Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-11-15
Van Dorf 5 Record.
The Engineer of the Rochester
Lantern Works
UNDER ARREST FOR INCENDIARIsM.

Some Curious Condolences That Caused
Suspicion to Look His Way-Fires Seem
To BE Frequent Where He Is Employed
Some discriminating Instances-An-
other Reap of Dead Discovered with
Nine Crushed Bodies in 1t.
ROCHESTER, n. Y, Nov. Is "A startling
episode III connection with the recent fire
was the arrest Tuesday night by Chief De-
tective HAYDEN ard Capt Mccormick of the
engineer of the Lantern works, John Van
korff The fact Of the arrest was kept secret
until yesterday afternoon, on account of the
excitement prevailing. Vankorff has
family, and came to Rochester eight years
ago from Syracuse. His previous residence
was in Pennsylvania The attention OF the
police here was first called to Vankorff when
he was a brakeman on the Buffalo. New
York & Philadelphia railroad. Several
loaded freight ears were burned, and he was
suspected of incendiarsm. The case was in
vestigared, but in the absence of positive
proof nothing was done. Later he worked
as stationary engineer on Broadway in this
city, and during that time the building
twice caught fire, but the flames were ex-
tingushed with pals of water. The third
time the place took fire it burned down, and
it was discovered that the pals and buckets
had disappeared, having been thrown into
the canal Vankorff was suspected, but
| again there was an absence Of proof. Be-
| fore this he had been employed as engineer
at the Morse Sash and Blind factory That
| place was burned twice while he was EN-
| ployed here.
| There are several other similar cases
which look suspicious L. NJ. Gould's gro
| Gerry on West avenue took fire at one time,
and Vankorff was not only the first man to
| discover it, but he showed Gould where it
| started and removed bae of cotton waste
with which the fire had been started. This
was saturated with oil, and had evidently
| been taken from a car, At another time
| Vankorff was taken to the city hospital, hav-
| ing fallen in a fit and sustained a cut in the
head While at the hospital complaints came
to the police of the disappearance of sun
| dry articles. Chief Hayden asked if
| Vankor fl was still at the hospital and being
| answered in tie affirmative said "lf you
| don't look out you will have fire in the
building" few days after fire was dis
| covered at the hospital in barrel of rubbish
| or old clothing in clothes press Vankorf
| was Liith hisNhdi scu II cL WIG hp'Ptbhi. Ahc
was arrested some years ago on a charge of
stealing watch, but, although the fact was
proven and acknowledged, he was let off on
account of his family. There are other
| charges against him.
| When, therefore, Chief Hayden learned
that Vankorff had been the engineer Of the
Lantern works, the latter was placed under
surveillance, and watche closely since Sat
urday. He is now under arrest on suspicion
OF having started the fire which resulted in
such great loss of life and property. When
charged with the crime he denied any
knowledge of the origin Of the fire. He has
for wears shown signs of mental derange-
| ment In the opinion of the police he has a
mania for setting fire to places, discovering
the fire and then taking credit for his vigil
ance and activity.
The disaster is the worst ever known in
this part of the coontry. Day after day
bodies are exhumed from the ruins, and the
search is pushed with energy.
At 9 O'Clock yesterday morning two con-
gress CATERS were seen projecting above a
heap of rubbish at the foot of the stairway
near the elevator well After the removal
of the surrounding debris it was found thai
another heap OF bodies lay beneath, and the
work of exhuming them was at once begun.
One of the shoes which had attracted atten'
ton was partly consumed, while the other
contained portion of boys foot The
men had evidently attempted to esC ape
through the stairway, and were overcome by
the smoke or enveloped in flames. They
seem to have suffered more from the effects
of the flames than the others
When the corpses were Mt last laid bare
they presented horrible sight While some
that mad been at the bottom Of the heap
were in comparatively good state of pre-.
servation the limbs of all were crushed ouI
OF shape and two of the bodies were locked
in a lost embrace closely that they coulC
not be sepsrsted. In all nine bodies wer
taken from this quarter Of the ruins, making
nineteen exhumed since , o'clock Tuesday
afternoon. They were placed in boxes ant
taken TO tue undertaking rooms.