Till Death Do Us Part

By M. P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
Bert Highwarden was a busy man, even as far back as 1895 when he was part of Ohio's Willshire Wheat thieves and was sentenced to 4 years. Unfortunately he would become known to authorities for far grimmer reasons.

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Bert Highwarden (1875-1924)

URBANA, OHIO

Highwarden was sentenced to four years for the wheat theft, and in 1899, he was jailed again for forgery.

In 1907, he was arrested for abusing his wife and 9 year old son.

In March, 1911 he was arrested for drunkenness, disorderly conduct and beating his wife. He was sent to jail for 30 days. It was after this incident that Ada Highwarden filed a suit for divorce—an act that would lead to her death.

He was released from jail 15 days early, after he promised the magistrate he would behave, another act that would foreshadow the murder of Highwarden's second wife.

Five months after his arrest Wilson Bertrim "Bert" Highwarden was facing a grand jury for killing his then ex-wife. They were married in 1895, and she'd borne him 7 children, 5 which were alive when he shot her dead. Mabel Ada was only 32 years old.

The couple's stormy married life made the newspapers after the crime. Highgarden once worked as a driver for a company called Mammoth, and he was currently employed as a hostler and would make the circuit of the county fairs in Ohio.

Ada worked in Troy as a domestic, and left her children with relatives in Springfield. She had returned to Urbana the day before to finalize monetary support for their children, and the couple had spent part of the afternoon in the office of Mrs. Highwarden's attorney. They did have a disagreement besides her refusal to reconcile with him, in which she wanted to send their 5 children to the Children's Home and he opposed the plan.

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Bert Highwarden killed his 2nd wife after having been pardoned for the murder of his 1st wife

Highwarden killed her 3o minutes later, as she was preparing to leave back to Springfield. She even had her hat in her hand.

The only witness to the crime was Bert Highwarden, who had come to his mother-in-law's house on South Kenton Street at around 4 p.m. Shots rang out, and Ada's mother, Sarah Roberts, rushed to the front room and found her daughter lying on the floor with blood gushing from her wounds.

Constable Dave Brown who lived a block away ran to the scene. When Dr. Houser arrived she was already dead.

Highwarden turned himself into the sheriff along with the .45 caliber revolver he used. It was believed that her refusal to reconcile with him caused the tragedy. He was an alcoholic, but had not been drinking when he killed Ada. He said to the chief of police, "She got what was coming to her." 

He added that his, "wife had caused his arrest and sold his furniture and gone to live with a neighbor where she would be near another man, and that he had said he would kill her if she didn't cut it out and that he had kept his word."

​During the divorce proceedings Highwarden had never claimed his wife had been unfaithful to him.

​It seemed the populace of Springfield, Ohio felt harshly against Bert, so much so, that it was decided to arraign him at night, and take him to the county jail which was deemed more secure.

​The autopsy found that only one bullet had caused Ada's death. It entered about an inch above the bridge of the nose and came out at the left temple, making a wound about 3 inches long and it penetrated the front lobe of the brain. The wound had powder burns which indicated the weapon was held close to her head. It was thought that Highwarden held his wife with one arm, and operated the pistol with the other hand.

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Bert Highwarden c.1924

In October, 1911, Bert Highwarden entered a plea of not guilty after he was indicted for first degree murder. He went to trial at the end of December and on January 4, 1912, he was found guilty of murder in the second degree and sentenced to life imprisonment.

In 1917, Highwarden was granted clemency by Governor Grants. The governor's mistake would cost the life of Highwarden's second wife, Rovilla.

Highwarden married his second wife in 1923. She was 20 years younger than him, and only a year into the marriage she petitioned for a divorce. She not only wanted the divorce but to regain her maiden name of Moss. In her divorce petition she said ever since their marriage, her husband had been very cruel to her, and he struck and abused her frequently. She described that he would not pay the rent and they had been forced to move four times. He had threatened to kill her and then commit suicide, and she was mortally afraid of him.

The murder occurred on Main Street, in front of several witnesses. The post mortem was held at Humphreys and Son undertaking. The doctors who examined the body found either bullet would have caused her immediate death. She had been shot in the face and the stomach with a .32 caliber revolver.

On that same day witnesses were brought before the coroner's inquest. One of them was Caroline Moss, sister-in-law of the victim. They testified that Rovilla Highwarden fell from the first shot, and Bert Highwarden leaned over, took deliberate aim and fired a second shot.

Like the first murder, he walked to the police station and gave himself up. He told them his wife had started to resume relations with her first husband Walter Everett, who had just been released from the penitentiary.

Rovilla was buried on August 20, at Oak Dale Cemetery. At her funeral her brother was struck with what was described as violent insanity. The casket was about to be closed, when Everett Moss gave out a wild shriek and declared he saw Bert Highwarden, and attacked Patrolman Bus Hill saying he was Highwarden, and would kill him. He was frothing at the mouth, howling and biting. Moss was bound hand and foot and confined in a padded cell at the county jail. He also threatened Walter Everett, Rovilla's ex-husband who was at the funeral.

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C.B. Hatton Drug Store at the corner of Monument Square and North Main Street, Urbana, Ohio (40 Monument Square) c.1910

Once in the cell he calmed down and said: "I am not insane. I loved my sister. I had helped her support herself and the children for years and I was her protector. She knew this man was going to kill her and I had a policeman follow her home at night to guard her. I promised my mother I would look out for her and then to think that she was shot down like a hog just unsettled me all over. I can't stand it. There isn't a man in this room who would not feel as I do if his sister had been killed as mine has been. I am not sorry for anything I have done."

He was declared to have regained his sanity, but it was decided to keep him in the hospital until after Highwarden's trial. The doctors found he suffered from goiter and a bad case of enlargement of the heart, which had caused him to be discharged from the army.

In a strange twist, the brother of his first wife, Ed Roberts was eventually confined in the State Hospital for the Insane at Columbus. Grief over his sister's death was held responsible for the loss of his sanity. He would also threaten young women he was interested in. He escaped in July, 1924 and was returned to the hospital only a week before Rovilla's murder. Roberts died in 1942, still an inmate at the insane asylum.

In September, 1924 Bert Highwarden pled not guilty at the arraignment where he was charged with first degree murder. One of the attorneys was the same one who had defended him when he killed his first wife. On October 23, he was convicted of first degree murder without mercy, and sentenced to die in the electric chair on February 9, 1925. This was the first time a jury recommended the death sentence without mercy. He was executed on that date. He was 50 years old.

Highwarden by killing his wives had made motherless nine children, five of them were his own offspring. Rovilla's four daughters were sent to the Champaign County children's home after her death.

The press and the public condemned officials for having released Highwarden while he was serving his first prison term.​

Strangely enough, August seemed to be a significant month for him. He killed his first wife Mabel on August 1, 1911,and his second wife Rovilla on August 18, 1924.

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