In this final chapter of the Taulbee saga, I will look at what happened to the principals in the tale after the murder of ex-Representative Taulbee. Only for one does the story end in a positive way.
Kincaid was rearrested, put on trial, and — remarkably — found innocent, as he was judged to have acted in self-defense. (Some records even talk of Taulbee having pulled a gun) He lived only another 16 years after the shooting, spending the last ten years of his life as a reporter for the Cincinnati Enquirer. He was 51 years old at the time of his death.
The fate of Mrs. Taulbee was not much better. In spite of stories that she had dumped her husband immediately upon hearing of his infidelities, in truth she stayed with him, and returned to Kentucky after his death. She only outlived her husband by 13 years, dying in 1903 back in Kentucky. She is buried next to her husband. The five boys she and her husband had together have disappeared into obscurity.
Miss Dodge managed to survive the affair rather better than the other three. She had moved from the Patent Office to the Pension Office shortly after her affair became public, but was fired from that position in 1895. At the time, she was living with her parents on Capitol Hill, at 651 A Street NE. In September 1900, she married William Albert Paul, a reviewer in the Pension Office, who was 15 years her senior. She moved in with him, a few blocks closer to the Capitol, but still on A Street NE. They later moved to R Street NW.
651 A Street NE today.
Paul died in 1927 without issue. She later remarried, this time to the attorney Tracy L. Jeffords, who had previously been in charge of both of her parents’ wills and had been an assistant US attorney. For the next 20 years, the names “Mr. and Mrs. Tracy Jeffords” were a staple of the society pages of the Washington Post. Mr. Jeffords died in 1949, while his wife lived to the ripe old age of 89 years, passing away on December 25, 1959.
What remains of this murder in the Capitol are a couple of stains on the stairs outside the House chamber, stains that are purported to be made by the blood shed by William Taulbee as he staggered down the steps, mortally wounded, those 120 years ago.