San Antonio Sunday Light (San Antonio, Tex.), Vol. 46, No. 69, Ed. 1 Sunday, March 28, 1926 Page: 69 of 92
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The Bathtub Murder Mystery
Attractive Young College Girl Bride Without an Enemy
and With Her Jewels Undisturbed Cruelly Struck
Down in Her Own Home---And the Unexpected Solution
Photograph of the Bathroom
Where the Mysterious Tragedy
Was Enacted.
A LITTLE home practically surround-
ed by woods on the outskirts of the
little city of Troy Ohio and four
blood-spattered walls of the bathroom
for three weeks held the mystery of the
cruel slaying of Mrs. Frances Drake Nes-
bitt twenty-eight years old former tennis
champion of the Ohio State University
and prominent Troy society leader.
Special detectives from Dayton and Cin-
cinnati working with all the resources
the county officials could gather have
failed to lift the dark veil after diligently
working on the case since February 19
when the body was found by the husband
Jacob Nesbitt also an athlete who won
a name for himself on the Ohio State foot-
ball and basketball teams. But all to no
avail.
Mr. and Mrs. Nesbitt were both em-
ployed by the Hobart Manufacturing Com-
pany selling a kitchen appliance with
their office in Dayton twenty miles south
of this city. And it was from this office
that the husband was returning expecting
to meet his bride (they were just married
a year when she met her tragic end) at
their little home to spend the night he
said.
Driving the car up to the house ac-
cording to his own story he thought some-
thing was wrong as his wife always had
a light burning and waiting for him when
he returned late. It was midnight. He
left his car with the headlights burning
and darted up the steps into the house.
Thinking that she might have gone to
some friend’s home he put his hand into
the mail box to see if the key was in
there as agreed upon when one or the
other was away.
Finding no key he tried the door and
found it unlocked. “1 turned on the light
an<l went over to the desk to see if she
had seen my note I had left that morn-
ing and found that it was where I had
placed it” Nesbitt said.
“Something came up in my throat and
a sort of a choking sensation gripped me.
1 knew then something terrible had hap-
pened. I just felt as if my body was
frozen. I turned around and then it was
that the blood on the carpet in the living-
room caught my eye and I suspected the
worst."
Nesbitt dashed into the bedroofn call-
ing “Frances! Frances!” A smear of
blood was on the pillow on which her head
had been resting that morning so peace-
fully when he kissed her good-by never
thinking that that would be the last time
—forever.
Blood was on the doorjamb spots of
crinfeon dotted the floor and the general
appearance of the room showed a desper-
ate struggle had been staged. Nesbitt
staggered on—into the bathroom—and
there he stood dazed as he saw the body
of his wife head down in the bathtub.
He rushed over to help her out of the
tub catching hold of her arm. It was
cold. She was still in her nightgown
•ne foot and leg hanging out of the tub.
which was half full of water turned red
from her life blood. Her bobbed hair was
matted and twisted and the scalp laid back
in two places by the club or blunt instru-
ment which her assailant had used.
The unfortunate woman’s athletic mus-
cles were tense. Her hands were gripped
tight as if just finishing a desperate
struggle for her life. And her face. “My
God 1 will never forget that expression”
•e
Mrs. Frances Drake Nesbitt Graduate of Ohio University
and Athletic Sportswoman Who Was Overcome in
the Struggle for Her Life.
Nesbitt said. Terror pain and the effects
of the death struggle were registered upon
the young woman’s features. Her tongue
swollen to five times its natural size was
hanging in the crimson bath water. The
neck was black and blue from the finger-
prints of the wretch who had attacked her.
Stupefied with the discovery he glanced
to the right and left of the little room.
It was in confusion. The washbowl was
filled with blood and strands of hair from
the victim’s head as if her assailant had
attempted to push her face under the
water to still her screams for help. Bloody
hand-prints were on the tub and bath-
room chair hand-prints of the victim her-
self. The fingerprint experts could find
not a single impression of her assassin’s
fingers.
Recovering at last Nesbitt rushed to
the telephone. “Call a doctor and the
police! Something terrible has happened
to my wife I” he cried.
Nesbitt then called up his neighbor
Johnson West an attorney who lives
about a block away. He then was unable
to make himself stay in the house until
assistance arrived. He went out on the
little porch in front of the home. “It
seemed as if it was two hours until I heard
the door of the West home slam indicat-
ing that my friend was on the way over”
said Nesbitt.
