Kittie Loughrey born May 5, 1892 was from Fulton, NY and was the daughter of James and Mary McCabe Loughrey. She worked as a clerk at Oneida Community Plant in Sherrill (I have no information about this employer) when she met Leo Hall. He must have been quite a charmer, since he convinced this 29 year old to marry him without knowing much about him. They married on January 12, 1921. The left for Florida in February for a honeymoon. After Leo's legitimate wife started asking questions about his whereabouts, it appears that Leo Hall either abandoned his new wife, too or she realized that he was already married and left him.
Either way, Kittie Loughrey was embarrassed, ashamed and scandalized. In the 1920's her future prospects of a happy life must have looked pretty bleak. While still in Tampa, FL, she sent her parents the following letter which appeared in The Post-Standard, Syracuse, NY on May 27, 1921.
"Dear Momma,
Don't think that I have forgotten you, for I have not, but mamma, under the circumstances it is best to try and forget me. I am down here working for $12 per week. I found out the truth about Leo and I don't feel like I as if I can come home and be as I used to be. That is why. I dream of home all the while and am lonesome. My God, nobody knows.
I don't know what I have done to this earth to be used as I have been. I always tried to do what was right by everybody, but here I am among strangers and hundreds of miles from home. People who do not care for me and mamma, the thought makes death feel easier in this lonesome place. Mamma, I was innocent about Leo and I thought he was single and that I was really and truly married to him.
What in God's name did I do to get in this trouble? How are you and dad? Maybe in a few years I will be able to come home and meet my friends when the truth is known. I am not with him now and I am working every day. It is very hot here. Mamma, I am going by my own name Miss Kittie Loughrey and praying that this will clear itself.
Affectionately, your daughter
"Kittie"
From the letter to her parents, they found out her return address and sent her money beseeching her to return home to Fulton, NY. Within a few months, she did return.
She even found a husband. She married Frederick Leggett sometime before 1930. Frederick appears to have been married before and had two existing children.
While at the worst of her situation she may have considered if she could endure another day, she lived a very long life. She died at the age of 96 on March 28, 1989.
I wonder if she ever told her legitimate husband what she had gone through or if that was a secret she took with her to the grave.
As detailed in my previous post, "Leo W Hall, Bigamist and Scoundrel", Leo Hall abandoned his wife and children to marry another woman and ran off to Florida for his honeymoon.
His first and legitimate wife, Amelia Lanz Hall, was unaware that he had left her for another woman. Leo had told her that he had been assigned to some work in Minoa, NY (about 50 miles from Utica, NY). A few days later she received a letter from him informing her that he had been given a pass from the railroad company for free travel to Richmond, VA and was going to take Amelia with him. Several days went on with no word from him and she became concerned.
She contacted the railroad and was informed that he had indeed traveled to Richmond, VA, but had been accompanied by another woman, Kittie Loughrey. Frantically, she asked for an investigation and learned that Leo had married a woman in Fulton, NY. A warrant was issued for his arrest on the charge of abandonment in the southern states of Virginia, North Carolina and Florida.
About this time, Kittie's parents, James and Mary Loughrey received a telegram from their daughter in Florida informing them that stated "Leo is dead. Will arrive home Wednesday or Thursday".
Amelia's relatives scoffed at the idea that Leo had somehow conveniently died. One of Amelia's brothers stated in the paper, "He never did anything as good as that -- dying."
It is important to note that Leo had emptying the family bank accounts before he left which left the family destitute. He had three children. One a newborn (born only a few days before he disappeared), a daughter, Beatrice and a son, Joseph. Joseph was discovered to have an eye problem and was nearly blind. His mother was in such dire straights financially that she had to put Joseph in an institution for treatment as she didn't have the money to care for him at home.
A week before the telegram was received, the Loughrey family had received a letter from Kittie stating that Leo was sick in a hospital in Jacksonville and to send money. When authorities contacted the hospitals and morgues in and around Jacksonville there was no evidence of anyone dying named Leo Hall.
Legal authorities disregarded the supposed death of Leo Hall and continued to search for him to bring him to face charges for abandonment.
Authorities eventually caught up with Leo Hall and arrested him in Tampa in June 1921. He was brought back to Utica to be prosecuted.
From the newspaper accounts, the legal case against Leo Hall was an open and shut case and he was sentenced to 1 year and two months in Auburn prison in New York State. He began to serve his sentence on July 1, 1921.
You will be surprised to learn what happens after Leo is released from prison...
Leo W. Hall married my wife's distant cousin, Amelia Lanz in 1911. They appeared to be happily married and had at least three children between 1911 and 1921. They lived in Utica, NY.
Leo Hall was a "fireman" for the railroad. As a fireman, he was in charge of tending and stoking the fire for a steam locomotive. This role must have had him working some short or intermediate trips working on trains and did take him away from his family from time to time.
On at least one trip from his family he met and seduced a woman named Kittie Loughrey in Oneida, NY. He purposefully mislead her to believe that he was single and convinced her to elope with him for a wedding in New York City. So on January 12, 1921, they were wed. Of course, the only problem being that he was already married.
But it gets worse....
Unlike some stories about bigamists that you may hear about where the bigamist lives a secret life with multiple wives or families, Leo Hall used his new marriage as an opportunity to abandon his legitimate wife and kids. Just prior to his disappearance, he returned to Utica for the birth of his third child on January 27 and remained in the city until his wife returned from the hospital on February 12th. Upon her return home, he left, probably never intending to return.
Leo was busy while his wife was in the hospital. He cleaned out the family bank account and took with him all the family valuables. If it wasn't enough to leave his family with nothing, he then proceeded to charge to a store account in his wife's name for two suits and a gold watch. He gave the gold watch to his new bride as a wedding present.
Leo and his new wife departed by train for a honeymoon in Florida.
Kittie Loughrey born May 5, 1892 was from Fulton, NY and was the daughter of James and Mary McCabe Loughrey. She worked as a clerk at Oneida Community Plant in Sherrill (I have no information about this employer) when she met Leo Hall. He must have been quite a charmer, since he convinced this 29 year old to marry him without knowing much about him. They married on January 12, 1921. The left for Florida in February for a honeymoon. After Leo's legitimate wife started asking questions about his whereabouts, it appears that Leo Hall either abandoned his new wife, too or she realized that he was already married and left him.
