The democrat. [volume] (Weston, W. Va.) 1868-1874, 1869-03-15
.eA-MUtlA:N-FfEND.
A story !. OF west virginia.
TOLD BY. rrrEns, THE DETECTIVE.


known to the, people of this State, tho
Petersburg Ellumnun Fiendp was ar.
rcs,od hy ,ho. ,,o,, ro,;co of ,,,, al,
1850 AH '' te'l$s " W." ~
a"u 'o' ny any new 1orh ue1cc''e'
Furthermore, Shaiier (thc murdcrcr) was
not'a shoemaker, but carpenter. Some
body has. grossly Imposed an the .in,erii.
c,, ,;;ou ,ls ~ nor :, which claims ,ht
80 =, PIP WV
o''s'n"'.'S o. tHle s'oty ~
One dny in tue spring OF '6S, | was
sitting NY oihce on broadway, New
YORK, meditatln; what to do, business
had not been brisk lately viii, the l'fI'
oli fe'crs and ..enry, trlvaic Detectives
in fact, not loiput u fine poin, upon it.,
Tor two months We hadn't received a dol.
lar. This was bad. True We had had
two or three little jobs, but they had mot
amounted to anything, because our bush
ness rule was not to take pay unless We
were successful ihds i'll some few cases
We had good bit Of trouble, and gouble
alone for our pains, for we were sol'lc-
times foiled generally, however, we were
successful, and then we charged roundly
t0r''t: lsus.'@es were du'l,fo' us. lCr''ne
was on the increase. SO the newspapers
said, but it vas the sort OF crime that did
not come within orr province. 1t al!
wentto the regular detectives: none OF
whom. in my humble cp'n'on-l say this
Slthonta :n'orscl ottnvy-tan come any.
where near either Hank Henry or ays"ll
in "working>up" a Dig case.
For wan; Of something bctterto do, !
took up The morning piper and eihced
at it. a line in display letter caught my
eye. ~. ''.'."s
"a HUMAN F,ESp1', ".
l read the article, headed thus. to dis
cover who the Human lFlcnd" was. !
found the article 70 be an account ola
series OF really atruc'ous murders com.
m'tted IN little town in West Vlrs'n'a,
not a'hundred miles from Parkersburs
Three men had been found dead, with
about III interval ola week between each
death, ip either 'bsir ships Or houses,
Each,man had apparently met his death
III the SAME malIner, namely: by blow
from behind, given apparently within
Ratchet or some similar weapdn-thc
weapoa striking be bead and cutting into
the skull jus, behind the eur. A 'icklisl'
place. by the wnysto receive . blow In
all these cases but one blow had beci Civ
eI,Eno other mark of violence upon tie
bodies, aud death had evidently occurred
almost instantly aftcr,tl.e blow@ TlleNac
count Of these murders was well written
and gave tic full particulars The mur-
dered men evidently had all fallen by the
sa,pe weapon. Robbery was apparently
the motive, as the victims lad been re-
licyed Of their watches and pocke,.books,
and yet tue amount Of The, booty obtained
by the mohstfons crime was snail in the
extreme. One nal,. II poor shoemaker,
was said hy his wife to lave lad but three
dollars in his pocket, another. tailor by
trade, had but q few ccnts in currency,
but ffolnf the third victim, the keeper OF
n little grocery.siore, The murderer was
to have obtained abou, twenty
dollars, as the grocer was known to have
that amount with him, about nu hour be-
fore the murder. Tbs writer summed W
the article, By declaring j: 10 be the be.
lief Of the inhabitants Of the little town
that it was no, p!undcr alone. but love Of
blood, that could induce q series Of suc!,
horril crimes mud TINT human fe,d
was n'',eir midst whose appetite cravcd
blood and blood alone.
! read the article oscr carefully and
poudercd on it. Il coufess to having II
morbid curiosity concerning crime, and
though By no means what may be called II
"rcading. man." yet tic history of crime
rs found in tho Old "Newgatc Calendar"
olives Of Celebrated Criminals "Rec-
ords Of Remarkable Trials and similar
works.l confess I'm fond Of. and have
been tOM b0yIo1d that perhaps is the
reason My ! took d fancy to, aid tried
the lifs Of u detective. And often now
when I'm bothered by some s!,rcwd rascal
whose little moves ! can't guess. turn
tony little library Of criminal cases, ind
ten TO QUO, gst an idea flat helps me
catch my bird. AS some great genius,
whose name don't rcmc,nbrr had