The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-09-06
BOSTON'S GREAT MYSTERY.
Discovery of Body That Reveals the
Fact ThatMany Women Are Missing.
The Secret Of Charles Rivera Woman Killed
and Quartered-Skillful Detective
Work Of the Police.
Special Correspondence indianapolis Journal.


Boston has watched with keenest interest the
gradual weaving of web of evidence in the
case Of great and mysterious crime The
daily developments as detailed by the news
papers have been closely followed, but the dis
jointed narrative has included so many remark
able facts and condolences that the story is
worth telling as whole, although the sequel is
still lacking. The apparently hopeless task
which the police undertook on Thursday. the
23d Of July, was placed before them on the
afternoon of that day by the janitor of the
Union Boat Clubhouse, on the Charles river,
who pulled from the stream an old potatosack
containing the upper portion of the body of
middleaged woman. Within three days the
three other sections of the quartered corpse
were picked up at widely separate points
in the harbor. The autopsy showed
that the murdered woman had met her death by
suffocation, and that her body had Immediately
been roughly dissected There were finger
marks at her throat, but the doctors said she
had not died of straugulation. She had been
held face down and probably smothered in
pillow or feather bed. The natural inference
was that her murderers had killed her while
trying to stife her cries. The first problem that
presented itself-that of identifcation-was an
exceedingly difficult one and in the solving of it
the most unique features of the case were devel-
oped The body itself and its wrappings fur
nished almost no clue. 1t was simply the body
of stout woman about thirty-six years old,
whose features had evidently been attractive,
but about whom there was no mark, scar or
unusual characteristic She had been dead
about three days. and the exposure to the action
of the salt water had somewhat swollen and
discolored the face. Photographs and plaster
cast Of the head were taken at once and the
body itself was preserved for several
days for purposes Of Identification.
There were just two points upon
which the detectives relied for the solution of
any doubts that might arise Three teeth were
missing, one of them an incsor, and the autopsy
showed that the victim had suffered miscar-
riage within month of her death
No one supposed that the difficulty
encountered six years ago in solving the great
Lynn trunk mystery would arise in this case
That was the case of young girl who died at
the hands of malpractitoners. The nose had
been cut off, and in seeking to identify the re-
mains the fact was developed that hundreds of
girls were missing from New England homes
under circumstances that threatened a similar
fate. But the Charles river mystery of today
is the case OF an apparently married woman of
middle life. Yet the investigation, as it has pro
ceeded, has developed almost the same doubt as
to the identity of the victim as had occurred
IN Lynn. No woman had been reported to
the police as missing within six weeks who at
all answered the description of the body found
a affQ {1O 2;Son
cry OF the murder inquiries were made for
dozens Of women of similar age whose families
and friends could not find them. More than
that. relatives and friends within a few DAYS
positively identified the body itself as that of
fully ten women. These identi6catons were
each apparently complete in all details, and in
each case the detectives were obliged to assume
that the recognition was genuine, and to work
night and day to trace the missing Individual
1t was no light undertaking, and it proved
severe tax upon the patience and resources of
the force In several instances there were
collateral circumstances of remarkable sig
nlhcance indicating that the officers were on the
right track. One Identification was stra INCEST of
all Three brothers, intelligent men, one of
them an officer of the State prison, positively
identified the body as that of Rosa G. Gilbert,
wife of Lawrence Gilbert, who left Boston few
weeks ago She is singer on the variety stage
and there were important reasons besides points
OF resemblance, to indicate that she was the
victim OF the tragedy According to the evil
cence she must be physical counterpart of the
murdered woman. In height weight complex
ion, features, eyes, hair, teeth, Including those
mssing), freckles on the arms, mark of ring
the third finger of the left hand holes for ear
rings, size of hands and feet in every point the
brothers declared that the body was the image
of their sister. Her aged and iufrm mother in
the country sent word that her daughter had
once or twice suffered miscarriage making it
probable that even in this respect the conditions
of Identification would be fulfilled. So positive
and complete was the evidence that the police
were fully convinced they had accomplished
the most important step toward the
solution Of the mystery Search was
made in all directions for the Gilbert
family, and a day or two afterward the
officers got track of them in Providence. But
they soon found that the entire family had been
visiting Mr.. Gilberts father in that city during
the week of the murder and that Mrs. Gilbert,
her husband and children left for New York on
the evening of the day the FIST portion of the
body was found in Boston
This discouraging set back for the de-
tectives was followed by more of the
same sort, so that at the eud of
of two weeks the case seemed as hopeless as at
the start. clue that promised good results for
a few days was furnished by o man who was
formerly steward on the schooner Oriole,
coaster that left Boston the day before the body
was found. This man identified an old piece Of
carpet which was wrapped around one portion of
the body piece he put down upon the floor
of the ships galley few weeks before. There
had been woman on board until within a day
or two of the vessels leaving Boston When she
reached Philadelphia ten days later, the police of
that city teegraphed that there was no woman
on board, and that all but a small piece
of the galley carpet was missing. When the
Boston officers reached that city they learned
that the woman who was the Captains wife,
had been put ashore on Cape Cod on the way out,
and that the pieces of carpet did not match.
The first information that proved genuine did
not reach the officers until fifteen days after
River Charles had disclosed the great crime
Then it was learned that the wife of Frank
Mitchell, plumber Endicott street, had been
missing for more than two weeks Mitchell is a
Maltese by birth, but has been in this country
for about twenty years, and has done well in
business. His explanation of the disappearance
of his wife, Ellen, was that she had slight dis
DAYS before the body was found and that She