YOUNG LOVER SLAYS 15 YEAR OLD GIRL-1908

BRIGHT, COOK

Posted By: CHERYL MOONEN (email)
Date: 10/14/2018 at 18:09:22

Evening Times-Republican, Wednesday, Oct 14, 1908, Marshalltown, IA, Page: 1

YOUNG LOVER SLAYS
15 YEAR OLD GIRL

Two Shenandoah Youths Dying
Of Wounds Inflicted by .Harley Bright

SHOT GIRL AND HIMSELF

Tragedy Occurs in Home of Bright –
Sequel to Suit in Court in Which
Girl Would be compelled to Testify
Against Her Lover – Victim is
Esther Cook – Her Chum Involved

Shenandoah, Oct. 14 – Found dying in the home of her sweetheart and by her side, lying in the throes of death, the objects of her affections, a double tragedy that has fairly caused an upheaval in Shenandoah, was uncovered last night, when the officers and neighbors of Mr. and Mrs. Lebbus Bright, a retired farmer, forced an entrance and found their son, Harley Bright, and Esther Cook, a daughter of a neighbor lying on the floor of a little bedroom weltering in each other’s blood.

Both Shot in Head

Nearby was found a small rifle. Both young people had been shot in the head, Bright in the forehead and the Cook girl in the right eye. Neither had regained consciousness, and their deaths are certain, says physicians.
The elder Bright’s are visiting at Conway, Iowa. The son, aged 24, had been a suitor for the hand of Esther Cook, who, however, is only 15 years old, and merely a school girl. Her mother is a widow.

Solution in Court Records

After searching everywhere for a solution to the evident deliberate attempt at murder and suicide, the conclusion has been reached that the sequel of the tragedy is written in the courts of this county. Esther Cook was to have been a witness against young Bright in a case wherein he and his sister were charged with having enticed away another girl. This other girl and Esther Cook were chums, although both were enamored with Bright. That they were jealous of Bright’s attention is said to have been well known. The presumption is that Bright called the Cook girl into his home and that a quarrel ensued over the nature of the testimony that she was to give in the suit about to be heard against him. The shots were heard by neighbors, which caused the investigation which revealed the tragedy.