Sunday, February 10, 2019

1902 St. James Tenant Story: Mrs. Alexander C. Young and her daughter's kidnapping


Mrs. Young was a tenant from the hotel's first year after leaving her husband, who kidnapped her daughter from her on more than one occasion.




She had sought a divorce back in May and wisely had the venue changed from New Jersey to New York. Note, "an actress was named as a co-respondent."



The judge who was hearing the newest kidnapping case apparently decided she should've known he was trouble since he'd already been divorced once and cautioned her over her "smart mouth."




The story gets more twisted. 

In the summer of 1903, Louise remarries and her ex supposedly snatches Louisa just before they set sail to France. (This is contradicted in later pieces.)



  


After two years of this insanity, by October of 1904, Louisa is apparently settled in with her mother and new step father, while Daddy's remarriage is already headed for divorce court a third time




But wait! There's more!! And I can't even sort it out. The summer of 1905, Young's wife -- perhaps the one applying for divorce above? -- shoots his stenographer.

The second page is where I got completely turned around, as the paper reports that this Mrs. Young has an 8 year old son, but Mr. Young is saying that they were married in 1901, which does not line up with the custody battle with Mrs. Young #2 in 1902, nor the age of the son, which he says is his. I'm so lost.

 


If you keep going down this rabbit hole, Mrs. Morgan the stenographer and (former) friend of the shooter, lives, and declines to press charges. The jealous wife is sent to Chicago because Mr. Young is afraid she's going to kill him, after which she writes a letter demanding a trial to prove this was all his fault. I lost the thread after that. Suffice to say, our Mrs. Young of the St. James Hotel was smart to get out. 

Mr. Young was disbarred from practicing in New Jersey two years after the shooting, in 1907


So he got his license to practice in New York, and then was disbarred there less than a year later in 1908.




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