DeVISES, KS – Albert Applegate and May Nelson were married last week. They kept things very quiet, knowing perhaps that I was in the market, and that my chances are growing less. The Norton Courier, Norton, Kansas. Thursday, September 7, 1893. Page 4.
DeVISES, KS – Albert Applegate is a father, it is a boy and arrived last Sunday. It being the first, he is naturally proud. The Norton Courier, Norton, Kansas. Thursday, May 24, 1894. Page 4.
DeVISES, KS – Born to Mr. and Mrs. Albert Applegate, a girl. The Norton Courier, Norton, Kansas. Thursday, June 20, 1895. Page 5.
DeVISES, KS – The little 4-month-old child of Albert Applegate was laid to rest in the DeVizes Cemetery, last week (Matilda Jane Applegate). The Norton Courier, Norton, Kansas. Thursday, October 31, 1895. Page 5.
DeVISES, KS – The Applegate Murder. A Wife’s Infidelity. Nemesis, the Avenger. The hitherto peaceful Sappa was last week the scene of a fearful murder, the victim being William Albert Applegate shot to death on Friday morning in his own cornfield. Not since the murder or suicide on Jones Creek, a few miles from the recent scene, has the Sappa region furnished us a sensation incarnadined with human blood.
Albert Applegate lived on his father-in-law’s farm, W.U. Nelson’s, a couple of miles southwest of DeVizes, being about 20 miles Northwest of Norton. His brother-in-law, John Nelson, lives on the farm east of it. On Friday morning shortly before 7 o’clock, 4 shots were heard by the Nelsons, and on looking over towards the field in which Applegate was husking corn, from which direction the sound of shots came, they saw Applegate’s team running away. Thinking that a part of hunters had frightened the team, John Nelson ran to catch it. He saw a man running as if after the team but thought it was Applegate himself so he did not watch his movements. Nelson caught the team and drove back to the cornfield but kept looking for Applegate to put in an appearance.
When the shots were heard Mrs. Nelson went out of her house, looked in the direction from which the sound came and also saw the runaway. She did not see Applegate following and thinking he was thrown out of the wagon or otherwise hurt, she went over towards the field and called “Albert” several times. She heard corn stalks crackling as if some one running; remembering the shots she became alarmed and returned for her brother Ed Wood, aged 18 years, who was with her husband’s team gathering corn in their own field. Ed drove, therefore, over to the other field while Mrs. Nelson walked across the shortest way. She was the first to discover Applegate lying upon his face shot dead.
The neighborhood was at once alarmed, and hundreds gathered to the scene of the tragedy before an hour. Who did the murder? We have never pursued the history of a crime into which a thousand idle stories were not injected by highly imaginative creatures. More incredible, impossible, absurd and improbable stories are joined to this one than would present clues for a hundred murders. Every man has a different story; every man saw some man here or there who is clearly a suspect. For miles around the true murderer has been seen hours, days, weeks, months before. Each particular liar (beg pardon, each inventive cuss, we should have said) desires to become connected with the discovery of the clue by a cock-and-bull story that would exercise the devil’s skill with all his boasted parentage of lies. Confound a liar! We early in life inbibed a hatred for liars. Before we were born some granny up in portents, said we would be a girl; the prejudice we then got for liars has followed us through life but that is another tragedy.
Now follows all the probable and improbable tales as they reach our half-credulous ears. John Nelson tells us that on Thursday eve about dark a man entered his house and asked to stay all night. He is described as over 30, about 5 ft. 6 in. or 8 in., dark hair, eye and mustache; he wore blue overalls, a dark blue coat, black soft hat, and under the coat a knit jacket. He was permitted to remain. While eating supper he asked if Albert Applegate lived in that neighborhood. He was answered yes, on the next farm east and a brother-in-law. Nelson asked him if he knew Applegate: Answered no, but that he knew a man that did know him. This was all the conversation then held about Applegate. Before retireing the stranger stated that he came from the Territory, but came that day from Norton, leaving the impression he had walked. He stated also that he lived in Colorado and ran the range a few years. Next morning he offered a ten dollar bill to pay for his keeping, but for lack of change or for charity he was not charged anything. He then inquired for Applegate and the latter was pointed out to him in the corn field. About fifteen minutes later, the four shots were heard. By the way, no gun or revolver was seen upon the stranger, who slept in another room with Ed Wood.
