Dayton Daily News from Dayton, Ohio • 43

Most Famous Murder lad, his father being a sea captain and lived after his father's death with a brother in New York and Jersey City. He was at one time indicted in New Jersey for robbing a railway company, in the office of which he was employed. He escaped by turning state's evidence that sent another employe to the penitentiary. Shortly after this episode he turned his steps toward Indiana and was making his home with a brother-in-law, a professor at De-Pauw univerity in Greencastle when he met Pearl Bryan. Walling, with dark hair and hazel eyes, was distinguished by a peculiar configuration of his face which gave him the appearance of having a pug nose.

In temperament he was stolid and morose, with little force of character. This, it was argued at the time, served to make him a willing tool of Jackson. He had spent the better part of his life around Hamilton, 0. From the moment Judge Helm fixed the date for the double execution the search for Pearl Bryan's head never abated, nor did relatives and friends of the condemned men lose a single opportunity to seek a stay of execution, hopeful that a complete confession from the two would be forthcoming and that the life of at least one of them could be saved. "fell Hi krw7lJ fWb), vt Alii lj I SIM i I 'J'l 1 'iv Xl'l't i 1 ft tiV By HOWARD BURBA "NE date in the month which ended last midnight has long been ringed with a red circle by those whose duty it is to keep the criminal records of the state of Ohio.

Though 40 years have passed 6ince that circle was placed there, and some blood-curdling crimes have since been written into that record, the red circle remains about the date of Feb. 1, 189G, and the crime discovered on that day still stands as the state's most famous murder case. Forty years is a long time for a record of this kind to remain unbroken, with a newer and apparently more cunning generation of criminals infesting the land. And yet it is difficult to discuss dark chapters here and there in Ohio history, or to compare crime today with crimes of other years, without someone of the older generation calling up memories of the "Pearl Bryan case." Forty years have flown, quite swiftly for most of us. A new generation has come on to guide the destinies of this still good old commonwealth.

So the story will bear retelling, if only for the moral effect it should have on the members of this newer generation. Just 40 years and one month ago today there came out of the city of Cincinnati details of the finding of the headless body of a young woman in the fastnesses of the wooded hills across the river in Kentucky, A boy going to work on the' farm of John Lock, near Ft Thomas, on the morning of Feb. 1, 1896, made the discovery. A deep, narrow, winding ravine runs from Ft Thomas to the Alexandria pike, and it was in the bottom of this ravine that a board fence formed the northern boundary of the Lock farm. Next to this fence was a long disused, narrow wagon road, winding up the hill to Mr.

Lock's barn. On one side of this road was a hedge fence, and it was against this fence, and with arms extended, palms of the down, fingers tightly clenched, that the body reposed as the boy, whistling on his way to work, came upon it Just above the young woman's feet was a Btnall pool of blood. On It was not until Feb. 15, two the leaves of the privet bushes weeks after the murder, that which formed the hedge, and to a George H. Jackson, Negro coach height of three feet, were drops of map, was arrested at Springfield, blood.

On top of the dead leaves and told a detailed story of how he which lay thick about the body had driven a cab containing two there were crimson stains, while on men and a girl on the night of Jan. the underside blood hung like 31 from Cincinnati, across the Ohio beads of ruby-colored dew. river, to the place where the body Nearby was a number, three and was found. He was immediately one-half shoe, with a needletoe and taken to the Newport jail where he a worn rubber overshoe with an picked out Wajling from a score of opera toe. I am emphasizing these young men and identified him as articles of wearing apparel be- the stranger who met him after cause, as later details will reveal, midnight at Elm and George sts.

in they offer the one and only clew Cincinnati and hired him to "drive which led to the identification of a sick lady to Newport." He said the body. Close to the pool of blood he had seen the second man only were two or three strands of in the dark, as he alighted from the blonde hair. By a clot of blood at carriage with the girl and could not the victim's neck lay two tortoise be positive in an identification. Ac-shell and one metallic hairpins. On companied by Sheriff Plummer, the the body was nothing but a woman's Negro coachman was instructed to knit undersuit and over it a thin mount the seat of a cab and to tra-sickroom wrapper of plain checked verse the identical course when he goods.

The wrapper was rolled up had the two men and the woman inward to the woman's waist Only as passengers. On the former night the waist and arms of the wrapper there had been a full moon. On were stained with blood, while the this later drive there was no moon undersuit was saturated with it. and no illumination whatever along The arms and part of the body were the route. Yet the Negro coach-singularly free from bloodstains, man piloted the officers directly out while above the body on the hill- to the Lock farm and halted the side lay a corset, white and clean, carriage at the exact spot at which except for one red stain made by he had stopped it on that eventful the bloody fingers of the one who night two weeks before, tossed it there.

