The Carthage Republican
Carthage, Illinois
Wednesday
August 27, 1930
Page 1
Columns 5 & 6Omaha "Mystery Girl" Was
Carthage Girl Missing Since
1919, Photo Reveals IdentityBeulah McConnell Wagle Disappeared While Touring Eleven years
Ago. -- "Mystery Girl" was Found Murdered in Ravine near
Omaha. -- Reporter's Photo Identified by Father and
Sisters in Carthage.Miss Beulah McConnell, daughter of J. W. McConnell of Carthage, formerly of near Webster, was married to Henry "Kelly" Wagle, of Colchester, fourteen years ago. They left Carthage on a honeymoon and she never returned. Wagle returned and professed he knew nothing of her whereabouts. Rumor had it they had quarreled over liquor. All Wagle would say was that she had taken his car and disappeared.
Wagle had been a mail carrier out of Colchester, but later went into the liquor business and was killed at Colchester over a year ago, presumably by an opposition gang of liquor runners.
All that was heard of Mrs. Wagle was that she first went to St. Louis and from there started to California via Omaha.
The Wagles did not get along together. They separated, Mrs. Wagle going first to St. Louis, after which she started for San Francisco through Omaha. She was never heard of again.
Wagle, it is charged, often told his wife that if she double-crossed him he would kill her. Before leaving St. Louis Wagle drew all their money out of the bank. It is believed that Wagle followed the girl to Omaha and murdered her, throwing her body from an automobile to the roadside.
Since the day in November, 1919, when a farmer discovered a girl's body, shot through the head, in a lonely ravine north of Omaha, the establishment of the identity of the "mystery girl" has been the hobby of Benjamin Sylvester, city editor of the Omaha World-Herald. Thousands of people, many of them from far places, viewed the girl's body in 1919, as it lay for days in a morgue there awaiting possible identification. Dozens of clews were traced down by police and by newspaper men.
The girl was finally buried in a Omaha cemetery and the case assigned by police to the limbo of unsolved crimes. Every year, on the morning after Memorial day, a wreath of flowers was found on the "mystery girls'" grave, but this mysterious memorial was generally ascribed to the generosity of some unknown Omaha citizen whose heart was touched by the girl's youth, beauty and mysterious, lonely death.
Sylvester, however, kept up his search, convinced that, sooner or later, the girl's identity would be established. It was a photograph he had caused to be taken while the girl lay in the morgue there that was identified by her father.
Three sisters of the girl, as well as her daughter, corroborated the father's identification of the photograph. The picture was also shown to John W. Moon, former associate of Wagle, and he said the picture resembled Mrs. Wagle.
After Mrs. Wagle left Carthage on her honeymoon in 1919, the family received postcards from her, mailed from St. Louis, saying that she expected to visit Omaha on the trip. Three years ago the family queried the Omaha police concerning the "mystery girl" but no identification was made.
Miss Evelyn McConnell left Carthage Monday for Omaha to make further identification of the body and arrange to have it brought to Carthage for burial. A brief service is planned to be held here when the remains will interred on the family lot in Moss Ridge.
Note: If Beulah Wagle was buried in the Moss Ridge cemetery, then why is her gravestone located in the McConnell cemetery near the village of Fountain Green. If she was buried in Moss Ridge, then she would be buried in an unmarked grave amidst a sea of strangers. It just isn't logical that she would be buried in Moss Ridge.
The Carthage Gazette
Carthage, Illinois
Friday
August 29, 1930
Page 1
Column 2RELATIVES CLAIM
BODY OF OMAHA'S
"MYSTERY GIRL"Will Bury Beulah Mc-
Connell Wagle In
CarthageDaily and weekly papers published earlier in the week have given in detail, that are now no doubt familiar to Gazette readers concerning particulars that have lead to the identification of a woman’s body discovered in a ravine near Omaha, Neb., eleven years ago as that of Mrs. Kelly (McConnell) Wagle of Colchester.
The body accompanied by her father John McConnell and sister, Miss Evelyn who went to Omaha and positively identified it from a scar on the inside of her hand just below the little finger inflicted by a crochet needle she was using soon after her marriage to Mr. Wagle also by a scar on her wrist, by fillings in her teeth which corresponded with a chart made by a Colchester dentist who performed the work and by clothing she wore at the time she left Colchester.
While no arrangements had been made for the funeral when we went to press, this ends the story of the identification of the "Mystery girl" whose body was found in a ravine near Omaha eleven years ago, but it affords, as far as given out to the public at least, no clue as to her slayer.
While the fate of Mrs. Wagle is greatly deplored, the mystery which has since surrounded her disappearance has at last been cleared and while its solving up has been a great shock to family and friends there is great satisfaction in the knowledge that her body has at last found a proper resting place in the cemetery at her old home.
