Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-06-29
THE ATLANTA MURDER.
The Case Reviewed and the Leading
Points Stated.


The Case Reviewed and the Leading
Points Stated.
The recent Rose murder in Atlanta al
most rivals in atroeity the Haertel tragedy
in Savannah last summer. / have care
fully read the published reports of the
crime and the evidence, and although
some of these reports have been so diluted
with picturesque word painting and re-
portorial theories and surmises, that it
was sometimes not easy to tell what was
the evidence. have endeayored to sift
out the facts and get a clear idea of what
the Coroner's witnesses testified.
Briefly stated, the story of the crime is
as follows:
Rose was a night yardmaster OF the Air
Line Railroad. and lived in a small, rude
house. with his wife and two-year-0ld child.
A young woman, Nancy Frazier, cousin
of Mrs. Rose, lived with them as "help.'
On the evening OF June II, Rose went out,
as usual, after supper. Some nelghbor-
ing gossips spent the evening with Mrs.
Rose, and discussion of burglar1ous
attempt in the vicinity, shortly before,
made her nervous, and, 1t appears, led TO
some unusual precautions. A few min
utes past midnight the neighbors were
reused by Nancy, with horrible alarm
ofmurder. Friends and officers FASTENED
to the scene. The poor young mother lay
beside her sleeping child, dead-a bullet
through her brain. A trunk, near the
foot Of the bed, was open and tumbied.
A window in the adjoining room was
open, the lath, nailed there some hours
before, as a safeguard, having been
wrenched of, and used to hold up the
sash.
Nancy Frazier then made her excited
statement, to the following effect:
She occupied a bed in the opposite cor
ner of the room. When the women re-
tired they not only nailed the window re-
feTred to, but Mrs. Rose took out loaded
pistol. which she placed on the mantel.
She was suddenly awakened by the re-
port of pistol, but was so terrified that
she neither screamed or turned till the
light was suddenly eXtinguished. Then
she heard man running through the adj
Joining room in his stocking feet, and
jump out of the window, which was found
open. She thereupon got Up with the
lamp, and discovering that Mrs. Rose had
been killed, rushed out and gave the
alarm.
The pistol said to have been placed on
the mantel was not found, and the pre-
sumption was that the murderer hadused
it for his deadly work and then either dis
posed of it or took it away. Outside the
window was found block, seemingly
placed there to enable the intruder to en-
ter the house. A pane of glass had been
removed, the red putty having been cut
out. About the window and premises
were tracks. some made by a man with
shoes on and few by stocking feet; also
some tracks of a woman, the man and
woman appearing to have walked to-
gether, and with signs of having stopped
to consult.
The first idea, of course, was that bur-
glar had done the deed; that, surprised in
the act Of searching the trunk, and seeing
himself recognized, he had shot Mrs. Rose
ere she could give an alarm. Nothing,
however, was missing from the trunk.
Among the first to examine the tracks
was Mr.. Jenes, father Of the murdered
woman. He was greatly affected as he
looked closely at the footprints and eX-
claimed that he knew whose the tracks
were, but wished to God he did not. Upon
being pressed by an officer, he said the
tracks were made by his sOn-in-law, Rose.
Afterwards, however, he was sure they
were not Roses steps. Rose, meanwhile,
had been sent for, and witness said be
''took the news very hard"
Measurements of the footprints were
made before rain came to etIace them
later in the early morning. These
measurements cOrrespOnded exactly with
Roses foot, and the female tracks were
found to measure with Nancy FraZer's.
This was enough to cast a shadow of sus-
picion upon the two-they were suspected
of guilty intimacy and desire to get the
innocent wife out of their way. Quickly sus-
picion also included another young woman
living in the neighborhoOd, with whom
Rose was accused of having improper
relations, and who had occasiOned some
disputes between the husband and wife.
No serious suspicion, however, seemed to
attach to Rose until at the inquest the
next day, when, during the giving of his
testimony, an official perceived certain
stains on his trousers. Some of the putty
taken from the pane of glass was then
rubbed beside the stains, and were exact
ly the same. This startling bit of evidence
Rose endeayored to offset by saying that
he was sitting on the block beneath the
window, and that he supposed he must
have got the putty on his clothes there.
Both he and Nancy stoutly denied any
improper relations, and the neighbors tes-
titled that Rose and his wife got on well
together.
Rose claimed an alibi. Young Wads-
worth, described as an intelligent and
straightforward witness, who also had
a night position on the same road,
testified that Rose was playing cards with
him at the time when the murder was
reckoned to have occurred. Wadsworth
swore that Rose Joined him at about 1920
Air Line time, or 11:20 Atlanta time, and
was with him continuously for some two
hours or so, and until informed of his
wife's murder. Otherwise there were no
clues of any inheritance. There were no
grounds for suspecting anyone else. The
doctors found it impossible to agree
whether Mrs. Rose was shot sitting up,
as first supposed, or lying down.
h1,, 81 -,
murder he is likely to think ready alibi
the easiest and most certain method of
avoiding detection. Now, an innocent
mans alibi is usually very plain and con-
elusive. At the same time, almost any
man of ordinary cunning can easily get
up a semblance of an alibi which will at
first sight seem very plausible. But if it
is not arranged with the deepest and most
consummate skill there is great diff
ference between the irresistible conviction
ar sing from true alibi and the half
wavering doubt that surrounds the pre-
tended one.
Let us take for granted that Rose nan
Intended TO XII Ills Wife, or that. haying
already killed her on a sudden impulse.
he sought means of clearing himself. In
the latter case his alibi, gotten up on the
spur of the moment, would really be very
creditable; but in the former it shows, to
my MIND, a lamentable lack of skill.
To establish his alihi two ways were
open-to postpone the time of the crime,
that is, make it appear to have been COM
mitted later than it was; or, secondly, by
appearing to join reliable witness some
time earlier than he really did.
The first eXpedient could be employed
by delaying the alarm after the murder,
provided the neighborhood was not aroused
by the tragedy itself. The second might
be available by tampering with the rail-
road clock, from which the witness, Wads-
worth, took his statement of the time.
SupposIng Rose guilty, which way be
adopted l of course cannot surmise.
However, we see him Fastening to the
railroad, and, to my mind, in his eager
ness to be sure of having a witness who
would swear to his continuous presence
in the railroad yard at the time Of the
crime, seriously compromised himself.
He joined Wadworth, as stated, at 1920
by the railroad clock, and Rose asked if he
had cards in his office? On his answering
affirmatively, Rose proposed game. Fur
thermore, the presumption that this was
an unusual proceeding is strengthened by
the evidence that Rose offered to teach
him the proposed game. thus showing they
had not so played before. Regarding the
alib1 as sham one, these proceedings on
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