Mrs. Nelson thinks she heard four distinct shots, three close together and the fourth after a brief interval: her husband remembers only three. Who is the stranger? Applegate told Nelson about some trouble he had with a rancher in Colorado, who becoming jealous of him tried to kill him, and who swore that he would kill him if it took 10 years to get the drop on him. The name of the rancher was not remembered. A little over 4 years ago he and Applegate ran the same range in Colorado, 40 miles from nowhere, their postoffice being Meeker; that pplegate became sick and that he was nursed by the wife of Bill Heddy who kept the ranch and boarded the cowboys. Heddy became jealous of the attention paid Applegate by his wife, and one day at dinner Heddy rushed for his Winchester to shoot Applegate: the latter jumped over the table and clinched with Heddy. In the 2 hours’ melee the gun was discharged twice. Applegate was the larger and stronger, so no death come of this encounter. Bert Page was an eyewitness.
At another time both met in a saloon; they eyed each other and paced back and forth several hours, but neither drew a gun. Finally Heddy remarked: “You — — I will get the drop on your sometime,” and retired. The source of this incident is unknown. Bert Page, from Nelson’s description, identifies the stranger as Bill Heddy, the further description being that he has a crooked or Roman nose, which also tallies, and a scar on one cheek.
Another story runs that this rancher returned one time and found his wife sitting upon Applegate’s lap, when the Winchester incident comes in again. A third story goes that Heddy just escaped the penitentiary to which he had been sent on the evidence of Applegate and the murder follows as a consequence. Whose invention is this?
Scores of horsemen armed to the teeth scoured the country all day without finding the stranger. The scene of the murder lies near the Sappa, ample in hiding places through rank grass, weeds, and timber. Rumors that 300 men “had him surrounded on Friday night” reached us; that they awaited daylight to capture him; daylight came but no stranger.
The story of the murder was brought to town Friday forenoon by John Nelson himself who complained to county attorney Jones. Warrants were issued in Squire Oliver’s court and given to Undersheriff Creco and Constable Hatcher to serve, the Sheriff being away at Goodland t the time. Coroner Tucker could not attend the inquest, hence it was held before Squire Howell. Two bullets penetrated Applegate: one entered the right side 4 inches below the arm and came out on the front left side below the heart; the bullet lodging between the undershirt and the outer shirt; the second bullet entered an inch below the right ear and escaped through the left corner of the mouth tearing away two upper teeth. The region under the ear was powder burned, showing close range. The latter wound bled outwardly freely; there was no blood visible from the other.
The corn rows ran north and south; at the point where the murder occurred, a pocket draw and a deep draw run up to the corn rows; a tree marks the head of this triangular corn field. On the bank of these draws the grass was considerably crushed, showing a struggle took place there. This grass lay between the draw and the wagon tracks beyond where Applegate stood, a left-handed shucker; that is, the wagon was between the victim and the spot where the avenger lay in hiding. Applegate had carried up his rows and turned south with his team to pass the fatal spot. At this point indicating the death struggle there was blood marks, so he must have received the face wound here. A few feet away lay his hat; 19 paces further away to the south the corpse lay, blood marking all the distance. The corpose lay face forward, hands under his breast, at his mouth a pool of blood. The first impressions is that Applegate was shot dead before the murderer went to his prostrate form to make sure work by placing the revolver at his ear to burn the visible wound; but that cannot satisfy the conditions: blood marked every step of the 19 yards from the hat, and blood escaped from the head wound only.