Note: If Beulah Wagle was buried in the Moss Ridge cemetery, then why is her gravestone located in the McConnell cemetery near the village of Fountain Green. If she was buried in Moss Ridge, then she would be buried in an unmarked grave amidst a sea of strangers. It just isn't logical that she would be buried in Moss Ridge.
The Carthage Republican
Carthage, Illinois
Wednesday
September 3, 1930
Page 1
Column 1
Page 2
Column 1LAST RITES FOR
BEULAH M. WAGLE
HELD ON SUNDAYBuried Beside Mother in
McConnell CemeteryBright farewells for a journey to California, then silence, then uneasiness, then quiet investigation, then diligent search through cities with detective agencies, a growing despair and final acceptance of a great sorrow; then like a flash from the blue, revelation, reclaimation and the loved one gathered home to rest!
This great tragedy has been suffered by the family of John McConnell when his beautiful eldest daughter, Beulah McConnell Wagle mysteriously disappeared enroute from St. Louis to California, via Omaha in November 1919.
Beulah was married to Henry Wagle of Colchester on Thanksgiving day at Ft. Madison a number of years ago and lived in Colchester for a time. Domestic difficulties arising, she left Colchester, and was in St. Louis for a while, and on November 3rd, 1919 wrote her family here as well as telephoned that she was leaving for California, via Omaha and would return to this county the following March.
Nothing more was heard from her. There was more or less uneasiness felt because of her silence, but remembering that Beulah had planned to be back in this county in March 1920, it was not until that month had gone by that the family took special means of locating the missing girl, but were baffled at every turn, the Omaha police failing to connect their inquiries with the "mystery girl" found dead in a ravine the previous November.
B. F. Sylvester of the city staff of the Omaha World-Herald, became interested in solving the mystery of the beautiful girl found in a ravine by a roadside by a farmer Albert Peterson. The body was turned over to an undertaker, John A. Gentleman.
The reporter secured a photograph of the girl's face as she lay in the Gentleman funeral home awaiting identification. Possibly 100,000 passed through the mortuary trying to identify the body. Failing of identification the body was buried in West Lawn cemetery, Omaha.
Gentleman stated that the body was washed clean of blood stains and was carefully dressed when found. The condition of the stomach showed that she had apparently eaten a clubhouse sandwich about a half hour before she was killed. She met her death by gunshot, the bullet entering the head back of the left ear. She was evidently killed in some restaurant and the body washed and dressed, and then taken to the outskirts of Omaha and thrown into the ravine.
Some woman in Omaha who had always befriended unfortunate girls, took an interest in the case and saw that she had a decent burial and a marker set up at the grave which read:
The Mystery Girl
Nov. 20, 1919
Buried December 21, 1919The last line is an error as the body was buried January 1, 1920 according to the statement of the undertaker. Every year on the anniversary of her death, flowers have appeared on her grave.
B. F. Sylvester of the Omaha World-Herald staff was assisted in his investigations of the case by a reporter, Allan Kohan. Recently a cub reporter on the World-Herald heard something said about the Mystery Girl, and stated to Kohan that he knew a man in Omaha that knew all about it. Kohan immediately followed the clue which led him to Carthage and to the revelation of the case and the recovery of Beulah’s body to the family last week. The person who murdered the girl has not so far been identified, but the case is being worked on.
John McConnell and his daughter Miss Evelyn went to Omaha where they were able to identify the body as that of the long lost Beulah and brought the body to Carthage Thursday. They were treated with the utmost courtesy and consideration by the World-Herald staff and by the undertaker Mr. Gentleman. Miss Evelyn said he certainly was well named.
The funeral was held at the residence Sunday afternoon, Dr. C. H. Johnson reading comforting passages of scripture and making a talk. Mrs. Grace Mosley sang, "Lead Kindly Light." The flowers were profuse and beautiful. The Rev. J. D. Ryan of the Presbyterian church of Fountain Green, officiated very sympathetically at the grave.
The interment was at the McConnell cemetery in the presence of about four hundred old neighbors and friends. This cemetery is a family grave yard where all buried there are relatives except one person.
There has been a great deal of sympathy expressed for this loyal family in their sorrow and distress over the disappearance of this girl. While their sorrow is no less poignant, the relief from the baffling mystery of her fate is great, and friends rejoice with the family through their tears.
The pall bearers were Dr. D. L. Frazee, Leo Helfrich and John McCarty, Carthage, Chas. Bullock, Fountain Green; Martin C. Haedtler, of Chicago, and C. E. Nunn, Addison, Ill.
Those from a distance who attended the funeral were: Martin C. Haedtler and son, Martin, Jr., Chicago, C. E. Nunn, Addison, Ill., and Mrs. Carrie Sowers, of North Bend, Nebr.
