The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-04-21
A MOMENTS GLIMPSE.
Man Exactly Like Radloff Seen
Near Ballard.
SUPPOSED TO BE IN TACOMA.
seen In Disguise on Tuesday-One of
Two Graves May Have Been Robbed
That Registered Letter.

The mystery surrounding the wherea-
bouts OF William Radloff came little
nearer solution yesterday, and evidence is
accumulating to support the theory that
the man is still alive and that the burning
OF the house was the result of cocspir-
acy to defraud the life insurance COM
panies.
One man goes 50 far as to express the
belief that he saw Radlof alive on Tues
day evening. He is the motorman of
West street electric car, and says that
about O'Clock on that evening, while his
car was crossing the bridge across Salmon
bay on its way to Seattle, man sprang
from behind timber and hailed the car.
He jumped on the front platform and
asked:
rs there a waiting-room at Boulevard ?"
YES" answered the motorman, "and
there's fire IN there too, where you can
warm your whiskers."
The stranger wore heavy black beard,
that contrasted plainly with his light
complexion, and the motorman knew at a
glance that the whiskers were false. The
jesting allusion to his whiskers seemed to
alarm the stranger, for he Immediately
dropped from the car and ran toward Bal
gone short distance. and hide behind
heavy beam which extends across the
bridge. The motorman afterwards learned
that this same stranger took the next car
to Seattle, and dropped off on West street
near Lenora street. His description agrees
precisely with that of Radloff, excepting
the false whiskers.
Either to follow up this clew on the the
hat Ra6i off hnr ial to-
to visit his wife, who had returned to her
parents, or to conceal himself in some
way, or to watch the woman, Detective
Cudihee has gone to Tacoma. 1t is prob
able that he is shadowing the woman in
the hope that her husband will visit her.
1t is quite probable that he may have hung
around Seattle since Saturday morning on
the superstition that this was the most I'M
likely place where vigorous search would
be prosecuted.
The belief that corpse was stolen to
take Radloff's place in his bed had gained
such strong hold yesterday among those
investigating the case that Greenwood
cemetery became a center of attraction.
There is. it is true, one grave containing
only an empty box filed with water, but
it is not the one from which Radloff OBJ
tanned his decoy corpse. Mr.. E. B. Chester
died in the Idaho block, on Pike street,
November 20, and was buried in Green
wood cemetery the 22d. Her relatives did
not like the location of the cemetery and
had the remains exhumed the fol-
lowing day. In opening the grave
it was found that water had
settled around and filed the box. The
.casket was removed, but the case left in
the ground. At the north end of the row
of graves is pile of dirt which has been
thought to be fresh and taken from grave
within short time. John Wright. Sc xton
of the Odd Fellows cemetery, said yester-
day that that dirt had been there since
April 6, when Mrs. c. Auburn was buried.
The limited number of graves, all in one
corner. renders it an easy matter to fix
upon the one that might have been
robbed. There are nine graves in two
rows, one of five infants, the other of
grown persons. From the latter one body
is gone, one is that of a woman and one of
a man 80 years old. who was buried in the
latter part of February. The sex of the
ninth is not known. 1t is hardly presum-
able that the consprators would have
taken the body OF a woman, and thus only
two graves remained to choose from-that
| of the man and that OF the person whose
sex is not known. Opening these graves
would settle the question whether body
was stolen.
The incident of the registered letter
mailed at Fremont last Friday confirms
the belief that Kostrauch saw Radloff
that evening The description of the man
| who called for Radloff's mail just after the
| latter had registered the letter tallies with
| that of Kostrauch and it is probable that
| he went on to Radloff', ranch. The find
| ing of the receipt for the registered letter
| on his person shows that he must have
seen Radlof that evening. Probably he
was given it to take to Mrs. Radloff in Ia
coma and was on bis way there when IN
! expectedly arrested
Coroner Horton went to Fremont yes
| terday in relation to the case, but refused
| to say whether he had learned anything
new in regard to it.