The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1876-04-06
MYSTERIES.

"
annually disappear from the view and
knowledge of friends or foes alike, and of
whom no traces are ever obtained. we
might well stand aghast, not only at the |
terribly long list Of lost and missing in
dividuals, but also for seeking and find
ing them. A glance at the "agonv"
columns of our daily newspapers or the
notice-bOards of police stations will In
deed shew rs that the mere disappear
ance from home of individuals is bv no
means a rare occurrence, and in many of !
these cases very plain reasons for the alb
sence of the runaways may be at least /
guessed at or supposed But the cases
we more especially allude to are in /
stances of the regular " mysterious dis |
appearance" class, in which, for the most
part suddenly and in every instance with |
out any reasonable or sufficient cause or
excuse, individuals disappear from home, !
from their business haunts, and from the
circle of their acquaintance and leave
not the slightest trace of their where
aboUts or intentions. Even what we
may call the ultimate fact of their death
Is In the vast majority of cases never ascer-
tanned or proved; and the friends of such
waits and strays of society have not. AS a
rule, the melancholy assurance or salts
faction of knowing that the further hope
OF finding the lost is utterly futile and
vain. And thus the date of the disap-
PearanCe III time becomes one which, rs
days, weeks, and years roll by, carries
with 1t the ever-increasing remembrance
OF an event at once sad and terrible in
the doubt and uncertainty which en-
| shroud it.
To the question, @ What has become
! OF them ~ detective science may hazard
IN answer some speculatiOns and several
ingenious theories, fitting more or less
exactly the ascertained facts of each
case. But such speculative philosophy
Is useful only as a guide TO the inquirers,
and can afford but little help in framing
a decisive answer to the above query. It
has happened, however, that in some few
notable instances the science of the med
zeal jurlst has aided in the most power
tul and satisfactory manner in elucida-
ting the history of disappearance through
its testimony to the identity of discOv-
cred remains with the presumed missing
subjects. And no records of fiction could
show more interesting or startling illus
tratlons of the tangled nature of evil
dence, and indeed of human affairs gen
orally, than the records of medicO- legal
experience in respect of the light which
science brings to bear on questions of the
likeness and identity of the dead with
that of the once living. We thus may
find, in a somewhat roundabout manner,
one answer to the query regarding the
whereabouts of missing men and women :
for when death claims such it frequently
devolves upon the man of science to say
whether the body is or is not that of the
missing person concerning whom society,
as represented by the family or by the
law, may have made much and anxious
) inquiry.
, The notable case of Eugene Aram fur
nishes, for example, a case in point. The
, deceased or murdered man, named Dan
5 lei Clarke, n shoemaker of KnaresbOr-
: ough, disappeared suddenly in the month
of February, 1745, and on no reasonable
e or satisfactory hypothesis could his alb,
sence be accounted for. Thirteen years
h afterwards, when the disappearance had
! welEnigh been forgotten, the discovery
of some human bones in a cave neal
e knaresbOrOugh, together with some sus
f piciOns which had been aroused by the
words of one Houseman, Aram's accom-
d piice, brought the occurrence again before
It the notice of the public And, as is vel
known, the discovery of a second skele
y ton bearing marks of violence, as indi
&c Gated by HOuseman's confession, resulted
in the apprehension of Aram, and in hi
= being arraigned at York, in August
II 1859, for the murder of Clarke.
Thus the chain of circumstantial evi
/ denCe was so far strengthened, and tn
ic crime traced very near to Aram's door
And yet the most important links in tn
il chain were supplied by the evidence c
the medical jUrists, as tending to prov
the correspondence of the remains wit
those of a man Of Clarke's age and az
pearance. Aram's defence, singularl
able and lucid, did not avail him agains
the testimony of the anatomical data
n the last century. Thus his allegatiO
lie that the skeleton was that of a femaI
s was entirely disproved by the medic;
evidence; and this evidence also Ia
I'd lied in singularly complete maj
IN ner with the account given by Hous
e. man of the manner in which til
murder was committed. So far, Their
10 fore, as testimony cOrrOborative of tt
~ facts brought out by ordinary witness,
cf was required to substantiate the identit
VI of the remains, medical science lent i
powerful aid in clearing up this examp
IN of mysterious disappearance.
&. While the work of the man Of scienC
to in this respect can never be said to val
by in importance, it may nevertheless e.
hibit very great variations in the ma
90 ner in which it is carried out and in II
to points to which it's attention is more e
or pecially directed. A very nOtewOrtt
or case, startling to excess in some of i
of features, was tried in London in 1873
nt and rested, SO far as the identity of Il
90 subject of the trial was concerned, on Il
off presence of front teeth in a very o
woman. This woman, Caroline Wal
by name, consented, after much peTsu
ed sion, to live with female friend name
Is Elizabeth Ross, and husband, in Goo
as mans Fields Walsh arrived at tn
ut place on the night of 10Th August, 1873
IS and from that date disappeared COZ
ke plctely from public view. Inquiries il
lie mediately made by the relatives of Il
ed missing woman resulted in their asce
Oh taiMing from Elizabeth Ross that Wal
ed had gone from home on the day of h
disappearance, and had never returne
no On the evening of goth August,
or that of the day following the disappea
to ance, an old woman who gave her mar
r. as Caroline Welsh, an Irish woman Ii
yer the missing woman, and corresponds
mo- in most particulars TO the descriptit
,eT given of the latter, was found in 4 des
yas tute and almost dying condition in I
We neighborhood of Goodman's Fields s
In was conveyed to the London hOspita
and it was there ascertained that she W
suffering from fracture of the hip-joiI
lg- Her injuries proved too much for her
:, Is duCed condition, and she died in hospit
ne and was duly buried therefrom.
III When Ross was arrested on the char
ties of numbering Caroline Walsh she at on
9TH said that the woman who had been CO
icy veyed to the Londen hospital was h
I'D old friend and although her stateme
va seemed plausible enough at first sight,
us was found IN no decidadlv iDcoDS;ste