West came racing down the muddy
road. “What in the world is the matter
Jake that you call mo out at this time
of night?” he shouted as he came panting
up the little wooden steps.
“Oh West! I’m afraid Fran is dead”
Nesbitt sobbed. “Go look in the bath-
room.”
The neighbor went solemnly into the
house followed by the husband. His first
thought upon seeing the body in its orig-
inal nosition as when first discovered was
to taae it up and relieve the pressure on
the neck as it was twisted bearing the
entire weight.
“As soon as 1 lifted the body to the
floor I knew then through my attorney’s
instinct that I should not
have done it” West stat- I
ed. “But I was so gripped I
hv thp trarodv that I ।
by the tragedy that I asieep ana so i
knew not what I was do- wrote a note and
ing.” Mr. Jacob Nesbitt Husband left it on the desk.
At this time Dr. L. of the Mysteriously “After eating
N. Lindenberger arrived. Murdered Woman. breakfast uptown
bringing with him Coroner at Troy I made
G. J. Hance and Chief of Police John
Sharits. As soon as the officials viewed the
scene they called the sheriff w’ho in turn
got in touch with a detective agency in
Dayton and also finger-print experts from
the same city. They responded immediately
and arrived on the scene in less than two
hours.
Working continuously since that tragic
night they have failed to discover even
one tangible clue. The officers went all
over every inch of the woodwork of the
home the bathtub washstand bed sifted
the ashes in the furnace and ca/i find
nothing in the way of a finger-print the
weapon which the slayer used nor any
one of tfie neighbors who saw anyone
come or leave the home. The woods back
of the house were‘‘thoroughly searched for
footprints and other possible clues but
nothing developed.
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Drake the par-
ents of the dead woman soon came upon
the scene but were unable to make any
suggestions of value. It was agreed by
all who knew the unfortunate woman that
she had no enemies. Nor could robbery
have been the motive of the murder be-
cause her diamond rings ware still on her
fingers the silverware was undisturbed
in the dining room and a considerable
sum of money still remained in the drawer
of her dresser.
At the coroner’s inquest the husband
was called and given a three hours’
close questioning.
“Friday morning February 19. the day
of the tragedy I arose at about 8 o’clock.
She was still sleeping. I did the regular
morning work about the house kissed my
wife goodby stating to her that she had
better stay and rest awhile as we had
(O 1926. by American Weekly 1M
been keeping late
hours the past
week put one of
the articles we
were selling in
the automobile and
was ready to start
for Dayton” the
husband testified.
“I then remem-
bered about not
telling her that I
| had left the drafts
l open in the fur-
nace an<l went
back. She was
asleen. and so 1
a side-trip to see a customer and then
went to Dayton. Routine work was
all I did that day. And when noon
came and my wife had not arrived I just
thought that she had answered a call in
one of the other cities in our territory
for a demonstration and thought nothing
of it as she often did that.
“That evening about 10 o’clock” Nes-
bitt continued “I left Dayton and upon
arriving in my home city 1 went to my
mother-in-law's home first expecting to
find my wife there. When I arrived at
the Drake home it was dark but I called
and my wife’s mother said that Frances
had not been there all da#’ and that I
had better call her on the telephone.
“I called but received no answer and
started immediately for my home on Ridge
avenue. Upon arriving in front of the
house I thought it odd that the light was
not burning as that had always been our
habit if one or the other was out late.
But thon the next thought was maybe she
was staying at a friend’s home.
“Something however prompted me to
leave the car in front of the place and
not put it in the garage. I stopped at the
mailbox. But the key was not there. There
was some mail and I gathered this up and
took it along. The door of the bouse was
unlocked and this I had never found be-
fore. My heart went up in my throat.
Something seemed to grip me and I could
not keep myself from thinking something
terrible had happened.”
“Oh it could not have been Jake” Mrs.
Drake mother of the dead woman de-
clared. “We want Jake to live with us
and make his home here as he is all we
have left of Fran now.
“Jake and Fran had been sweethearts
since school days” the grief-stricken
e. Great Britain BicbU
Mr. Nesbitt Stood Stupefied. In the Crimson-tinted Water of the Bathtub
Lay His Wife's Body. Clothed in Her Nightgown. Head Down at the
Bottom of the Tub. One Foot and One Leg Hanging Over
the Bathtub Rim He Testified.
mother stated. “They always got along
nicely ami I have never known Jake to
cross Fran in even the slightest thing.
Nobody could make her own family be-
lieve her devoted husband had anything
to do with the terrible affair.”
