“How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?” Sherlock Holmes in The Sign of the Four

The story broke upon the consciousness of the public in May 1892, when the St. Louis Dispatch announced the death of 19-year-old Kate Tipton in an article entitled “Another Fool Suicides.”

Miss Tipton, of Altamont, Tennessee, was described as “one of Grundy county’s most lovely and accomplished young ladies, and is highly esteemed by all who knew her. She was recently offered a salary of $75 per month by Congressman Snodgrass as a clerk.”

Kate Tipton was the youngest of five children born to Louise Tipton. Examining the records, I imagine her birth came as a surprise to her mother. For one thing, she was nine years younger than her closest sibling. For another, Kate’s father, Stephen Tipton, died eight years before her birth. Gaps and contradictions often plague these old records.

The St. Louis Dispatch article disclosed the unfortunate love affair between Miss Tipton and her chum, Mrs. Julia “Lulu” Meeks.

Katie Tipton and Lulu Sanders had met at school and had been good friends for some time. No one suspected what good friends the girls actually were but the tone of their letters to each other was unmistakable.

You Dear, Sweet Lulu

I have just read your precious letter and I cannot sleep until I have told you again how I love you. I have been reading of Cleopatra and how the great Antony threw away his fortune for her. That was love, but not as I love you, Lulu. I would throw away my life and my hope of heaven for your dear sake. I will be with you in the morning, my love.

KATE.

 Despite the happy tone of this letter, a terrible and impenetrable gloom descended upon Kate in the spring of 1892, when Lulu announced she planned to marry Jack Meeks. The pain in Kate’s next letter was palpable.

Darling, Dearest Lulu,

Why do you treat me this way? You have me to love, my own, and I will surely die if you do this thing. Jack is a nice man, but he would give you up if he knew I loved you. Oh, my ownest, dearest sweetheart, do not let this come between us. Tell him that you love me and me only, and let us live for each other. Oh, my heart tortures me with anguish when I think of what you are going to do. Think what you are doing, dear Lulu, and come back to me. I love you more than he ever can and you can find sweet love with me.

You can’t imagine what you are about to do. Think of the worry, the care and the children you will have to have, and your sweet life, so sweet to me, will be blackened forever.

With me life would always be a glorious dream. We could be, oh so happy, so happy! We could be so happy, just as we were at school. Do you remember those sweet days, my own?

Oh, God! if we could live them all over again. You were my sweetheart then and I loved you so, but you will belong to another now, and my life will be a blank. It is so horrible to think that I must die of a broken heart now. I thought there was no such thing as a broken heart once, but I am suffering now.

I shall come to you tomorrow, my love, and I shall tell you, as I have done so many times before, how sweet you are to me and how I love you.

Think of what I have said. Until tomorrow, my own.

КATE

Lulu was undeterred by Kate’s pleas and went forward with her marriage to Jack Meeks. This introduced another complication into the relationship between the two women. Jack worked in Tracy City and his lodgings were not a suitable place for Lula. Instead, she went to live with her aunt, Mrs. Sanders. And wouldn’t you know it? Mrs. Sanders lived next door to the home Kate Tipton shared with her mother and sister.

Now that the women lived within forty feet of each other, people noticed the unusual closeness between them. They quickly fell into a routine. Kate spent all morning at the Sanders home. When she went home, she and Lulu would write each other letters all afternoon. In the evening, Lulu would come to the Tipton house. When she left, she and Kate would write each other more letters during the night. “Sometimes each would write a half dozen letters every day,” the Dispatch wrote.

SWEETHEART,

I know you will come to me again this morning. Jack has gone and I want to kiss you and love you again. Come to me as soon as you can and tell me again how much you love me. Your love is waiting.

LULU

Two weeks passed in this way, and then disaster struck. Jack Meeks found new lodgings in Tracy City that were appropriate for he and his wife to share. Mrs. Tipton, meanwhile, had grown suspicious of the ever-present new neighbor, Mrs. Meeks, and her suspicion turned to horror when she discovered and shamelessly read two letters Lulu had written to her daughter that enlightened her as to the true nature of their relationship. She ordered Kate to stay away from Mrs. Meeks and sent a cold letter to Lulu, warning her to keep her distance from Miss Tipton.

As one bombshell after the next dropped on Kate, the girl struggled to deal with the situation. She was grieved that Lulu had married Jack, devastated that Lulu was moving away, and angry that her mother was attempting to separate them. I should mention here that Tracy City is not far from Altamont, 14.5 miles to be exact. But to Kate, it felt like the end of the world.

My Darling, Dearest, Sweet Lulu,

My life is forever darkened. I do not care to live any longer now. Oh, my love, is it true that you are going away? Oh, God! What can I do without you, Lulu, my own, my dearest? 

Why is Jack so cruel to take you away from me? Oh, if he only knew that it is my death. My precious, my sweet, don’t go away and leave me here. It is you or death.

Dear Lulu, I have been thinking about it all, and I shall kill myself. You belong to another and I want to die.  It is the best thing I could do and it will end it all.

Farewell, sweetheart Lulu! When I am dead think of me sometimes and be happy. Farewell.

Kate.

That evening, Mrs. Tipton discovered her daughter was not in the house and went outside to look for her. She found her with Lulu in a “close embrace” behind the Mrs. Sander’s home. “Miss Tipton’s mother berated the two soundly and threatened to confine her daughter in her room if she ever caught her with Mrs. Meeks again.”

But Kate apparently did manage to see Lulu again. She went to Mrs. Sanders’ home and threw herself on her knees and said she couldn’t live without Lulu. The response she received wasn’t encouraging and Lulu was alarmed enough to send Kate home with a final letter.

Dear Sweetheart Kate

It is too true that I am going to leave, and I ought to be the happiest woman in the world with the love of two noble souls, but you have pierced my heart.

Oh, God! Kate, what can I do to influence you to break your dark resolve? It is you or death.

How can I live, darling Kate, when you are dead, dead?  And why do I care to live when my darling is at heaven’s gate, all on my account?

Goodbye, my darling and my love.

LULU.

Kate locked herself in her room with a pistol that belonged to her family and hurriedly wrote two letters. The first was to her mother and sister and merely read:

Dear Mother and Sister,

I cannot live without Lulu, and take this means of putting an end to myself. Farewell.

After she sealed it Kate remembered something else she wanted to say. She wrote on the back of the envelope: Dear Mother and Sister, Don’t blame Lulu. I am to blame.

Then she wrote her last letter. It was, of course, addressed to Lulu.

My Love,

Farewell; we are caught, and rather than separate from you, I now take my life.

Drop a tear on the grave of her who dies for you.

Good-by

KATE.

She took Lulu’s final letter and placed it in her bosom. Then she picked up the pistol, aimed it at herself, and fired at point-blank range.

Reporters learned of the suicide and somehow managed to get their hands on the letters quoted here. They reported on the unnatural love that killed Miss Katie Tipton, and noted that many more letters existed but neither Lulu Meeks, who had Kate’s letters, nor Mrs. Tipton, who had Lulu’s letters, would produce the messages to the press or the police.

And so begins the story of Kate Tipton. Yes, begins!

Read on!