The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 113

THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER MAGAZINE SECTION PAGE THREE JUNE 1931 To Compel "Bluebeard" Watson to Reveal His After Five Years' mMAfi fpasnfP Pl TfI Search for a Buried mbUUA 1 1 wajtl1 VnOnJ Fortune in Liberty Bonds (ft j4 HXP" Hunter Hill Demands $25,000 .1 WX or Wasted Time and iv yy) 7Wi-vLJ p. a ro the I ft Cacie -SsPwv Ns. ftf'Nv Jv I -l "-k ill cllS3--o Wk bis IVatson photographed as he Was pointing out where he buried the body of A'm 1 Lee Deloney and hid the buried treasure ability to impress womi-n and make them believe that if wedded to their ivi-s would be one sweet eong. In the investigation which preceded his trial for murder the simple facts of his early life were learned. He was born in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, where he spent most of his boyhood, doing chores on the farm and working jpC tirXS'Vi j.y weni rings, 'emcry 0 IV ffiSESlr 1 MM to taw WmH to lfton'i mn'oui mLm'' Xy -rr 1 helper to other farmers in the Wye mi, mands lor loss ol lime in a ftlile hunt for Watson's hidden fortune neighborhood.

He admitted to Dr. Kd-ward Williams, psychologist, who whs brought into the case at the time of the trial, that he neither liked school nor church and that on more than one occasion he had been punished for not accompanying other children to Sunday School. In his early teens, parental guidance being irksome to him, he packed his few belongings and set out to see what the world outside Eureka was like. He manuged to get odd jobs and in Unit way worked his way North with Chicago as his goal. Once in the big city he readily took steps to her ways.

lie found a job as a bookkeeper, and later became a salesman. In the latter occupation the rough edges of his back-country speech he-came smoothed, and he acquired a certain glihness of tongue. He admitted that it was his ability to crack a joke one minute and give expression to a sentimental thought the next that mruk him popular with lone w-f-n. ITH what he believed was a "Bluebeard" himself admitted was true and said that he had key to the hidden cache of fortune in Liberty bonds of a face value of Nina Lee Deloney. It Was for ouried in sealed jars, Wychiffe A.

Hill, Hollywood writer, working with the (agerness and persistence of a treasure hunter, delved and dug in and around Coyote Wells in the far-famed Imperial Valley of California. Like the grub-staked miners of the hills, each her murder that IVatson, following confession, was convicted and sent to prison I jf Mil I Br 5 ir Jay's failure to upturn the riches was to him as a spur to the search of the I Si ITS 1 morrow, ior hve years he keDt at it. Cuardcd by detectives, Watson showing the way to the grave of his victim hen his spirit failed and he gave up 'he pick and shovel quest. As a remit there is now before the Superior Mtituted by Hill, which has for its convict, who is now trying to cause me all this trouble." Hill claims that he not only had a verbal contract with Watson to get the treasure, but that he was virtually begged to undertake the hunt and that the sum of $20,000 was to be his share. Having given up hope of personally enjoying any part of the hidden bonds, Watson says he would like to have them used, when unearthed, for the education and general benefit of a little daughter of the twenty-fifth in the numerical list of his wives, whom he legally adopted.

Any further hunting for the treasure he says must be with this understanding. This wife, 1 fa i nwt unusual double object the secur-of $25,000 damages for time wast- in the futile hunt and the compelling the defendant in the action to tell ith fair workable geographic exact-im just where the riches may be tragic taking off of Mrs. Deloney Watson. Detective Harris, of Los Angele3, who was employed by a woman in Spokane who had given her heart and Liberty bonds to Watson, discovered that Watson posed as a Secret Service man and thus explained his frequent and often sudden departures from home. He also found that Watson, the general title of "dearie" for them all.

By no stretch of the imagination could Watson at any time have been considered in the gay Lothario class. He was far fmm handsome, even in his younger days, and his The dpfpnrlnnt tho i I i "Bluebeard" Watson, man of mvsteri- a hie and many aliases, whose biga-us career marked him as a super Juan and whoso rninriitanrol hn. nodal tendencies brought about the $Mli' nftfjlifiitiiii, I fdu tCtimilM i't riiirlrtm.) (flARRIAG.E, LICENSE- IVatson photographed through the burs of his prison cell in San Quentin verted the cash into Liberty Bonds $50,000 worth which he had placed in glass jars, screwed down the caps so that the elements could not reach them, and then buried them in a spot close to the grave of the unfortunate Nina Lee Deloney. After "Bluebeard's" conviction adventurous souls in Los Angeles and environs started to seek out this buried treasure, but most of the attempts were half-hearted and all were futile. Then Hill entered the scene.

