Iowa Old Press
Fairfield Journal, (Jefferson County)
October 27, 1904
MURDER SHOCKS ALL OTTUMWA
Mary Chesser, Woman of Ill Repute, Is the Victim.
THROAT CUT BY STRANGER
Called From Midst of Revelry to Meet Her Fate—Friends Rush Out,
But Murderer Stands Them Off With Revolver and Escapes.
Ottumwa, Oct. 24.—With blood spurting from a ghastly wound in her throat, Mary Chesser, the most notorious resident of Smoky Row Ottumwa’s sin spot, staggered back from her doorway at midnight last night and with a faint cry, “My God, I’m cut,” fell dead in the arms stretched out to catch her tottering form. Called to the doorway by some mysterious stranger, she left the crowd of visitors at her famous resort and stepped to her porch. Not a sound of a scuffle or loud words came to the ears of the rioters. A murmur, a sharp cry and the appearance of the dying woman’s face in the doorway told the story to those within the room.
The scene was one of turmoil and the men within rushed out and grappled with the murderer. They piled on him like a pack of wolves until his loud voice called them off.
“Stand back,” he said. “The first one of you that touches me will be shot.”
The men fell away and the stranger guarding himself with a gun backed off the street upon which the Row faces. Since then every effort has been made to discover the murderer. Every dive in the city has been scoured. Every outgoing train and the railroad yards have been searched by the police department and by the friends of the notorious woman. His identity still remains a mystery and not the slightest clue exists to give the police a basis for their operations.
As the woman fell back into the room where the inmates of her home and their visitors were making merry, they were thunderstruck. The men rushing out, had a set-to with the murderer, while the girls tried to resuscitate the dying woman. Their efforts were futile, the woman dying almost before they could lay her on her cot.
The gaping wound in her throat told the story. Her neck was laid open from the center of the right ear, and the cut was fully four inches deep. The large arteries in the neck were severed, and death was but the matter of a few minutes.
The woman, while notorious, and the pioneer of the famous Smoky Row, had no enemies, as far as known. The police are at sea to account for the affair. Her husband, Dave Chesser, is now at Fort Madison, serving a four-year term for theft. The woman’s maiden name was Mary Gravener, and she has one sister living in Ottumwa. She was about 35 years old, and has lived in this city for several years.
Since the murder was committed the police have been inquiring into the facts at the time the affair took place. The report last night was that the woman and some stranger had an altercation some time earlier in the evening, and then some harsh words were used. It is thought that he might have returned, and, while intoxicated, murdered the woman in revenge. The man, if such is the case, has probably disappeared, and is now far from Ottumwa.
[transcribed by L.Z., Dec 2019]