Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-05-18
rrRoM A STAFF CORRESPONDENCE


like coil of steel around William West,
the colored man accused of the Crouch
triple murder. The investigating officers
have given up all notion of any other
theories, and are engaged solely in investi-
eating the movements Of West. The evil
dence discovered to-day is OF vital import
ance.
This forenoon an Information was made
before Mayor Houston by Officer William
McCleary charging William West with the
murder Of John Crouch, Emily Crouch and
Andrew Crouch on May 13. A warrant was
served on West in the Jail. The Mayor de.
cided to postpone the preliminary hearing
until Monday, at 10 o'clock, when it will
positively be held. Officers McCleary and
Kornman and the correspondent of The
DISPATCH visited Bentleysville together
this afternoon. Subpenas to appear as wit
nesses were served on all persons whose
testimony is considered valuable, and many
such were found after the officers reached
the scene.
THE SUSPECTED MANS SHOES.
The old shoes worn by West on the day
of the murder were taken along. They are
peculiar because his foot is long. broad and
fat The shoes are just IL inches long,
inches across the ball OF the foot and 3
inches across the bottom of the heel. They
are number II shoes, and square toed.
The first inquiry was as to the time West
left his parents house. He said in Jail
yesterday he left at II o'clock or
little later. 1t would be necess-
ary TO leave at that hour TO make the
long detour Of 20 miles around the
country which he says he made, and get
to Monongahela City by o'clock. Obadiah
Sprowls says he left Bentleysville about
12:45 for Bealesville, and when he passed
the West shanty, half mile up the road,
Mrs. West was at the gate. She asked:
"Did you meet Biil?" Sprowls said he did
not. Mrs. West said: "Why, he just
srarted down the road to BentleysviIle."
The time Sprowls started is confirmed by
other persons. This shows West left home
between 1890 and /. He left the highway
short distance below the shanty
and struck through the woods. That point
is very little over half mile across Pigeon
| run from the Crouch house. To 60 to the
Crouch house West must have entered the
woods just about where he really did. He
| says buhb uc ulO uOt CTObs tue tucEc, pub
walked up the valley a mile.
THE THEORY ADOPTED.
The theory is that West hid in the woods
| for an hour, watching the farmhouse across
the narrow valley. Finley Bedsworth and
Harry Mains, who live in Bentleysville, were
narrowing one OF Crouch's fields last Tuesday
afternoon. At just about 2 o'clock heavy
rain began and the men went to the barn
and put up the horses. They then hurried
to Bentleysville. When they left the Crouch
house old man Crouch was ut the back door
and Andrew was out in the shed. That was
the last they were seen alive. Andrew went
into the house and took off his damp shoes
and sat in his stocking feet by the CRATE.
His father took up bucket Of dishwater to
carry 1t out but it was raining hard and he
placed the bucket just inside the kitchen
door. There 1t was found. Many facts
show that the murder occurred by day.
What did the murderer carry away with
him7 Elizabeth Griffith and her husband
said to-day her father had over 50, 000 in the
house two years ago. He kept his money in
tin boz, painted brown, with a lid that
locked. This boz was kept in his bedroom,
and 1t is missing. Was it In the satohei
which West has seereted7 The murderer
went into the bedroom FIRST, ief there his
bleody club was iolhd on chair. West
knew the house well, He worked there dur
Ing several hafvestiHgs Last summer when
the thfeshihg was done, Andrew Crouch
went, upstairs TO get money TO pay the
thfeshefs,
West followed him upstairs and thus
found where Andrew Kept bis meHey.
LHFF=HAfBEB BLOWS,
John Crouch and his son we're struck on
the right side of the neck, or by left=haHded
blows, Mrs Crouch was sitting, 80 that she
may have been bit either from behind or In
front, Several witnesses will testify that
West handled his knife a. the table with the
left hand, and sometimes used his pick left
handed in digging coal, When the murderer
left the house by the rear door he struck
back across the fields and woods almost In
bee line ior Monongahels City, keeping
naturally as far from the iarmhouses as pos
sible, The rear of the farm OF A. T. Finley
adjoins the rear Of the Crouch farm.
Al 4l5 Mrs, Finley saw man crossing
a wheat field between her house and that OF
John Jones' He was going from the direction
In which the Crouch house was located, and
was walking very fast with his head down.
Mrs. Finley says he was O large, tall man
with q dark stiff hat and q long coat. 1t
was raining very hard, and he was so far from
the house, Mrs. Finley says, that she could
not say whether he was black or white. The
man was seen by Miss Jane Jones passing
across their farm. Her statement could not
be obtained to-day, but IL is said her descrip-
tion Is about the same as that OF Mrs. Fin |
ley. In crossing the soft fields on the Fin |
ley and Jones farms the murderer left
marks Of his shoes in the earth.
VESTS SHOES FIT EXACTLY.
Some of the footprints are still very plain,
especially in an oat field on the Finley
farm. The officers fitted Vests oddly-
shaped shoes into large number of those
footprints. The fit was exact. Although
they expected it, even the officers were
startled. Footprints in the same. line have
been traced across the farms of Greenlee,
Saulten and Moreton further north. Some
plain prints on the Greenlee farm were seen |
yesterday by John Hollins, a shoemaker at
Bentleysville. He said at once: 81 believe |
L made the shoes that made those tracks for |
Bill West last winter"
If the murderer continued across the |
country seven miles in a nearly straight
line, little east of north, he would strike |
the Monongahela pike, between two and |
three miles west of this city. At about 6 |
o'clock that evening tall negro, undoubt- |
edly. West, with his hat pulled over his |
eyes, stopped at the keystone stock farm of |
Captain Mart Coulson, two miles out on the |
pike, and asked for drink. He was given |
a glass of water. He took small sip Of it |
and threw the rest on the ground He asked |
how far it was to Monongahela City and |
hurried on.
THE CHANGE OF CLOTHING.
West came here, found the woman,
bought pair of stockings and shoes, and |
before he appeared next morning changed |
all his clothing, His stiff bat vest and |