Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1879-06-22
NEW YORK MURDERS
That have Baffled the Skill OF the 'sBest
Police In the WOrld'-Impenetra
Observation-Disclosures Cases from
that OF Helen Jewett to the
Late Mrs. Hull.
Murders which Society Cares Nothing
About - Other Murders - Crimes
which have Startled New York.
but OF which the P0rpetra-
tors have Never been
Discovered.

Discovered.
New York Times: The sacredness with
which our civilization has invested human
life finds expressioA in the common assertion
that Murder will out;" and possibly In the
large majority of cases the perpetrators OF
murder are discovered and punished. Yet it
is certain that in respect to a considerable
minority of the total number of murders
committed the guilty escape detection.
Bodies are daily and weekly discovered IN the
rivers. They may represent deaths oy acct
dent, by suicide, or by murder; but there IS
no way of ascertalnlng with accuracy now
many are attributable to either cause. In
some cases the waters may cast up the body
when it is yet in condition to show marks of
violence, if any there be upon 1t; but 1t 1T
has passed a certain stage of decomposition
this is not possible. Thus 1t depends upon
the mere accident of the action of the tides
whether it can be known that murder has
been committed; and when this Is ascer-
tanned it may well happen that the knowledge
gives not the slightest clue to the perpetra-
tors of the crime The truth is, that not the
murder itself but the social position OF the
victim largely determines the chances OF dis
coVery. If couple of drunken and degraded
men, the offscourings of society, quarrel IN
their drunkenness. and one pushes the other
into the river; or II a man of the same class be
found dead, with MS skull fractured, IN some
wretched cellar, the chances are that the per-
son at whose hands the deceased came to his
death will not be discovered. Here ls muir
der, but society cares little about it because
the murdered was at best but useless to 1t,
and possibly preyed upon it. Society Is
rather the better for his taking of, and those
who are responsible for it are too brutallzed
Il ,l,1,,E Tor
If they are discovered 1t Is mainly by chance
circumstances rather than by the vigorous ac-
ton of society through its constituted au-
thorihes. But let the murdered person be OF
good standing in society, or let there be CIR
cumstances about the affair concentrating the
public attention upon the crime, then 1T Is
that the community Is startled With the con-
seriousness that a murder has been commit
ted, and all its resources for the detection
and punishment Of crime are exhausted to
| bring the guilty to justice. Ii these are BAT
fed, which is but rarely, the case passes into
police history as another undiscovered muir
| DER" often quoted and long remembered,
while it is morally certain that not month,
| and perhaps not week, passes IN this city
| but some wretched creature meets death at
| the hands of persons who remain unknown
and almost unsought
The murder of Helen Jewett, in this city,
which occurred in 1886, was one of the cases
where NO conviction followed. The unhappy
creature who was the victim of this brutal
crime was well known in New York mot
then the large city it has since become) as
one of the most beautiful of that class whose
] feet take hold on death and whose steps lead
down to hell. Born in Augusta, Maine, of
poor parentage, but, through the kindness of
a benevolent gentleman, given a superior ed
ucation, she early fell from the ways of virtue,
and after varied experience In Boston and
| some other New England towns, made her
l way to this city. She entered the house of a
| Mrs. Rosina Townsend, in Thomas street. and
| speedily became known for her beauty and
l accom- plishments to all the fast society of the
| city. Early on the morning of the tenth OF
l April, 1886, the inmates of the house were
l startled by smoke issuing from her room; the
| Waterman Jour Metropolitan police had not
| then been organized) were hastily called in,
1 the flames from the burning bed were
| speedily extinguished, and the body Of the I'M
1 fortunate girl was discovered, deep cash on
| the side of the head showing the cause of her
| death The murder Mortified the whole City.
| A young man named Richard T. Robinson
1 was arrested for the crime. He was a ire
quenter of Mrs. Townsend's house, and OF
I others of similar character, where he was
1 known by the name of Frank Rivers. The
l trial lasted several days, and the public feel
| ing ran high, even to the extent of causing
1 riotous demonstrations IN front of the city
| hall, where he was tried. Opinion was d.
