Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-01-09
MYSTERIOUS MURDERS.
WOMEN KILLED IN NEW YORK CITY
AND THEIR SLAYERS NEVER FOUND.

The Pretty Cigar Girl Whose Story PEG
Made the Basis of q Norcl-Musders
without Apparent 8Io6ve-The Police
Outwitted.
New York has produced as many mysteri-
GUS murders in which women have been vic
Tins as London. Many of them were quite
| IS atrocious as the famous Whitsehapel
crimes and as full of mystery as the murder
Of Eva Mitchell or Amelia Olsen in Chicago
| Not all the murders of women in this town
have remained mysteries, but there are ten
or dozen notable cases in which the stories
of the crimes have never been revealed and
| probably never viii he. The story Of New
FORKS inexphcable murders of women begins
way back in 1896. April of that year
! Dorcas Boyan, alias Helen levitt, was found
with her throat cut. a Her murderer was
never captured or even known. The old
residents of New York can still recall the
sensation caused at the time by the murder.
This case was simply tie beginning. II
was followed six years later by what is still
! known as the Cigar Girl Mystery" which
! is one of New York's most famous crimes.
| Pretty Mary Rogers sold cigars at little
| store on Broadway. She was bright and vi
| vacious and popular with the customers who
| thronged the little store. Among all her &C
| quaintances there was none who could name
an enemy, nor was she known to have been
undaly intimate with any man One day in
1912 she was found murdered. The peWs Of
the crime caused the greatest sensation New
York had experienced since her evacuation
by the British soldiery. The girl was so
widely known and so universally liked that
the whole population was interested in find
ing the murderer, but the name of the per-
son who committed the crime and the cause
Of it remain as much q mystery today as
ever. Edgar Allan Poe perpe5uated the
dreadful story by making it the basis of his
novel, The Mystery of Marie Roget" and
there is no New Yorker who has not heard
OF Mary Rogers murder.
THE CARLTON HOUSE CASE
Women murder mysteries have become
more frequent in recent years. The famous
Carlton house murder was the most sensa-
tional within the last decade In December.
1854, two men were removing some debris in
the subcellar Of the Carlton house. From
beneath quantity of loose dirt well shaped
womans hand was first exposed. Then the
body OF good looking woman was found
She was cled in a maroon colored dress but
there was no mark OF her person or clothing
by which she could be identified. EVERYTHING
which could possibly lead to the discovery of
who she was had been removed The person
or persons interested ! getting her out of the
way were enincntly successful, not only in
that, but in concealiDg their own or her iden-
tity. Even the time when the murder was
committed or when she was probably con-
cealed In the cellar wa never approximately
fixed. The police believe that Benjamin
Grau, who is now serving a ten year SEN
tence in the Trenton penitentiary, had some
thing to 90 with the crime, and will try to
fasten it on him when his time Of inprison-
nlent expires, but there is little chance that
they will.
THE RYAN MURDER.
The crime which most nearly resembles
those Of the Whitecharel fiend was the MUIR
der Of Mary Ryan anl her brother Nicholas
Ryan, at No. 20i Broome street, in December,
1873. Three lives were really taken, because
Mary Ryan was found to be enceinte. The
murder of this sister and brother was a most
bloody one, and, like the one which cost Fora
Burns her life at Lincoln, Ills, in 1883, was
probably committed to shield the poor girls
betrayer. Undoubtedly the brother was
killed while trying TO avenge his sister. He
engaged his slayer III tremendous struggle
Mary was found lying with her face on the
bed mattress with her throat cut from ear to
ear. Her brothers body lay in the hallway
His throat was also cut, but the floor and
walls were bespattcred with blood, and there
were signs OF q desperate struggle The
brothers body was clothed in night attire.
and it was evident that be had been avak- |
ened by the struggle which cost his sister her
life, and in going to her assistance had lost
his own. The name of Mary Ryans betrayer
and the slayer Of herself, her brother and her
unborn infant has remained a secret for fiji T
teen years.
Annie Downey was flower girl and was
well known about town in 1879 and $780,
People Familiarity spoke OF her as Blonde
Annie" or "Curley Tom tao flower girl. I
In personal appearance slio w>s attractive. .
Early in 1880 she was found dead il q kouSa /
kept by woman named Sundt IN Primes .
street. None Of the Whitechapel crimes CT.
ceeded this one in atrocity. The girls head /
was tied firmly to the bed on which she lay,
and she was cut in several places. Who did |
it? That's what the New Yorl: police tried .
to find out and couldn't, nor did they ever
discover who shot Josephine ForteIla, aged /
%, at No. II James street, iii September,
1854 Equally mysterious was the death of
ali unknown woman whose body was found .
at the corner of Elizabeth and Blocker
streets in 1876. The murder Of Mary Howard .
in East Eighty-first street about ten years
ago was never satisfactorily explained. Ii
was supposed that her husband killed her,
but that fact was never fully established. and
he has SO far eluded the vigilant police.-New
York Cor, Chicago Tribune.
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