St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-03-02
Fatal Room SO in Gilliland's
Hotel Was the Scene Of
the Horror.
The Fiend Who Perpetrated
the Killing Was a Nice,
Model Waiter.
The Detectives Fate--PoisOn
--Superstition--A Report
ep's Curiosity.

curing in Cincinnati in '63-4. Those
events were the preparation of a sue
cession of most mysterious murders and
the strange discovery of their perpetra-
tor. one of the most cunning criminals
in history, says the Cincinnati Enquirer.
SO artfully were his crimes planned,and
so Skillfully were they executed, that it
was some time before it was positively
determined that the deaths caused by
him were actually murders, and even
then a still longer time elapsed before
1t could be told how they were done.
That, indeed, was never aScertained
until the murderer had been seized
upon suspicion and the police worked
bacll' from him to his crimes.
At the break ing out of the war rays
hotel, a fifth-rate establishment with a
very unsavory reputation, gave habitual
shelter to some of the toughest charac-
tiers of both sexes that lived in or fire.
ouented Cincinnati. Still. the ill-repute
of the place was SO generally known to
citizens that nobody went there who
was not likely to find the place congen-
ial, and Fay'S did not seem to be dong
much harm, but rather good, by its hlv-
ing together so many OF those whose
scattered Municipalities were always
menace to decency and property rights:
But when the war was well started and
money was plentier in the land than it
had ever been before, then Fay'S seemed
to go wild, transcend all proper bounds,
and of course got itself eventually
squelched by the authorities. For some
months it was closed. Then it passed
into entirely new hands and reopened as
GILLILAND'S HOTEL,
under which name it was comparatively
very respectable. Tedious and unnec-
eSSary as these details may seem to the
casual reader, they are important in
their bearing upon the events about to
be narrated, for reasons that will soon
be apparent.
OF all who had been employed in vari-
Gus capacities about the hotel, only one
was retained under the new manage
ment. That one was German named
Adolf DeXheimer, of whose past moth
ing more was known than what he
chose to tell himself viz, that he had
''cOme from the Rhine-Pfalz, been in
this country nine years and had always
worked about hotels"
A more capable, versatile, industrious
and seemingly altogether desirable
He waited upon table, attended to
rooms, served well as cook when the
kitchen went on strike, helped eff
GENTLY in the bar Sundays, was always
sober, had quiet, humble demeanor
and let his wages accumulate in his en-
ployer'S hands. No wonder that Adolf,
whose virtues were widely known, re-
tanned his place.
One morning, about four months after
the hotel had become "Gilliland'S," a
well-knoWn river gambler named Dan
Harris was found dead in his bed in
room 80, on the third floor of the house.
He had retired late in pretty sober
condition and apparently in excellent
health. His windows were secured and
his door was not only locked but bolted,
SO there could be no suspicion of foul
play. 1t is trde no trace was found
upon him, in his bed or in his clothing,
of a roll of $500 or $1,000 that he was
known to have had the day before, but
it was naturally supposed that he had
lost it in run of bad luck at some
gaming table before going to his room,
and little was thought of that. The
coroner's inquest was a hurried one,
and returned verdict of ''died by the
visitation of God" Dan was buried by
to be the end of the incident.
Six or eight weeks later it was the i'll
fortune of bounty jumper, Pat
MOynahan, to sleep in room 80. He
was not the first who had done so safely
since the death of Dan Harris, but he
broke the record on the second night of
his occupancy of the fatal apartment.
Late in the afternoon of the next day
it was noticed that 1.-The man in 39'' had
given no sign of life that day. He was
rather intoxicated when he went to bed
the night before, but had had ample
time to wake up thirsty, and as he had
not done SO there was just little un-
eaSineSS about him.
The chambermaid pounded Oh his
door and the clerk kicked it, but all in
vain. Pass keys would not open it, for
it was securely bolted on the inside. At
length the glass transom was smashed,
a hall boy poked through and dropped
inside to push back the bolt; and when
they entered there they found Pat
snugly wrapped up in bed and stone
dead. Adolf, who was one of the par
of mind to turn on one of the gas jets at
full head, and when after the momen-
tary excitement of the finding of the
dead man had passed, the strong smell
of gas in the room was noticed and the
open jet found, it was supposed by the
chambermaidS and hall boys, at least,
that the cause of death had been found.
Pat had
BLOWN OUT THE GAS"
The clerk, however, had noticed
Adolf's action, understood its purpose,
and spoke so enthusiastically to the pro-
priet0r of the Germans presence of
mind, that Adolf received a present of
$40 quietly slipped into his hand. with
a compliment upon his ready wit in saw
ing the reputation of the house. There
were at the inquest plenty of witnesses
to swear honestly to the strong smell of
gas in the room: neither Adolf nor the
clerk were called to testify, and the yer
dict was that, "the deceased came to his
death through his own carelessnesS OF
ignorance in blowing out the gas instead
of turning it off" Not dollar was
found of the very considerable sum that
Pat was seen in possession OF the day
before; but as nobody knew that he had
any money when he went to bed, there
was nothing upon which to base any
suspicion of foul play.
The third victim of No. 80 was Jew.
Moses IsaacsOn, reputed rich and we'll
known as cunning operator of myS-
terious and supposedly crooked business
transactions along the river, and it was
suspected, across the enemy's line.
Moses was rich enough to go to the
Stevens or the Walnut Street or the
Burnet house, or even better, if there
had been any better, but he preferred,
for reasons best known to himself, to
find lodgings at Gilliland's. He went to
bed sober; there was no doubt about
that, for he never bought drinks him
self, and though he sat in the bar room
all evening, nobody treated him. That
he was well, nobody had any reason to
doubt, and that he knew enough to turn
his gas Off nobody could question.
But, all the same, when the
frightened chambermaid pounded
on his door the next afternoon, and
getting no answer, called the clerk and
had the door forced. Moses was found
b., l.,