The Newtown bee., 1879-04-08
MURDER MYSTERIES.
Some Gel e1ebcated Crimes in the History O
 New York.

of mystery which naturally awak- ems widespread interest. This leads me to recall number of similar mysteries which have defied the closest and most patient investigation, which, therefore, retain a bloody prominence in the history of New York. One of these was called the Manhattan, well mur- der" Nearly eighty years have elapsed l since it occurred and yet, during this | long interval, it has lived iu the chroni 1 cles of romantic crime. The victim was ! a young woman, who accepted an invi- i, tation from her lover to take sleigh | ride. The pair went off together in the l 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 whither she had gone. A~few weeks afterward, some boys, while looking into we'll in the suburban fields, dis covered her corpse. The lover was tried, but acquitted; nevertheless, pub lie opinion never accepted the verdict, and there can be no doubt of his guilt.
 Forty years aferward another mystery of narrowing character occurred. X young girl, noted for her beauty, who was one of the attractions of cigar store, disappeared, and three days afterward her body, entirely nude, was discovered floating in the Hudson river near the Jersey shore. Every effort was made to investigate the matter, but with no suc- cess. All that could be proven was that she had been occasionally seen with 8 young man who wore the uniform of a naval officer. There must have been number of persons engaged in such crime, but they left no traces, and hence the mystery baffied the keenest penetra- tion. It may be added, as an illuStra- tiOn of the connection between romance and crime, that both this and the fore going tragedy were each made the basis of a work of fiction. The first was used by Theodore $. Fay in his novel Nor man Leslie," while the last was handled with admirable skill by Edgar X. Poe in his tale entitled "The Murders in tic Rue Morgue." Poe examined the sub .ject 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,
 The victims in the preceding cases have been women. We now find 2 change of sex in the chronicle of blood and mystery. One of the most remarks ble crimes of this kind was the assassina- tion of Dr. Lutener, we'll known auriSt, who had an office on the first floor of Broadway building. The unfortunate man was of licenti0us habits and it had been noticed that women came frequent ly to his office. One day the report of pistol was heard, and when the neigh
 bors repaired to the scene they were shocked to behold corpse weltering in its own blood. A woman had been mo- ticed leaving the place about the time the shot was heard, but she mingled at once in the Broadway throng and was never
 identified. It is highly probable that the doctor received his death wound from one of his own victims, but, as in the Mary Rogers tragedy, there was no clue to aid in the investigation, and the case must remain among the bloody myster- it's of New I ork.
 The Burdell affair was also the work l of a woman. Harvey Burdell, a we'll known dentist, was slain at midnight in his office, which was the front room of the second story, the weapon being dag ger His housekeeper, Mrs. Cunning ham, with two daughters, and also a young clerk, formed the entire family. The boy who tended fire for the doctor came down in the morning and told the l family that the latter was dead, and | Mrs. Cunningham Immediately tainted.
 She was tried for the crime, but the prosecution failed Ito make out case, and hence acquittal followed. The prisoner was an abandoned woman of
 great power of will and equal ingenuity.
 She was determined to retain her hold upon her victim, who had made several
 efforts to get rid of one of whom he had
 become weary This led him to threat
 en to let the house, of which he was the
 owner, and thus force her to leave. Her
 plan in order to anticipate such action l WAS IO ODtftlll nCubllle SCA tltlSbtSs emu remove the man by foul means.
 l The first was easily accomplished. I She appeared one evening at the house of
 a clergyman, accompanied by an accom- plice, who gave his name as Harvey Bur-
 dell, and they were married. The next step, however, was not so readily ae-
 complished. Burdell lodged in the housa 2, xlr o1r
 too suspicious to be approached with
 poison. Hence the desperate woman de-
 termined to use cold steel, since pistol
 shot would awaken alarm. Burdell gen.
 erally spent his evenings in disreputable
 resorts, returning home at midnight. i The murderous woman entered his room
 with false key, awaited his return, and
 as he came in gave him mortal wound
 on the throat and followed it with other stabs, numbering 8 full seore. Such at least was the theory of the prosecution.
 After the deed had been done her bloody
 clothing and also the weapon were made into bundle and thrown into the sewer I by her accomplice. The latter was a young man of hardly sufficient nerve to
 commit the crime, but cunning enough
 to render important assistance. Some l years afterward he was convicted oi
 fraud and died in State prison. Mrs. Cunningllam's claim to a widows share in the estate was denied by the surro-
 gate, after which she went to California,
 and her subsequent history is unknown. j The mystery connected with this dread
 ful affair has given it 3 marked promi- l hence in the annals of crime as q the
 Bond street tragedy It may be added
 that the coroner who officiated on that
 occasion was E. D. Connery, formerly a