The New York herald., 1871-09-04
The Trank Murder and the Detectives
and Coroners.

There Is something in the process OF tracing
back terrible crime to its author which pos
sesses an easily understood fascination for the
public. Surface writer's of the shallowest
turn Of cyuicsm call this morbid taste, but
if any of them will consult his fractional mind
he will find, in spite of his reflections,
that he himself takes strong and
reasonable interest In the question.
There are crimes which. while they
exhibit special phases of individual
badness of the worst type, are not such as to
set the whole community astr with anxiety;
yet where a criminal act hinges on some social
danger an alarm is at once sounded, though
the offence be comparatively light per Sc.
Seldom or never in the annals of moral
obliquity has case presented at once social
danger and actual hideousness so deep and
startling as that of the malpractice murder
which will be known in the shuddering history
of sickening sins as the Rosenzweig case.
On the evening of Saturday, the 26th ult.,
truak was left at the Hudson River
Railroad depot Through the fact-we
had almost said accident-Of a high
temperature its ghastly contents made
themselves known. The result was the find
ing of the womau's body, and from its appear
ance, although then In an advanced state of
decomposition, it became at once clear through
what means this daughter of les misfr0bIes
had come to her pitiful doom. On the metest
inquiry evidence of the deliverer of the trunk
sprang up, and the detective police, with these
important points declared, set about their
work.
Here it may be well to remark that when
the public is told of the detectives being on
the track it is understood to mean the
whole available resources of an organiza
ton watching every avenue with Argus
eyes and under as many forms as
Proteus. Out of this grows the illusion
of what penny-a-liners love to call a
Grained" detective, without conveying any
particular idea beyond that of a vague, super
human astutensss. When an event Of the
nature of this crime thrusts itself on the public
gaze one is tempted to ask what this Strain
ing" means; for very poor opinion Is speed
lily formed Of it's worth, and the echo, "What,
indeed?" is the only attainable reply. To
hunt an oft-convicted thief or burglar, whose
only possible haunts are matter of police
court record; to track a defaulting clerk, who
starts invariably for England or Chicago, or
arrest the rowdy of few friends and fewer
retreats is about all their training" amounts
to. In case of this kind those who
have studied the subject look to higher
order of detection-that which is meant by
complete organization and intelligent direc-
ton, that overlooks nothing. This principle
seems to have been weakly applied in the
trunk affair; but the lamentable crudeness of
the effort shows US plainly that in the highest
sense of the term, we have no detective sys-
tenn worth naming.
The cause of death was undoubted, and
those who practised the murderous empiri-
cism were or should have been "well known
to the police" The cases of Wolff and Evans
were of themselves sufficient evidence of the
necessity of keeping close eye upon the opera
tions of the scoundrels; yet, even after the
corpse had told its mute story, no steps were
taken to inquire into what had transpired on the
Saturday at the Offices and houses of these
human harpies. If ''training" and organiza-
tion mean anything practical they convey
the sense of preparation for an emergency ;
but this was taken up at first as an ordinary
case, on the old detective rule Of thumb pro-
cess, which is working backwards at a zigzag
from the crime to the author. Accordingly
all the Grained" intelligence was set in search
of the truckman who brought the fast
decayihg load. They did not find him; be
found himself, 80 to speak, and the police
were placed in possession of positive informa-
ton of the starting place of the trunk,
and the belief that it was the work of a NAL
practice "doctor" was proved n the arrest OF
Rosenzweig. This done, the police seem
almost to have rested in his regard, and pro.
ceeded to look for the woman who took the
ticket for Chicago and checked the box, the
question Of the identity of the body being left,
Micawber fashion, for something to turn up, the
mere precaution of photographing the remains
being unaccountably neglected. The censure
of the press on the police for not having had
the house on Second avenue searched by ex.
perts Immediately and placed in the charge O
the police, as well as putting all the inmates
under surveillance or arrest, is emnently just
, But their laxity did not stop here. Rosenzweil
was identified as 'Dr Ascher, Of Amity place
yet his Office there was left so much to itsel
that any one could have removed the medi
cines, books and documents from there three
days after Rosenzweig's arrest. The identified
ton of the girl by the Paterson doctors induced
another search of the premises on Second ave-
nue., and the handkerchief, with the girls
name on the corner, Unexpectedly turned UP.
After this Bohemian, in search of sensation,
found the fragments of letter in the CRATE,
which are doubtless the piecemeal tell-tale Of
some previous deed of deviltry committed or