The Grange advance., 1874-11-18

pOrCeTS 10 INFORM tue puOiIC VI Tic 1m.
provements which he was about to in
troduce in the manufacture of sundry
articles of domestic utility. His last
@'hobby' was the pretended discovery
of a substance possessing all the prop
critics of India rubber. It is supposed,
however, that this discovery, which he
succeeded in having mentioned in at
least one of the city newspapers, was
only blind, and that his constant talk
about it was part of the plot which, in
the end, cost him his life.
TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS IN LIFE
INSURANCE..
Although the victim of chronic impe-
cuniosity, Goss invested largely in life
insurance policies. In 1868 he took out
a policy for $4,000 in the New York
Mutual Insurance Company, payable to
his wife; in May, 1871, ne took out
another policy for the same amount IN
the Continental Insurance Company of
New York; in October Of the same
year, he procured an accident policy in
the Travellers Company, Of Hartford,
for $4,000, and on the Goth of Janua-
ry, 1872, eight days before his death, he
took out policy in the Knickerbocker
Company for $1,000. Early in the
summer of 1872, Goss rented small
shop on the York road, short distance
beyond the city limits, and in this he
occasionally shut himself up, and pre-.
tended to be making experiments in the
manufacture of his substitute for India
rubber.
THE SKELETON IN THE ASHES.
On the night of the I'd of February,
1872, this shop was burned. William
E. Undertook, the brother-in-law of
Goss (they were married to sisters), was
the first man at the fire. He said that
he had accompanied Goss to the shop;
Goss went in, and he (Udderzook) went
to house in the neighborhood to get
lamp; when he returned the shop was
on fire; he supposed that the mystc.
rious chemicals with which Goss was
experimenting had exploded and set
the place on fire. In few minutes
number of people gathered about the
burning shanty; and Udderzook, who.
up to this time, had acted as if he sup
posed that Goss had escaped from the
building, suddenly discovered his body
lying on the floor. The remains of
dead man, charred and disfigured, were
pulled out. There was coroner's in
quest, and a funeral attended by weep
ing friends and disconsolate widow.
Subsequent developments showed that
they had shed their tears over a par
TALLY decomposed body which one of
the meurners had procured in New
York.
TIE CONSPIRACY.
When Udderzook and Goss parted,
on the evening of the I'd of February,
I872, the former went to . neighbor's
house, on the pretense Of borrowing =
lamp; the latter jumped into buggy.
and was driven to the President street
depot. He took the first train for
Philadelphia, and, while his wife, and
brother, and brother.in.law, were weep.
ing over the mutilated remains Of the
"sloved and lost" purchased in New
York, and brought out to the shop on .
.dray), the much-insured inventor of a
substitute for India-rubber began his
melancholy wanderings, which lasted
'one year and five months. He assumed
the name Of A. G. Wilson, and went
from one place to another, everywhere
leaving traces of his identity,
which subsequently,. became links in
the chain Of evidence against his. mur.
'derer. It was heavy tax on the Bal
timore conspirators to pay his board
and travelling expenses. Duringa . por-
tion of the summer of 1872 he made
bis home with farmers family in Ches.1
ter county, Pennsylvania Udderzook
had been raised in the same neighbor.
hood, and it was at his solicitation that
these plain country people" con-
scented TO take Wilson (Goss) as \ board
er. Undertook represented him to be
man whom his friends were anxious
to send to the country in order to keep
him away from whisky. He spent the
winter Of 1872-'73 at boarding house
in Newark, New Jersey; and here he
Was visited by Udderzook few days
before the trial of the case against tie
insurance con- pany began in the United
States Circuit Court at Baltimore. The
trial exhausted the funds Of Udderzook.
and his co-conspirators and when
Judge Bond's ruling on the motion for
J ! new trial took away all hope Of real.
king anything from the insurance com.
panies for at least five months, their
case became desperate. i 4 ID
.s.st. ..is #4 FATAL DELAY. 4
IN the meantime, Goss became more
impoftuuAte tor m0uey cYerY l3ay. H;a