Show IN PRISON AT CHIHUAHUA THREE MEN AWAIT DEATH HURLBERT MITCHELL AND HARLE UNDER SENTENCE FOR COLD BLOODED MURDERS WERE GANG OF LIFE INSURANCE SWINDLERS killing of their victims a part of the scheme by which they had made large sums had another victim marked for death chihuahua mexico through a skein of plot and anter plot that it evolved by a writer of fiction would have been considered extravagant the story runs of the crime of the three men hu ibert mitchell and harie now under sentence of death here the crime for which these three men are to die is murder an incident of their series of carefully planned life insurance swindles the particular company victimized Is one of the greatest in the world and only carelessness on the part of the plotters resulting from over bonfi dence saved it from a heavy loss practically in its entirety the affair Is as follows commenced in 1902 it was tn the spring of 1902 that a life insurance company was called upon to pay two death claims tn achl the first o 0 the life of harry M mitchell for 15 under a policy assigned to his sibber helen richard son and the second on the life of james devers for 10 QUO under a pol icy of which one willis meredith was the beneficial mitchell had died on february 11 of that year ana devers on march 23 and the agent in both cases had been richardson who had formerly been in the employ of the company at chihuahua but was now living in dallas now life insurance agents in chi mexico eien those who sub seq move to a town like dallas do not as a rul support private teams nor drive out in style with negro coachman and a footman or two all thee things were included in richardson s establishment in dallas to the great amazement of a depre of the life insurance corn pany who went down from the el paso office where the check tor he devers policy had been forwarded to 1001 into the matter these things were reported to the home office ind under the direction of second vice president harry H bo tome a law er of new york and a detective who may remain nameless got buby on the case it was discovered that devers had been in chihuahua a few weeks before his death and that nothing was known about him except thit he was a hard drini er and of a type of social out cast common enough in that territory this strengthened a theory that the very possession of a 10 policy by such a man required some further explanation let alone possible clous circumstances attending his death so the investigators turned to the payment of the policy at the el paso office atter the company had unsuccessfully tried to have the check sent from new intercepted in transit first evidence secured it appeared that the cheal had ben forwarded from the el paso office att the fort worth office at the request of meredith and when it came back atter coll action through a bot t worth bank it bore meredith s endorsement indorsement indor tor de posit inquiry at th 1 bank in ques alon developed that soon after the clain had been filed on devers death meredith had called at the bank in company with richardson and had obtained a loan of 8 00 upon richardson s assurance that the had admitted the claim anier the policy and was about to pay the money this loan was paid in part in cash and in part by a draft on the seaboard national bank of new york and it was this drat for 7 OGO to gether with its endorsement indorsement indor to alrh ardson that forms the first link in the chain of evidence that was to connect him with the crime so the search led back to chihuahua and when more light was sought on the manner of the deaths of harry mitchell and devers it was lound that in the first case death had occurred in the house in which richardson and his wife lived and within half an hour after mitchell bad talked with a friend in the apparently in perfect health th was hardly con sistena with the theory of spinal men advanced by dr harle the physician signing the death certificate who happened to be also the physician who had examined each applicant for insurance upon his admission to the company in the case of devers it appeared that death was due to aysen tery as might easily have occurred with a min of devers dissolute man ner of living of richardson nothing could be learned ex ept that he had appeared in chihuahua in the sum mer of 1901 with his wife helen richardson as an american looking tor business opportunities in mexico and had secured an appointment as agent for the life insurance company in the territory gray s ertry er try into the game it was at this stage ot the case that there came to dallas aher the rich were living in style a pre possessing citizen named W J gray a dealer in lumber lands who opened an office of some size and took a house in the best part of the town the richardsons Richard sons happened to be in hot springs ark at the time and so gray the lumberman who gasn wasn t in any hurry to get his dallas affairs amov ing anyway took a trip over to the arl ansas resort and registered at the same hotel with the former life in aurance agent his wife and the two got acquainted and became famous friends ahn one lay rich ardson proposed that he sho id insure gray s hie gray demurred but he recalled that his wife had a brother who was with consumption dia betes and several other tro ables and it occurred to him that it there were any way in which a policy might be issued on the life of this unfortunate brother inlaw in law as security for some money he gray nad advanced he might contemplate with more equa cimity his relative s approaching end richardson thought he id fix it and the brother in law was sent tor from st louis now the convenient arother in law was about as much a relative ct gray s as gray was himself a lumber mer chant but he was indeed suffer ng from consumption and diabetes and was so ill when richardson wrote als 50 policy that he had to oe propped up in bed in order to sign it ichardson Mc hardson announced that he had a couple of doctors to sign th 1 physical exam papers and ue sick brother in law was shipped back to st louis whence he went out to arizona a year later to die dallas made headquarters greatly did gray admire the skilled manipulation of brother in law case bv his friend richardson so when the latter sigg eted that there was plenty of easy monty to be made by similar undertakings down in the border country where people are not watched too carefully gray tell in with the game at once and the two went