The Mysterious Murder of Pearl Bryan Part 21

"The next morning about 10:30 I went to Colonel Deitsch's office, where the prisoner was sitting. Colonel Deitsch asked him where he was on Friday and Thursday nights, and his answers were the same as he made the evening before. I am not positive as to whether it was at that meeting that Walling was brought into his presence, and the conversation turned as to where Pearl Bryan was and as to whether either of them had seen Pearl Bryan the previous week.

"Mr. Jackson admitted to Colonel Deitsch that he had seen Pearl Bryan; that she came to the Dental College on Court Street for him; that he was informed she was in a cab, and that he met her afterward, I think on Tuesday, at the Indiana House, on Fifth Street; that he met her again on Wednesday about one o'clock at the corner of Fourth and Vine or Fourth and Walnut. He said in the presence of Walling that he had sent 'Wally', as he called him, to notify her that he was going out that afternoon and he would meet her that evening. Then he said he did not see her again after that Wednesday.

"Walling said he went down and saw Pearl Bryan and that he went that evening to Heider's Restaurant, on Fifth Street, and met Jackson, and Jackson told him to go up to the Postoffice and he would find Pearl Bryan, and to wait there until he went to his room and returned; that he went over to the Postoffice and saw Pearl Bryan standing inside the corridor, and he went on from there and wrote his letters.

"Either on that day or the next day Mr. Jackson was asked about the satchel, and he said that he had left the satchel at Legner's saloon, across the street from his room; he said that he brought it there and loaned it to a student and he intended to take it to the college and give it to him, but he did not give it to him. He afterwards admitted that it was Pearl Bryan's satchel.

"I want to say that in the meantime, in one of these conversations, I told both of these young men that they did not have to make a confession to any person, that they were at perfect liberty to refuse to answer any of the questions that were asked them.

"Walling in this conversation, when Jackson was present, said that when Jackson came back from his holiday vacation he took him in the corner of his room on Ninth Street, where they were rooming, and told him that he was in trouble with Pearl Bryan and that he intended to kill her. When asked how, he said, 'I propose to get a room and take her to the room and give her some cocaine poison and leave her there.' Then again, he says he changed and said. 'No, I will cut her up in pieces and take the pieces and deposit them in different places about the city.' He said that before he saw Pearl Bryan at the Postoffice--I believe that was Thursday evening instead of Wednesday evening---he said that Jackson had made arrangements to take her over to Bellevue, I think it was, or over to the sandbar, or some place there and kill her, take her head off and bury her. He said that Jackson asked all the physicians as to the effects of different kinds of poisons; that he had a standard medical dictionary in his room and studied the effects of poisons, and that he asked one physician particularly as to the effect of cocaine.

"He said that Jackson went to a Sixth Street pharmacy and got cocaine and brought it back, that he took out a small teaspoonful and dissolved it in two teaspoonsful of water and put it in a bottle, as he said, to give her so as to paralyze her vocal organs or throat, and then cut her head off. Jackson turned to Walling and said: 'Wally, why do you talk that way; you know you are not telling the truth; you know that you killed Pearl Bryan.' Whereupon Walling says, 'No, you know that you killed her; and why don't you tell where her head is?' Then, when Jackson was talking of where Pearl Bryan's head was, he said, 'I don't know; Wally says he threw it overboard.' Then he said he took the clothes and made one or two trips to the river and threw part in the river and some in the sewer, but he could not tell where."

"Jackson then said that there was a bundle that he had given Walling.

Walling was then asked what he done with it; he said that it was up in his locker at the college; the bundle was sent for and brought in their presence. It was a pair of pantaloons, which Jackson identified as his, and said that he had not seen them for some time; that Walling must have worn them.