Sometime, when all life's lessons have
been learned,
And sun and stars forevermore have
set,
The things which our weak judgment
here had spurned,
The things o'er which we grieved
with lashes wet
Will flash before us out of life's dark
night,
As stars shine most in deeper tints
of blue;
And we shall see how all God's plans
were right,
And how what seemed reproof was
love most true.And if, sometimes, commingled with
life's wine,
We find the wormwood and rebel
and shrink,
Be sure a wiser hand than yours or
mine
Pours out this portion for our lips
to drink.
And if some friend we love is lying
low,
Where human kisses cannot reach
her face,
Oh, do not blame the loving Father so.
But wear your sorrow with obedient
grace.And you shall shortly know that
lengthened breath
Is not the sweetest gift God sends
his friend,
And that, sometimes, the sable pall
of death
Conceals the fairest boon his love
can send.
If we could push ajar the gates of
life,
And stand within and all God's
working see,
We could interpret all this doubt and
strife,
And for each mystery could find a
key!But not today. Then be content, poor
heart!
God's plans, like lilies, pure and
white, unfold;
We must not tear the close-shut leaves
apart,
Time will reveal the calyxes of gold,
And if, through patient toil, we reach
the land
When tired feet, with sandals loose,
may rest,
When we shall clearly know and
understand
I think that we will say, "God knew
the best."Beulah Estella, eldest daughter of John W. and Eva (Hobart) McConnell, was born Oct. 14, 1889, in Fountain Green, Ill. When thirty years of age she met her death at the hands of an assassin, November, 1919.
In the pleasant companionship of the home Beulah grew to bright, attractive girlhood. She was warmhearted, generous and kind, devoted to the family circle, popular with relatives and friends, and gave promise of a happy helpful life.
In young womanhood she was united in marriage to Henry Wagle, of Colchester, Ill., where for a number of years they held residence. Later, trouble arising, they agreed to disagree, each going their separate ways. Soon thereafter making her future plans known to her family, Beulah started westward in November, 1919. Here the record of her life closes, so far as positive facts are available.
In a short while her murdered body was found in a ravine near Omaha, Nebr., and taken to a funeral home in that city. Her evident youth and beauty aroused the sympathy of a compassionate public, and she received as tender attention and as careful burial as kindred hands could have given. Long continued and fruitless effort to establish her identity having failed, she became known as the "Mystery Girl."
In the meanwhile her family became first anxious, then fearful, then greatly troubled at her long continued silence. As the weeks and months went by and no word came, when all efforts to find trace of her proved unavailing, the conviction of foul play deepened. She was especially devoted to her daughter, and to the memory of her sainted mother. She had always sent loving and substantial greetings to the one, and flowers to decorate the grave of the other. When these tokens of her love and thoughtfulness came no more, it gave added proof that Beulah was dead. Continued search left her fate shrouded in mystery. Her father still held hope that sometime, somewhere the secret would be solved. So it came to pass.
Identification established beyond a doubt by facts now well known to the public. The body was brought to her old home and was laid to rest beside her beloved mother. If Beulah's terrible tragic death will be the means of warning others from the shoals where her own life met shipwreck, she will not have died in vain.
More sinned against than sinning, to the infinite mercy of a heavenly Father, to whom she at one time vowed allegiance, we commit her spirit.
The surviving members of the family are the father, John W. McConnell, of Carthage, the daughter, Pauline Wagle Lappin, of Mt. Sterling, Mrs. Marguerite Hobart, of Fountain Green, Mrs. Frances Cook, of Madison, Wis., Evelyn, Bernice and Nellie in the home. Many relatives and friends with sincere sorrow and sympathy enter into their grief. May strength and comfort come to them from the Friend who has promised to comfort "even as a mother comforteth." M. W. B.
Card of Thanks
We desire to express our deep appreciation of the many kindnesses shown us in our recent experiences and sorrow, and for the beautiful floral offerings.
John McConnell and family.
The Carthage Republican
Carthage, Illinois
Wednesday
September 3, 1930
Page 2
Column 2There have been many sad things happen in our lifetime, but nothing has been any worse than the sad ending of our young friend, Mrs. Beulah McConnell Wagle. Of course everyone has read the sad accounts of her life in the daily and weekly papers, so we need not repeat. Her remains were brought to the family burying lot northeast of town on Sunday afternoon, where they were laid to rest by the side of her dear mother and others of the family who had preceded her to the great beyond. It was one of the largest funerals ever held in that cemetery. Friends from far and near were there to show their respect and love for the dear departed and to extend their love and sympathy to the dear father, sisters and daughter, as well as other near relatives. We all are sorely grieved over her sad death, and words fail to express our love and respect for the dear loved ones who have done all in their power to make amends for the long silence after her sad death. May God bless and reward them all, for He alone can do so. Rev. Ryan, Presbyterian minister of Fountain Green, had charge of the services at the grave. The lovely floral tributes completely covered the grave and were beautiful in the extreme. Gone but not forgotten.
