Actors and actresses -- Fiction; Boardinghouses -- Fiction; Detective and mystery stories; Murder -- Fiction
I have lost the clipping of that day's trial, but I remember her
testimony perfectly.
She was a widow, living above a small millinery shop on Federal
Street, Allegheny. She had one daughter, Alice, who did stenography
and typing as a means of livelihood. She had no office, and worked at
home. Many of the small stores in the neighborhood employed her to
send out their bills. There was a card at the street entrance beside
the shop, and now and then strangers brought her work.
Early in December the prisoner had brought her the manuscript of a
play to type, and from that time on he came frequently, sometimes
every day, bringing a few sheets of manuscript at a time. Sometimes he
came without any manuscript, and would sit and talk while he smoked a
cigarette. They had thought him unmarried.
On Wednesday, February twenty-eighth, Alice Murray had disappeared.
She had taken some of her clothing--not all, and had left a note. The
witness read the note aloud in a trembling voice:
"DEAR MOTHER: When you get this I shall be married to Mr. Ladley.
Don't worry. Will write again from N.Y. Lovingly,
"ALICE."
From that time until a week before, she had not heard from her
daughter. Then she had a card, mailed from Madison Square Station, New
York City. The card merely said:
"Am well and working. ALICE."
The defense was visibly shaken. They had not expected this, and I
thought even Mr. Ladley, whose calm had continued unbroken, paled.
So far, all had gone well for the prosecution. They had proved a
crime, as nearly as circumstantial evidence could prove a crime, and
they had established a motive. But in the identification of the
body, so far they had failed. The prosecution "rested," as they say,
although they didn't rest much, on the afternoon of the third day.
The defense called, first of all, Eliza Shaeffer. She told of a woman
answering the general description of Jennie Brice having spent two
days at the Shaeffer farm at Horner. Being shown photographs of
Jennie Brice, she said she thought it was the same woman, but was
not certain. She told further of the woman leaving unexpectedly on
Wednesday of that week from Thornville. On cross-examination, being
shown the small photograph which Mr. Graves had shown me, she
identified the woman in the group as being the woman in question.
As the face was in shadow, knew it more by the dress and hat: she
described the black and white dress and the hat with red trimming.
The defense then called me. I had to admit that the dress and hat as
described were almost certainly the ones I had seen on the bed in
Jennie Brice's room the day before she disappeared. I could not say
definitely whether the woman in the photograph was Jennie Brice or
not; under a magnifying-glass thought it might be.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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