1 yided as to his guilt or innocence. He was
/ proved to have been at one time strongly at
l tached to the murdered girl, who was pas
| sionatsly In love with him; but he had tired
1 of her, aud was, it was SAID, paying his adj
| dresses to a relative of his employer, with a
| view to marriage. A rumor of this reaching
| the girl. she had, it was said, written a let
l ter threatening to expose him, and this was
| given as the motive for the crime. This,
l however, did not appear on the trial; the ev-
4 idence depended upon to convict the man
l was entirely eircumstantial, and the trial re-
| suited in an aequittal. The prosecution had
/ to rely upon the evidence of inmates of the
l house, and mainly upon that of Mrs. Town
| send, who kept it. She testified that she adj
l mitted Frank Rivers on the night preceding
| the murder, and that he and Helen Jewett
| had gone up stairs together to her room, but
it appeared that the man admitted was mut-
l Fed IN cloak, and that she did not see his
I face distinctly. Other inmates of the house
1 testified with more or less certainty that it
l was the accused man who walked up stairs
! with the murdered girl, but they only In
| ferred it was he from his general appearance.
1 On the other hand, three respectable persons
| testified that at the time Mrs. Townsend said
| she admitted Robinson to the house, he was
| liz store with them at least mile from the
| place of The murder. As between these wit
| nesses, there would not have been a reasona-
| BILE doubt which to believe; but there were
| circumstances which told heavily against
| Robinson. The girl had been killed by a
| heavy blew with Ratchet, causing lnstanta-
neous death; and Ratchet was found in the
| yard at the back of the house, with a large
! cloak lying near 1t, where both had evidently
| been thrown by some person IN escaping over
the fence. This Ratchet was positively iden-
tilted as one taken from the store where Rob
inson was employed; the cloak was proved
as positively to have been worn by him on
the very night of the murder; and min1a-
ture of the victim, proved to have been il
her possession the day before the murder,
was found in TIE room of the prisoner when
i arrested the day after. The bad character
| of the witnesses for the prosecution, and
/ many serious discrepancies in their state
| ments; the good character of those who tes'
tilted to the abb; the youth of the accused
(he was only nineteen), and his reputation
tor amIability and good nature, weighed
powerfully enough in his favor to save him
from the gallows. The charge of the judge
was entirely on his side; the jury, after only
ten minutes consultation, rendered verdict
of not guilty, and to this day it remains &
mystery who murdered the unfortunate Heller
Jewett. Robinson afterward settled in Texas
Eight years after this murder another oc.
CURED IN this city, which was known as the
pretty cigar giri tragedy" and furnished
Edgar Poe with the IaGteEials for his story O.
the Mystery Of Marie Roget. Mary CeciliG
Rogers was employed In Anderson's cigal
store, on Broadway, near the old New Yorl
hospital. She was remarkable for he
beauty, and her pretty face proved power
full attraction TO the young men of the
period. On Sunday morning, June %, 1912
she left her mothers house, in Nassau street
for the purpose of spending the day at thi
house OF a relative. She was to return IL
the evening, but did not. This, however
excited no suspicion, because the night wa,
stormy and wet, and it was supposed sht
would remain sc her relatives all night. L
was when she failed TO appear next day tina
her friends became alarmed, and immedi
ately instituted inquiries. Then it was dis
covered that she had not been at her friend
house. All trace of the poor girl was los
from the time she left her mothers hous'
that Sunday morning. But three weeks aftel
the tide threw up the dead body on the banl
of the river at Weehawken. A piece of lac
wound tightly around the neck showed tina
she had been strangled. That the girl haC
been grossly outraged was as plainly dis
coverable as the manner OF her death. VIII
did it has never been discovered. She wen
ont hat Sunday morning; her dead body wa
found three weeks after, and that Is all tina
could be ascertainedi. Where she went, VIII
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