The Man with a Cauliflower Ear, Part III: The Conclusion
THE CONCLUSION
Let us now recollect the events as they occurred. A young man, with a wrestling dream, named Artemus Ogletree, left home to pursue his dreams in California. Short after, he found himself in Kansas City, Kansas, in a romantic affair with a girl from a good class, Jane Doe, which came to a twist not long after, when she found out that she is pregnant. With her family insisting, Artemus promised to marry her, found himself a job and for a time, moved in with her.
A little before end of the year 1934, however, something happened. There is some uncertainty as to the cause, but to my guess, he wanted to move to California with his newly family and is just as possible, that he also wanted an engagement ring to be not reflecting a class of a waiter. For the money needed, he got into disputable company and short after business done, found himself on the run and hiding from the law.
The situation at this point was quite uneasy for him, he was simply too young, naïve and overwhelmed. He got himself loose, as he was clearly guilting Jane Doe for his misfortune. He isolated himself and was shortly quite fond of the company of a particular prostitute.
Jane Doe’s brother, Don, took an iniciative in the problem, as he was there from the start. He tried to confront Ogletree in hopes of resolving his strange behavior and a suspicion of cheating, on the afternoon 02.01.1935. He, however, apparently does not succeeded in neither. Next morning, he tried to handle it with a fresh start, but Ogletree turned him down. Don then came for an unexpected visit, on the afternoon 03.01.1935, and it is very much possible that it was also in a company of his sister, Jane. Mary Soptic came that afternoon to bring some fresh towels, when this occured, and was turned from behind the door by Don, who wanted to resolve the matter at once and for all.
Ogletree, cornered, took an absolutistic solution and backed off from the marriage, for he more and more guilted Jane, and now also Don, and as he was still on the run, could not take a chance of getting caught, neither a chance, that Jane’s or his own family will find out about his recent dishonour.
But there was someone else, from the start, who observed the events. John Doe, a close friend of Jane’s, who never revealed his love to her, for her family would never bless their marriage, as he was from a common laborer’s family.
He found out immediately over that dreadful evening, what has happended on Don’s and Jane’s visit at Hotel President. He knew well about Jane’s feelings towards Ogletree and was also very well aware of Ogletree’s just affairing with his loved one, later to only bring a dishonour on her and her family, as single mother, needless to say, with a stranger.
On that same evening, he lured Ogletree out to confront him, but a quarell between them outbursted, when John picked up a knife against the raging bear as Ogletree, wounding him, fractured his skull and got him running. Nevertheless, he knew that this was hardly an end and that there will be consequences, as to Ogletree, that to Jane also. He decided to resolve it for once and for all, and ultimately, to finish what he started.
Ogletree, in the meantime, raging, contacted the Commercial Woman and left her a note with his room’s number and went to the hotel to get himself together. John Doe presumed such and promptly went after the woman, manipulating her to indeed go to Ogletree, but also to retrieve the room’s key, and, to get a certain drug in his drink.
She then did so, as she was asked. In the meantime, John made up his plan, prepared himself and when the woman returned, he got her to come with him as his backup. Probably also to suppress a suspicion she raised when she got the room’s number wrong.
They came to the hotel, together, and went after Ogletree. The woman was not absolutely aware of the seriousness of situation, but her womanly instinct was clearly telling her that she got into a serious problem. John made her to uncloth Ogletree and he restrained him and woke him up. The woman was from second to second more uneasy, making inquiries, but John was confronting Ogletree. There started an intense argument between these three, and John, loosing his nerves in such a suspense, suppressed Ogletree’s voice with his necktie, strangling him and at last, bringing out the knife and stabbing him. The woman, terrified, ran from the room, got a level under, in order of not rising any suspicion that could link her to a murder, and left the hotel.
John found himself in a situation, where he was not sure if the woman would not turn him immediately, and also struck with acute guilt and doubt, so he acted promptly, collecting all of Ogletree’s belongings, locking the room and setting up the “Do Not Disturb” sign over the doorknob, leaving Ogletree to bleed out. He got a level under, called an elevator and left the hotel, although unaware, that he left there a bottle of dilute sulphuric acid, which he would have used to burn Ogletree’s face to make it impossible to recognize him. Also, he left there a phone, which could Ogletree simply use for calling some help.
Soon after, probably both left the country.
When Don and Jane found out about Ogletree’s death, they concluded that that has certainly something to do with his strange behavior in his last period and out of a fear of getting involved in this kind of bussiness and linked to such an individual, they decided to not go to the police. For Jane, it would make the father of her child a potential criminal, for Don, with his own family considering, it would make him a suspect in a murder case.
However, when the time came, Jane got her brother to anonymously pay for Ogletree’s funeral and also for a floral tribute. Neither of them attended the funeral, for it was clear there would be the police also.
As to the Louise, whose name was on the note attached to a bouquet, the police was not able to track no Louise whatsover, dead or alive, which is absolutely crucial. They were not able to find her for the simplest of reasons. For Louise was only yet to be born.
John Doe, slowly consumed by guilt and doubt, anxiously following the case, came to Chicago, from where he sent first letter to Ogletree’s mother, in order to make her distant to the case, for his own sake, but also for the sake of Jane, for he knew that his mother would have the body moved and would hold a wage over the child. Then he came across New York and sent a second letter. Then, on 12.08.1935 he called her from Memphis, Tennessee, giving his name as Jordan, and tried to ultimately close the matter with the story of Cairo.
As to the call, that Dr. John Arthur Horner received, about a box with several newspaper clippings of the case, which was found among the items of a recently passed elderly person and that something, that was in the box besides the clippings.
This elderly person was indeed no other than John Doe and the said item, the door key of Room No. 1046.
EPILOGUE
Principal problem, as to the unravelling the events, was that there was too much evidence. There is also a problem of the sources reinterpreting the facts in such a fashion, that they are making it ultimately impractical for analysis, for they often tend to either distort the facts, to not state some at all, or paraphrasing statements, all for the sake of dramatic. But thanks to Dr. John Arthur Horner and his complex research, we were able to learn almost everything there was on the case. But the problem with this amount of facts is that the irrelevant ones are shading the critical ones. Then we had to pick up only these, which were of importance, to be able to form a conclusion.
.png){kind=small}