If four shots were fired, three in rapid succession, two missed altogether. Probably at the first shot Applegate, knowing his man ran towards him and clinched at which time he received the face wound. After throwing his assailant over the bank it is likely he attempted to escape by running south, away from his house, when the last delayed shot was fired that dropped him in his tracks. Both shots, however, were fired from the rear of the victim; the calibre of the gun being 44. The fatal wound was the one below the arm, internal hemorrhage causing death. This was not necessarily instantaneous; it could have been any of the first three shots, but the face wound was absolutely at close range and given at the head of the pocket draw.
Applegate never owned a gun, had none at hos house; Nelson says that he never carried a revolver on the range and claimed he never needed one. The scene of the murder lies mid-way between Applegate’s house to the north and Nelson’s to the south. Across the big draw at the edge of which the murder took place is a third corn field. At that time a man, whose name we have not learned, was there husking; he heard no shots at all, although he was as close as Mrs. Nelson, almost as near as John Nelson and Ed Wood were to the tragedy. While none of the Nelsons nor Wood, who slept with the stranger, saw any weapon, it comes to us that the stranger on going to bed undressed, but that John Nelson and Ed Wood did not undress that night. This is strange talk, but if true, stranger conduct. Were they suspicious? If so, the allayed suspicion next morning is more remarkable than ever, especially as John Nelson after hearing the firing, never thought of a possible murder although his wife guessed something wrong according to her conduct.
A new feature to the case comes, it is reported, from Cris. Watson who states that about 6 weeks before a man stopped at his place giving his name as Collins. This stranger inquired for Applegate too. Of Applegate he said he would not get his just deserts until he got a bullet in his heart. Applegate on being told of it said: “I know him; his name isn’t Collins. I’m not afraid of him. I can tie him in a knot.” Leonard King says a man answering this description, got off the Rock Island train from the west on Thursday morning, stopped at his place, and inquired for someone up in that neighborhood. He was told people are in Norton every day from that locality. He left for that part of the county with someone at 2 o’clock.
Jeff Murray drove north of Norcatur on Thursday afternoon and overtook a man afoot. He was asked to ride and did so. When getting out to go in a more westerly direction this stranger pulled a gun and bade Jeff proceed about his business nor watch his movements. Sheriff Betterton desired letters or other things that would throw some light on the tragedy. He was shown an envelope postmarked, “Mt. Air, Iowa, Oct. – 1893” upon the corner of which appeared a return card to “Lizzie Heddy, Mt. Air, Io.” This letter was not shown. Perhaps it is the same letter that J.O. Wood told us about which his wife read (they are the parents of Mrs. John Nelson) containing much love and a recital of all she had lost and abandoned for Applegate. Another feminine letter is said to be in evidence, sealed with the injunction not to be opened until the writer is dead – supposing to be the same Lizzie.
Stories come from Wilsonville that a man was put off east of there answering the same description of this murderous stranger; but that he then paid his way to Wilsonville, arriving Thursday; that he was seen going south, and, of course inquiring where Applegate lived. This stranger can prove several theories of alibi. A man with plenty of money and bound on the mission of revenge to expiate the dearest throbbing of his heart, would not quarrel with trainmen to ride a few miles free.
The only motive for the murder so far revealed is this Colorado homebreaking. It is, of course, ample even with the lapse of years. Until the 7th Commandment is abrogated there will be an argument in favor of the avenger. If Bill Heddy, brooding over a wrecked home, be the avenger, the Nemesis that in spirit or in fact sooner or later overtakes the transgressor, he studied on escape. Would a sane man kill in broad daylight, leaving hours of light to his pursuers, and a tracer so close to the scene?
Applegate used to live at John Nelson’s house. Perhaps he thought Applegate there still and expected to shoot him that night. Perhaps – perhaps and perhaps. You have a tithe of the stories, therefore go ahead with your own perhaps. Bill Heddy will in time be captured. He will expose to us if not an alibi, at least a scarred, pierced, broken heart. Courts or lynchers cannot add to its troubled beating more than a trifling scar to its ancient thousand scars. What cares he for death? If he paid court to the shrine of Nemesis, the offering of his own life is a mere vapor gladly lost in the cloud overhanging his life. The Champion. Norton, Kansas. Thursday, November 14, 1895. Page 3. © Transcribed by Darren McMannis for Prairie Tales Media.
