Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1878-11-14
A TELL-?Alg ?llTH-PEz.
The stcTy Of Dissmbarreled Body.
New York Sunday Mercury.

I Jesse Ferrett's conversational
powers combined truth will
delightfully."- descriptive pictures
associated with criminal history
in which be as a detective haC
created shares.
A little walnut cabinet con.
tanned some odds and ends of
testimony-bearing value, remin-
ding the treasurer of scenes il
which he had figured and upor
which he had mounted to indie
pendence and renown.
"Now, there said he, "is a BIT
of wooden tooth-pick, bitten off
square at one end, and chewed
to a fibrous pulp at the other:
would you believe that this in
nocent thing could bring man
to the dangling end of a rope OF
drive HIM into cternity?"
"No telling said I, wisely
expectant, and adding, with ju-
dicious fiattery: "You fellows
are cunning enough to telescope
testimony through a dead and
stray hair"
eyes, but a tooth-pick! Con-
slider what a very ordinary cir
cumstance q mutilated tooth
pick is"
"Sure enough; but l don't for
get that Ferrett is not an ordi-
nary man, even among his col
leagues"
That bit Of honest blarney got
him, and | got the story. We
elevated our feet upon the table,
after lighting our cigars, and
observing fresh bottle nest
ling in its icy crush within reach
of our hands, he related the story
of the tooth pick:
"You recollect, in the winter Of
18- what a hurrah there was
bout the finding OF a body packed
IN a barrelt 1t had been shipped
from Chicago and prepaid TO some
little town in Wisconsin, addressed
to a name that had no PERSONAL
ity, and hence no claimant ap-
peared. and it remained in the
warehouse until il became unpleas
antly odoriierous. The head was
knocked ia and the barrel found
to contain the cleverly carved and
neatly packed body Of a young
woman. OF course, the little com.
munity was properly shocked
the fearful tlliug was nailed up
again and hastily returned ID Chi
cago. An investigation followed ;
the boys got their noses down af-
ter The game, but they couldn't
catch the scent somehow every
public and private theory explo-
ded, fallacious proved every seem
ing trace. No one came forward
to claim the body ; no one missed
wife, mother, sister, nor friend.
II you recollect the woman had
been both young and fair, at the
time of her death, as post-mortem
examination Of the remains evil
denced. Well, as time passed,
and new objects Of interest press
ed out the old, people availed
themselves of the idea that the
thug had been some students
hoax. No murder had been com
mitted graveyard robbery and
dissecting.room trick--that's all.
| happened to be in Chicago on a
bit OF a lark of my own at the
lime, and was present when the
disjointed body was disembarrel-
ed. | noiiced--what was Of no
Significance to the investigating
parties-a silver Of wood clinging
TO tress of hair; a splendid suit
of wavy brown hair that poor dis
severed head had, too. Meeting
with no protest. i cut OF the strand
to which the silver clung. 1t
proved to be this tooth pick. !
placed it in section of my pock-
ct book, and from that moment /
became possessed of an intense, /
may say savage, longing to- hunt
the man who had cut up that body.
A conviction pursued me that
murder had been done-foul, dam
nable murder-and was destined
to clear the earth of the fiendish
perpetratorl | kept my convic-
tions TO myself, however, and for
two years / worked hunted, ,tricked
aud studied without obtaining the
slightest clue to encourage me.
when received a job to work up
for a banking firm which necessi-