"I asked the men as to where the other clothes were. Walling says, 'Jackson, why don't you tell him where those things are, you might just as well do it now as any time?' Jackson said that upon Sat.u.r.day night, I believe it was, they were walking up Plum Street with a bundle and they saw some young physician or one of the students coming towards them, that Walling changed and went down Plum Street to Ninth and out Ninth, and Jackson said he went along little Richmond Street and from there on around to the room, and then down Ninth to Richmond, and out Richmond Street, westward, where he threw the bundle in one of the manholes of the sewer, but he could not state which. The sewers were drained and searched and a bundle brought to the department which Mr. Jackson identified as his coat. He first denied that it was his coat, and said it was Wallings', but afterwards admitted that it was his coat, but that Walling must have worn it."

A valise was shown to Mr. Caldwell and he identified it as the one that Jackson had been confronted with. It was the satchel which had once been Pearl Bryan's and the witness stated that Jackson accused Walling of having brought away the head of the murdered girl in it.

The witness then spoke of the occasion when Walling and Jackson accused each other of having murdered the girl. After this he described the scene and last effort that was made to get a confession from the prisoners at Epply's Undertaking Establishment (see page 84). This ended the Mayors testimony.

The mother of Pearl Bryan was then called to identify her daughter's clothing. The scene brought tears to every eye and a sob to every bosom not wholly bereft of human qualities.

Allan Johnson, employed in a saloon at George and Plum Streets, gave testimony that proved to be highly important. He knew both Jackson and Walling as visitors to the establishment referred to--and which the witness admitted was a house of ill repute. On the night of the murder the two students called with a woman in their company. The woman must have been Pearl Bryan for the witness identified the clothing worn by Pearl on the night she was murdered. The party, consisting of Jackson, Walling, and Pearl drove away from the house in a carriage.

George H. Jackson, a colored man, was called. His testimony was of the most startling character.

He told that on the night before the murder he was approached by Alonzo Walling at the corner of George and Elm Streets. Walling inquired if Jackson wished to earn five dollars by driving a cab across the Newport bridge. The colored man accepted. On the next night he proceeded to Elm and George Streets to discharge the contract. A cab soon drove up with Walling on the box. Walling gave him the reins and instructed him to drive to the Newport bridge, giving route. This was done. Then Walling got up on the box with him to further direct the way. Before long he heard a noise that sounded like a woman suffering and they moved around and shook the carriage and they broke a gla.s.s, and then I was scared and I put my left hand out and my right hand on the lantern and it kind of bent down and I started to jump off, and I said there is something wrong in the back part of that carriage and I don't care anything about this job, and I went to hand the lines to him and when I went to look at him I was looking at a gun. He said, "If you don't drive this horse I will blow you to h.e.l.l"; of course, I understood and began to drive the horse.

At length the carriage stopped at the command of a man inside the carriage whom the witness identified to be Scott Jackson. The witness said, "I stopped the horse and the man inside of the carriage got out, and when this man on the front seat jumped down and went behind and got on the other side of the lady then I got down to shut the door and this here man who sat in the rear says, 'Drive down and turn around and come back and wait until I whistle,' and then I shut the door and they moved off; the woman was in between these two men. I went down the hill and turned around, and when I came back I saw them in the act of getting over the fence. It was a kind of a three-board fence."

The witness then related that a panic seized him and that he ran away from the scene as fast as he could, leaving the horse tied where he stood.

If George H. Jackson's story was true there can be no doubt of Scott Jackson's and Alonzo Walling's guilt.

The next witnesses of importance were the two detectives Crim and McDermott.

Crim testified first. He said:

"I live in Cincinnati. Have been connected with the Police Department about ten years; on the detective force two years. I was detailed on the Pearl Bryan case. I went to the point where the body was found, Sat.u.r.day, February 1st, in the neighborhood of one o'clock, in company of McDermott and Mr. Plummer, Sheriff of this county.

"I went out with Mr. Plummer and he described the position that the body was lying in when found. I noticed a few spots of blood on the ground, one on the side of the bank and the other down near the bottom, where the neck was supposed to be lying. I noticed blood on the bushes and on the edge of the bank. Mr. McDermott pulled the leaves through his hand and the blood stuck to his fingers; he rubbed it on the back of his hand and it made a red mark. I took one of the leaves and have it with me now. This is the leaf. (The leaf was then exhibited to the jury). I have kept that leaf in another book until I filled that one up and then I placed it in this. It is a leaf I plucked from the bushes there. There were a number of the leaves that had blood upon them, drops like rain-drops would glisten on the same. I found near these blood spots an impression in the ground as though some one had been sitting there.

