With Pearl Bryan, it was the oft told tale, "She loved not wisely but too well." Jackson, "a criminal by nature" with his "angelic front", behind which was hidden a demon, with his low moral character, so well concealed from the public, and with a set design to ruin the pure and innocent girl, which had been thrown in his way, was not slow to take advantage of his opportunities and the influence and power, which he could easily see he held over the unsuspecting girl.
Loving and trusting Jackson as she had never before loved any man, and being of a sanguine nervous temperament, with her likes and dislikes of the strongest possible, with a great deal of animal nature, cheerful and talkative, yet lacking in force, by nature kind and benevolent to a fault, and her development of individuality and self-reliance small, she was one who could be easily persuaded but never driven. Jackson was not slow to learn this, and with honeyed words and protestations of love, he won Pearl Bryan's heart. This won, the accomplishment of his devilish designs, her ruin, was easy. She fell a victim to his lustful desire, and in a short time discovered that she would soon become a mother. Almost crazed at this discovery she knew not what to do or which way to turn. It was the first blot that had ever come on the name of a member of the proud Bryan family. In her desperation she confided her condition to her cousin, Will Wood. As Wood claimed, no one else in Greencastle knew or even suspected anything of the true condition of affairs between Pearl Bryan and Scott Jackson. They had been keeping company with each other whenever Jackson was in Greencastle, from the early spring of 1895 until September of the same year, when she discovered her condition, no one except Will Wood knowing anything wrong about them.
The discovery of Pearl Bryan that she was in a delicate condition, and Jackson being the cause of her trouble, and as he said in a letter to Wood wishing to get clear of the scandal, brings us to the third, and possibly the most important suspect in the dreadful tragedy near Fort Thomas, Ky.
Alonzo Walling, nineteen years of age, was born on a farm near Mt. Carmel, Ind. His father died when he was but three years old, leaving his mother in moderate circumstances with two other boys, Clint and Charles. When Alonzo was thirteen she moved to Greencastle where she kept boarders and Alonzo commenced at once to work in a glass factory to help support his mother. He worked there four years, and was thrown out of work when the factory was closed. Then his mother, by self-sacrifice, sent him to the Indianapolis Dental college, paying all his expenses, and it is learned that he worked hard and was one of the formost in his class. He returned home every evening, and on Saturdays assisted Dr. Sparks, at Greenfield, in his dental parlors. His term expired in March, 1895, when his mother moved to Oxford and made her home with her sister, Mrs. James Faucett. Having very poor health, her only thought was to try and give him a good education.
It was at the Indianapolis Dental College that he first met Jackson and became acquainted with him. By some strange and uncontrollable fatallity Walling was thrown with Jackson again in Cincinnati. Here is his own statement made Wednesday, Feb. 5., 1896, regarding their acquaintance and friendship:
"I met Jackson in Indianapolis, a little more than a year ago. We attended the Indiana Dental College together. I did not know him intimately there, although we attended the same class. When the school season was over, I had no idea of meeting him again here in Cincinnati."
"How did you come to room together here?"
"Well, I was standing on the doorstep of our boarding-house, at 222 West Ninth Street, the second day of our school term here in October, when Scott came along Ninth Street and recognized me. On the strength of our being acquainted in Indianapolis we roomed together at 222 Ninth Street and took our meals out."
Walling had no unsavory record, although he did not stand well at Greenfield, while living there. That he was directly connected with the Fort Thomas tragedy there can be no doubt. Sergeant Kiffmeyer, who has charge of the Bertillion System, and who is quoted regarding Scott Jackson, said of Alonzo Walling, after taking his measurement. "Walling's head is that of a commonplace criminal, he is just the opposite of Scott Jackson, at the same time Walling is utterly void of any ability or cunning to plot and plan and to conceal. Jackson knew fully and realized what lay before him in the murder of Pearl Bryan. Walling had not realized the enormity of the crime, and is supremely indifferent to the consequences and to the crime committed. No appeal, not even the fear of punishment, will have any impression on Walling."