by Jerome
The St. Paul Globe for September 15, 1903.
We
have all heard of the many wives of Solomon, or the many wives of English King
Henry VIII. We don’t know for sure how many times our boy Albert Royal Delmont Jones
attempted matrimony, but the title still has a certain ring.
Wife
number one was Caroline (Carrie) Bown. She had four children with Albert. One
died in infancy, the other three all married and had families of their own.
Carrie was buried in the Bown family plot in Pittsburgh when she died in January
1933. After her marriage ended she made her home with her daughter, Ella and
family.
Wife
number two was described as society beauty Isabel Agnes Mulhall. The newspaper
cutting above, written in what we would call in the UK “tabloid style,”
describes the history and subsequent demise of their relationship. How accurate
the details are I do not know, but it makes entertaining reading. Isabel
subsequently led a flamboyant life. She made the newspapers in 1935 by
eccentrically throwing money out of a train. However, she appears to have really
liked money, and really liked Albert when he had some. She died in 1939.
Wife
number three – Bambina – now there’s a name! Her history has been detailed in
the article In Search of Delmont Jones posted on 23 November 2014. Sometimes
she is Maud Bambina Delmont, and sometimes she is Bambina Maud Delmont. Sometimes
Maud has an E on the end, and sometimes not.
After
her divorce from Albert – assuming there ever was a divorce – Bambina married
John Hopper in 1912. Neglecting to divorce Mr Hopper she committed bigamy by then
marrying a Cassius Wood. In the 1920 census she is down as a corsetiere with
her own shop; other reference works give less flattering occupations. She
latched onto vivacious, promiscuous starlet Virginia Rappe at the infamous 1921
party Roscoe (Fatty) Arbuckle attended. When it all went bad and Virginia died
in hospital, Bambina was initially the star witness against Arbuckle - until it
was established that at the time she claimed to see and hear certain events,
she was otherwise occupied in another bedroom. The LA District Attorney Matthew
Brady had political ambitions riding on this case, which was basically an
excuse to put the whole of Hollywood on trial. He ensured that Bambina never
went anywhere near the witness stand during three trials, in spite of repeated
requests from the defense. As soon as the
first trial went to the jury (a hung jury of 10-2 for acquittal) Bambina was
done for bigamy. There may have been some sort of deal to get her off with probation.
See the news item below.
December
11, 1921 Oakland Tribune
Wife
number four? There is a question mark over this one, but see post entitled Another
Sighting - or Is It? published on 25 November for a possibility.
Albert’s
slippery slope gained a certain momentum as the years rolled by. For those of
an artistic bent, have a look at William Hogarth’s 18th century
series of paintings called The Rake’s Progress.
3 comments:
Hello, Jerome,
Only a curiosity... here you have some relation with M.L. McPhail.
Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle married in the thirties with the first wife of Lindsay Matthew McPhail, son of Matthew Lindsay McPhail... yes... our M.L. McPhail that worked hard with C.T. Russell between 1890s and 1908.
I love such trivia. Many thanks for the information.
I knew Roscoe's third wife was Addie Oakely Dukes McPhail, but never made the connection (albeit tenuous) with Truth History. Addie lived to be 97 and died in 2003.
It really is a small world sometime. And no - I'm not going to write an article about Fatty Arbuckle's connections with Truth History...with nemesis Bambina and third wife Addie. That really would be one stretched coincidence too far.
Not write it? How could you not?
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