The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1889-09-27
A RED

A RED CHAPTER.
An Old Detective Talks About Mur-
der.
It is an'old saying in the detective
service that the man who plans muir
der is sure to be caught. The records
of crime prove the truth of the saying.
In almost every instance the murderer
who escapes arrest had no thought of
murder ten minutes before he committed
the crime. He acted upon an impulse
born of sudden passion, md had only to
turn his back on his victim to get safely
away. The mysterious murders are the
unprecedented. They are mysterious
because there are no witnesses, and be-
cause the murderer left nothing behind.
The detective assigned to one of these
mysteries perceives from the start that
he must depend almost entirely on luck
and accident. The case of the Chicago
millionaire, Smell, proves the point. He
was murdered offhand in his W house,
by u burglar, whose operations he had
interrupted. The murderer seems to
have departed from earth. Rewards
aggregating IN enormous sum have
been offered and thousands of officers
have been on the lookout for months,
but the supposed murderer is still at
large. Had he planned to murder Smell
he would have been under arrest within
. week. In that case he would have
clues and loopholes. He would not
have fed, for in fleeing he would have
left traces.
The first murder case I ever had,
twenty-six years ago, had its parallel
last winter. The two cases might be
called twins. My case occurred in
Rhode Island. The parallel is the Lati-
mer case at Jackson, Mich. One win
ter morning, away back in the sixties,
Left the Providence train at a village,
about thirty miles away, to look for q
man for whom I had a warrant for
grand larceny. In walking from the
depot to the hotel Icame across a group
OF women at the gate of a fine old man
sion which stood back several rods from
thes street. They were nervous. and fret
ful. The house was the residence of q
Mrs. Brush and her son, she q widow
OF 20 years of age, and he a young man
OF ~. The hour wa II o'clock and they
were alarmed because there was no
stir about the house. 1t was known
that the son James had gone to Provi-
dence the fevening before, but the
mother was an early riser and the house
should have been open at z o'clock.
The milkman had been there, as also the
butcher boy and a laborer, but their
knocks had been unanswered. The
neighbors had at last come to have a
dreadful suspicion, and aconstable had
already been sent for to make an in
vestigation.
1t was in my line to be Interested and
to remain. When the constable came
we found that we had met before, and
he asked me as a favor to assist him.
He was nervous and excited, and we
both had the same feeling by the time
the house was entered. I would have
bet my life that the old woman was
dead and he was just as sure. We
knocked at the kitchen door until any
living person would have been aroused,
and then we broke it open and entered.
Everything in the kitchen was in order
and the same was true of the sitting
room and parlor. Mother and son oc-
oupied rooms up stairs. One of the
women piloted us directly to her room.
She lay upon the floor in her night
clothes in a pool of blood, stabbed in
five places. Foul murder had been
done. The first thing was to send for
the coroner, the next was to turn every
body out doors. The murdered woman
had relatives in town, and as soon as
they got the news and reached the spot
/ was engaged to take charge of the
case. I telegraphed to my chief at
Providence and was told to go ahead.
Half an hour later I was at work Be-
fore any persons were admitted I took
the constable through the house to look
for clues, and here is what T found:
/. The hey of the back door was miss
ing. There vas heavy bolton the in
side, but the bolt was not sprung. There
fore, some n had passed ouS this door
and looked it from outside.
2. There vas q stand in the kitchen,
and on this stand o pitcher of water and
a wash bowl, while a roller-tbwel hung
lei by. There were damp spots on
the towel. The pitcher was ON the floor,
half its contents gone, while a gill Of
hlocd-stained water remained in the
bowl. Conclusion: The murderer had
washed his hands here.
5. All hall ran through the house mp
stairs. At the real end Of this hall was
9 window, and beginning two feet below
the sill was the long slipping roof of the
kitchen and woodshed. The lowerisash
was raised: The sashshad been fast
sned with nails. These nails had been
pulled ont. foundlone Of them on