Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1864-02-29
Speculatiohs ON the Mary Smith
Murder.

1t can scarcely contribute TO the comfort of our
citizens to know that a red-handed murderer,
smeared with the blood of two Victims and en-
boldened by the impunity with which he has per-
petrated duct of appalling crimes, stalks around
among them, brushing with the hem of his ac-
cursed garments the skirts of their wives and
daughters as they go homeward from church /;
mnglng, unnoticed with the gay crowd OF amuse-
msnt- goers passing the compliments OF the night
with policemen as they tread their weary rounds
his busy brain red the while, perhaps, with the
plot and plan of another murder. Such, howev-
er, seems 10 be the fact so many points of SINH
larity exist between the murder Of Mary Smith
on Tuesday night, and that of the French wo-
man, Marie Louise Freschi some months since,
that scarce doubt can be entertained as TO their
having been done by the same hand. Even had
this last murder occurred in distant part of the
country, its coincidence in all essential particu'
lars with the former one would have been SO
striking to attract universal attention, and
awake suspicion that one man was author OF Doth.
Both women were stunned by blows about the
head and face, from bed and their throats cut
with tiendsh determination to finish the bloody
work begun. In both cases the murderer used
some common weapon that was lying at hand-a
chisel in the first instance caseknfe in the last
washing his hands after the work was done,
wlping them deliberately, and then, with all
traces of the crime removed from his person, 60
ing forth into the streets leaving no clue behind
him.
SO far as human reason can determine in the
little light that is let in upon the last mysterious
murder, it seems plain that both murders were
committed by the same hand az though the muir
derer had written in characters of blood on the
walls of the little room on Stouts Alley: This
is the work of him who killed the woman
FreSchi." The marks of the tigers teeth are
there-his sign.manual may be read In the man
gled throat and face, and in every circumstance
of the horrid crime. 1t Is a curious coincidence
if It prove to be merely coincidence-that both
victims were women Of the town, and that the
murders were done with weapons furnished by
the need Of the moment This murderer, with
an idiosyncrasy for proStiutekilling, does not go
with knife or pistol in hand, prompted by jea-
lousy or revenge, TO do his fatal errand Under
the guise of q visitor unarmed and seemingly
guiltless of all murderouS intention, he enters the
house of his victims awakens no suspicion on
their part by any violent demonstration to induce
them to alarm the neigh6orhond, but quietly and
silently, while they are buried in that sleep which
comes to the pillow of the guilty as well az the
innocent, he arises and does the work eff death
swiftly and surely, as if he were the finger of
fate
A thousand theories might be built up regarding
these two remarkable murders, and not one of
them might even point at, much less touch the
truth. If we could suppose monomaniac imbued
with passion for killing, and guided by crazy
cunning to select victims with view to u safe in
diligence of his propensity il is in the haunts of
these unfortunate women that the tiger has his
jungle. They are exiled by their habits of life
from their neighbors; men 60 in and come out
from their domicils at all hours of the night with
out attracting attention, and even Sobs and screams
would only excite the suspicion that there were
some drunken frdeas with some paramour. If
killed their fate would create less emotion than
that of persons of any other class for of friends
and relatives they have few or none, and preying
upon society, and living beyond the pole of its
laws and requirements, the public have come to
regard violent death rs their natural ending.
The murderer in these two cases may be such a
monomaniac; Or another hypothesis: He may
be man who has suffered, or imagined he has
suffered some wrong at the hands of one of these
women-a wrong for which he has sworn TO work
revenge OH all that may fall within his power.
Ruined in person or in property he may be thus
seeking to make class eXpiate the wrong done
him by an individual Or, man of ungoverna.
BILE passions and subject to white heats Of rage,
consorting with the fallen, in moments Of frantic
anger he kills his paramour. Or, again, depenent
upon robbery for living, he may have marked
the women who have lived alone, and are apt to
have money, coolly calculating that by killing one
or two every quarter he can manage TO live quite
comfortably. Another hypothesis that could be
advanced is that the woman Smith having in some
way been privy to the murder of the woman
Freschi, or knowing who committed it and intend
ing to leave the city, the murderer feared that
when she got beyond the fear of his vengeance
she might betray the perpetrator, and so killed
her to insure his own safety. .
There is q possibility that the murders were
committed by different hands, and that some one
moved by recital of the success and impunity
which attended the Freschi murder, and emulous
of similar achievement, took pattern therefrOm
for the preparation of this last work of blood.
The experiment of photographing the rctina of
the murdered woman's eye, despite the persifage
and incredulity with which il has been in most
quarters received, has developed a strange coin
cidence, or produced a wonderful result. Stamped
upon the centre of the retina, and conveyed by
the Photographic process to the plate upon which
the picture taken, there is plainly TO be seen
the outline of human figure, so plainly as at
once to arrest the attention of the most unimagi-
native eye The figure is that of n tall dark man,
the lower part of the face muffled in q heavy
black moustache and beard, the left arm extended
and the whole body thrown into the position Of a
man doing some violent deed. The face has
enough of outline to suggest the possibility Of FL
ling it up so rs to recognize the man were he met
in a crowded street. The bushy hair surmOunt.
ing low forehead, heavy eyebrows arching over
the cavernous depths where the eyes lie, the
shadowy suggestions of the whole face, which
cannot be described but which impress the OBJ.
server with strange weird horror, causing one
TO start BACK as thouSn Win proliine manu- ne hau
rent the veil and caught glimpse of that world
which lies beyond the confines of the grave. 1t
is idle to laugh at such things. A fool can deny
everything, but IL is only q wise man who can
seriously make up his mind to believe anything
The writer is not ut all an imaginative man, and
took no stock in the unauthenticated accounts of
marvellous successes which had attended similar
experiments in France. Physiology and philoso-
ply both seemed to laugh at such a theory, and
the writer prepared to treat the thing lightly.
But seeing is believing; plainly from the photo
graphic plate the figure Of a man looks out, the
last object the murdered woman saw on earth.