Volume 9 , Issue 35

1905 News - Remains of Murdered Mrs. James Found Near Weatherford (OK)

The Oklahoman News article dated September 1, 1905, pg. 6, had the following articles concerning a "Body Discovered" & "Remains of the Murdered Mrs. James Found Near Weatherford" (Oklahoma). Mrs. Norton, who was with the Murdered woman when last seen, committed suicide at Shawnee, Oklahoma after being arrested.

Weatherford, O.T., August 31, 1905 -- "The body of Mrs. Katie James was found Wednesday about six miles northeast of Weatherford, hidden in a clump of bushes on the side of the road. The road adjoins the school land owned by R. C. Morton.

The body was discovered by Geo. W. Cornell of this city, who was hunting. He accidently drove upon the body by seeking a place to tie his team while he and two of his sons, who were with him, went over to Deer Creek to fish. The body was in a bad state of decomposition, having laid there for about five or six weeks. Coroner's inquest to be held this afternoon. The body was found one mile north of the Morton school house.

Mrs. Katie James with her little child left Weatherford early in the morning of July 7 (1905) in company with Mrs. Norton, riding in a livery rig, after a few hours absence, to the stable and immediately left the city. After a few weeks, Henry DeWitt, father of Mrs. James, alarmed because his daughter had left home to visit her sister and had failed to arrive there, employed Detective Sam Bartell of Oklahoma City, to investigate the matter, and on July 24 (1905), the little child was found at the home of a German farmer near Weatherford.

The German people stated that on the morning of July 7, 1905, a woman drove to their place at an early hour and handed the child to their youngest son with a request that his mother keep it for a few hours while the woman went down town, and she would return for it. The boy watched her drive out of sight and saw her throw a bundle into the bushes near the house. He secured the bundle and it proved to be clothing belonging to the baby. The clothing was saturated with blood, though there was no hurt on the child, which was in good shape. Learning that Mrs. Norton, whose husband was a hackdriver at Clinton, Oklahoma, had been last in company with Mrs. James, he traced her there and he and John Burnett located her at the home of Mrs. Patty. She was arrested and when charged with knowing of the murder, broke down and cried pitiously, but denied it.

She stated that she and Mrs. James with the child had driven out of Weatherford two and a half miles where they met a man and two women in a covered wagon. Mrs. James then told her that those were the parties she had expected to meet and she and her belongings, with the child, were transferred to the covered wagon. She gave Mrs. Norton a $5 bill to pay for the rig and her trouble and owing to the bad condition of her husband's affairs at Clinton, business being very dull, she had come to Shawnee to get work.

In some mysterious manner she took a dose of poison and died the same afternoon of the day on which the arrest occurred. How she obtained the poison has been a mystery which will remain unsolved, as she had been closely watched all the time she had been under arrest.

Mr. Bartell and Mr. DeWitt, father of Mrs. James, both attempted to obtain a confession from Mrs. Norton before her death, but without success, and they returned to Weatherford firm in the belief that Mrs. James had been murdered and that Mrs. Norton knew about the crime, even if she had not committed it.

The suicide took place on July 27, 1905, and for a number of days a large party of searchers went carefully over the ground where the crime was supposed to have been committed, but found nothing. Mr. DeWitt offered $500 for the recovery of his daughter or her body, and Gov. Ferguson added $300 for the arrest and conviction of her murderer.

One farmer near the alleged scene of murder, stated that his family, on the morning it occurred, had seen two women and a baby drive into their pasture, and about 45 minutes later one woman and the baby rode back at breakneck speed, but nothing could be found except the clothing and glasses, together with a grip belonging to Mrs. James.

Theories that she had disappeared with another party, and even stories of her having been seen near Lawton, floated around, but could not be confirmed. The search has been kept up and at last had its reward in the finding of the body of the murdered woman. as described above.

Two days after her disappearance Mrs. James had filed suit for a divorce from her husband, a prosperous Custer county farmer, and asked for the custody of her child.

The officers are now investigating the action of several parties, one a prominent official of that county, and expect to make arrests today. Their theory is that Mrs. James indeed met the covered wagon, but that she was killed before being placed in it, the blood on the child's clothing and the fact that it was left with the German family by a woman answering Mrs. Norton's description, bearing out that theory.

They believe Mrs. Norton was only a party to the affair and expect to unearth a conspiracy to make way with Mrs. James as well as to arrest the real murderers, the parties who aided Mrs. Norton. After her suicide, Mrs. Norton's body was held by Coroner Fleming for some days, and finally buried here, as her relatives were not able to take it in charge for financial reasons.
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