good to U.S."
Walter recalled:
"The day we got her she acted
like she had known us all her life.
She told us she was our friend but
that she didn't like our racket"
Make 1t as easy on her as YOU
can," George said to reporters. I'VE
don't care about ourselves. We're
here"
Henry F. McElroy, jr., Miss Nc
Elroy's brother, said he saw her
Saturday afternoon.
1--WE talked over some minor busi-
ness matters" he said. "She ap-
peared to be little melancholy and
I mentioned it. However, she in
sisted she was feeling fine"