Did Concord Man Murder Wealthy Widow? 1917

The Monroe Journal, Sept. 11, 1917

The Concord Sensation…Rich Woman Who Was Killed There Presents a Mystery Which Keeps On Growing and Connects Up With Chicago and New York…Was It Accident or Murder?...Astonishing Story of Means Career With the Woman

Concord has a sensations which bids fair to grow and grow. Wealth, women, high finance, mystery, death, perhaps murder, all these comprise facts or suspicions in the story.

On the 29^th of August a Chicago woman, the widow of a very rich old lumberman, and the divorced wife of a subsequent husband, was shot and killed at Blackwelder Spring, near the public road a few miles from Concord. The tragedy took place just at dark. The woman in company with Gaston and Afton Means, sons of a prominent lawyer of Concord, and one Capt. Bingham, a dog trainer, and a negro chauffeur, went out to the spring for the stated purpose of target practice, though up till this time it has not been explained why the hour of darkness was specially adapted to that  pastime. Arriving on the public road near the spring, Gaston Means and the woman, Mrs. Maude King, went down to the spring, which is in a secluded spot, and at that time dark. The others remained on the road with the car. Soon the woman was shot behind the left ear and died before they could get her to the hospital. Means explained that she remained on the hill while he went to the spring. She picked up a pistol which he had placed on the stump of a tree and while holding it fell, waiving the pistol over her head and shot herself accidentally, or rather that is the way he supposed it to be as his back was turned when the pistol fired. Mrs. King and her sister were visitors in the Means home and Gaston Means had brought her from New York where he had been represented as her business manager. The coroner declared that the death was accidental. But when the body got to Chicago, after several days, the coroner there declared that it could not have been accidental, and asked for an investigation. Solicitor Clement has been to the scene and says that he will investigate if there appears any evidence of foul play, which he has not yet seen. The King woman was said to be about 50 years old and was what was called a high flyer. Means got in with her in New York some years ago and has since been closely associated, apparently transacting business for her. She spent money lavishly, and is reported by some papers to have been about broke.

Mr. Means has made the important statement that he is a southern gentleman and seems to have expected that gossip would thereupon cease, but from all the talk it looks like there will be a lot more.

A Chicago dispatch says:

Sixteen years ago pretty Maude Robinson left Morrison, near Chicago, to become the wife of James A. King, the millionaire lumberman and stock operator. The sensation caused by the marriage of the young woman of 24 to the astute broker of 72 was the first of several in which she was destined to figure.

On the death of her aged husband four years later, it was discovered that he had willed $2,000,000 to a home for old men in this city, and that only $100,000 was left to the widow under the ante-nuptual contract.

Asserting that this contract had been made in ignorance of the wealth of her future husband, Mrs. King contested the will, and after a number of hearings that were widely reported in the newspapers obtained a settlement under which she received $1,000,000.

Her Hand Sought By Many Fortune Hunters

With ample means at her disposal, Mrs. King returned to Paris, where she had been for a year studying music prior to her marriage.

The handsome young widow at once became the object of many fortune hunters in the French capital, and it was not long before her name began to appear regularly in the cable dispatches. A particularly persistent suitor was Count Hippolyte de Serre, and but for the wit of the widow’s maid and the fact that the count did not speak English, he might have succeeded.

The next wooer was Dr. Perry Chance, an American dentist from Canton, Ohio, settled in Paris. He was successful in his suit and on his marriage with Mrs. King received from her an annuity of $5,000. The marriage in September, 1909, was followed three years later by an action by the wife for divorce.

Chance Fought in Vain to Avert Divorce

The publicity following upon this was increased by the fact that extraordinary effort was made by Dr. Chance to avert the decree, as, if it were granted, he would lose the annuity. He failed in his effort, and after months of legal struggle and attendant publicity, Mrs. King was again free.

In 1914, Mrs. King again figured in the newspapers, when Peter Gross, a lawyer, brought suit against her for fees in connection with obtaining the divorce. She had not been prominent in the news from that time until her tragic death.

In the interval Mrs. King had lived quietly in this city, giving much attention to her mother, Mrs. Robinson, who has been in poor health for several years. Through her sister, Mrs. Mary C. Melvin, also a widow in good circumstances, she became acquainted with a young woman named Mrs. Gaston Bullock Means, in whom Mrs. Melvin was greatly interested.

Two years ago, when some of her business affairs were giving her trouble, Mrs. King was induced by Mrs. Means to send to New York for Mrs. Means’ husband. Means came to Chicago.

At that time he was working for a large detective agency, but he gave up this employment and devoted himself to Mrs. King’s affairs. The first small tangle was quickly straightened out and the rich widow was so pleased with the result of Means’ efforts that she entrusted other matters to his care.

Induced to Move to New York by Means

In a short time Means began to exert considerable influence over both Mrs. King and Mrs. Melvin, it is declared. He induced them to move to New York and in a short time they were installed in two apartments at No. 1155 Park Avenue, the rent of which is said to be $4,500 a year.

