The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1882-04-01
THE TRAMP THEORY.

The executed man at one time gave il as
some tramp who sought to take advantage
of her unprotected condition. In substan
tiation of this theory, he said that Dora
was a very powerful woman who could
handle an ordinary man without much diff
ficulty She had worked on the farm and
could accomplish as much as any laborer
She had frequently given evidence of her
unusual strength in many different ways,
and this popularity of hers was generally
known. He said he thought it probable
that the intruder had sought to overpower
the woman, but finding that she made
such desperate resistance, he had felt com
PEELED to kill her in order to save himself.
The fact that the body when found was
dressed even to the shoes, which she was
wont to discard when in the house, gave
the story a slight colonng of probability,
but the absence OF proof concerning the
presence of such a tramp in the neighbor
hood on the evening of the murder, rather
destroyed the theory. Everyone thought that
Heilwagon would break down before the
| term for execution and make clean breast
of the whole affair, but on account of her
failure so to confess, many thought that
the mystery would never be cleared up.
THE MYSTERY,
hswever, has been solved and the real
murderer exposed in a manner which was
least expected, The guilty party has made
confession and admits everything. Ret
ribution came in a most dramatic manner,
as the sight of Heilwagons plaster paris
image in Robertsons marble works caused
the real murderer to make his confession,
after suffering the most exquisite agony
He imagined that the executed man had
come back to earth and was shadowing
the guilty murderer. His fortunes were
most excruciating, as he unburdened his
mind and gave away the secret that caused
him and others such fearful suffering
THIS MORNING
at about 2 o'clock officers Brennan and
Rugh noticed a man totter across Seven
teenth street and enter the alley which
BILE works of G. w. Robertson 81 Co. They
started after him with no other suspicion
than that it was strange proceeding even
for a drunken man to pass through alleys
ley tney saw the man PROSTATE on the
ground, apparently suffering from a spasm.
The commissions caused him to moan and
plead most piteously. They assisted him,
and carried him to the hospital room of the
city armory. Shortly after their arrival
the man regained his reason, and the first
question propounded by him was where
is heg
The officers thought the man was suffer
from drunken spree, paid no attention to
him. Finally the prisoner said that he
could stand the tortures no longer, and
wanted to make confession of Dora He'll
wagons murder.
The officers then became interested, and
at their suggestion an ARGUS man was
sent for, who took down the following
statement which the murderer gave:
My name is Gustav Schuman, and am
native of Nashville, Schuyler County,
Illinois. yeas raised on farm, and am
26syears of ace the 5th.sf April, which win
be&sext Wednesday. I got to drinking
two yesx ago, and started out with q lot
of harvesters to work up and down the
river. came to Rock Island County in
1877. landed at Hampton and started out
in the country.
I got work on farm owned by George