Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 July 1885 — An Intercepted Elopement [ARTICLE]

An Intercepted Elopement

With a Tragical SequelThe Beaton county papers of last week contain details of a tragical aflair which took* place in that county last week: On Tuesday evening before tho Fourth, Charles Deen, or Dean, a rakish young man, with a bad record, from Louisville, Ky., met and became ac* quainted with Miss Mattie Pitman, of Virginia. Deen was visiting his cousin, James Bell, of Oxford, and Miss Pitman had been stopping for several weeks at the of her uncle, Jacob Harman, who lives near Oxford. On the Sunday following their first meeting Deen and Miss Pitman in company with another young couple, drove to Fowler, and were together for several hours. These two weie the only times when the young people met. until on the Tuesday following, when they started out, ostensibly for a pleasure ride, but really started for Fowler with the intention of getting married. In the meantime Mr. Harman had received notice of what was going on, and by means of the telephone between Oxford and Fowler, arrangements were made whereby Deen was arrested upon his arrival at Fowler and later the young lady was taken in charge by her uncle. On Wednesday morning a ticket for Louisville, was purchased.and given to Deen, and he got on board the train and it was supposed that he had left the country. But he went no further than Lafayette. And now comes the tragic ending of the affair. That evening Dean returned to the vicinity of Mr. Harman’s residence. He went about midnight to the residence of an acquaintance, Mr. Lee, and asked the latter to go over with him to a Harman’s. Lee refused to do so and the young man went away. He came again, about daybreak, and repeated the request. Lee again ro fitted, when he said, “well I will go over alone then,” and started off. Lee, apprehending some serious consequences, made a circuit and reached the residence of Mr. Harman, (about four miles east of Oxford,) ahead of him. Lee aroused the household, ’ who were dressing when Deen came up, and knocked at the front door. Lee and the hired man, who by this time had dressed aod come out, started around the side of the house from the back door. As soon as Deen saw them coming, he left the front door and went around to the opposite side of the house, and drawing a revolver in full sight of Mr. Lee, the foremost of the two men, shot himself through the bowels. Immediately he cocked the weapon again, and sayiug, “Good-bye, Mattie”, put the muzzle to the side of his head and fired, the shot proving instantly fatal. Deen was only about nineteen years of age. If the following regardin')' him, from the Oxford Tribune, written before the suicide, is correct, his self inllicted end is but the proper termination of a career of crime : “This same Charles L; Deen is not unknown to fame. The hot-beds.of Louisville have turned out but few greater sports. JTwo years ago ho eloped from Louisville with Lily Forsythe to Jeffersonville. Ind., where they were married [and were never divorced.J After a week’s honeymoon he deserted her, in a miserable brothel in Chicago. A child was born to her. She is now eking out a miserable existence in a house of ill-fame at Lexington, Kv. Deen feels proud of this first episode, and carries clippings from newspapers concerning it, and these he frequently reads to his acquaintances. His fathef is a respected business man in Louis ville.”