NORTON, KS – Gov. Morrill has made a requisition upon the governor of Iowa for Bill Heddy, wanted in Norton county upon the charge of being the murderer of Albert Applegate, who was recently found dead in his cornfield on November 8. The Kinsley Graphic, Kinsley, Kansas. November 29, 1895. Page 3. © Transcribed by Darren McMannis for Prairie Tales Media.
NORTON, KS – Heddy Arrested. The murder of Applegate, one of the oldest and most respected citizens of Norton county, was an appalling crime. Applegate was found dead in his cornfield where he had been shot to death. One ball had passed through the body from right to left just above the heart and another had entered his head immediately in front of the right ear and passed out at the top of his mouth. Sheriff Betterton soon discovered that Heddy had been in the neighborhood and that the last seen of him was at the home of a farmer living on the place adjoining the one owned by Applegate. Heddy left there saying he had met a man who had asked him to call and see Applegate. Nothing has since been heard from Heddy until he was arrested by the Sheriff at Mount Ayr, Iowa.
The case develops that Heddy and Applegate had a serious quarrel in Colorado a few years ago and that Heddy then threatened to kill Applegate. Being unsuccessful at that time Heddy said he would follow Applegate the remainder of his days, or until he found an opportunity to kill him. The Almena Plaindealer, Almena, Kansas. Thursday, November 21, 1895. Page 1.
NORTON, KS – HEDDY’S STATEMENT. “I would like to say a few words through your valuable paper to the public. In the first place I would say that I feel no hatred towards any one in any way in prosecuting this great crime that I am charged with. I do feel from the depths of my heart, sorrow for that bereaved widow.
I will say that I had a noble and loving wife, one precious child and Oh! a good and happy home until the deceased, Applegate, stepped in between my dear wife and me and broke up my home, ruined my wife and made her what she is today. God as witness, these words are true. In August, 1891 at my home in Colorado the deceased Applegate come one day at my home when I was away. He followed my wife to her own room, threw his arms around her and held her on her own bed until he overpowered her and accomplished his crime. He with his slick tongue made her believe if she told me I would kill her. She broke her own heart by keeping his crime a secret for years from her own husband. When she did confess she told me all he had done with her. He had said to her, “Lizzie, I never will see one minute’s peace on this earth, for I will think you will tell your husband some day; I always will be looking for him.” How could this man so cruelly treat me, and do such a crime in the eyes of God, after I had befriended him and given him a home when he had not one dollar nor a place to lay his head? She told me on bended knees, her God as witness; why should I doubt her word? I did live so happy with my wife until the summer of 1891. We lived in our own home. I was away one day to Meeker, our own county seat. There a friend of mine said to me that Applegate had been making light remarks about my wife.
When I went home I said to my wife: “Lizzie, you tell Albert on Sunday when he comes, to get his washing done elsewhere (as my wife did his washing, he worked close to my place) and take his clothes and keep away.” I wanted her to tell him, because he might think if I told him to keep away, that I was jealous of him. She did so, for I met him a little way from the house with his valise, and he cried and said he would keep away and give no cause for people to talk. We shook hands as friends. That was on Sunday; during the following week I was away and my hired hand told me: “Albert come yesterday to your new house; I was working in your kitchen and your wife was sweeping out the big room; he hollared to her. She said, “What do you want?” He answered, “Come out, I want to speak to you a minute.” She said “Albert I am busy; come some day when Will is at home.” He kept talking and she went out; they talked a few minutes. When my man told me I wrote Applegate a notice not to come on my ranch only to see me on business, as I owed him some, and told him I would settle with him when I could. The next Sunday my man went away and I went out to kill a deer, as we were out of meat. My wife went to the stable with me and kissed me good bye as she always did on my going away, saying “Hurry back.” I did not get back till late that afternoon. When I came in sight of the house, about 200 yards away, I saw my wife coming to meet me leading our little boy by the hand. When I come close enough I saw she was crying. I got off my horse and kissed her, and asked her what was the matter. She said she thought I had got hurt as I was gone so long. Her cheeks were streaked with dried tears, and showed she had been crying a good while. I led her to the house; she soon got me some dinner but would not eat any, and seemed to look sad. This happened in August of 1891.
