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Los Angeles, California, September 23rd, 1920.

The murdered body of Jacob Charles Denton, 46 and wealthy,

with a dirty comforter for a winding sheet and covered with lime to eat the

flesh away, was found today buried under three tons of earth in a hermetically sealed room in the

cellar of his former home, 675 Catalina Street. Denton had been missing since August 19th when he rented the Catalina

Street property and dropped from sight without leaving a trace of his whereabouts, nor a clue to his

plans. The discovery of the body made today by A.J. Cody, a private detective, brought to

light the weirdest murder mystery ever encountered by the police, through which runs an

elusive chain of riches, intrigue, and love. Apparently, without a substantial clue at the beginning,

Cody and Detective Sidney Hickok, within a couple of hours,

had pieced together a chain of circumstances,

throwing suspicion upon three women.

These three women, friends of Denton, according to the detectives, visited him frequently,

and one, at least, was very dear to him. This one disappeared about the time Denton dropped

from sight, and the authorities are now trying to trace her. In a little room in the upper floor

of the house in which Denton lived,

the officers found letters, a Bible, business cards, bloodstains, and a pistol. At first glance,

the pistol appeared to be fully loaded and moldy from disuse. The detectives, on on closer inspection turned it into a mute symbol of evidence

and claimed it as the instrument that brought death to the promoter.

One of the cartridges in one of its five chambers was shown to have been made for a gun of a different caliber.

This, the detectives say, indicates one shot was fired,

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