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Married in 1909 to William Demler. She was shot and killed by her ex-brother-in-law, William Alexander, at Soden's Grove in Emporia, KS. Mr. and Mrs. Demler were the parents of two children, a daughter Helen, who was crippled, and a son, Walter, both of whom survived her. An article in the Emporia Weekly Gazette mentioned that she was born on 18 Jul 1885, in Emporia, and had lived all her life in Emporia. Note that this birth date is different from the date listed on her gravestone.
*************************** The Emporia Gazette, 31 Jul 1922, Monday
SHOOTS TWO WOMEN
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Married in 1909 to William Demler. She was shot and killed by her ex-brother-in-law, William Alexander, at Soden's Grove in Emporia, KS. Mr. and Mrs. Demler were the parents of two children, a daughter Helen, who was crippled, and a son, Walter, both of whom survived her. An article in the Emporia Weekly Gazette mentioned that she was born on 18 Jul 1885, in Emporia, and had lived all her life in Emporia. Note that this birth date is different from the date listed on her gravestone.
*************************** The Emporia Gazette, 31 Jul 1922, Monday
SHOOTS TWO WOMEN WILLIAM ALEXANDER IS ACCUSED OF MURDER Mrs. Agnes Demler Shot Dead and Mrs. Marie Cary Probably Is Wounded Fatally.
Mrs. Agnes Demler is dead and Mrs. Marie Riddle Cary is near death as the result of an attack upon the two women by William Alexander, 127 South State street. The shooting occurred near an abutment of Soden's bridge south of town last night about 9 o'clock. Alexander was arrested at his home and taken to Topeka by deputy sheriffs when a mob gathered in front of the county jail and threatened to lynch the prisoner.
Alexander in a statement to County Attorney Roland Boynton at the Topeka jail said he shot the women in self defense. Mrs. Cary told physicians at the Newman Memorial County Hospital, where she was taken last night, Alexander's statement was false. Mrs. Cary said that Alexander shot down the women without warning. Alexander said the women were rushing at him when he fired.
Mrs. Demler and Mrs. Cary are sisters. Mrs. Cary was separated from Alexander about a year ago and Mrs. Cary's small daughter is living with her aunt. Mrs. Demler was the wife of Will Demler, a painter, on South Avenue.
Immediately after the shooting Alexander ran into Soden's Grove. He then went to his buggy and drove to his home, where he was arrested.
At the hospital this afternoon, Mrs. Cary's condition was declared to be dangerous. --------------- Mr. Alexander married Mrs. Cary in the early part of 1920 and they went to Canada to live, accompanied by Ellen Bell Cary, daughter of Mrs. Alexander by her first marriage. Early in 1922 Alexander sued his wife for divorce in Calgary, Canada, charging adultery. A divorce was granted. Alexander's wife took the name of Cary, and returned to Emporia with her daughter in February. Mr. Alexander came to Emporia about a month later. He attempted to obtain custody of Mrs. Cary's daughter, but was told by the court he had no legal right to the child. The child's father came to Emporia from Nebraska and began proceedings against Mrs. Cary to have the child taken away from her mother and given to his parents. The motion by Cary's lawyer was granted by Judge Harris and custody of the child was given to Cary's parents.
A few weeks ago Alexander went to the county officials in a semi-hysterical condition. He said his former wife was receiving attentions from an Emporia taxi driver and Alexander asked for custody of the child. He was told he had no claim upon Mrs. Cary, but if the attentions of the taxi driver were improper, he could make a complaint and the officers would investigate. He made no complaint, but went again to the court house, this time completely hysterical, and told the probate judge and Sheriff Gibson he was afraid to appear on the streets, because Mrs. Cary and the taxi driver were threatening his life. While there he cried violently for an hour. Judge I. T. Richardson convinced Alexander the threat was an hallucination and Alexander went away apparently satisfied, to a job in the country. He returned twice later, with the same hallucination, asking for police protection from the county. He was unable to give reasonable grounds for his fear. During this time he showed no symptoms of violence, and did not tell the county officers he had bought a gun, although when cross-examined last night in Topeka, he admitted purchasing a revolver at the Haynes Hardware store after police protection had been refused by the county. This brings the case down to the shooting yesterday. ----------------- In less than five minutes after the shooting, the sheriff's office was notified and Charles Gibson, sheriff, and John Austin, undersheriff rushed to the grove. Gibson called an ambulance but before it arrived, a taxi driver had taken Mrs. Riddle (sic) to a hospital. An ambulance was called to take Mrs. Demler's body to the Dumm chapel.
Thirty minutes after the shooting, John Austin had men stationed at all roads and all railroads south and southwest out of Emporia. Mr. Austin asked farmers and other men to keep watch for Alexander.
