Wichita eagle., 1889-07-16
Green The next.

L
mystery, and said that the police had
absolutely no clew to the murderer
"As l had hoped, that encouraged
some person who had known Harriet
Wardrop to come forward. A small,
neatly dressed, respectable looking, mid
die aged man, with keen, furtive eyes
and an habitually deprecatory manner,
presented himself at the inquest. He
! came to see if the woman, whose death
he had read of in the morning paper,
was his wife, from whom he had sepa-
rated in Philadelphia year before, and
| had not seen or heard from since. His
name? John Wardrop. His occupation!
| DYER. Where did he work? With Henri
Detaille & Co., Partisan dyers, on
| Bleecker street. Yes, the dead woman
was his wife. He recognized her per-
fectly, and the sight made him weep.
Poor woman, she was hard to get along
with, but she had good heart.
81 made an excuse of his signing a
formal recognition to get him to take off
his gloves. His hand was of brilliant
orange tint. While the coroner kept
him in attendance at the inquest I hur-
ried to Detaille & Co.. s dye house to ask
! some questions.
Eyes, John Wardrop worked there.
He was quiet, steady man and an ex-
cellent workman. They had employed
! him about ten months. Did they know
anything more about him? No, except
that they fancied there was likely to be
match between him and Jane Blair, a
good looking, plump woman about 30
years old, who had been their cashier
for several years. Had they done any
dark blue dyeing lately? Yes, only the
day before yesterday. Who did the
work? John Wardrop.
II saw Jane Blair. With good deal
of hesitancy she admitted that she and
John Wardrop were engaged to be mar
| ried as soon as he got divorce from a
bad wife who had left him, and expect
ed that he would soon be free. Was she
well informed as to his habits? Perfect
ly. They boarded in the same house, on
West Washington place, and he very
seldom went out in the evening. Did he
go out the night before last? No; they
parted on the stairs going to their respec-
tive rooms at twenty minutes before 10
o'clock, their usual hour for retiring. He
could have gone out afterward without
her knowing it? Yes, but of course he
didn't.
When I got back to the inquest the
coroner's jury had just returned a ver-
dot fbot tba 5acao cod bo6 cop,a fo bar
death by violence at the hand OF hands Of
some person unknown. l had made up
my mind i arrest John Wardrop on sus-
picion, but was in no hurry about it. AS
l had not been on the stand l did not
have to tell anything of my suspicious
ani the potato could not give anything
away, for I had it safely in my pocket,
wrapped in tissue paper. The reporters
went away to write the case up as pro-
founder mystery than before. John
Wardrop went to borrow some money
from his employers to give his poor wife
decent burial. And I, having taken
time to get a warrant for his arrest, fol-
lowed him.
''He paled slightly and showed some
embarrassment when L entered the dye
room, where he was doing some work
that had to be done by him and could
rot wait until the morrow. Still he con-
trolled himself, and sought to cover his
nervousness by talking. 1 said little,
and let him talk on, which was the worst
thing he could have done, for thinking
up SO many words led him away, now
and then, from the straight story he had
made up. At last, when deemed the
time ripe for it, slipped the potato out
of my pocket and, suddenly holding it
up before him, said:
"'You should have washed your hands
before you grabbed this potato out Of
the dishpan on the table
"He threw up his hands with shrek
and sank down on a bench, all limp and
broken up. Before he could recover him
self he confessed. He and Harriet had
quarreled for years and finally separated.
Then after time she had made up her
mind to get possession of him again,
found where he was and sent him word
that he must visit her hate at night, when
she would be alone, to discuss the situa-
ton He went, but the sight Of her and
thoughts of Jane Blair, with whom he
had fallen in love in the meantime, since
parting with his wife, made him des-
perate.
Il asked him how he had managed to
strangle her SO quietly and without
any struggle, when she seemed to have
double his strength. He explained that
he possessed sufficient mesmeric force
to render her passive, and had employed
it on that occasion.
Having rendered her completely I'M
conscious by mesmerizing her, the rest
was easy. I could not help feeling some
sympathy for him when he said she was
a tartar still business was business, and
when / had heard him through 1 told
him:
Now, John, get your coat on and
come along
In moment, sir. Let me wash off
some of this dye first
Il aSsented. He washed, pouring
some stuff over his hands from bottle,
to take the color out, as ! supposed
Suddenly he turned the bottle up to his
lips and took big swallow of its con-
tents before l could jump to him and
grab him. As l seized him the bottle
dropped to the floor and smashed, while
he dropped into my arms as dead as
maui. Cyanide Of potassium, as sub