Iowa Old Press
Ottumwa Weekly Democrat
October 27, 1904
Most Notorious Bawdy Woman in Ottumwa Reaps the Wages of Life of Sin
HOMER WRIGHT IS HELD
Mysterious Tragedy Ends Drunken Orgy—
Murder Follows Attempt to Rob Missing Stranger.
~Mary Chesser murdered in dive Saturday night.
~Homer Wright held on suspicion of being murderer.
~Gene Hourihan, missing, believed to know all about the tragedy.
~Missing stranger, robbed in house, who was either the murderer—or a witness to another’s, possibly Wright’s deed.
~Police theory—That Wright accidently struck blow that killed Mary Cheser, while trying to assist her in evicting mysterious stranger from lawless den.
~Wright’s step-mother, Eva Bliss-Wright, was held for the mysterious murder of Rolla Houdyshell in a Smoky Row den three years ago, and her acquittal of the charge did not allay the suspicion that she was the murderess.
“THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH.”
With a past life deeply steeped in sin and while in the very act of robbing a victim as a climax to a night of drunken revelry, Mary Chesser, the most notorious bawdy woman in Ottumwa, was struck down in her den on Smoky Row Saturday night and ten minutes later breather her last. The murder is shrouded in mystery. There were six persons in the house when the tragedy was enacted and all tell the same story—that the Chesser woman engaged in an altercation with an unknown man, whose presence in the den was only known when Mary Chesser with the cry, “My God, I’m cut,” staggered into the arms of Charles Black, as the latter rushed with his companions from a rear room.
MURDER THE CLIMAX TO NIGHT OF REVELRY;
MARY CHESSER VICTIM.
But the swearing to which Chief Gray treated the inmates of the den yesterday brought out another point, and this may eventually clear the tragedy. While Homer Wright and Chas. Davis claim that they were just entering the resort as the unknown man was rushing from the door, all the others swear that Wright and Davis were in the house indulging in a drunken orgy. Added to this the discovery that the left sleeve of Wright’s coat was saturated with blood; that Wright is left handed and the blow could not be struck by any but a left handed man, while the five other inmates all swear that Wright did not approach the bleeding woman as she lay dying on the floor, and the grounds for the police theory that Homer Wright and not the unknown stranger murdered the woman is given the coloring of truth.
THE TRAGEDY.
On one point all stories agree. An unknown man, who is described as of medium height, with shaggy red mustache and wearing a coat but no overcoat or vest, made overtures to Nellie Roy, an inmate of the house. He gave the girl $1.50 and later gave her a quarte4r with which to buy beer. The Chesser woman then told the girl quietly to leave the house until the stranger left.
[transcribed by L.Z., Dec 2019]