Meantime, Scott Jackson, who at Here was a tragic story far the of his arrest denied hav-more chilling than the cold air of "en Pearl Bryan since Jan. 2, that mid-winter morning. Blood- admitted that she had been in Cin-hounds were brought to the scene, cirmati on Jan. 28 and 29, and that They followed a trail to the Coving- on the latter date he had turned her ton waterworks reservoir, a short over to his roommate, Alonza Wall-distance away, and refused to go who was to have performed a farther. The reservoir was prompt- criminal operation on her.

Walling, ly drained but the head of the dead ter his arrest, said that he had girl was not found in it. All searoh not seen the girl after Jan. 29 and for the hidden head was fruitless, that Jackson had charge of her Meanwhile the body was taken to after that date. Each accused the Newport, three miles from the other of having committed the mur-scene and there it was first em- der. But both admitted that on the balmed and twice afterward ex- night of Feb.

1 they had thrown Two days before the execution ocal papers carried flare headlines announcing a "confession." Jack- on had issued a statement that a doctor in Newport, had been an accomplice in the crime and that while ne and Walling disposed of the body, the doctor was the actual perpetrator of the deed. His own attorney, however, scouted the genuineness of the confession and Jackson afterward admitted its untruthfulness. Gov. Bradley of Kentucky was again appealed to at the last moment "Jackson aays Walling is innocent," read a telegram to the governor from the sheriff of Campbell co. on the morning of the day set for the double execution.

And from the governor's desk at Frankfort came this reply: "Proceed with execution and if Jackson makes a statement on the gallows to that effect you may suspend Walling's execution until further directions from me." The governor had spoken the final word; the hour for the executions drew on apace. Judge Plummer went into the death chamber and ordered the men to prepare for the grim march to the scaffold. Judge Helm accompanied the sheriff and had a few words with the condemned men. He impressed upon Jackson the fact that if he went to his doom with sealed lips, refused to speak the words that would save Walling's life if he, Walling, was innocent of the actual murder, then he would be guilty of a double crime in the eyes of his Maker, Jackson bowed his head. Judge Helm gave him five minutes in which to make up his mind, leaving him unattended by the death watch.

At the end of five minutes Judge Helm returned. Jackson had not stirred from his chair. Glancing into the eyes of the man whose words had fixed the moment of his doom, Jackson declared that he could not in truthfulness say that Walling was innocent And those words sealed Waiting's doom. Out in the streets about the jail thousands of people stood in breathless silence. At a score of telegraph keys trained fingers were poised for the signal which would send the news of the final chapter in a famous case flashing to all four corners of the nation.

At 11:20 a. m. on the morning of March 20, 1897, the march to the scaffold was taken up. At 11:32 the death sentence was read. "I will tell you now.

in the last moment of my life," said Walling in a voice that did not betray emotion, "I was not there and I am innocent of the whole crime. I cannot say any more." As Rev. Lee finished his brief prayer, Jackson bade him good-bye. Walling was heard to mutter: "Go, go, go!" A flash and two bodies hurtled downward and in apparent agony since the necks of neither had been broken by the drop. There was a contraction of the bodies as the noose about each neck began the work of strangulation; a second later came relaxation and two forms hanging limp and fully contracted, swayed in midair.

Jackson and Walling had paid their debt to society. The most famous murder case in all Ohio history had reached its most dramatic climax. And so it remains to this day, 40 years later, and witfl an air of mystery still clinging about What became of Pearl Bryan's head still is a mystery. 3 MlNUttS AT NIGHT sr. I wed to take jolting "all-at-once" catharticsbecause I thought I had to.

But now I've found the three-minute way. And what difference it makea. At the first sign of trouble, I ehew FEEN-A-MINT, the chew-lug-gum laxative, for three minutes; and next morning I feel like a different person. And, bestof all, with FEEN-A-MINT there are no griping pains no nausea no unpleasant after-effect. It's eaijr, pleasant and thoroughly satisfactory.

Children love its delicious chewing-gum flavor. 15c and 25c a box. had been employed to corroborate Trusty, but when put on the stand they refused to do so. Six months later both Trusty and Seward pleaded guilty to perjury and subordination of perjury, both were convicted and each was sentenced to serve from two to five years in the penitentiary. The main effort of the defense was to show that life had been extinct before Pearl Bryan was beheaded.

AH the numerous able experts examined on both sides testified that blood will not spurt from the veins of a human body after the heart has ceased to beat. The dead leaves of those privet bushes testified, by the blood that stained their upper surface and hung like dew from their lower sides, that this blood was thrown from a beating heart in a living body. The testimony of these inanimate sentinels was fatal to the defense in its argument that the girl was dead when placed in the lonely ravine in the Kentucky hills. Alonza Walling's trial began on May 26, and ended July 18 with a verdict of guilty and a sentence of death. The same testimony that broke down the defense at Jackson's trial was introduced in this case and with the same effect.

