WhoPlunged the Long Blade Into the Rich LoverisWife?
Perplexing Puzzle of the 6-Inch Stab
That Wiped Out
the Victim r
i Before Her i ;j
I Husband’s Eyes f j
CHEERFUL SMILE
Irma Louclta, ihn Vivacious Stenog
rapher, Who Admitted Sharing a Love
Na»t with th* Infatuated Capitalist.
She Wm Charged with Helping to Kill
Her Wedded Rival, Mrs. Bowie*.
MISCHANCE, suicide-—or murder?
Hi nearly every stabbing case
investigating detectives arc
faced with three contingencies: did the
victim knife himself by accident or de
sign, or was he knifed by another per
son?
The case of pretty, refined Mrs.
Leone Bowles, of Portland, Oregon,
was particularly baffling in this regard.
Mrs. Bowles, of social prominence and
mother of two children, died as the re
sult of a wound, in the presence of her
husband, Nelson C. Bowles, millionaire
capitalist, and his admitted sweetheart,
Miss Irma Loucks.
The circumstances suggested suicide.
Bowles and Irma told how Mrs. Bowles
had snatched up a bread knife with a
jagged edge and plunged it into her
chest at a curious angle. But a cor
oner’s jury later returned a verdict that
the unfortunate woman had perished
of "a knife wound made with murder
ous intent by Irma Loucks or Nelson
C. Bowles, or both.” They were ac
cordingly charged with the crime and
lodged, bailless, in jail.
But-—the suicide theory persisted iu
certain minds. It was shown conclu
sively that Mrs. Bowles, because of do
mestic discord, had been miserably un
happy; that she had entertained, per
haps futilely, hopes of a lasting rccon
r
dilation with her
husband, and
that the thought
of divorce was
repugnant to
her.
Oil the other
WHAT DOES HIS FACE SAY?
Characteristic Camera-Portrait of Nelson C. Bowles,
34, Millionaire Capitalist, of Portland, Ore. Fol
lowing tha Wounding of Hi* Wife, a Coroner'* Jury
Inculpated Him, with Irma Louck*, Hi* Former
Secretary, in Mra. Bowles' Death,
hand, tnere wore prououneeu iac
tors in the case; that pointed else
where. Dr. Paul B. Cooper, a rela
tive by marriage of Bowles, had been
called to attend Mrs. Bowles at Miss
Isjneks’s East Side apartment—placidly
described by the Portland papers as a
love nest. He told police, at first, that
he had been 'phoned for by his kinsman
about twenty minutes before the
wound’s effect, proved fatal and that
he had ordered an ambulance before
she died.
But later he changed his story so
radically that Suspicions were directed
toward the millionaire and his girl
friend. This time Dr. Cooper declared
that he had arrived two or three min
utes before his patient succumbed and
that the ambulance was not called until
twenty minutes after her death!
He furthermore admitted that he,
Bowles and Miss Loucks held a “re
hearsal” in the kitchen, to perfect them
selves for the forthcoming and inevit
able quizzing by the investigators.
This was an extraordinary statement.
And Dr. Cooper, whose standing, pro
fessionally, is high, was reproved by
County Coroner Earl Smith, for hav
ing permitted Mrs. Bowles's body to be
removed to the undertaker's before the
authorities were enabled to scrutinize
it on the death scene.
Cooper’s altered account of his con
nection with the tragedy threw suspicion
upon that given by Bowles and Miss
l.oucks. The latter’s story was as fol
lows: Mrs. Bowles knocked at her
door at ten o'clock on the Wednesday
of .her death. She demanded admission.
But before her reluctant hostess would
consent to let her in, Miss Loucks
■phoned Bowies. “Your wife is here,
she said. "Better come 'round.”
While she was awaiting entry, the
wife went to the kitchen door. There
she was finally admitted. A few min
utes later, Bowles arrived. The three
of them entered the living room and
began to discuss, apparently not
angrily, the distressing triangular situa
tion that had arisen among them. Mrs.
Bowles, in' Mis* lamcks’s version, had
timidly referred to possible divorce, but
her husband had interrupted her.
That wouldn’t be necessary, he asserted,
since he and Irma had decided that
their fascinating friendship must end.