Each of the women had an apartment and in a short time Means moved into a less expensive apartment in the same house. Before his departure for Chicago to answer the summons of Mrs. King, he had been living at No. 105 West 107^th Street.

At the new apartment where he installed himself and his wife with several servants and maintained an automobile, Means was known as Mrs. King’s secretary and business adviser.

Ten months ago Mrs. King, accompanied by Mrs. Melvin, Mrs. Robinson, Dr. Bert Clark of No. 200 West 86^th Street, New York, a maid, and Means and his wife, returned to this city. Mrs. Means did not remain more than a month, leaving again for New York.

One month ago Means induced the two women to take a trip with him to his boyhood home at Concord, N.C., in the Asheville section of that state.

Details of Tragic Automobile Drive

Last Wednesday a party made up of Means and his brother, another man and a negro chauffeur, with Mrs. King, left Concord in an automobile. It is reported that they had intended to go far enough into the country to engage in target practice with a revolver. This to friends of Mrs. King here is regarded as strange, in view of the fact that Mrs. King is known to have had a terror of firearms that amounted almost to obsession.

Thus, while she was always afraid of someone entering her room at night and never failed to lock her bedroom door, she steadily refused to keep a revolver in her bedchamber.

According to the reports of what happened on this automobile trip disclosed at the inquest yesterday, the party stopped about two miles from Concord, and, while Means got out to get a drink of water from a roadside spring, the other men of the party walked ahead along the road.

Means declares that in order to have his hands free to get a drink of water, he placed a loaded revolver he had been carrying in the fork of a tree. He says he was stooping over to get a drink when he heard a shot, and looked up to see Mrs. King falling. When he reached her, after calling to the other men, he found her with a bullet hole behind the ear, already dead.

Means, After Meeting Widow, Left $20 Flat for $3,500 Apartment

Gaston bullock Means came to New York from Concord, N.C., the place where Mrs. King met her mysterious death last week, about six or seven years ago, to act as representative of a milling company in his home town, and established an office at No. 53 Worth Street. He is about 35 years old, heavily built and dark complexioned and those who know him best say he is a most convincing talker. He claims to be a distant relative of Col. Roosevelt, through his alleged connection with Bullock family of Georgia.

He first came into public notice in this city in 1911 when he figured as the defendant in a $25,000 breach of promise suit brought against him by a Miss Edith Poole, daughter of a Denver lawyer. At that time the newspapers referred to Means as a man of wealth, but it is understood that his family has never been in anything but moderate circumstances.

Four years ago his finances had reached the point where he was willing to accept a job as detective with the William J. Burns Agency. According to the best information, it was a few weeks after Means had served his connection with the Burns Agency that he entered the services of Mrs. King. That was two years ago, and it is alleged that almost immediately his financial condition took a spectacular jump.

From a $20 a month flat in West 107^th Street, off Central Park West, he moved his family, consisting of himself, wife and baby, to a $3,500 apartment at No. 1155 Park Avenue, one of the most exclusive apartment houses in that section.

His apartment was on the same floor as the 12-room suite occupied by Mrs. King and her mother, Mrs. Robinson, and a slightly less expensive apartment occupied by Mrs. Melvin, a sister of Mrs. King.

There are several stories as to how Means established himself with the wealthy Mrs. King. The one vouched for by her friends is to the effect that he met her through his wife’s acquaintance with Mrs. Melvin. Means’ wife, whom he married three years ago, is a Chicago woman and was said to be a protégé of Mrs. Melvin.

Means Called to Chicago for Confidential Work

All Mrs. King’s friends agree that she was a woman of the most trusting character. They declare that two years ago, Mrs. Melvin, having learned that her former protégé had married a man with detective experience suggested to Mrs. King that Means be brought to Chicago to do some confidential work for her. Mrs. King acted on this suggestion and Means left for Chicago as soon as he received word from her.

From that moment, Mrs. King’s friends insist, Means’ control over not only Mrs. King but her mother and sister has been almost hypnotic. Mrs. Robinson, the mother, is close to 80 years old.

A nurse employed by Mrs. King and in her confidence for many years and several physicians who have attended the three women, say that Means would not permit any of them to make a move of which he did not approve. One of the first things he did, it is alleged, was to have Mrs. King give him power of attorney. It is alleged that Means convinced the three women, especially Mrs. King, that everyone who sought to interest themselves in the affairs of the three women was a blackmailer.

Every time the three women moved, Means is alleged to have assured them they were trailed by private detectives. This is alleged to have influenced them to the point where Means practically dictated every move they made.

Directed Affairs of Mrs. King From Home

Means directed Mrs. King’s affairs from the house in Park Avenue, in which all concerned lived. He engaged a secretary and also brought in his brother, Afton Means, to assist in running her affairs. One of the strange features of the relations between Means and Mrs. King and her relatives was that everyone who came in contact with Mrs. King—servants, apartment house employees, physicians, nurses, etc.—were amazed by the completeness with which Means dominated them.