Walling received his sentence with the same unmoved stolidity that had characterized him since the moment of his arrest Nothing in the two trials, however, surpassed in dramatic intensity the scene in the court room when the jury came in to render their verdict in Jackson's case. On stained with blood, was taken to police headquarters by a saloonkeeper, with whom Jackson had left it. Jackson, when asked about the bloodstains inside the valise said it might have been caused by carrying the girl's head in it, but that he had refused to carry the grip when Walling asked him to. In Jackson's pocket when he was arrested were found six linen handkerchiefs, identified later as having been the property of Pearl Bryan. In his trunk was found the dead girl's pocketbook.

Constant and persistent questioning brought from both prisoners the admission that on Monday, Jan. 27, Jackson had gone to the Cincinnati union depot and Walling to the C. H. and D. depot to be sure to meet Pearl Bryan, but that neither met her.

The cabman who took her from the depot to the Indiana House substantiated that statement. Walling stated that early in January Jackson, after returning from a vacation at Greencastle, told him of Pearl Bryan's condition and asked him to relieve her by a criminal operation. Then, he said, Jackson changed his plans and decided to give the girl a quick poison so as to give the impression of suicide. Still later he decided to poison her, cut her body in pieces and then hide the pieces in catch basins. From the discovery of the headless body, through all the search for the perpetrators of the crime the tangled stories told by the first two suspects arrested, Jackson and Walling, along with their subse their own bloody garments into amined in post-mortems.

Cocaine was found in the stomach. For several days the body was on exhibition at the Newport rive.r' Each accused the other morgue, where it was viewed by throwmg the girl's head into the thousands, but recognized by none. river- when sn 8 blod-On Thursday morning, Feb. 6, Ohio stainedt cat, lshed of a newspapers announced that two wer he declared that alhng had young men, Scott Jackson and wo 14 0" niht ff Feb-Alonza M. Walling, students at the falling's trousers, muddy at the Ohio Dental College in Cincinnati, knecs 8nd BPotted on had been placed under arrest and the les' were found dental charged with the crime.

The shoe college in his own locker, left on the foot of the dead girl Pearl Br'ans vahse- Prely quent trials, convictions and imprisonment awaiting execution, the history of the crime is full of thrilling incidents and dramatic situations. After all that had been revealed by a score of living witnesses and by the chain of unanswerable circumstances, a cloud of mystery still hung over a part of the horrible event What became of Pearl Bryan's head When the headless corpse lay at the undertaker's, Jackson and Walling were taken to view it and there a sister of the dead girl, on her knees, sobbingly pleaded with them to tell what disposition they had made of the head. The two stood mute. All subsequent efforts to worm this information from them Were unavailing. Scott Jackson's trial before Judge Helm in Newport began on April 21, 1897, and ended on May 14, with a verdict of guilty of murder and the death penalty.

Perhaps the most notable incident in the testimony at this trial was the perjury of R. Trusty, of Urbana, 111., who was introduced by the defense. He testified that on the night of Jan. 31 he drove a carriage containing a dead woman and an old man, who he believed was a doctor, to the place of the murder, left them there, drove the carriage back to Newport and delivered it to some unknown persons in the street Trusty broke down completely on cross-examination. It turned out that his uncle, John Seward, claiming to be a detective, had invented the story and employed Trusty to testify to it Two other witnesses WITH called "The Susianna Winkle Book," by Dorothy Mason Pierce, and in no time at all I found myself in a pleasant little glow over such versified friskiness as this: I've two spandy new pockets, sang Susan, A bear and a polka dot cat, When I tuck in a hankie They always say Thank-ee By growing most 'normously fat! In fact I read it clean through from kiwer to kiwer and somehow the years fell away.

Every oldster should run through a nursery book now and then. It is a mental walk through a gently swept memory forest The attar of roses of passing literature. The English poet, Lord Alfred Douglas, is in a pet over infinitive splitters. He thinks it an inexcusable grammatical lapse and declares that in all Shakespeare is only one split But no sooner had his interview appeared than correctors descended. Shakespeare has a dozen or so.

There is a split infinitive just before the beautiful finish of Hardy's "The Woodland-ers." Another in Lord Macaulay's Essay of Lord Holland. Even Wal each side of the prisoner were two armed policemen. All through the room among the spectators were distributed armed officers in citizens clothing. Fred Bryan, the murdered girl's eldest brother, took his seat within six feet of the prisoner. The court admonished those present that a large force of officers were distributed through the room.

The excitement was intense. Had the verdict been other than murder in the first degree with the death penalty, there is no means of knowing what might have happened in that courtroom. At the announcement of the verdict the bare beginning of a demonstration of approval was instantly checked by the judge. In a few moments the room was empty and the prisoners were back in jail. A abort time after both men had been sentenced some of their fellow-prisoners broke out of the Newport jail and escaped.