back to dallas where grays lumber office became shortly their headquarters gray used to hear from richardson how it gasn wasn t really feces sary to bribe a doctor in an case but simply to take a dummy be fore the medical man to pass the physical examination and richardson had just the dummy that filled the bill a young fellow named mason once a miner in chihuahua so the months went on and ll 11 was in october of 1902 the gray rl hard son mason combination was avi in good running order and it was planned that they should go to el paso where mason would take out insurance in the name of marshall D an ii divid ual whom richardson said he knew to be dying of consumption in malco they were to make gray the beneal clary of the policy wait until etto died and then collect the but a hitch arose richardson remembered one day that nis trind sanguinetto netto was a young man of middle age whereas mason was but a youngster of 23 why not then have ray take out the policy as barguin boarded the ather then as hu alia not know harle he sent a porter through the car with a western union telegraph envelope addressed to the doctor and harle tumbled into the trap bottome and a detect lye led into the smoking compartment I 1 a quezz of the third d that wound up with a 50 page confession harle in the death of devers and aling enough of the circumstances ot harry mitchell s death to indicate how his suicide had been arranged harle said that devers had been brought from from el paso by richardson in december of 1901 and that had said that he had explainer el to devers that devera was to be used in swindling one wll meredith out of a lot of money for this purpose devers was to pose a the half brother of meredith and also to take out a life insurance pol icy in his half brother s favor but devers never signed any papers in thia connection that was all arranged be tween harle and richardson so that when meredith who turned out lo 10 be mason arrived on the night ol 01 harry mitchell s funeral with a worn an who posed as his wife it was feces etto making mason the benen clary and then collect in the usual waya gray marked for murder gray was not overanxious to make his death a possible source ot pro it to richardson and mason but he con dented to be tor the pur poses ot the policy and to own mason as david his on and heir after various icalona the policy was made out and the deal closed apparently what introduced a new element into it that rich ardson and his friend mason had not counted on was the fact that harry bottoms and a couple of detectives had been keeping in nightly toi ch with gray and incidentally had apen doing a little work on the ade listen ing to conversations between rich ardson and mason when gra gasn wasn t around it was in one of these con that richardson gleefully remarked that gray bad beer the aas lest thing imaginable in ohp etto case and added we won t do a thing to him when we get him over the border bottome and his men decided that matters had gone far enough they laid their information before the district attorney of el paso county and warrants were issued for all three in eluding gray for it was inexpedient just then to have an exposure ol 01 the part which the lumberman detective had played in the case biray however was soon released and the next step was a charge filed in th city of achl accusing richar ison and ma son ol 01 the murders of and devers in the preliminary hearing dr harle was called as a witness and testified that mitchell dad die of nine poisoning instead of men but that richardson had told him that the case was one of sul cide and wanted to have thins hushed up devers harle still declared died ot dysentery harle said that he had been called in to attend him oy a halt brother of devers william meredith harle was not cross examine J and he left the stand thinking he had got away with the goods confession from harle at this point bottome from el paso telegraphed harle that he was corn ing to chihuahua and wanted to see him harle thereupon started tor el paso and bottome when he was well on his way to the mexican town got a wire on his train that he would pass the train on which harle was traveling in mid route bottome left his train at a convenient station and sary only that the final preparation should be made to put devers out ot the way before collecting botn of the policies these were easily arranged the bogus meredith and devere went to live together on february aj harle was called to see devers who appeared to be suffering from acute dys enter harle gave him some cine to ease bis pain but shortly after he died in his confession harle said he knew devers was being poisoned and sup posed that of mercury was given him in whisky harle filled out a take burial certificate and the other papers necessary to collect on the policy after which richardson and mason ho had now become wll flam mitchell took it to the el paso agency and eventually raised the of which we have beard at the bank at fort worth harle of course was immediately arrested and event bally came to trial with the other men hallbert Hul lbert s criminal record but in the meantime photographs ot the trio had been distributed through the usual police channels throughout the country and when they reached rochester N the photograph ol 01 richardson was recognized as that ol 01 lester E hurlbert a lawyer who had jumped that city in may 1901 after ahe exposure of an extensive divorce mill which he had operated in the cities of rochester and buffalo wll bell or wallis meredith or mason as he was variously known turned but to be the brother of harry mitchell who was killed in hua in order that the gang might col elect lect on his 15 policy mrs rich ardson was identified as the wife ot hurlbert and investigation in roches ter developed the fact that she was the sister of the mitchell boys wll bell trail indeed waa fol lowed even to hot springs ark where the wealthy lumberman gray had his brother la law insured toi mason was the engaging young man who had himself examined by the hot spring doctor as john J evans the trial of the three men had en reported in part in the through out the country and it served onis to develop the facts in the remarkable case which have been very simply nar rated above the verdict ct guilt quickly followed the presentation ol 01 the facts to the jury and it remained at length necessary only for the exe cut loners to carry out the sentence of the court |