Bartholin, William – Died 1902

BARTHOLIN, MITCHELL

Posted By: Joy Moore (email)
Date: 1/19/2020 at 16:34:18

Source: Decorah Republican Sept. 11, 1902 Page 4 Col 1

A Murder-Suicide.
Riceville had its sensation last Friday. The body of a man was found in a field near that place, lying on a shock of flax, about twenty rods distant from the public roadway. In his head was a bullet hole, and by his side lay a 32 caliber revolver The body was recognized as that of a man who had been at work in that vicinity some three weeks previous. From the condition of the body it is believed he had been dead for nearly a week. In his pockets was found a letter stating that he was William Bartholin, and confessing to the murder of two women in Chicago. There was also a letter signed “Minnie Mitchell.” These letters at once connected him with a murder case in Chicago which has excited that city for six weeks past. Bartholin is the name of a man wanted for the murder of Minnie Mitchell, his sweetheart, and his mother, Mrs. Anna Bartholin. He disappeared most mysteriously just before the discovery of the murdered body of the girl, and no trace of him had been secured until now. The body of the mother was found some three weeks later, buried in the cellar of the house occupied by the Bartholins. Descriptions of the supposed murder were scattered all over a region of three hundred miles from the city; and the remains found closely fit the description. On Sunday officers from Chicago, accompanied by a brother of the murdered girl, visited Riceville and had the body exumed. The brother pronounced the letter signed “Minnie Mitchell" to be in his sister's hand writing, and identified the body to be that of Bartholin. There is little doubt but that the story of that double murder is revealed by the suicide.