While the undersheriff's men were blocking the escape from town, Sheriff Gibson was at his office organizing a posse. The men were ready to leave in cars when "Cash" Hicks and Fred Wind (p. 3) brought Alexander to the jail. The sheriff had sent Hicks and Wind to the home of Alexander's parents, 127 South State street, to ask where Alexander worked.
"I had heard Alexander was working in the country, and I thought probably he would go to his working place for his clothes, or perhaps to hide," the sheriff said.
Hicks, who is well acquainted with Alexander and his family, went to the Alexander home and knocked on the door. Hicks told several persons he heard a woman in the house crying. Hicks knocked on the door, and Alexander came to the door. Hicks pulled him from the doorway to the porch, and Hicks and Wind brought Alexander to the county jail.
Alexander's face bore a sickly smile when he was taken into the jail. He appeared indifferent, persons standing around the jail said.
Sheriff Gibson had phoned Newton to have bloodhounds sent to Emporia. When Alexander was arrested, Gibson phoned Newton not to send the dogs, just in time to stop the men who were leaving Newton with the bloodhounds.
As soon as Alexander was locked in the county jail a mob gathered around the jail and the courthouse. More than 200 persons were there. More than 100 men were in the alley near the 86 jitney station, discussing the murder. Talk of "we ought to mob that damn murderer," "let's go get him," and "get a rope and hang him," was heard in the crowd.
"The crowd became a little too large to suit me," the Sheriff said, "so I thought I better get Alexander away from town."
Fifteen minutes after Alexander was taken in the front door of the jail, he was sneaked out the back door into a waiting taxi, which took him to Topeka, under the guard of Deputy Sheriff Dave Wright, and Former Sheriff Tom Owens.
Alexander did not say much on the trip to Topeka. He hummed several tunes and did not seem sullen or depressed, Owens said.
The crowd was not told the prisoner had been taken away until the care was well underway towards Topeka. The crowd dispersed slowly, and small groups stood around discussing the shooting until nearly midnight.
"I heard the crowd outside, and saw men climbing up on each others' shoulders to peer in the front windows of the jail," said Sheriff Gibson last night. "Then someone, who came in from outside, said the men were saying Alexander ought to be hung up for the crime, and one fellow with a bunch of roughnecks at his heels, was going around asking where he could get a rope. I guess there must have been 250 people on all sides of the jail then, and it looked ugly. I ordered a jitney as quietly as I could, and 15 minutes later Alexander was bundled into a car driven by Guy Ford and sent to Topeka in charge of Al Perkins, Tom Owens, and Dave Wright. Alexander came into the Emporia jail half smiling to himself, as though he had finally done something he was glad to get off his mind. The only time I saw him the least bit rattled was when he heard the crowd outside, trying to get at him. Then he got up from his chair in the cell, and looked around anxiously. "Let's get out of here," he said, and "don't let them see me."
"Alexander was a pretty cool customer," said Guy Ford, taxi driver, last night, "but he got scared once. We had just left town, and behind us, we could see the lights of the car which seemed to be following us. Alexander kept squirming around in his seat to see if the car was gaining; and whenever it picked up a few hundred yards on us, he would jump round and display a healthy interest in life. I jammed on the gas and gave the other fellow the dust."
"Dave Wright sat with me in the back seat, and we had Alexander between us," said Tom Owens. "Our prisoner was as unconcerned as you pleas about it, or seemed to be. By and by I heard someone humming. I sat there and studied on it a while, then I leaned out to see if it was Dave, and do you know it was this bird, Alexander! That kind of floored me for the rest of the trip."
When the reported asked Owens what tune Alexander hummed to keep up his spirits after shooting the women, Owens said he could not remember.
The party escorting Alexander lost the road twice because of fog, and arrived at the Shawnee county jail a few minutes after Sheriff Gibson drove up in his car, carrying County Attorney Boynton and a Gazette reporter. They joined Alexander's escort in the jail office and talked ten minutes before Alexander walked in.
"What does Alexander look like?" the reporter had asked Sheriff Gibson on the way to Topeka.
"Exactly like any other man," was the reply, "only he's so average-looking and has so few distinguishing features, that it rather marks him out from most people."
It is hard to decide whether or not Alexander looks John Doe than Richard Doe. He walked into the jail office unattended, dressed in a pair of blue serge trousers and a white shirt, and until he was called by name, the reporter thought he was a custodian of the Shawnee county jail.
Only three times did the prisoner betray emotion. The first time was when he was asked if he did the shooting. His voice and eyes fell, as he answered, "Yes, I done it."
Then County Attorney Boynton asked which woman he shot first, while the seven men in the room listened in silence. Even then, Alexander's voice could hardly be heard above the ticking of the clock when he said, in a husky whisper, "I-I shot my wife first." After a pause he added, "I did it in self-preservation, and you'd have done the same."
