The Sunday herald. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1866-1887, 1880-09-19
TRACING A MURDERER

a man was standing one day, with kind
of unoccupied air, few steps from the door
| of the telegraph Office, on Second street, Sac
| ramento. What was remarkable about him
| was, that there was nothing remarkable
| about. him at ALTO the casual eye. He was
a man of very ordinary appearance, of ordi-
nary size, of ordinary complexion, with an
ordinary face, and especially with an ordi-
| nary eye. He stood with his ha..ds idly
down in the pockets of long loose coat, as
though they had dropped there themselves
| and he had not taken the trouble TO pull
| them out, and he seemed to be neither think
| ing of, nor caring about, nor looking at any
thing.
boy messenger came tripping out of the
telegraph office, taking two or three steps at
once, as has been handsomely expressed,
| and happening to see the uninterested man
whom no had seen before, he stopped short,
| and said:
"Oh, here's one for you; suppose might
as well give it to you here. You're Mr..
Black %
Tho man did not say that he was or that
he wasn't, but quietly reached for the de-
| spatcll, which the boy handed him and lur-
ried on.
Then Mr.. Black, with deliberation that
would have been fairly agonizing to any one
looking over his shoulder, unfolded the
paper and read:
MARYsvILLE, June 20, 49,.
TO Mr.. william Black, Police Department, sacra-
mento: An atrocous murder has Just been discovered
here. woman, named Mrs. Wolf. was the victim.
Her husband is suspected and In custody but no evil
dsnce against him. Hasten tous by the first boat
Sheriff Of Yuba county.
William Black was a Sacramento detective
and at that time undoubtedly tho most saga
cious in California. Tho boat was to leave
in little over and hour. Mr.. Black entered
| the telegraph Office, and despatched to the
| sheriff of fuba county the words " all right"
That evening man with n red shirt on
a man of very ordinary pharmaceutical
in Marysville. He was miner, of course,
II one may always judge from indications
but he had lazy look, rs If he weighed
down woful lack of energy and n person
might have wondered if such n person did
pluck up courage enough to climb tho noun
| tains.
| The same lazy-looking man later in the
| evening was in secret communication with
the sheriff and several other officials.
Sat what hour was the murder discov
cred 7" he asked.
"Nine o'clock this morning
In what wayH'
"The news came through her husband
lie rushed excitedly into n saloon, on tn,
edge of the town, saying that his wife wa
dead and somebody had killed her. They
had lately come from the mines, and wer,
living in tent of their own, n quarter of ;
mile out of town. We will conduct you to !
by and by"
A physician has made an examination y
"Yes a skilled one. Ile says IL il clea
that the woman was murdered-strauGled b,
n pair of coarse hands, the marks of whicl
he found ON her throat
"Did he say how long she had beef
dead p
Yes. many hours"
"What does Wolf say Yn
"That he did not sleepat home. lie say
he was drunk last night, which have foun
to be true, and that, being unable to reac
home, no lay down under tree, betwee
here and his home, and slept soundly. Whe
he awoke, according to his story, it wa
nearly o'clock. Then he got up, hastene
to his tent and found his wife dead, and W
have some fear that an attempt will be mad
TO lynch him. In fact, there is little doui
of his guilt, but there is no positive proof, an
the case needs working up"
"What makes you think he did ii 7"
Various suspicious circumstances. Iii
unlikely story of having slept out all nigh
when within few yards of his temporar
home, and not waking before nine.'
- Had they quarreled 7"
Z" II is not known that they had, but
we'll, they were man and wife, and we migl
i safely presume that they had"
"Were there no traces of stranger left :
y "No."
"Not a thread-a shirt button--a hair
Cracks 7"
"No. The ground is so hard and dry, yC
know"
|, elias any stranger been seen lurking
!. that neighborhood 7"
!. "No."
"lIas any stranger been in town %
"Well, we have miners down here iro
= the mountain every day--but it was none
them"
Detective Black, who wore a red shirt, "
u conducted to the scene OF the murder.
saw the body at the Office of the coroner;
saw the physician he saw everybody
Marysville; he saw and talked with W.
}. three-quarters of an hour. Then he said
:, the sheriff:
y " He didn't do it,
The sheriff was fairly thunderstrucl.