Nebraska Tragedy Finally Solved 

Remains of Thomas Jasen, a Beatrice Banker, Who Disappeared, Found in a Well 

Wealthy Stockman Arrested 

He Owned the Property Where the Body Was Recovered, and the Murdered Man Was En Route to See Him

Republic Special

Stockville, Nebraska, August 14. --  In the presence of an excited crowd of people, the mutilated remains of Thomas Jasen were today removed from the bottom of an abandoned well, five miles from this town.

The recovery of the corpse the sequel to one of the most extraordinary and mysterious tragedies that has ever disturbed Western Nebraska.  The recent developments promise to add to the mysterious features, for Andrew Hawkins, a prominent Frontier County citizen, is under arrest charged with knowledge of the crime.

Jasen was a very wealthy citizen of Beatrice, a banker and an eccentric money-lender.  He had thousands of dollars loaned on lands in Western Nebraska and Kansas, and possessed very peculiar ideas on the subject of financiering.  He frequently carried large sums of money on his person and always depended more upon his personal prowess and big revolvers than upon his bank vaults for the preservation of his vast wealth.

December 13, 1897, Jansen disappeared.  His going was as mysterious as if the earth had swallowed him.  He was last seen at Indianola, Nebraska, collecting money due him.  There he is known to have secured several thousand dollars.  This was one of his annual tours which he had been making for the past 10 years over Western Nebraska and Kansas, at which times he collected interest and some principal due, and returned home, carrying the money in his pockets.

These tours at times lasted two months, so it was some time before the family of the eccentric banker began to be uneasy that he did not return home.  Then somebody, now believed to have been the gang which assassinated him for his wealth, put the report in circulation that Jasen had gone to California on a pleasure tour and this allayed public suspicion.  Finally the family offered a reward of $500 for information concerning him.

No one attempted to claim the money, though reports continued that Jasen was still in California.  His sons went there and satisfied themselves that their father had not been there,  Then the sentiment gradually crystallized into the belief that Jasen had been murdered for his money.

This theory gradually gained ground through mortgages coming to light which Jasen is know to have had on his person when last seen in Indianola.  These securities had been transferred so many times and so cunningly that it was impossible to trace them.  As mysteriously as murder will out in many cases, the truth was given to the public, which was brought to light by the mutilated remains of the old banker.

Shortly after Jasen's disappearance, the well, in which his body was today found, was hastily filled up by Andrew Hawkins, a big cattle man here, and one who stands well.  The fact that Hawkins insisted on doing this himself, instead of employing his hire men to do it, provoked the first suspicion, coupled with the fact that Jasen would have come to Stockville from Indianola overland to see Hawkins, and would have passed by the well.  Hawkins now says he filled the well because some of his cattle had fallen into it, though he showed great terror when told that it had been opened and Jasen's body found there.

More than a month ago, rumor began to point to the old well, and assert that Jasen, the Beatrice banker, slept there.  Where the story came from no one knows.  Suspicion points to some dissatisfied member of the gang, who is now believed to have assassinated Jasen.  Finally, the story came from so many different sources, though always in a vague way, that a citizens' committee yesterday went to the well and began to remove the debris.  Two loads of manure and one of hay were taken out and at the bottom the partially decomposed body of the gray headed banker was found.

Two bullet holes in the back of the head told the story.  Papers in the dead man's clothes made identification certain.

Now the people who first suspected the well as Jasen's resting place, are being looked upon as knowing something of the assassination.

St. Louis Republic - August 15, 1898