The second time he displayed emotion was when the county attorney asked him how many times he shot Mrs. Demler. It was then he gave a nervous laugh.
"Why, I don't exactly remember," he answered, "on account of a fellow being so excited, I suppose. And she seemed to be coming towards me and yet I couldn't swear where she was when she got hit." Then he laughed again, nervously.
The third incident that upset Alexander was a remark made by Guy Ford, taxi driver.
"It's a good thing for you, that you missed that crowd," said Ford. "I wish you could have heard them hollering, "git a rope," out there. That crowd would have strung you over a pole."
Alexander's eyes dropped and there was a long silence, during which he crossed and uncrossed his legs sitting in the center of the circle of men.
The interview was almost over.
"What do you think should be done with you, Alexander?" asked Boynton.
"Why, I guess it's up to you fellows," replied Alexander, frankly.
"Well, a complaint will be sworn out, charging you with murder."
"Why, I guess you know that, and so do I," said Alexander.
"I don't know as a preliminary hearing would do any good," he added.
"You would be taken before a judge," said Boynton, "who would ask you whether or not you did it."
"Why, certainly I did," said Alexander, surprised.
--------------- "A hole through a kidney and a lung, stomach punctured and intestines torn. We sewed her up, and she's conscious still, but when a condition of septic poisoning sets in, there's no telling how fast these cases will drop," said the doctor at the Newman Memorial County hospital this morning. "However, you may come in."
Mrs. Riddle's (sic) face was putty colored against the sheets. A nurse was supporting her head above a small basin. With her eyes rolled back she was coughing weakly, slowly, painfully, while a thin stream of blood trickled from her lips. The doctor explained.
"Here's the county attorney. He wants to talk to you. In case anything happens to you--and you know you're seriously sick, don't you?--he wants a written statement."
In answer to the attorney's first question, Mrs. Cary's voice came after a long pause, high and forced, wrung with pain.
Her short narrative was taken down by the county attorney. Then she signed the paper, writing painfully, but legibly, and holding the paper at arm's length from her body. Her head released by the nurse, she again sank back on the pillow, her eyes half closed with the balls rolled back.
-------------- "I was walking east away from the bridge when I heard a shot," said Harvey A. Swint, 325 South Union street, this morning. "I turned about and saw a man shooting at two women. I was about 50 feet away from the scene of the shooting. The man was not over five feet from the women when he shot.
"After firing one shot, one of the women began to scream and run toward the east. The man shot at her as she ran. She circled an automobile which was standing near the east abutment of the bridge, where the women were sitting. The woman, Mrs. Demler, fell as she circled the car. The man then turned and ran through the grove.
"I ran to Owen Galey's refreshment stand and told him to notify the sheriff at once that a man had shot two women. I then ran back to the women and was the first man to reach them. There were not over a dozen people around there at the time of the shooting.
"Seeing that Mrs. Demler was dead, Mr. and Mrs. Gene Briggs and I ran to Mrs. Cary. We asked her if she knew who did the shooting.
" 'Yes,' she said, 'it was my former husband, Will Alexander.'
"She had fallen toward the west with her feet toward the east. A taxi was called and she was taken to town."
Robert E. Simmons, 109 Congress street, saw the shooting as he was approaching the bridge from the east.
"I was about 75 feet from the shooting, and as it was dusk I could not see the man well," Mr. Simmons said today. "It seemed to me as though the man shot low at the women three times, then raised the gun and shot once and again shot low. I could not tell how many times he shot. I could tell he was shooting at different people from the way he moved his arm. After shooting, the man ran across the road and went over the stile into the grove."
Mrs. Gene Briggs, East Logan avenue, rode in the taxi which took Mrs. Cary to the hospital.
"Mr. Briggs, Harvey Swint and myself were walking toward the east, away from the bridge, when we heard a shot," said Mrs. Briggs this morning. "We turned around and then heard another shot. One of the women fell. The other woman screamed and ran. The man shot at her. Someone yelled for us to run as the man might be crazy. I dodged behind a car near me, and stayed there until the shooting was over."
"The man was gone when I came from behind the car. I ran to Mrs. Cary. I did not recognize her at first. Harvey Swint came up just then and recognized her. I asked her if she knew who shot her. She said it was her former husband, Will Alexander.
"We called the taxi. Carl Eubanks came up with his taxi and we decided to take her to (p. 7) the hospital in the taxi. Harry Johnson and another man I did not know and I got into the automobile.
"I asked Mrs. Cary what the man said or did before shooting.
"He came up to me, and I said, 'What do you want?' and he just began to shoot,' Mrs. Cary told me."
