Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-07-23
HIRED TO DO MURDER.
An Aged Physician and Two Others
Charged With Homicide.
A BEAUTIFUL GIRL THE VICTIM.
The Aged Assassin Bears the Corpse
Through New York Streets.
HELD BY HIS SIDE IN A BUGGY
ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DISPATCH,

result three persons have been arrested on a
charge of homicide. The police say Annie
! Goodwin. OF harlem, girl employed in
Halls cigarette factory, was tortured to
| death within the past two weeks;
J that her lover paid for killing her; that she
was buried in st. MichaeI's Cemetery,
Jersey City, under the name of Jane VIII
son, and, strange to say, although the death
certificate was dated July II. the girl died
July II.
1t was last Friday that a person, whose
| identity the police will not reveal, overheard
| in an elevated train part of con onversation
| between two passengers sitting in the next
| seat ahead. From the snatches of talk that
reached him, he gathered that girl of the
name of Annie Goodwin had disappeared
from her home at 227 East One Hundred and
Twenty-sixth street. She had been in
trouble and an operation had been per-
formed, after which she had not been heard
from.
THREE PERSONS ARRESTED.
The listner thought the matter important
enough to require Investigation, and. know
ing Detective Price, in the One Hundred
and Twenty-sixth street police station, went
around and told him of it upon reaching
Harlem, 1t was Saturday night before the
detect ives got fair start and early morning
to-day before they began to see
the end of it. At that hour
the One Hundred and Twenty-sixth street
police station held the following prisoners
charged with homicide: Gus Harrison. 26
years, % West One Hundred and Twentieth
street, gentleman of leisure; DR.. Henry G..
| MeGonigal. 10 years, 217 West One Hun
dred and Twenty-third street; Fannie Shaw,
washerwoman, III East One Hundred and
Fifth street.
These witnesses were also detained"
Sadie Traphagen, j. E. McCrady and, ALBERT
Harrison, young boy who lives with the
prisoner, Fannie Shaw. Each of the six
had admitted more or less of what he or she
knew of the affair except DIR. MaGonigaI,
who denied everything.
Mrs. Shaw is repulsive-looking woman,
and, by her own confession, worked cheap.
The doctor paid her $40 for the job in in
stallments The diamond earrings, gold
watch and other jewelry OF the victim which
she wore when she entered her den have,
however, yet to be accounted for.
THE DEAD GIRLS PAST.
Annie's lover was rich-at all events he
had money to spend on the girl. He is said
by the police to be well connected in Har-
lem. If the picture of the young woman
does not lie-and, on the contrary, every
body says that it does not do her Justice
she must have been very beautiful. The
face is sweet and crowned BY raven curls,
the figure perfect, her dress simple but
tasteful.
Very little more is known about Annie's
past than about her present, but the detec-
tives hope soon to throw light both ways on
her career. She lived with her sister in
Harlem when young Harrison crossed her
path. Thenceforth their paths were one
Soon after her sister turned her out of the
house on account of Harrison's visits, and
Annie went to live at Mrs. Traphagen's,
227 East One Hundred and Twenty-sixth
street, where her lovers visits were con-
ti1ued. On July she lett her room and
did not return. She was
NEVER SEEN AFTERwARD
by the Traphagens. It was at this point
that the police took up the the thread of the
narrative. They followed it through tan
gle to boarding house kept by Mrs. Col
lins, at 152 East One Hundred and Twenty
seventh street. Annie remained there only
till the night of July 4, confined to her room
and in bed all the time. At 10 o'clock that
evening, DR.. McGonigal, who had visited
her there, came to the house and took her
away in his gig. He did not tell anyone in
the house where he was going, and all trace
OF him and of the girl was lost again tor
more than whole day.
The detective then came upon a clew
which led to the den of the washerwoman,
Fannie Shaw, at III East One Hundred and
Fifth street. Sne was taken directly there
by the doctor, and there she died on the
evening of July IL. On the day she died
she completed her twenty-frst year, and her
sister, at her home, was hoping that at last
she would hear from Annie. When she did
it was to be told that she had been foully
murdered.
RODE WITH THE CORPSE.
At 2 o'clock on the following morning
the two-wheeled gig that had brought the
girl to the house halted in front of l19 East
One Hundred and Fifth street, next door to
Mrs. Shaw's house, and an old man got out.
1t was DIR. McGonigal.
Before he had time to pull the bell her
door was opened and he went up to the
Shaw fiat on the fourth floor. Half an hour
later the door was opened and head was
thrust forth. looking sharply up and down
the street. Everything was quiet. The
head was Withdrawn and the door opened
wider. The old doctor came out, staggering
under q heavy burden wrapped in a bed
quilt He carried it to the gig, thrust it |
into the seat, an unwieldy thing, and getting
in beside it, whipped up his horse and drove |
away.
The something that sat beside him |
wrapped in the bed quilt on the seat, as he
drove through the silent streets In the glim- |
mering gray of that early dawn, past police |
men on their beats, past athousand sleepers |
in their beds, that something was corpse. |
the body of the murdered Annie Goodwin.
if the story told by the witnesses is true.
NO FURTHER cLEws.
The detectives searched a trunk which |
had belonged to the missing girl, but it re-
vealed no clew. Detectives Mott and Price
made no further advance until they arrested
Sadie Traphagen, who ior two years had |
been companion of the missing GIRL
Questioning brought out. little by little, the
rest OF the story. She told the officers about
Mrs Shaw. This was all the clew disclosed.
Detective Price, by shrewd questioning and
with a display of roll of money ELECTED
from the woman Shaw that Annie Good
win had died right in her rooms with no
one present but herself, also duplicating DR..
McGonigal.
A search through the records at the Board
of Health show that death certificate was
issued to c. Merritt on July II. 1t said that
Jane Wilbur, aged 90 years, had died of
consumption at 239 East One Hundred and
Eighth street The interment was at st.
Michaei's Cemetery. 1t was signed by DR..
McGonigal.
Jane Wilbur was Annie Goodwin, and
when these facts were brought to the doc
tors notice he admitted the deceit and said
the certificate had been dated day ahead