While this conversation was proceed
ing, Mrs. Bowles, complaining of acute
thirst, requested a drink of water. Her
husband rose, went to the kitchen, and
returned with a tumblerfull. After a
few minutes, the wife again asked for
water. This time she was directed to
the kitchen. (U. was Bowles’s con
tention that Msk Bowles was suffer
ing from a malady that made her per
petually thirsty. Actually it was shown
that, at the time of her death, the young
woman was in exceptionally line
health.)
What was described as “a slight
moan” came from the kitchen. Bowies
and Irma rushed in, the man catching
Mrs. Bowles in his arms as she slumped
forward. He then removed the knife
from the wound and tossed it lightly
into the sink. Mrs. Bowles was carried
into the bedroom, the bleeding wound
was stanched with a towel, and Dr.
Cooper was sent for.
When the authorities arrived, little
could be done to reconstruct the actual
death scene. The knife had been washed
HU
How Lockjaw Is
Sometimes Caused '
by a Slight Injury j
BT HERBERT L. HERSCHENSOUN
(PhyticUii» and Surgeon).
r OCKJAW is the common name
given to the disease called
tetanus. It occurs as the result
of an injury in which a genu, the
tetanus bacillus, gains entrance into
the body. It is prevalent all over the
world, but is especially frequent in the
tropics.
The tetanus bacillus normally exists
in the intestines of horses and many
other herbivorous animals. For that
reaso i these germs are present in
great numbers in soil which is culti
vated and manured, because they can
not live in the presence of oxygen they
thrive particularly well below the sur
face of the ground. The bacilli are
shaped like little rods. At one end is
a ball-like swelling making each germ
look like a drum-stick. This swelling
is a spore, or seed, which is extremely
resistant to the action of powerful an
tiseptics. It may remain dormant
for a great many years and then, hav
ing found suitable condition*, develop
into virulent tetanus bacilli. The
spores may exist anywhere, even on
slivers of wood, which accounts for
the occurrence of lockjaw following
such a trivial accident as a splinter in
the finger.
The germs do not travel in the body
Above I* a Microscopic \ lev of the
lentous Uucilli, the U«rmi That Cause
the Dreaded Lockjaw or Tetanus.
>ute the Round Seeds at the Ends
Which Are High!? Resistant and May
Lie Dormant for Years.
hut remain wherever they entered.
Within a few days there is usually
some evidence of an infection with the
formation of pus. Sometimes the
wound appears clean. In other in
stances the wound may b« so slight
that it is passed unnoticed. The tetanus
bacilli give off a poison that extends to
the nerves that control the action of the
muscles. This poison travels on and on
until it reaches the spinal cord which
it then ascends.
It takes about a week or two before
symptoms of tetanus appear, some
times several months. This period de
pends upon tire rapidity with which the
poison makes headway. The first
symptoms which attract attention ate a
slight sore throat with some difficulty
in swallowing and a rather stiff neck.
Later severe spasms seize the individ
ual gripping his body as if in a vise.
The pain is excruciating. The teeth
become tightly clenched making it im
possible to open the mouth to talk, eat,
or even to breathe. The lips become
stretched over the.teeth in such a hide
ous manner that a ghastly smile is
formed. The eyes are half closed and
the forehead wrinkled. The head is
thrown back. * The entire body may be
bent backward to such a degree that if
the individual is lying on the floor, only
(he heels and back of the head support
the entire weight. The muscles of the
abdomen become very tense and hard,
in some instances actually splitting. A
peculiarity of this disease is the fact
that these spasms occur not only spon
taneously, but are provoked by sudden
noises or alight movements of the body.
Infants can become victims of te
tanus when the navels are improperly
treated and taken care of immediately
following birth. The mortality ia high,
over eighty per cent succumbing with
in a few days.
VENDETTA WEAPON
Long Corsican Knife Which
Figured in a Tragedy on the
South Coast of France, Re
cently, Strongly Resembling the
Bowles Mystery. Note tthe t
Vengeful Inscription,
Which, Translated,
Reads: "1 hope that
my wound (i. e. the
wound I inflict) will
prove norta 1,”
graved on the
Blade. A Beauti
ful Young Fisher
girl Was Found
Stabbed to Death
with This Menac
ing Knife.
DEATH CAME QUICKLY
The Lata Mr*. Leona Bowie*, 33, Fir»t Declared to Have
Stabbed Herself Fatally with a Jagged-Edg ed Bread j
Knife, Then Thought to Have Been Attacked,
—though no one could be found to
admit doing this—and there were but
trivial traces of blood on the premises.