The stomach and intestines of the
murder victim were sent to Dayton for
analysis and reported upon at the inquest.
The chemist stated that he found no poi-
son and the stomach free of undigested
food which the authorities state prac-
tically sets the time of the crime as the
forenoon—the young woman hail been
murdered before she had her breakfast.
After a close checkup to find the weap-
on used by the assassin in his attack the
husband reports the following missing ar-
ticles from the home: Axe silver vase
pajamas wife’s dressing gown pair of
work trousers and one of his O. S. U.
sweaters. The officials also state that a
stick of firewood could have been used in
the attack as it was piled in a box in the
living room beside the fireplace.
And so the case stood an impenetrable
mystery.
The murdered womag’s parents and the
whole community sympathized with the
bereaved husband. Day after day Mr.
Nesbitt giving up his business devoted his
time to helping the detectives the city of-
ficials and the swarm of newspaper men
who had gathered. Night and day he was
at the service of the investigators assist-
ing them in every way.
But as the time went on the firm in
Dayton which employed Nesbitt and his
wife became dissatisfied w ith the progress
made by the local officials. With the
fullest confidence in Nesbitt and with sin-
cere regret at the shocking murder of the
young attractive and able business-woman
wife the firm decided to take a hand in
the matter for the sake of young Nesbitt.
And a Cincinnati detective was quietly en-
gaged in the hope of succeeding where the
others had failed.
Exactly three weeks to a day from the
morning Mrs. Nesbitt’s body was found in
the bathtub the murder was solved. Start-
ing all over again this detective ransacked
the house from garret to cellar. In the
ashes of the furnace he found a silver
vase which Nesbitt had frankly told the
officials was missing.
Why should this heavy metal vase of
some value undamaged turn up among
the ashes of the furnace? There was
only one explanation. That vase had been
thrown into the furnace to get it out of
sight. That vase fitted all the require-
ments of the weapon which struck down
the murdered woman. Somebody had
taken the time and trouble to hide that
vase where the bloodstains would be
burned off and the object jtself probably
never found.
Who disposed of that silver vase in the
furnace? Certainly not the mysterious
tramp or maniac who might have surprised
Mrs. Nesbitt snuffed out her life and de-
parted knowing that no one had seen him
and that his victim could not betray hint.
Whose hand must be connected with
that bloodstained vase? There was only
one person- Jacob Nesbitt the woman’s
own husband the detective reasoned.
Reporting his discovery and his con-
clusions to Herbert E. Johnson and E. E.
Villard members of the firm who em-
ployed him they were stunned and not
disposed to take the detective’s view but
the detective finally persuaded them to
accompany him to Nesbitt’s home for an
interview with the bereaved husband.
With practised skill Detective Slater led
Nesbitt over his testimony again and
again prodding him for details and in-
sisting upon his reconciling little odds and
ends of inconsistencies. And suddenly
to the startled astonishment of Mr. John-
son and Mr. Willard Nesbitt threw off
the cloak of innocence and sorrow and
confessed that he had struck down his
wife with the silver vase.
“Nobody but my wife and 1 knew that
our married life had not been happy”
Nesbitt said. “We had quarrelled almost
from the day of our marriage. We were
business partners in selling the household
appliance and my wife w’as rather the
more clever of the two. Constantly she
criticized my business methods’ and
humiliated me by pointing out her greater
skill and succ>- s in salesmanship.
“On Thursday night we had another
quarrel and it was resumed again Friday
morning. I got mad and hit Frances with
my fist. Then everything went red. In
a hazy way 1 remember crushing her head
with the silver vase and placing the body
across the bed and then lifting it into the
bathtub.”
Terrified at what he had done Nesbitt
took his bloodstained pajamas and the
silver vase with which he had beaten in
the skull of his wife and carrying them
to the cellar threw them into the furnace.
The astonished community were told of
the solution of the crime and the local
authorities at once took the matter to the
grand jury for indictment.
Nesbitt had been a wonderfully good
actor sustaining his role of innocence and
bereaved husband with perfect success in
the face of the closest scrutiny of the
reporters detectives and the authorities
for three weeks. And the most surprised
of all were the sympathetic fathet and
mother of the murdered college girl who
collapsed when the truth was told them
and were put under doctor’s care.
5
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San Antonio Sunday Light (San Antonio, Tex.), Vol. 46, No. 69, Ed. 1 Sunday, March 28, 1926, newspaper, March 28, 1926; San Antonio, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1631548/m1/69/: accessed June 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .