The Secret That Brought Them There Still Haunts Historians Today.

A Story That Began With a Letter

Years before their names filled newspaper headlines, the Potts family appeared ordinary.

They lived in Carlin, Nevada, where Josiah worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad.

To neighbors, they seemed like a typical frontier family trying to build a life in the American West.

But behind closed doors, a secret was growing.

Elizabeth had begun exchanging letters with a man named Miles Fawcett through a matrimonial agency.