Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-01-03
MYSTERIOUS MURDERS.
WOMEN KILLED IN NEW YORK CITY
AND THEIR SIAYERS NEVER FOUND.
Tho Pretty Cigar Girl Whose Story Poo
Made the Basis of Novel-Murders
Outxy

Made the Basis of a Noyel-Murders
without Apparent Motive-The Police
Outwitted.
New York las produced as many mysteri-
Gus murders il which women have been vic
Tins as London. Many of them were quite
as atrocious as the famous Whitechapel
crimes and as full of mystery as the murder
of Eva Mitchell or Amelia Olsen in Chicago.
Not all the murders of women i'll this town
have remained mysteries, but there are ten
or a dozen no5able cases in which the stories
of the crimes have never been revealed and
probably never will he. The story of New
Yorks inexplcabe murders of women begins
way back il 1886. April 0 OF that year
Dorcas Boyar alias Helen Jewitt, was found
with her throat cut 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 vas simply the beginning. IL
was followed six years later by what is still
known as the Cigar Girl Mystery" which
j. one of New York's most famous crimes.
Pretty Mary Rogers sold cigars at a little
store on Broadway. She was bright and vi
vacious and popular with the customers who
throuGed the little store. Among all her ac-
ouaintances there was none who could name
an enemy, nor was she known to have been
undCly intimate with any man. One day in
1872 she was found murdered. The news of
the crime caused the greatest sensation New
York had experienced since her evacuation
by the Brit sh 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 com nitted the crime and the cause
of it remain as much a mystery today as
ever. EdSa. Allan Poe perpetuated the
dreadful stoly by making it tue basis of his
novel, The Mystery of Marie Roget" and
there is no New Yorker who has not heard
of Mary Roger 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
1884. two men were removing some debris in
the subce.lar of the Carlton house. From
beneath quantity of loose dirt well shaped
woman's hand was first exposed. Then the
body of - good looking woman was found
She was clad in maroon colored dress, but
there was no mark on her person or clothing
by which she could be identified. Everything
which could possibly lesd to the discover of
who she was had been removed The person
or persons Interested in getting her out of the
way were eIlinently successful, not only in
that, but in Concealing their own or her iden-
tity. Even tue time when the murder was
committed or when she was probably con-
cealed in the cellar was never approximately
fixed. The police believe that Benjamin
Grau, who il now serving q ten year sem
tence in the Trenton penitentiaS-y, had some
thing to do With the crime, and will try to
fasten it on lin when his time OF imprison-
ment expires, but there is little chance that
they will.