Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1886-08-10
wALLINGFoRD,s MYSTERY.

gheY Says-.The Remains Buried
Yesterday The Deceased About
Twenty-Five Years of Age--The
stomach to be Analysed by DIR.
White.
WALLINGFoRD, Aug. 9.-The body of the
man which was found in a shoe box Sunday
noon by Edward Turrin in a swamp in West
Wallingford near the Cheshire line has not
yet been identified. Coroner Mix, of New
Haven, came up on an early train this morn
ing. He Immediately ordered the box with
its CHASTITY remains to be brought to Consta-
bic Rod Austin's barn, which is situated back
of Wallaee's block in Wallingford center,
and at once began his investigations. He
looked to the box for his principal clue. The
coroner had as his aides G. F. Smith and
Undertaken Griswold's assistant. The trio
with closed doors examined the box and its
contents for a possible clue to one of the
most horrible butcheries that has ever taken
place in this State. The contents of the box
SO far as could be ascertained from Coroner
Mix consisted of lot of straw saturated with
blood and the tarred paper with which it was
lined The outside of the box had evidently
contained an address. but this had been care
fully cut out and obliterated by a knife or
chisel The mark on the outside of the box
was of some large wholesale shoe manufac-
tory It consisted of capital letter &c"
enclosed in a diamond. The mark was
painted in stencil with black paint. The
mark was supposed to be the trademark of
Clapp, Davis 6 Co., of Boston.
The box measured 30x17x2 Coroner
Mix had the box washed off for the purpose
of ascertaining if any further marks existed.
None could be found.
DIR. James MeGaughey, assisted by DR..
Davis, commenced an autopsy on the
mains this afternoon. A private conference
was held at DR.. McGaughey's house, in
which Constable Austin, Coroner Mix, Dr.
AcGaughey and DR.. Davis took part, just be-
fore the autopsy took place. At 2 O'Clock
the autopsy commenced. The remains con-
sisted of the trunk of a man twenty eight
inches long, twelve inches across the stomach
and eleven inches over the hips. In life he
must have been of fair size, weighing from
IA to 155 pounds. The legs had been dis
jointed and cut from the body, the socket
being plainly visible and the wound having
d smooth appearance. It could easily be seen
where the knife had been driven into
the body to find the location of the socket.
The arms were similarly cut close up with
smooth round edge, not jagged as it would
have been had any other instrument besides
| a knife been used. The head had been sew
cred from the body just below the fifth YER
The throat had been cut completely around
with very sharp knife. The windpipe,
| arteries and veins, which are hard to cut,
were squarely done. Cutting under the skin
| showed it to be clean and white and very
| little decomposed. The hair the body
| autopsy at O'Clock. DR.. McGaughey was
| interviewed by a COURIER reporter i'm
| mediately afterwards. He said: 'tIt is a
very mysterious case. The autopsy finds
| that the body was that of younger man
| than was at first supposed. We think that
he couldn't be more than twenty-five
years of age. He was in an
| almost perfect condition of health when he
| met his death. The trunk of the body was
finely formed and he must have had a fine
physique. There were no external signs or
marks on the back or front of the trunk.
The cutting was evidently done in bun
Cling manner. We think that life had been
extinct from the body for between five and
ten days. The stomach we cut out and it
will be analysed by DR.. M. q. White; of New
Haven, to morrow. The body was in partial
state of decomposition. All the internal
organs were found to have been in healthy
condition. The autopsy far" continued
DR.. McGaughey, "has furnished no clue as
to the identity of the remains. ] am pretty
sure that the remains are those of muir
dered man." Some people have said that
| medical students might have dissected body
| and disposed of the remains as found, but
DIR. McGaughey says that more improbable
1 thing could not occur as medical students do
not do things in the manner that the body
| shows.
Coroner Mix got G. F. Smith, the shoe
| dealer in Wallace's block, to view the box for
| the purpose of ascertaining where the box
| came from, or from what firm. Mr.. Smith told
| the COURIER reporter that the box had con-
tanned a dozen mems half double soled
Congress CATERS of the sort that come with
yellow thread sewed in the sides of the soles.
He thought that the original contents had
| been cheap grade of shoes, probably selling
from $1.75 to So per pair He was unable
| to tell from what house the box had been
shipped. He said he was pretty sure that the
box had come from some Cheshire shoe firm.
Other shoe dealers in Wallingford were in
terviewed by COURIER reporter for the pur-
pose of ascertaining any information about
the mysterious box. They did not recognize
the marks, but they say it is barely possible
that they had sold such a box as they
dispose of one or more pretty much every
day. A scouting party left Wallingford
this afternoon to scour the woods in hope of
| finding the missing parts, but it is not likely
| that their efforts will meet with much sue
| cess.
| Many supposed that the body found was
| that of Albert J. Cooley of Durham, who
| has been missing since a week ago last
| Thursday. He was man of dissipated hab-
| its. He drew 81 800 pension money from
| New Haven bank on the day of his disap-
l pearance. The theory was that on his re-
! turn from New Haven he stopped at bawdy
! house, and that he was murdered for his
money. The doctors say that the body
| found could not have been that of Cooley,
| Cooley was known to have been badly dis
eased and much older man. Cooley was
| well known hereabouts, and last worked for
Charles H. Young in Yalesville.
| Edward Turrill told the following story
to a COURIER reporter to-day regarding
the finding of the body: 81 was after berries
Sunday, late in the forenoon, and was ac-
companied by a dog. When I reached
point in the lot about three fourths of a mile
from the house of Phillip Sampson, colored,
my dog scented something and darted into
clump of bushes. I followed him and found
him gnawing on a shoe box. There was
lid on the box, nailed on. l was surprised
at the find and endeavored to turn it over.
1t proved heavy. A sickening stencil arose
from the box and Immediately supposed
that all was not right. 1 rushed home, a
mile distant, and told my father, Joseph
Turrill, Giles Sampson and S. s. Watson,
who live near by. We went to the spot and
l found that my suppositions had been cor
rect. We discovered the horrible and ghast-
| ly remains. We forced the lid of the box
off and dumped the remains out, thinking it
might be some dead animal cut up"
| The spot where the body found was
ABOUT one hundred yards from a deserted old
cart track two miles long that runs crosswise
from the two mains leading from Wallins-
ford to Cheshire. On the extreme north side
| resides Philip Sampson, well-tod colored
| man, and his family. There is no other
| house until that of David Gaylord is reached,
located upon hill some distance nearer than
Wallingford. The road is seldom used and
is covered by dense growth of trees that at
times in summer makes the place damp and
miasmatic. The land adjacent to the road
has thick covering of whortleberry bushes,
from whichat this time great quantities of
berries are collected
The authorities think this afternoon that
the intention of those who carried
the box to the Parker farm was
to bury it, and that they aban-
doned the design through fear of
detection or because they did not find a suit
able spot. 1t has been discovered that the
box was first left across the roadway from
the place where it was found and afterward
brought to where found Detective McNa-
mara of Meriden, came down on the train
this noon and is at work on the case. Chief
Ford, of Meriden, was here to-day also.
All Wallingford is greatly excited over the
murder On every street corner and shop
oil Lob 81 10