New Britain Herald Newspaper, March 13, 1930, Page 10

N { . { N N { { N 3 \ \ BN IARIIIIA I ISR Do mmmmmmnnmm AN I I R A IR llion-Dollar Mystery “Sometimes the mad heiress who stands on some high hilltop with outstretched hands as if in supplication to s lover.” OW and why did life leave the H “mad heiress of Solano Valley”? What tragic series of events preceded the discovery of her body on the dry bottom of Wooden Valley Creek, California? Up to the time of her disappearance people had remarked her weird obses- sion in the belief that she was “Em- P of the World,” noticed the rem- nants of past beauty that still clung to her features, discussed the implacable, old hatred said to exist between her two brothers—and exclaimed over the million-dollar that would have been hers had she been sane. vanished inheritance Now the manner of her death is ex. ercising t minds and imaginatio of all ne per readers on the We Coast. When Bernold Glashoft, ah school the stumbled upon the almost unrecogniz able remains of Miss Edith Wolfskill, the mad heiress, at a lonely boy of neighborhood point along waterless Wooden Creek, Solano he became e for the £3,000 re- |, ward offered to anyone who found her ¢ dead or alive. One m But another immediately posed itself. Was p she murdered or did she meet with ac- a2 cidental death? No one knows certainly. for the fi story of a eligibl thus was solved. But here, s the astounding v whose mode of life o strange nings of pale by scroll of insane im s of hatred d love, must be unrolled can make his g s ess met or mine i any at the present rendered compa 1 e and ¢ Edith Wolf “Lend Me -Your Ears"’——and IENDS, Ge View of the Plaster Ear Section of the Sonnenberg, Germany, Factory for Du Models Are Sent to Clinics, L Irene malady see her as o the Baffling Mixture of ;" 'nrequited Love, Brotherly Hatred and a Huge Fortune in California’s New True-Life Detective Story i Police Deputies at the Secluded Spot Wher Edith Wolfskill Was Found, Clad in Men's Clothing. Her Own Garments. Was Last Seen Alive in rihood her mental final out to strange other in her while she was pointed Co y children as “the mad ciress w he Worl Flast back through the years, we Califo e, pink-white skin were to lose their for a maniacal rich brown hair and made her the darling y. And every- her father, John Wolf a millionai girlhood re one of Her delic nd wide eyes t eauties. ather \staking inquiries into She went to Llurope to a convent hool, happy and admired. She re- ved and all who knew her saw at hat “something d happened to one would dare to Wolfskill's duughter certain it was that a pec r manner, r mind wohbled on the bor- ghting no He' Did! wrment with a er tec W 1 clo r nician pu of plaster tou to a row Medical Supply Department of the plication of Human Organs. The Universities and Hospitals. e FRATERNAL ENEMIES These Two Amazingly Significant Photo-studies Show, At Left: Matt Wolfskill and, At Right: Ney Wolfskill, the Two Brothers of the Mysteriously Slain Lowering Faces Mad Heiress. Indicate the Their Strong Emotional Tensity Under Which They Have Lived. one knows what battles to regain its equilibrium, Edith's beauty became less dazz- ling, too. It never entirely left her, even up to the time of her death at fifty-seven, but it began to react to the ment‘al blight” that sct- tled swiftly upon her. She murnur self, e the Body of she announcedto She 3 group of startled relativ “] am Empress of the World.” Iom then on that delusion followed her,and openly now that began to to her- and one d everyone admitted balanced. At last Edith went to live on the vast ranch that had been left her by her father, taking along only a few servants. Relatives visited her there om time to time, but for the most part she lived virtually alone. She had two brothers, Ney Wolf- <kill, of Marshfield, Oregon, and Matt an Francisco. These men J d for years. their dislike of each other s over the management of Edith's fortune, which came intc their ands when the girl was adjudged in- capable of sanely administering it. Now a Los Angeles bank is acting as trustee. Meeting either of the brothers, one s at once by their grimly set eir air of stern preoccupation and bleak determination At the time of Edith's disappearance from her home the only other people in the big ranch house were Mr B. Conklin. a housekeeper, and Mr Wolfskill, wife of the nephew. mad es for strange S as the come aging subject tales in the neighborhood. She was a rful hiker and the neighboring 1 trails frequently saw her along swiftly, her long, old- s beating about her in murmured to herself 1otonous half whisper. Chil- her approach, would de- was a harm 1 idents of ! womar he neighborhood sz used to see her standing on some hilltops, surveying the far di from beneath cupped hands Wolfskill was trying to le world in search of a led lover met during her convent Perhaps all her queer ways, tl ling of her sanity, me tremendous shock admini soul of a young and sen shock deriving, it might well have been, from an unhappy love ex Who knows? Many psychiatr t for just such a girl as Edi 1629, 03 New Wolfskill was, convent-bred and care fully guarded during her childhood! One day she walked out of her man- sion and was seen alive no