Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1886-05-01
TILLlE SNITI1,D FATE.
JanitOr Titus Taken @ Jail-How the
Victim Was Discovered.

James Titus, the janitor at the Centenary Col.
legiate Institute at Hackettstown, N. J.. was
arrested Wednesday night for the murder OF
Matilda Smith, a domestic employed in the In
stitution. The arrest was made secretly and
| the prisoner and detectives started at once for
long drive Of eighteen miles through the hills
to the county Jail at Belvidere.
On the morning OF April g. on his way TO work
across the lot back Of the institute, and within
short distance OF the building, Q man found
lying near the fence the body of the young and
handsome servant girl. Her feet lay toward
the building and her clothing was decently
fEm rop i ~. black ringer marks tx, were at her
forehead. From rear door of the institute to
the gap in the fence and to the body was q
the body lay was a cesspool forty feet deep and
half full OF water and covered by q stone that
one man could easily have moved. An exami-
nation showed that the girl had been assaulted
after death, or at least after Inconsistencies.
1t was found that on the previous evening
hall in the village. There, with two girl friends,
she had met two drummers named Munich
the
had separated toward the homes OF the girls.
UP the straight street to the front of the fnsti-
the front gates just after the big clock in the
tower struck ten, the signal at which the lights
went out In all tn 9 long rows of windows in the
They heard the click of the big lock in the
front door. and Matilda said she would have to
iha 70 the back and get the tanitor to let
parted nom Munich, and no person yet found
VIII admit having seen her siuce alive. Mum
with at about halfpast ten. Harring was also
back at the hotel within q reasonable time.
proved a perfect alibi.
=, The next detective theory turned to tramps.
Two men, 1t was asserted, must have been
needed to overcome a girl with the magnificent
shoulders and arms that the dead one pos
sessed. An unOccupied barn near the spot
where the body lay furnished the locus oper-
andt for the crime, and a fertile Imagination
the marks OF a struggle on the earthen door and
blood spots on the side. The coroner's jury
was easily convinced, and found that the girl
had been strangled by parties unknown prob
ably In the Aforesaid barn.
There the case dropped, and would probably
have stayed SO until this day but for some city
newspaper men with an unreasonable bent In
the direction of hard facts. The girl when last
seen alive had new .ight-ftting gloves on her
hands, light Jacket oyer her dress, a purse with
$3.50 In 1t, spool OF thread bought dur
Ing the evening, and a dozen or twenty
When her body was found the hands We're
bare. the JACKIE on with only one sleeve and
unstained with any of the dirt that was ground
into the back of the dress under 1t. The purse,
thread and gloves were missing, and there were
no pins In the tangled mass of hair that hung
to her waist.
The further discovery that tho marks on the
barn floor were old ones and the blood status
forced the authorities to renew the search and
VI ~
murderer. The irresistible drift of every clue
toward the institute building compelled a re-
luctant turning OF attention in that direction.
James Titus, the night janitor, was the
first person whom Matilda could have met after
she left Munich, unless she was waylaid I'm
that snort walk around the corner of the build.
ing to the rear door. Ii he had let her in there.
a door into the furnace room opened right of
from the passage and she would have entered.
light was always burning there at night, and
it was the janitor's headquarters.
The room, when it was finally searched, had
been cleaned up since the murder, and all the
ashes removed, but dark, oily spot of paint
was on the floor. A stain OF this same stuff was
on the girls dress There had been shavings
and bits of cane from the mending OF chairs
lying around the floor. Shavings aud bits OF
cane were found in the dead girls hair. The
gloves, which she might have taken OFF while
waiting Tor the janitor to open the door; the
purse, the spool of thread aud the hair pins, il
they had fallen on the floor during the strug. ie
might have been burned in the furnace. Ii two
men had done the deed the assault would ha We
been consumnlated before, and not after DEATH
Hone man did it, the two blows Oh the forehead
would have brought her the Inconsistencies
Titus story Is that al a few minutes past ten.
as Munich says, he locked the front door, then
went through the halls to see that the lights
were all out; then made a circuit OF the grounds
around the building to see that no one was
skuIking about, and SO got back to his furnace
room. He neither saw nor heard anything sus-
pciOus in his tour. Matilda came to him he
says, early in the evening" told him she was GO
ing to be out late. and asked him if he would
IcL licI ILL., nc bOiu her Sue uuSL ask perInlS-
sion of the matrOn, and she replied that sooner
than DO that she would stay with friends out
side all night.
The girl was buried in a pauper's grave, with
only reporters and a few curious people as
mOurners, and without even prayer to break
the harsh rattle of the stones On the box that
served as collin. The tardy sentiment OF
country town has begun to realize the recOgni-
ton due her admitted purity, and subscrip-
tion for q monument over her grave is being
raised. About 500 has already been received
by Mayor Reese. Much of it comes from dis
tant cities.