The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-12-11
60 NUMBER EIGHT. "
How q Detective Barely Escaped
playing" That Role.

''You can bring in no other verdict,
gentlemen, than that of 'willful murder
by some person or persons unknown"
Such was the direction of the coroner to
the jury of Iowa County, in the State of
Wisconsin as they sat assembled in a barn
belonging to Farmer Dewitt, in a remote
district on an evening in the month of
September.
The deceased was attired in the garb of
apeddler; his pack of bogus jewelry and
finery lay beside the dead body, his pockets
were turned inside out, just as they had
been found on the discovery of the corpse
early on the morning of the same day q
few yards from a sluggish stream, across
which, as no bridge was nigh, a cart road
ran between the Two small towns of Min
eral Point and st. Rose East, equi-distant
in opposite directions about five miles from
the river. The stream, though deep in its
ordinary course, happens at this ford,
especially during the summer months, to
he not more than few inches high, and so
shallow was the water then that the tracks
of the cart wheels and the marks of the
horses hoofs were quite discernible in the
hart sand or fine gravel. A IN odd step
ping-stone was also to be availed of.
A verdict in accordance with the direc-
ton of the coroner was then handed in and
the jury were discharged with the remark
of that official:
cit is altogether most mysterious bust
ness; this is the seventh case of the kind
within the past four months"
My firm--a detective agenCy-had been in
stIucted by the authorities at Mineral Point
~te-eeente some one to attend the inquest
and to sift the affair to the bottom An
intimation was given me that speedy pro-
motion would follow on my uuraveling the
mystery, and as / got unlimited discretion
concerning my line of action, whether as
regards the time | should occupy about
the business, the expenses / might incur or
the assistance, ifany, l should avail myself
of. felt that my professional reputation
was as stake and that il another such muir
der we're to be committed ere I had I'M
earthed the guilty parties, the sooner
changed my vocation for some other the
better for myself and my employers.
No one who is not a detective can enter
INTO the inner mind of one, nor in his most
imaginative moments conjure up the feel
ings which influence the breast of true
member of such useful branch of the
community. Crimes are perpetrated which
battle detection. The mscreants who COM
mitted them go about in the full glare of
Hoontide unpublished, because unrecog-
nized; perhaps, sit at the same table, ride
in the same car. join you in conversation,
iostle you on the highway, and until the
requisite clue is discovered, knowing all
this to be so, the genuine detective consid-
ers himself as IN some measure an abetter,
involuntary though he be, of every such
defeat of justice, and almost a betrayer of
the confidence reDosed in him to find out
to 'detect"-the criminal, and the case is
no whit altered by the circumstances sur
rounding it from the very start being
shrouded in complete mystery and that no
clue whatever presents itself in the outset.
walked with the coroner to his house in
the small town of Mineral Point. which Law
five miles westward of Che river, and
learned from him, while [ sat at dinner
that previously to this last one six mysteri-
Gus murders had been as he had intimated
to the jury already committed at the same
spot The first person murdered was a
commercial traveller, as appeared from
letters found about his person. He had
represented a jewelry firm in Chicago and
had taken with bin a sample case of
watches and rings, but the bag in which he
carried his wares was nowhere to be found.
Every barrel of his six -shooter was undis
charged causing the Inference that he had
been taken by surprise. No marks of vio-
lence were observable about his person at
the time he was fonnd, and the verdict
handed in was one OF death from unknown
causes-presumably apopleXy orsunstroke.
Not later, however, than four days after
his murder respectable farmer, well
known in the locality, shared the same fate
on his return from journey on which he
had received a large sum for corn, and of
circumstances were somewhat different,
for, whils6 the commercial traveller afore-
said was a person of stout physique,
Farmer Goodwin was thin, spare, meager
man, about the last judging from his APP
pearance, to meet with such supposed
visitation. His sons insisted on a strict
post-mortem examination being held and,
in addition to the doctor of the town, they
brought from a distance an eminent med
zeal man, both Of whom. after a careful
inspection of the body, discovered small
punctured wound in the region of the heart
caused, as the scnlpel showed on a dssec-
tion of the hesh by a needle which was
lodged in the heart
'Of course, Mr. Coroner" said ], "you
exhumed the body of the commercial
traveller"
"Yoa have anticipated me-" replied the
narrator. "We had the body dug up, and
the same medical men examined it and
found that death in tho former case had
also been caused by similar means.
I'VE, that is the authorities, then had the
locality watched for at least a fortnight
afterwards and then gave over the quest
thinking that perhaps the murderer, who
ever he was had either been scared upon
che discovery of the hideous method o
death being made public or had left the
neighborhood satisfied with the booty &C
quired By the two murders but no sooner
had the vigilance of the police been re-
Taxed than in less than a week afterward
smother murder occurred. This time it was
the postman, and his mailbag and its con
Cents could not be traced in any way"