During the time I was there some person took a stick and dug down in the ground six or seven inches. There was blood down as far as he went, or some red substance I thought was blood. On the top of the bank, I judge three feet from where this impression was, there was a track which looked as though it had been made with a rubber shoe of small size.

About the size of the rubber shown me. The witness also testified that he had made a search of the room occupied by Jackson. He found a pair of ladies stockings behind a trunk pointed out to him as Scott Jackson's trunk and which had on it the letters "S. J." He also found, in the trunk, a ladies pocket-book with a piece of gold chain in it. In a closet was found a cap. McDermott was present when the search was made and testified exactly as Mr. Crim did.

John W. Legner was called and testified.

"I live in Cincinnati. I kept a saloon at 225 West Ninth Street, nearly opposite where Walling and Jackson roomed. Scott Jackson had been in my place quite frequently; he came for a pitcher of beer."

"State whether at any time he left any article of any kind at your place."

"On Sat.u.r.day night, the 1st of February, between 7 and 8 o'clock. Mr.

Jackson, whose name I did not know at the time, but had seen on two or three occasions, opened the door and asked if he could have the permission to leave a satchel there; I told him certainly he could. He set the satchel down close to the ice chest, left it there and went away, and the satchel remained there until Sunday evening about 10 o'clock, when he came in and took it away. He left no directions as to its disposal. On the following Monday night he came and brought it and set it down in the same place where it was sitting before, and it remained there until about 10 o'clock, or a little bit earlier; then he came and took it away. I had no occasion to handle the valise on either occasion. The valise shown me looks like the valise that he brought here. He roomed right across the way from my place."

Little Dot Legner, a child belonging to the saloon-keeper testified that the satchel was much heavier on the first night than on the second. It has been conjectured, very plausibly, that the valise contained Pearl Bryan's head, on the first night.

William D. Wood, of Greencastle, Ind., was called. Wood's name has been very prominently connected with the case on account of his knowledge of Pearl Bryan's condition and the part he played in sending the girl to Cincinnati. In answer to questions he stated that he introduced Scott Jackson to Pearl Bryan in August, 1895, and that some time afterward Jackson boasted that he had become intimate with the girl. According to Wood, Jackson left Greencastle in October to take a course of dentistry in Cincinnati and that soon afterward Jackson wrote and inquired if Pearl Bryan was sick. Wood investigated and replied that she was sick.

Then Jackson sent a prescription for medicine and said:

"Tell her to take two or three good doses before she goes to bed at night."

The medicine had no effect. Additional prescriptions were then sent.

They were unsuccessful. Pearl continued "sick."

Wood then stated that Jackson went to Greencastle again during the holidays. The condition of Pearl was becoming more threatening and it was plain that something had to be done. Then it was that Jackson suggested an operation. The witness testified on this point.

"He said that it was very frequently done, done every day and if he had the instruments he could do it himself. Such operations, he said, were every day occurrences and if we got it done she would be all right in three or four days."

Before Jackson left Greencastle he tried to make Wood agree to send her to Cincinnati where the matter could be attended to, but Wood claimed that he refused, not wis.h.i.+ng to have anything to do with it.

On January 4th, Jackson left Greencastle and returned to Cincinnati and on January 25th, Wood received a letter from him in which he said that he had secured a room for Pearl. Wood claims that he gave this letter to Pearl. She read it and expressed her intention of going on the next Monday. Accordingly on January 27th, she left Greencastle on the 1:35 train, going east.

On February 6th, 1896, Wood received another letter. He was then on the train in charge of the officers, as an accomplice of Scott Jackson who had been arrested. The letter was destroyed by Wood but he remembered the contents. The letter read.

"h.e.l.lo Bill--I have made a big mistake and we will probably get into trouble. I want you to stand by me."

On the day before this Wood received the following strange letter which was produced in court and which we already published on page 77.