Neither of the men dared follow them. An immense mob, on hearing this news, rushed to the jail but dispersed when they heard that Jackson and Walling were still behind the bars. Both men said the reason they did not try to escape was because they knew that the jail was the safest place for them. Immediately after they were removed to the Covington jail and kept under a close guard. At the time of the trial Scott Jackson was described as a wiry little figure, 29 years of age, with blonde hair and cold, glittering eyes.

He was born in Maine, crossed the ocean 14 times when a David R. Milsten, a Tulsa lawyer, and long-time friend of the comedian. It has the indorsement of Rogers' sister. Hamlet's soliloquy his been the source of more book titles than any other bit of writing. Every quotable phrase has been used time after time.

Another Shakespearean source are those lines from Macbeth beginning with "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day." And ending with it is a tale, Told by an idiot full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing." Then, of course there's the immortal wheeze about the old lady who said she didn't like Hamlet because it contained so many quotations. Excellent reading: "With Napoleon in Russia." "Seven League Boots." by Richard Halliburton. "I Live In Virginia." "The Asiatics," by Frederic Prokosch. Copyright. 138, UcViught Syndic tt MOMENTS MclNTYRE sewer basins and dropped Pearl Bryan's bloody garments into the BY O.

0. M'INTYRE YTfHETHER one likes them or not and the vast majority is highly affirmative Amos 'n Andy continue one of the highest niches in radioland so far as sustaining interest goes. There are thousands who have never missed a single broadcast by them since they appeared on a major network. They appear the wrong hour of day for me. I am usually out at that period and so seldom hear, but on occasions when I do I am caught by the way they have kept up the smooth pace.

And I think their popularity is a tribute to the American family's response to cleanliness, decency and simplicity in programs. So far as I can learn, Amos 'n Andy never resorted to the smart crack, the faintest tinge of vulgarity or indeed anything that would not win full approval of your pastor. And yet they entertain as few entertainers in their field. They have chosen this path and and bearing the trademark of a Portsmouth, 0., manufacturer, also bore the firm name of "Lewis and Hayes, Greencastle, Ind." With this shoe as a clew, Sheriff Jule Plummer of Campbell, co. within whose jurisdiction the body had been discovered, made his way to the Indiana town.

There he made inquiry concerning the shoe of the dealers whose name it bore and a clerk remembered having sold a similar pair to a girl by the name of Pearl Bryan, daughter of Alexander S. Bryan, a well-to-do and highly respected farmer residing about one mile out of Greencastle. The family, describing the girl as 20 years of age, a graduate of the Greencastle high school and a favorite in the neighborhood, gave a minute description of her and, proceeding to the morgue at Newport, completed the identification. They were shown the blood-stained wrapper and announced that it had been originally made for Pearl's sister, then deceased and that Pearl had taken it along with her when she left Greencastle for Cincinnati. stuck to it from scratch.

All the while the radio world of which they are a part is in constant eruption of shrill talk, breathless nothingness and efforts to be self -praising and cute. There is never a strain for the climax in the Amos 'n' Andy-program. You are not always conscious it is going to end and somehow when it does there is often a tingle for more, which is in reality sheer artistry. My opinion of radio programs, at least those I hear, is not very enthusiastic. There are not more than a dozen I really enjoy.

I think of Jack Benny, Maj. Bowes, Rudy Vallee and Fred Allen. I know there are more but their names do not occur as I dash this off. Of all fields of entertainment, it strikes me radio programs have made least progress. The symphonic concerts, lectures and public addresses at times are splendid but they do not outweigh and make us forget the dribble of drool we hear about 95 per cent of the radio time.

Maybe it's second childhood. Anyway Dutton's sent me a tot volume ter Pater slipped one purposely, of all things, in an Essay on Style. Extract from a wail from one of my favorite Gay '90 worldling's: "Is every man like me in a Tux looking so gaysome and debonaire really suffering with a surplice I swear next time I go to the play, opening or closing, I'll sport a flannel shirt and pose as a critic. At 'Romeo and Juliet' I togged up as no one else. At 'Room in Red and White' I sat in soft bosomed comfort and everybody else was richly beseen.

The other night in the most hideous of all theaters I agonized and rasped my neck and lo, there was nothing but store suits. Why not be brave and happy Why practice ataraxia? Or orgule?" I've often thought one of the most hilarious burlesques of these inanities was, after Al Smith's defeat, H. I. Phillips wrote in the Evening Sun: 'Al Smith, a New York boy, who did not make good in the country!" One of the better of the half dozen Will Rogers books is "An Appreciation of Will Rogers," by 4.