Carrie Brown : Murder In The East River Hotel

I like the name of the judge in the divorce case - Judge Beekman. And Augusta sounds a lot like Mary Jane Kelly's legend.

This quote also had the s in Peets in square brackets and then crossed out everything after it. Took me a while to figure it out.
https://archive.org/stream/JohnPeet15971684OfStratfordConnecticutAndHisDescendants/John%20Peet%2C%201597-1684%2C%20of%20Stratford%2C%20Connecticut%20and%20His%20Descendants_djvu.txt

ALEXANDER JAMES PEET

b 1854, Westport, NY; d December 13, 1914 (NYC death certificate # 34928 gives cause of death as cerebral apoplexy), at Flower Hospital; once resided at Cortelyou Road, Brooklyn, NY; c 1 89 1 letter from A.J. Peets indicates he is still a bachelor, living alone at 153 W 49 ,h St, and practicing medicine; bur. Wood Lawn Cemetery, NY; m April 25, 1898, Manhattan, NY Christine Grace Gardner (she b. 1856; d. 1900 soon after or at the birth of their only child), dau of Joseph Gardner and Salome Kiefer; residing at 515 E 78 St. at time of death;

death certificate indicates A.J. was married - not widowed - at the time of his death - if so, we do not have the name of his wife; family records for this line show an Alexander J. Peet(s) b July 2, 1 846, who m June 21, 1868 Carrie W. Gibson.... from the New York Times, October 4, 1895 comes the following article relative to a divorce proceeding between an Alexander Peet, physician in NYC, and his 17 yr old wife of four months, Augusta Peet:

"Mrs. Augusta Peet, the young wife of Dr. Alexander Peet, has failed in her motion for
alimony pending the issue of her suit for limited divorce. Judge Beekman, in the Supreme
Court, yesterday handed down a decision denying Mrs. Peet's application. The decision
makes interesting reading, especially in view of the peculiar circumstances surrounding
Mr. and Mrs. Peet's marriage, which occurred last June.

Mrs. Peet is only seventeen years old. She was formerly a model for child pictures for
several well-known artists in this city, and later she secured an engagement on the stage
and posed in tableaus. It was while serving in this capacity that Dr. Peet, who has an
office at 45 West Twenty-fourth Street, met her in a Sixth Avenue drug store. This was in
December 1894 and their marriage followed six months later.

In her suit, Mrs. Peet alleged that the doctor had deserted her fourteen days after their
marriage and that he had been guilty of 'cruel conduct' toward her in denying their
marriage to a woman named Florence Derevere, with whom he had formerly lived. In his
decision, Judge Beckman says: 'The fact that this defendant in an altercation with his
former mistress denied his marriage is hardly enough to base an action for a
separation.... Upon the whole case I fail to perceive that the plaintiff has probable ground
for any expectation of success in her action, and 1 am therefore constrained to deny the
motion.'

Dr. Peet, though still a very young man, is well known in professional and club circles,
and his marriage, which was not generally known until the divorce proceedings were
begun, caused considerable comment."

Marriage records show a June 18, 1895 marriage between an Alexander James Peet and a Gussie L. Kane, dau of James Kane and Minnie Albrecht, b in Brooklyn, NY presumably Gussie is a diminutive for Augusta and is therefore the same woman named in the above article.