The witness stated that the above letter never reached him--that it fell into the hands of Chief Deitsch. The letter was most damaging to Jackson's case.

The next and last witness for the prosecution was Chief of Police, Colonel Deitsch, of Cincinnati. He said:

"On February 5th, about 10 o'clock at night I met Jackson in charge of a detective officer named Bulmer on the corner of Ninth and Plum Streets, in Cincinnati. I went up to Scott Jackson and said then, "We want you at the Mayor's office." We walked into the Mayor's office--Mayor Caldwell, of Cincinnati--and there was no one present at the time except myself, His Honor, the Mayor, and Scott Jackson. Detective Bulmer came into the office but walked out. I told Scott Jackson I had a dispatch for his arrest. He sat on the settee, and I asked, "Where is Pearl Bryan?" He said, "I have not seen her since the 2nd day of January, 1896, at Greencastle, Ind." The Mayor partly read the dispatch and gave it to me, and I had handed it to Jackson, and said: "Jackson read the contents of that dispatch." He read it carefully, and then said: "Oh my G.o.d, what will my poor mother say?" I asked the question, "Do you know where Pearl Bryan is?" He said he did not. He got up off the settee and made the remark over again. "Oh, my G.o.d, what will my poor mother say?" He walked backward and forward. He made the remark. "Must I tell about this?" His Honor, the Mayor, said, "Not unless you want too." The Mayor repeated that twice. He said, "Jackson, you need not tell unless you want too." I then again asked him if he knew anything about Pearl Bryan. He said that he did not. Shortly after that conversation the reporters from the daily press were admitted and my interview with Jackson at that time ended."

The Colonel stated that on the following day Jackson requested an interview. Following are the Colonels words:

I asked Jackson. "Did you have anything to do with the woman down at Greencastle?" He said: "Yes, I did." "Did you write a letter to Wood advising him to give her ---- of ----?" He said he did, and shortly afterward got a letter again from Will Wood, saying that it had no effect. And in the meantime he had a conversation with Walling about the subject. Walling advised him to give ---- of ----; then in a conversation again with Walling about the matter Walling made the remark: "Bring her up here and we will...." I repeated to Jackson: "Is that statement correct?" He said that it was. "And did you send for Pearl Bryan then?" He said that he did. When that conversation was ended a satchel was brought into the office--a red satchel. Opening the satchel I asked himto look into it; says I, "Jackson, what is in this satchel; look." He says, "There is nothing." Says I, "Did you observe anything unusual?" and I called his attention to some blood that was on the inside of the satchel. He says, "I did not notice that before."

I asked him whether he had opened it; he says, "Yes; I took part of Pearl Bryan's clothing on Sat.u.r.day evening on the Suspension Bridge and threw it overboard into the Ohio River."

He furthermore described a meeting between Jackson and Walling in his presence in the course of which Walling and Jackson accused each other of having murdered Pearl Bryan. The witness also repeated a conversation between the two that took place in a peculiarly constructed cell, called "The Sensitive Cell." A telephone attachment connected this cell with other apartments in the building, hence its name. This part of the testimony was ruled out by the court.

The defense began its testimony by placing Scott Jackson on the stand.

All the man's natural shrewdness came to his aid while on the stand. His words were clear, frankly spoken and there was no hesitation in his manner. He acted the innocent man to perfection.

There is little about his testimony that is very remarkable or startling as he disclaims all the manner of knowledge of Pearl Bryan's death.

Neither does he accuse anyone of the murder. He merely adheres to his theory that Walling is guilty--that is all. He maintains that Walling was confused and panic stricken when he saw the articles in the newspapers describing the finding of the body at Fort Thomas. Then it was, says Jackson, that they hastened to get rid of all the effects belonging to Pearl Bryan which were in their possession. He also maintained that Wood sent the girl to Cincinnati and that finding her here he tried to hit upon means of best taking care of her.

He concluded to allow her to remain at the Indiana House temporarily until he could secure her private accommodations. As these could easily be had he took her valise and started away to hunt for convenient quarters. That is how he happened to have Pearl Bryan's effects in his keeping.