New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-08-02
HILL MNRDER OUT2


blitv of the arrest of the Nathan murderer,
or at any rate of his conviction If the assas-
sin had any wounds received in the desperate
struggle. upon his personsthey must have been
slight and are already healed. If he carried
away any of the blood of his victim upon his
clothes. the fire to which he consigned them
on reaching his covert has destroyed the last
trace of such proof If there was a chance
that the "boat-b builders dog" could be made to
serve the earnestly desired purpose of con-
Meeting the criminal with his crime, it would
have been made available. If there was sin
Gle human being able and willing to put the
police on the track of the savage who has APP
palled the city, that person would by this time
have been induced by the large rewards to
come forward.
There is the single hope left that some
lucky accident will accomplish what energy
and skill have failed to achieve, but II 1t
should fall and the murderer preserve his
dreadful secret, it will be no unusual expert
ence No task trenches so closely on the I'M
possible as the discovery of murderer VINO
leaves with his crime no distinct proof OF his
identity We cited several prominent cases to
illustrate this fact in our remarks upon the
Nathan murder last Saturday-the Bndell
murder, the Rogers case, the Joyce case, and
several Others Equally remarkable instances
are the murder of Bartholomew Burke in 1856,
who was literally hacked to pieces; the killing
of DR.. Lutener in 1854, in broad day, as he
sat at his Office window in Broadway; the
shaving of the jeweler Robinson year since in
Mamaroneck and the burglar murder in Md
dletown few nights ago. These are only the
4 Nau nj
whole country they are too numerous for con-
else enumeration. In all these instances the
assassins have bafled discovery. In some OF
them suspicious that were never converted
into proofs have always attached to certain
particular persons. In others, and noticeably
in those of Burke, Lutener, and Robinson,
even suspicion was at fault, and the batiiod
detectives, after long and skiliful labor, were
forced to give up the investigation Ill despair.
But there are statistics upon this subject in
| terestng in themselves, and at this moment
valuable in allaying the general impotence at
| the failure of the police thus far in the
! Nathan case. During the thirteen years ending
with 1868. G22 hOmicides were committed IN
| the City of New York, and of this number 100
were by persons unknown. Thus, In exactly
! one-fourth of all the hOmicdes occurring
during this long period, murder did not out
! 1t may be, indeed, that in many of the cases
no great exertion was made to bring the per-
petrators to justice but the fact that in so
! large q proportion of them whatever efforts
were made proved barren, is a sufficient proof
of the difficulty of unraveling any murder
which is without eye-witnesses. Every homi-
! eide tells its own story to an experienced eye
| in the position and surroundings of the vic
| tim until the point is reached of identifying
the perpetrator, but there it stops, and leaves
the detective to nothing more than guesses.
These facts are sufficient to displace the
dictum that murder will out from the rank
of an axiom which it has long unworthily held.
Taking them all into consideration with the
general statistics ought not only to diminish
the amazement that the Nathan murderer is
| still at large, but also to save the police from
! too severe censme should they fail altogether.
! We are satisfied that Superintendent Jourdan
is doing all that is possible, and We hope for the
best result but we are aware that he is not gifted
with the power of working miracles. lie can
! only exhaust all detective agencies in the pur-
! suit, and these may fail as they have so often
! done before.