The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1879-04-30
MURDER MYSTERIES.
Some Celebrated Crimes in the History
of New York.

of New York.
The New York correspondent of the
Cincinnati Gazette writes: The recent
Baldwin tragedy in your city is surround
ed with degree of mystery which natu-
arly awakens widespread interest. This
leads me to recall a number of similar
m ysteries which have defined the closest
and most patient investigation, which,
therefore, retain bloody prominence in
the history of New York. One of these
was called the ''Manhattan we'll murder.'
Nearly eighty years have elapsed since it
occurred, and yet, during this long inter-
val. it has lived in the chronicles of ro-
mantle crime. The victim was young
woman, who accepted an invitation from
her lover to take sleigh ride. The pair
went off together in the evening, and soon
afterward the lover returned alone. The
young woman was missing, and his reply
to all questions was that she left the
sleigh soon after they started, and he did
not know whittier she had gone. A few
weeks afterward, some boys, while look
ing into we'll in the suburban fields, dis
covered her corpse. The lover was tried,
but acquitted nevertheless, public opinion
never accepted the verdict, and there can
be no doubt of his guilt.
Forty years afterward another mystery
of narrowing character occurred. A
young girl, noted for her beauty, who was
one of the attractions of a cigar store,
disappeared, and three days afterward her
body, entirely nude, was discovered float
ing in the Hudson river near the Jersey
shore. Every effort was made to investi-
gate the matter but with no success. All
that could be proven was that she had
been occasionly seen with young man
who wore the uniform of a naval officer.
There must have been number of per-
sons engaged in such crime, but they
left no traces, and hence the mystery
baf1ed the keenest penetration. It may
be added, as an illustration of the connec-
ton between romance and crime, that
both this and the foregoing tragedy were
each made the basis of a work of fiction.
The first was used by Theodore s. Fay in
his novel "Norman Leslie" while the
last was handled with admirable skill by
Edgar A. Poe. in his tale entitled s'The
Murders in the Rue Morgue." Poe ex.
amined the subject with all his powers of
analysis, and presented very ingenious
solution of the mystery, but, though it
may have satisfied him, it has never been
generally accepted. 49,
| The victims in the preceding cases
have been women. We now find change
of sex in the chronicle of blood and
mystery. One of the most remarkable
crimes of this kind was the assassination
of DR.. Lutener, a we'll known aurist, who
had an Office on tire first floor of a Broad.
way building. The unfortunate man was
of licentious habits, and it had been
noticed that women came frequently tt
his Office. One day the report of plsto
was heard, and when the neighbors re-
paired to the scene they were shocked tt
behold corpse weltering in its owl
blood. A woman had been noticed leav
ing the place about the time the shot wa
heard, Tut she mingled at once in tn,
Broadway throng and was never identi
fed. it is highly probable that tn
doctor received his death wound from on
; of his victims, but, as in the Mary Roger
tragedy, there was no clue to aid in tn
investigation, and the case must remain
! among the bloody mysteries of New York
The Burdell affair was also the work O
woman. Harvey Burdell, we'll know
dentist, was slain at midnight in his of
!, fee, v hich was the front room of tn
second story, the weapon being dagge,
l His housekeeper, Mrs. Cunningham, wit
} two daughters, and also young clerk
formed the entire family. The boy VIII
+ tended fire for the doctor came down j
the morning and told the family that til
> latter was dead, and Mrs. cunningham
Immediately tainted. She was tried ft
8 the crime, but the prosecution failed t
a make out case. and hence acquittal 70