Bradford opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1874-1881, 1875-08-21


mencing an organized sA stem q
murder; and besides this, | felt tia
my reputation was at stake.
, "While bordering over the mat
ter-and it was rarely out OF N,
thOughts-One OF my friends, VIII,
is q photographer, communicated I,
me some intelligence that he hat
gained from his reading aud stud
les. lie had seen it stated that til,
last impression made upon the eyt
of a dying person would 10 retain
ell there for a certain time aftel
death. That being the ease, b,
thought it possible to obtain q pho
Geographic likeness of that impress
sion, and was very anxious to try
the experiment. The matter inter
estcd me at once, and ! readily
promised to give him an "lportmni
to test it in the next murder case
that came within my observation.
| saw plainly that the discovery, il
successful, would he IF immense i'm.
pOrtance in tracing mur,lrrers, and
| had vague hope that it would en-
able me to find the man | was seek
ing, as | was confident that he would
repeat his performance before 10 hg,
A month passed away. and then a
third murder occurred. This vic
tim was, like the second, the keep
err Of boarding house, and was xii.
red for her money. She. too, lay
weltering in pool of blood, with
her throat cut to the bone, while, as
in the other cases, the wound had
been inflicted so as to cause no
splashing of blood. The handker-
chief lay near the corpse, rs in the
second case, but seemed tn have be-
longed to the assassin this time, in.
stead of being the properly of his
victim.
III at once despatched a messen.
ger to my friend the photographer,
who soon arrived. bringing with him
instruments of great power and del
icacy, which he had procured in an
ticipatiOn of this event. The eyes
of tho murdered woman were wide
open, and we had no difficulty in
fixing her face in proper position.
The day being clear and bright, an
excellent negative was taken, and
when the impression was transfer
red to the paper, we found it the
profile of Il mans face. The upper
portion was obscure, but the lower
part, from the nose down, was per
feet. The features were those of
an Italian. This confirmed my sup.
position that foreigner had COM
mitted the murders. Only the low
er part of the face being produced,
l was somewhat perplexed. 1t was
too bad to be so near the end |
sought, and yet to be bafflad by an
picture. Il was sorry that
only the profile was the last thing
seen by the dead woman. Had it
been the full face, might have had
more to encourage me. Then again,
there is 81 netting common to all
Italians in the lower part Of the face,
and what resembles one might with
reason be said to resemble another
i'll this respect. However, my friend
and l were delighted with the re.
suit of our experiment. IL was Il
novelty then; now it is a common
thing. We decided to say nothing
about it until we had made other
trials, unless we found it necessary
for the development of the case 1
was engaged upon. l provided my.
self with a copy of the photograph
we had taken, and determined to
subject every Italian l met to a rig
id inspection. On the whole, the
matter was progressing favorably,
and although the difficulties in my
way were formidable, l could not
help feeling encouraged by the
cvents of the day, and l resumed
my task with new vigor.
III at once busted myself with
searching for my man among all the
Italians that | met. l trequented
all the places mostly patrunized by
.hem-the bOulevards, the cafes, the
yheatre and the opera. Every Ital-
an l met, even down to the organ
grinders, subjected to rigid scru-
my, and once or twice came near
getting into quarrels with persons
Who resented my conduct rs imper-
inence. At least two months pas
ed away in this fruitlcss search,
md, in spite of the advantages
Which l possessed, began to dis
'air.