I saw Applegate several times between then and fall, and always spoke to him. He would speak but he would not look me in the face. I thought he did act guilty of some thing. In the fall I met him and he said he was going to Kansas soon. I settled with him and I owed him $70.00. He had not a scratch of a pen to show I owed him, but I paid him all I owed him. He went to Kansas that fall, 1891. I and wife lived happy that winter, had 6 dances at our own house that winter. In the spring of 1892 here came Applegate right to my house. The first I knew he was in the country. He stayed two or three days without me asking him anything. He was not at my house much that summer.
I was away threshing at one of my neighbor’s the last of October 1892. On coming home after dark there was a horse in my stable with a saddle on. On going to my house and passing the window I saw Applegate and my wife sitting in different chairs side by side. She had her head down as in a deep study and looked down at the floor; he had his left arm around her waist and his head down close to hers and seemed to be talking very interesting. I waked in and I said: “Lizzie, take your choice of us two; there he is and here am I. If you think more him take him; if not stay with me and he will sure keep away and let you alone. Do it quick.” I walked to where my gun was and picked it up. By that time my wife had her arms around my neck saying she loved me and would not give me for any man. She was by my right side crying. I had the rifle pointed down at the floor. Applegate came up to my left side with one arm to my arm and was crying and trembling saying there was nothing wrong only what I saw and he hoped God would strike him dead if there was any more between him and my wife than I saw. I shot the gun in the floor just to try his nerves. He staggard back and begged for mercy and was more scared than my wife. He did not have his hands on the gun any of the time. I saw then he had no nerve and could not help to smile at his actions; for I was not mad and did not think I had seen enough to take a life. I told him then and there he was no man; and if what I saw was all, it surely was not enough to take any one’s life. I said him to go and never bother my wife or me again or I would not let him off so easy. He gave me his right hand and promised he never would, for she was too good a woman, and he went. Saw him a few times after and always spoke to him.
I hired to a widow to work on her ranch January 1, 1893. While on this ranch I had been told by several of my friends that Applegate had made visits to see my wife and blowed about it and how he would kill me. I kept my tongue thinking they might be wrong; knowing what he had promised me he surely could not be so deceitful. We worked on that ranch until May 14. In February I was 7 miles from the ranch. My friends told me Applegate was in town and had been 4 or 5 days and said he was going to see my wife before he left the country. As for me he was fixed for me and had a six shooter strapped on him. There was a good many saw him who told me to be on my guard for he was my enemy. I held my tongue and saw nothing of Applegate. I sent my wife home to Missouri on May 16, 1893. After she had gone east I could hear from lots of people about Applegate’s talk about my wife; he told how he had been intimate with her for 2 years.
Before he left Colorado he had bragged how he had done with my wife, and said he expected to meet me some day, but would be prepared for me. I have seen nothing but misery and sorrow since my wife and I parted. The man I had befriended was the cause of all my sorrow, and the cause of my wife’s ruin. I corresponded with my wife from May 16, 1893 until November 2, 1895, the last letter I got from her. She in all her letters said that man was her ruin; her sisters and mother said she told them the same. She said she had got letters from that man and that he lived near Devizes, Kansas, and had married in August 1893. The 2nd of November when I got her letter I wanted to hold my boy if it came into court. I went to Missouri where she had been and stayed at the hotel on Sunday night, Nov. 3. On the 4th when starting away the landlady said to me: “I feel so sorry for that little wife of yours; she was a good hearted woman and surely did love you at one time; but, by the way, she says some man in Colorado did overpower her and brake up your home and was the cause of her ruin. Then and there I started to see Applegate to have a talk with him and see which he would say was to blame.
