 According to Barlow's first wife, who claimed that he married her under the pseudonym Livingston, the couple were not divorced at the time of his second marriage to Bertha Merkel.However, the "Los Angeles Times" subsequently published an article on August 28, 1903, which completely exhonorated Barlow, who had just recently converted to Catholicism in order to marry Bertha, of any wrongdoing.It was actually Barlow's new mother-in-law, Mary Merkel, who had earlier initiated an investigation and upon discovery, prosecution of Barlow, which of course never happened.