Hill was editor of a little paper whose circulation he decided to boost by publishing the story of "Bluebeard's" escapades and at the same time invite the public to join in a treasure hunt. There were to be six installments of the story and Hill promised that there would be a map showing where the treasure was most likely located. Three installments were printed and then the story was stopped because of a disagreement between Hill and the owner of the Hill conceived the idea of publishing the stories from an interview with Watson while visiting San Quentin, from whom he obtained what purported to be a written authorization to find the treasure and be suitably rewarded. This document, under date of May 5, 1926, read: You have impressed me as a real friend who is trying to do a friendly act and for that reason it looks to me that I should not have any fear in having you attend to the matters we talked about." These "matters," Hill indicated, consisted principally of the treasure and its whereabouts. Later, on another visit to Watson, Hill carried photographs of the valley close to where Miss Deloney's body had been found, which, he said, he expected Watson to mark in such a manner that the treasure would be unearthed.

Watson took the photographs and refused to return them. He said that his "good name" had been ruined by what Hill had printed. It seems he has become proud of his really excellent record at San Quentin, where he is head nurse of the tubercular ward, names of some of the women he married because they since have remarried. Hill then obtained the backing of some wealthy realty man, and made a number of jaunts to Imperial Valley, seeking to find the treasure on his own hook. He had no luck.

"I feel I have been terribly victimized," Mr. Hill lamented after filing his suit, "I've made many trips to Imperial Valley and to San Quentin, spent hundreds of dollars and worked like a dog, all in an effort to be of service to this y. jv.y 'fw 'fftif Jitttf 4 flit fr' 4fS? Kwreai elimination of such of his wpnstes as stood in the way of his "greosive nuptials and interfered with grabbing of their earthly It is these possessions which now TO as Bluebeard's treasure, ihe wording of the papers as filed 7 prosaic and formal, but as they both Bluebeard and the of his fortune, the facts are Jke story has its beginning ten or yea aK when "Bluebeard," name is believed to be Cre)? Harvey-but wh0 was Watson, was arrested for trial the authorities evidence which linked him 1 rtJi fenty-five women, word which true, gave him a t0 Eastem poten- th her 11 was als" brought nine t0 of these strangely and w'7ed manj; of tnem had been yu SMh'itf Long before he had reached the age of twenty he had proposed to a girl and been accepted by her without hesitation. This first bride was only sixteen. He married her under the assumed name of Joseph Gitman.

Divorce followed soon after, for the young bridegroom's philandering had already begun and he wanted to be free to do as he pleased. Even the orderly recorders of facts in the District Attorney's office failed in their efforts to set down in proper chronological order, day and date, name and place, the score or more of marriages, bigamous and' otherwise, which within a year earned for Watson the title of Bluebeard. His so-called romances rinired dates on every week of the calendar. No one has found out and Watson miu.M'.ii iian lill JUSt now much in actual cash, convertible securities and salable jewelry was secured by him in his quick-action love-making. The bonds, wherever they are, form the basis of his matrimonial revenues, as it also forms the basis of the unusual suit at law.

If the court should hold that Watson must divulge where the bond-lined glass jars may be found, it is predicted that there will be a rush to the place corresponding to that seen at the opening of government land to settlers. He accomnanied eri to the ImDerinl and K'nted ZT thr? Where th body $4- fa-mty qf-'. License of marriage issued to IVat be found. eJ3ul? at hi8 trial refused Lt0 San Quentin for life. "We ll of the and murders a had bvl fortune by mak-H women he chanced to Wri nku and, follow, "nage, helping himself to the son and Nina Lee Deloney, for whose slaying he is now serving a life sentence.

The marriage took place in San Francisco. IVatson gave his name as Harvey, one of his many aliases and both he and his bride gave their ages as forty ort and had the manners were of the hill-billy lacking in gentleness; yet he incidentally, seemed to be the most to avoid embarrassment by calling one favored of all, following the admittedly wife by the name of another, adopted A.