I used all precaution so I could get close enough to him so he could not take advantage of me. If he did this crime my life was nothing in his hand. At sight of me he showed his guilt by his actions. He would have crushed out my life if he could. In the impulse of the moment I took his life only thinking my life was in danger. God knows I am sorry that this deed did occur; but I have been tried by a jury of 12 men who say I am guilty. But my conscience says No. I go feeling I have done no crime in the eyes of my God nor in the eyes of my country. I hope all their consciences is clear with them in thinking they have done their duty to their fellow man. I take my sentence like a man and have no ill will towards any of my fellow beings, and wish them well. I could not perjur myself to shield me from my deed.
I would say to the public so they can understand, and I want them to read these few lines carefully. I will say again that I was not in the north of Norton County in September 1895. After getting on the train 16 miles east of Colorado Springs, I got off once east of Colby to get a drink of water while the train stopped. The next time I got off was at Phillipsburg on the afternoon of Sept. 18, 1895. Talking to a man while there I learned that he was from the east and was going to Denver, Colorado. I told him if he wanted $5.00 to go from Norton to Devizes to see if one Albert Applegate lived there, and write to me at Shannon City, Iowa, I would give it to him. He said he would. He was near my size, black cap, checkered jacket, blue overalls, wore shoes, carried one 45 colt’s revolver in his pants without a belt; no coat, dark hair, dark sandy mustache cureled up at the end; about 6 weeks’ growth of sandy beard, rather dark. I told him to say his name was E.S. Jones and was a cousin to one Hugh Jones that rode with Applegate in Colorado. I got a letter post marked Oxford, Neb., dated 27 or 29 of September 1895 to me at Shannon City, Iowa, signed E.S. Jones, saying “A.A. lives with his wife south of Devizes on a farm; I stopped and eat with a neighbor of A.A.’s; he told me lots and I rode in his wagon a few miles on my road.” These are his words as near as I remember.
The night of September 19, 1895 I stayed in the town of Fairbury, Nebraska, myself; so if I only could found the other man all the public would say, “Hedy told the truth; the others were only mistaken in the man.” If the man came back to Norton, as one Havelin testified of his going to the depot of B&M.R.R., I suppose he went on the train to Republican City and then to Oxford, Neb.
My wife wrote to me often, good loving letters; but I had heard so much talk I would not send for her. My life was misery and sorrow to me there. I could not sleep, I could not eat; nothing but misery for me. My wife wrote in the fall to me that she could not stand her trouble any longer; she would go astray if I did not send for her and if I only would go to her she would tell me a secret she had kept from me, and that her own heart was breaking because she had kept it so long from me. She said she had got letters from Applegate, he was married and living near Devizes, Kan. “He had a man write to him from Colorado to tell him that I had gone to Iowa and then he wrote to me the first letter. I wrote him thinking you would not send for me and I was out in the world without a home and now you won’t liye with me and the man that broke up our home is the cause of my ruin is married and I am alone. Come to me and I will tell you all.” How the words burned on my brain; I went to Iowa in Dec. 1893; I found my wife a broken hearted woman, living under another name in Missouri. She on her bended knee told me all. She said “Will do you remember at our own home in Colorado the Sunday you went out to kill a deer and did not get home till after noon when I met you and was crying? I remember it well. She said: “Applegate came down when you were gone and sat down. I was doing my work. He came to me and threw his arms around me and pulled me on the bed and held me and overpowered me, and he accomplished his crime. I went to tell you when you came but was afraid you would kill us both.”
No tongue nor pen can tell my feelings. I will admit my mind at times is not what it ought to be. I would like to get on my knees before that bereaved widow and beg her forgiveness from the depths of my heart, and also shake all of her friends by the hand and ask one and all in sorrow over this great crime to forgive me, as freely as I forgive them, for they do not suffer one tenth like I do in thinking over this great crime that has been done, in the eves of the people by my hand. So one and all I ask your forgiveness from the depths of my poor, sorrowful, broken heart.