more. Mrs. Conklin, the housekeeper, admits hear- ing her mistre out, just before she left her bedroom, “I say I will not leave! This is my ho: For the first few hour disappeared after the heire no search was made for her. Surely she was merely engaged in onc of her forest j She would certainly return befor But she did not return. Days passed, weeks. A month Seven weeks. The whole coun ide became in- terested in the search for a woman who was worth, at least technically, nearly $1,000,000. The bLrothers were not ther by their sister's i They were still ir dema that source of the police be brought ar on finding Edith. t last, about two mont ppearance, the high Once Idolized; Ancient Religious Image Near Honolulu. it Is of Great aiian Natives the Missionaries. York Esening Journal, luc, Yy, %i;///////,y Discovered An- tiquity and Was Worshiped by Haw- Before the Coining of found her almost decom- posed body. She had lain exposed to the elementsso iong that autopsy sur- geons were unable to say exactly what had caused her death. They did find, however, a blood clot in her brain which they content themselves with de- scribing as ‘“interest- ing.” This was one of those cases which has its principal difficulty in the fact that there ‘are too many clues, in- stead of too few. For example, the place where the body was found had been searched many times, Detective M. A. Harris, retained by the Wolfskill family, declared there was evidence to indicate the body had been less than two weeks on that spot. The body s clad in a sweater, a pair of men’s overalls and what ap- peared to be a male undergarment cut off at the waist. She had worn a light dress and a coolie coat when last seen alive. Edward McDonald, who lives near the Wolfskill ranch, re- ported that he heard the screams of a terror-stricken woman coming from the vicinity in which the body was found. But perhaps the most astonishing development is the connection of a grave found last March with the mystery. The grave was seven feet long and eight feet deep, with ex vated dirt piled nearby. Did the murderers of Edith Wolfskill dig a grave for her far in advance of the crimz? A grave in which, for some reason, she was never interred? Sheriff Joan . Thornton, of Solano County, believes the heiress was kid- naped, kept captive in a cabin on a neighboring ranch, and murdered be- ca she refused to sign a ransom note Interviewed, her brother, Ney Wolf- skill, shouted. ‘“‘My sister w kid- naped and murdered. At first I thought differently, but since the Now Scorned HIS ferocious-looking fellow used Tto exert a tremendous influence upon native Hawaiians. When drought set in; when the volcanoes sputtered ominously, when the crops failed, he was prayed to fervidly. He was literally idolized. Today he is just a curio, rather nathetic, rather']aughab{e, and mod- ern residents of Hono- lul: wouldn't dream of invoking the aid of this image in their distress. How did this name- letss saint survive? That is a question which no one can answer. But his survival is little short of miraculous, for most of his colleagues were ruth- lessly pitched into bon- fires with the coming of the Christian aries. First the newcomers extirpated the pagan cult of the island; then they set about removing the utward and visi- signs of that faith. few of the wooden metallic idols escaped the general demolition. These are thought to be of pre- historic origin, and date back to before the era of Captain Cook, famous navigator and discoverer of Hawaii. This particular fetish, a photograph of which appears at left, is curiously composed, you will observe. Note the bear-like feet with their pad- ded toes, and the wild, staring eyes, like those of = lion peer- ing out of a thicket. mission- hle” But a and Wi, |~ Mad Heiresses’ nd IN HER YOUTH Oaly Existing Photograph of Edith Irene Wolfskill, Taken Thirty Years Ago, While She Was Young and Beautiful. The Discovery of Her Body Not Long Ago Posed One of the Great Mysteries of California’s Police History. At the Time of Her Death She Was Known as “The Mad Heiress of Solano County.” finding of her remains 1 am convinced she was made a prisoner by kidnapers and then done to death. I mever in- tend to drop the investigation until those responsible are convicted.” And Matt Wolfskill, the other brother, contributed to the case the fact that he had discharged his sister’s housekecper and nursemaid, Mrs. Bessie Ritchards, and hired Mrs. Conklin shortly before the heiress disappeared. “To make Edith happier,” he explained. During an argument over funeral ar- rangements the feud flared up again. “I haven’t seen my brother and I don’t want to see him, There's nothing but bitter en- between us!” The foregoing is the dark story of the life and death of Edith Wolfskill, the beauty whose mind became inex- plicably deranged, who grew old and died amid mysterious circumstances. It may have been only a sudden heart attack—and it may have been murder. Make your own guess! Her Fruit Bonnet This Girl of the Island of Bali, in the Dutch East Indies, is Carrying on Her Hezd a 50-Pound Hat Composed of Apples, Bananas and Oranges As An Offering to Her Temple Gods. g L b L s O N AN AR 7 7, % Z Z oI, e iy U A I I BB A A IRIN1 S —— e AN b4