In most cases of self-stabbing the
effusion from artery or vein is pro
nounced. "
A day elapsed and-several relatives
of the dead woman arrived from Yak
ima, Washington. Their eyes bespoke
indignant fire. All, from Mrs. Bowles's
brothers, E. W. and L. G. ,Cronkhite,
and'parents, Mr. and Mrs. O. B. Cronk
liitc, to Mrs. Emma, Glover, demanded
further investigation.
To the complex problem awaiting
unraveling, Karl Herbring was able to
contribute something. As Mrs. Bowles’*
attorney, he had come to regard her as
“a splendid woman,’’ and her whole
concern had been for her children and
home. She was deeply devoted to her
daughters, Sally, 7, and Patsy, 5, he
asserted. Herbring added that divorce
had been discussed; that Mfs. Bowles
had complained to him of Miss Loucks,
and that the two women had met and
conversed by ’phone frequently.
Last isovemDer tilings had
brightened for the distraught
matron. Bowles had returned after
a month’s absence. She still loved
him. She craved no divorce. At
a dinner party the night before
the tragedy she had talked of
the happier times before the
“other woman” had entered
upon the scene. She frankly
admitted longing for a recon- ,
ciliation. t
On two occasions, she once /<
she had made attempts
ou her life to see what
her husband’s reaction
might be. One gleans
from these warring
statements a sense of
inconsistency in the
victim’s mind, yet
nothing more incon
gruous than might oc
cur to any sensitive
v«
Dotted Line Indicate*
Exact Depth to Which
the Bread Knife
Penetrated Mr*.
Bowles’ Body—6
Inches. This Suggest*
a Blow of Tremendous
Force, Uncommon in
Suicide Cases.
woman m a painiui situation.
Scientific attention was
turned on the technique of
Mrs. Bowles’s stabbing. Dr.
Frank B. Menne, who per
formed the autopsy, was authority
for the statement that the wound
had taken effect in the left side
of the chest between the second
and third ribs. It had continued,
to a depth of six inches, througli
the pulmonary artery, entering
, LOVED HER HOME
Tlw Bowie* Re*idence, in Portland,. Wlwrt the Wife Lived with the Two Little
Daughter* She Adored, Until the Morning of Her Doom. Her Huaband
■ Alto Maintained a Suburban Eatate.
CHANGED HIS TUNE
Dr. Paul B. Cooper, Related to Bowlat
by Marriage. The Physician’* Con
Dieting Statement* About Mr*. Bowled
Death Led t o Further Invastigatio*
and the Lodging of a Murder Charge
Again*! Bowles and Hi* Inamorata.
the lung. Though this constituted an
uncommonly deep stab, Dr. Menne said
it could have been self-inflicted.
By a most unusual coincidence, only
a few weeks before the Bowles tragedy,
an almost precisely similar occurrence
had taken place in southern France. A
young fishergirl, living near the coast
city of Toulon, had been found on the
beach stabbed to death. Her former
lover, a sailor, and a second girl, with
whom he had become involved, re
ported finding Ike body. The dead girl,
they agreed, had stabbed herself
through the left breast with a long,
pointed vendetta knife that had been
m her family for years, the clan being
of Corsican blood. But investigation
tended to show that the girl was not a
suicide and that the wound had been
inflicted by another person or persons.
The evidence on which the youth and
his new inamorata were held was
flimsy and they were set free, after a
verdict of “Not proven.”
A close-up of the actual vendetta
knife is reproduced above.
In the Bowles case, the issue was
confused by various cross-currents and
conflicting opinions as to the char
acters ana relationship of the accused
man and woman. Although Bowles at
first asserted he had spent a few nights
previous to his wife’s death at his luxu
rious country estate on the Washougal
River, in Washington, later he ad
mitted he had been occupying the love
nest. Miss Loucks, at one time married
to a man named Paris, but now a di
vorcee, is a former private secretary to
Bowles. She was dismissed, it is said,
at Mrs. Bowles’s request. She was fona
of parties and dancing, in contradis
tinction to Mrs. Bowles’s quiet do
mesticity. Though only twenty-eight,
the titian stenographer cannot touch
the dead woman for beauty, despite
the latter’s thirty-three years.
Shortly before the Grand Jury was
(Jue to convene, the Bowles mystery
was still in a highly conjectural state,
despite the verdict of the coroner's
jury. And, irrespective of what may
ensue, Portland residents will ask each
other for many months: "Who redly
did plunge that long blade into the rich
lover’s hapless wife.” ^