"I saw him shoot Aunt Marie in the back, right here," Walter Demler, son of Mrs. Demler, said this morning. The boy placed his hand in the middle of his back, showing where the bullet hit Mrs. Cary. "Then Mama started to help her and he shot her," the boy said.
"I was coming up the bank and he (Alexander) stuck the gun in front of me and he pulled it but there wasn't anything it (sic) it," Walter said. "Then her ran."
The boy's speech was broken with sobs, and his sister near him, cried as her brother told of the tragedy.
Mrs. Demler's maiden name was Agnes May Riddle, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Riddle, 501 Exchange street. She was born July 18, 1885 in Emporia, and had lived all her life in Emporia. She was married to W. Demler in Emporia in 1909. Mr. and Mrs. Demler were the parents of two children, a daughter, Helen, age 12, who is crippled, and a son, Walter, age 11, who survives her.
Mrs. Demler also is survived by her parents, Mr. and Mrs. William Riddle; three sisters, Mrs. Marie Cary, Mrs. Lola Hensley, and Miss Elizabeth Riddle; two brothers, Sam and Harry Riddle, all of Emporia. Mrs. Demler was a member of the First Congregational Church and of the Knights and Ladies of Security.
Same Edition: PLEADS SELF-DEFENSE
Alexander made the following statement in the jail in Topeka.
"I was down at the Soden bridge this evening and there were several in swimming and I was down watching them. I started off the bridge to my rig which was tied there. And there were the ladies on the rock wall by the bridge--that is, Mrs. Alexander (Mrs. Cary) and Mrs. Demler. Mrs. Alexander got up and said, 'Your time is short,' and her sister got up with her toward me and then I shot. I shot Mrs. Alexander first. Then I shot Mrs. Demler. Mrs. Demler had said, 'We have got you now.'
"I had been down at the river since suppertime. I went down by my self. I first saw the women just a little while before dark. Just the two women were together at the time. I was in the road right in front of the women when they got off the wall. I had my gun in my pocket. I was carrying the gun for protection. Both of these women told me they would kill me. That was after they took the child away from Mrs. Alexander. I didn't see a gun but Mrs. Alexander raised her dress and I thought she had a gun.
"After I shot my wife I couldn't say whether Mrs. Demler ran away or not. I don't know how many times I fired. The gun was a .32 caliber Colt. I left the gun in the ditch near the bridge where I fell down. After the shooting I went down in the park aways. I waited there a few minutes and then went back and got my horse and went home. I went down in the park to keep them from catching me before I got home. After I went home [I] intended to call the sheriff but the men came to my house and took me to the jail before I called.
"I never knew of Mrs. Alexander carrying a gun. I bought the gun at Haynes Hardware Company after the child had been taken away.
"I make this statement of my own free will and because it is true."
The statement was signed by William Alexander. It was dated July 30, 1922. The witnesses were David J. Wright, a deputy sheriff, and Tom Owens, former sheriff.
Same Edition: VICTIM'S STATEMENT
Here is Mrs. Cary's statement:
"I was on the bridge. We seen Mr. Alexander drive town and tie his horse and come upon the bridge. Pretty soon he left and came back without his horse. He came down off the bridge and he was standing there, and he came up and said, 'What do you want?' And I said, 'I don't want anything.' And he said, 'You don't?' And pulled out his gun and went to shooting. I didn't say anything to him about his 'time being short.' I didn't raise my dress or make a move toward a gun. He pointed a gun at me and I pushed it away, and then he shot.
"My sister didn't say anything about his time being short or anything like that. I make this statement as a true statement, knowing that I may not recover from my injury."
The statement was signed by Marie Cary. It was dated Juy (sic) 31, 1922 and witnessed by D. L. Morgan and J. M. Parrington, attending physicians.
*************************** The Emporia Weekly Gazette Thursday, August 10, 1922
A DOUBLE FUNERAL
Double funeral services for Mrs. Agnes Demler and Mrs. Marie Cary, who were killed by Will Alexander Sunday evening, were held Wednesday afternoon at 2 o'clock at the First Christian Church. Rev. Cecil Franklin, pastor of the church, conducted the services. Mrs. W. R. Cook, Miss Beulah Weyler, Walter Madison and Marshall Randel sang "Beautiful Isle of Somewhere," "Tell Me the Story of Jesus," and "Rock of Ages." The pallbearers for Mrs. Demler were A. N. Horn, Peter Hines, W. H. Smith, J. W. Bolton, G. L. Miller and H. A. Freeman. The pallbearers for Mrs. Cary were Lloyd Hopkins, Jess Mundy, Homer Swint, Harvey Swint, Mike Lawson and Orville Johnson. Interment was made in Maplewood Cemetery. |