"The Kansas City Star" (Missouri) Wednesday, August 27, 1897 MARY PUCKETT OUT OF JAIL Prosecutor Lowe Pities Her And Will Be Lenient Mary PUCKETT was released from jail this morning by Prosecutor LOWE. She is the young woman who was arrested for bigamy. Mr. LOWE had her brought to his office this morning and talked to her. She told very frankly that she was guilty. She thought her first husband had deserted her and married another man. When her first husband returned she went back to him and was living with him when arrested. "What will you do now if I turn you out?" asked Prosecutor LOWE. "Well, I'll go back to John." "John who?" "My husband, John PUCKETT." "Will he support you?" "Will he? He'll be glad enough to. We always got along well together. We are all poor enough, but John has been to see me twice since I've been in jail. Mama has been here once and my brother sent word that he'd do what he could for me." The prosecutor wrote out a bond for Mary to appear in court September 20, and she signed it, "Mrs. Mary PUCKETT." Prosecutor LOWE said: "The public welfare did not demand that this poor woman should go to the penitentiary; so I let her out of jail on her own bond to be in court September 20. She will be watched while she is out and if her conduct is good the case against her will be dismissed." Mary wept when she thanked Mr. LOWE for his kindness. Mary MONGLE was 13 years old when she married John PUCKETT in 1891. He went away to look for work in the coal mines two years after the marriage and she did not hear from him till two weeks ago when he unexpectedly returned. In his absence of three years, Mary had married John KENNEDY, a dog catcher. She returned at once to PUCKETT, who had a job digging in the Brush creek coal mine. KENNEDY caused her arrest for bigamy. The authorities at the jail pitied her from the first moment of her arrest. She was poor and ignorant and her grief was pitiful to see when she was locked in jail. When Cassimer WELCH, a deputy marshal, arrested Mary, KENNEDY, the second husband, was near at hand to gloat over her disgrace. He spoke to her insultingly and Marshal WELCH, whose sympathy was all for the frail little woman who had committed a crime in her ignorance of the law and as a lift out of poverty, shook his fist in the dog catcher's face and told him if he insulted her again he would punch him. The day after Mary was put in jail, KENNEDY came around to see her. He encountered Jailer Lum WILSON at the desk. "Who do you wish to see?" asked WILSON. "Mary PUCKETT." "Who are you?" "My name's KENNEDY." "Are you the fellow that had her arrested?" WILSON moved out from behind the desk and KENNEDY moved toward the door. He barely escaped a kick from WILSON's foot as he went through the door. "You come around here again and I'll lock you up," said WILSON. "The woman may be guilty, but I'm against you on general principles." ============================================ "The Kansas City Star" (Missouri) Monday, August 25, 1897 THE PLIGHT OF MARY PUCKETT Yesterday was the first Sunday that Mary PUCKETT ever spent in jail. The most of the day she lay on the cot in her cell, her face resting on her folded arms and sobs shaking her thin body. The bands of evangelists that visit the jail every Sunday came as usual and sang and prayed as loud and as long as they ever do, and the woman in these bands, most of whom are portly and well fed and well clothed, shook hands and talked consolingly with the thieves and burglars and other criminals in the cell in which the little woman lay sobbing to herself. It may have been because her cellmate was a big negress, who had a bad face and smoked an ill- smelling cob pipe, but whatever the reason, the missionaries spoke no word of comfort to the one woman in the jail who needed it most. Mary PUCKETT is only 20 years old. Her mother, Jane MONGLE, is a cripple. She lives at 1316 West Ninth street. She went to the jail to-day to see her daughter. She had hobbled all the way from the West bottoms because she hadn't 5 cents to pay car fare. When she saw her daughter in a cell she wept in a pitiful way and the daughter reached two bare arms out between the bars and put them around her old mother's neck and wept too. "Well, Mary," said the old woman as she raised her old face, discolored with tear stains. "I've seen Mr. LOWE and he says you've got to go to the penitentiary." Mr. LOWE is the prosecutor of the county. If he had his way in the matter he would be glad enough to see Mary go back to her husband and to her housekeeping on the banks of Brush creek, but its a serious crime that Mary is charged with, a penitentiary offence, and nothing can save her, because she admits her guilt. Mary was 13 years old when she married John PUCKETT in 1891. He was a coal digger, but he got out of work in 1894 and went away to look for it. He did not write to his wife and she thought he had deserted her. It was hard for her to make a living and when John KENNEDY offered to marry her last winter, she accepted him. That was bigamy, but she did not know it. KENNEDY was a dog catcher, who drank and beat his wife and made her go out and work to support him. Two weeks ago PUCKETT returned and offered to take back his wife. She flew to his arms. PUCKETT went to work digging in the Brush Creek coal mine and Mary cooked and washed for him in a tent on the creek bank. KENNEDY, the dog catcher, full of revenge swore out a warrant for Mary's arrest for bigamy and that is how she came to be in jail. If ever there was a penitent woman, Mary PUCKETT is one. "I want to go back to my first husband," she sobbed to-day. "He was always good to me and made me a good living." PUCKETT is at work and has hired a lawyer to defend his wife, but the proofs against her are plain. ====================================================== (I have no connection with this family but I'd appreciate knowing if you found this posting helpful.) johnobrien@kc.rr.com ======================================================