I have been well treated while here at Norton. I have had lots of good advice by my fellow beings while here behind these bars. I can say I am a changed man in feelings and will say I always will be so, and try to live that I can meet my future in a pure and good light with a pure heart hereafter. I bid farewell to all of my friends, wishing them happiness the rest of their days, and would ask them, one and all, to think of me as one among them with an honest and tender heart. I do sincerely thank one and all of the people of Norton, men and women, boys and girls, for kindness towards me while in here, in words, actions, deeds, and good advice. Thanks, and many of them, that I appreciate them and will never forget hoping God will be with my enemies if I have any. I feel no hatred against any one and will live hereafter so I will not be ashamed to meet one and all and say, “My friend, shake hands.” Since this trial has been here in Norton and knowing a few of the deceased’s distant relations and knowing one of his cousins is doing time in Kansas Penitentiary for a crime of rape, that it was in his own blood, which would go to show that my own wife’s words were true. All his guilt appeared when he saw me on the morning of November 8, 1895. I do ask one and all to remember me in your prayers and that I meet you all and receive your right hand as a friend. Goodbye to all. February 12, 1896. W.E. Hedy, Norton, Kansas. The Champion, Norton, Kansas. Thursday, February 13, 1896. Pages 2-3.
NORTON, KS – Feb. 13, 1895. William Heddy hanged himself in a jail cell last night. After an exciting trial lasting a week he had been convicted of the murder of Albert Applegate, a young farmer of this county, and was sentenced to serve a term of 15 years in the penitentiary at hard labor. The conviction was for guilt in the second degree. The Almena Plaindealer, Almena, Kansas. Thursday, February 20, 1896. Page 1.
NORTON, KS – Hedy Commits Suicide. Hung by the Neck till Dead. This morning the final scene in the Hedy-Applegate tragedy was enacted in our city: William E. Hedy lies in the county prison, Ward No. 2, dead at his own hands. This morning he was to be taken to the Penitentiary at Leavenworth to served the 15 years’ sentence, between which and the grave he made election; the suicide to him was happier than the convict.
Last night about 12 o’clock Albert Glass, a prisoner in Ward 1, heard Hedy walking and busy in his own cell. Albert got up and lighted the lamp. He asked Hedy what was the matter, and was answered, “Nothing.” Glass then went to bed and Hedy came out into the corridor and blew out the light. About 3 o’clock this morning Glass heard much disturbance in the other cell and got up again and lighting the lamp peered through the grates and saw Hedy hanging from the north wall – his feet scuffing the floor, his head jerking forward and downward trying to strangle, his whole frame vibrating. Glass rushed into the cell, took hold of Hedy, but had nothing to cut the rope. He ran to the window and yelled for help. It was 5 o’clock before Jim McNeerny, Posson’s drayman, came to his calls. Sheriff Betterton, Dr. Turner, and Laft Thompson were at once called. Betterton on arriving at the jail cut the corpse down and laid it upon the bank. On viewing the corpse this morning we find it dressed completely as at trial, without collar.
The rope he secured by burning the ends of a cot and thus getting it loose. His clothes were sprinkled with quicksilver scraped from the back of a looking glass by a spoon. Marks about the mouth showed he had swallowed some. The rope, a small one, was doubled and tied to the top bars of the grate. It was close to his bunk upon which he stood to slip the noose over his head. Springing from the bunk he deliberately strangled himself, because at any moment he could have raised himself on the grate by free feet and hands. An inquest was held.
His friends were at once warned by telegram. On going to press no word has been received from them. We do not know what equation the years may formulate: Hedy’s life was misery and despair, grief, and murder. Why? His help was unmet for him. Her love was an aberration; his mind became such. The murdered man’s last earthly cry of terror was, “O Hedy!” Will not its echo murmer in response, “O Lizzie! O Albert!” Crimes treading upon the heels of crime! Nemesis! The Champion, Norton, Kansas. Thursday, February 13, 1896. Page 3.