West Feliciana sentinel. (St. Francisville, La.) 1876-1877, 1877-06-02
A MY sTERY OF THE CENTENNIAL
Cincinnati Enquirer. !

A story appeared in the Phi|la-
dclphia Times this morning which,
being followed out by a World re-
porter this evening results in most
extraordinary criminal episode, in
volviug probably murder. and the
more or less successful effort of the
murderer to pcrsonate his. victim
during several months. On the
2lst Of February last the body OF
a young man, dccayed and wasted
almost to q skeleton was dicovered
near Elm Station, on the Pennsyl-
vania Railway, five miles from the
Centennial Grounds, and close TO
the Grangers' Encampment. At
that time some excitement had
gruwn out OF the fac. that sun6ry
persons-visitors, it was supposed,
10 the Centennial-were catalogu-
ed in the newspapers as missing,
This lent additional interest to the
discovery of the body, and resi-
dents of the neighbolhood offered
reward of $1,000 for the detec-
ton Of the criminal.
There was ve.y little to start on.
The remain. were badly mutila,ed
beyond recognition, seeming to
have been dragged on the ground
for some distance before burial in
The loose earth and leaves of the
embah hkment. The shirt was OF
fine linen, and had a peculiarly
rilled bosom, over which was a
night-gown marked with the letter
Il, in German text. Several sup
posed clues were followed up. One
in particular getting Prominence
namely, the room in the Grangers'
Hotel, some two hundred yards
off, some weeks before. The hotel
had been destroyed by fire at the
time of the finding of the body,
and the clue could not be followed
up with any deGnite8ess.
The first real clue wes contained
in a letter to Coroner Pierce from
Fredricks Hoehne, proprietor Of
The Humboldt Cafe, a small res
taurant in Berlin. Mr.. Hoehne
wrote that he had read in a chance
number Of the German Democrat,
a Philadelphia paper, description
of a man murdered near the Gran-
gers Encampment in that city, and
that it tailed somewhat with that
of his son. NIX Hugo Uoehne who
had left Berlin on September %,
1876, Young Max, he said, went
TO Liverpool, and arrived in New
York alb ut the 10th Of October,
and while in the city paid a visit
to his cousin, Bernard Mitteistaedt.
In his letter to Coroner Fierce,
Mr.. Hochne described his son as
having a defect of the thumb caus-
ed by a bone fe'on, as having lost
some of his molar teeth, as having
a mole upon his elbow, and as
having fat foot, owing to which
latter fact he was exempted from
serving in tie German army. An
examination Of the body found at
Elm Station showing all these
marks. Mr.. Hoetine also wrote
that letters had come to him and
to relations Of his, in Berlin, asking
for money ard purporting to have
been written by his son; but al
Jhoagh the imitation Of young
Max's writing was clear, tie letters
were evidently forgeries. 1t was
this fact and the description Of the
murdered man that aroused the Old
restauranteur's suspicious and pre-
vented him from making any remit
lance to the writer.
MIR, Mittclstredt told what he
knew Of the matter to the World
reporter tonight. After his cous~
in Max arrived in this country, he
visited Mr.. MittelstaeGt several
times, and finally went to Phila>
delphia to oct work. "sSome time