Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1892-01-14
PROBING THE MYSTERY,
Detectives Still Working at the
Delaware City Murder Case.


Observation-Disclosures of the Crime.
State Detectives McVey and Witsil
returned from Delaware City Thursday
evening, having spent the entire day in
searching for additional evidence con-
Meeting the three negroes, George Henry
HUT, Julia HUT and Jim johnson, and
two others with the murder of Noah
Benson. They succeeded in adding one
more link to the chain of circumstantial
evidence, which gradually seems to en-
Irvine about the prisoners.
The detectives discovered the mys-
FERROUS black valise which Jim johnson
was seen carrying in the direction of
after Benson's headless corpse was
GERS also succeeded in worming from
George Borgher the positive fact that
he saw George Henry HUT, Jim john
son, "Long" Jane Evans, Ella King
and Noah Benson pass his house and 60
In the direction of the HUT house on
Thanksgiving night. the last time Ben
son was seen on earth.
THE LAST SEEN OF BENSON.
Borgher Is the witness who was afraid
to tell all he knew of the bearing before
Mayor Reybold on Tuesday last, because
he said he was afraid of the prisoners
and their friends. Borgher conducts
feed store at Delaware City. Thursday
he made a full and open statement to
the detectives.
Borgher said that about a week before
the crime is supposed to have been
perpetrated he found Moan Benson
lying drunk upon his porch. He had
great difficulty in getting him off the
porch of the house but finally succeeded.
On Thanksgiving night the attention of
Borgher was attracted by the curses of
some one outside the house, which Is
| situated at the corner Of the street facing
| the canal and the street leading down to
the railroad station. Borgher came out
on his porch on hearing the cursing.
There is light on his corner of the
street and under this light, Borgher
| positively asserts, he recognized the
negroes who were raising disturbance
passing along the street. They came
| from the direction of PollStown. Borgher
| says that there were five or six in the
party. He recognized "Longn Jane
Evans and Ella King proceeding at
| some distance in advance of the rest.
Then came George Henry HUT, he says;
Noah Benson was in the middle and
Jim johnson was limping along at some
distance behind the others.
| The party was just approaching
| Borgher's house, and Borgher, who re-
mcmbered that he had had such time
in eiecting Benson from his porch a
week prior to this, saw that Benson was
drunk again. Benson was boisterous.
Borgher noticed this, and said: you
had better take that man away" John
son, who is lame, was hobbling along
behind Benson, and he at once said:
Gwen take care of him." The party
then proceeded in the direction of Hutt's
| house, and that was the last Borgher
| saw of them.
Borghcr told the detectives Thursday
that the reason he withheld this state
ment was because he was afraid of the
| prisoners, and besides he knew he would
be called upon to testify to what he saw
and heard at court, and this he desired to
avoid. He said he would now testify
and tell all he knew.
THE BLACK vALIsE FOUND.
The detectives, after obtaining a full
statement from Borgher, proceeded to
the HUT house and searched II again
from top to bottom. Their search re-
vealed the black valise, which will play
a part in the tragedy and may yet lead
to some developments not yet made
public. The detectives searched high
and low for quilt which the prisoners
talked about in their cell at Delaware
City on Tuesday, when GAZETTE
representative and j. H. Dilworth over
heard their conversation. The prisoners
referred to this quilt, the bloody shirt
and a skirt, and said the officers had not
yet found them. The shirt and skirt
were found since. 1t was thought the
quilt might be found saturated with
blood in the HUT house, but diligent
search on the part of the detectives failed
to discover it. The detectives also
searched the house of "Long" Jane
Evans and Sarah Field, in Delaware
City, and the house of Deborah Moody,
mother of Mrs. HUT, and the Hickman
house, mile from Delaware City. 1t
was learned from people living In the
vicinity of Hutt's house that previous to
Thanksgiving the house was frequently
the scene Of noisy and drunken brawls,
but since that night the neighbors say
they have not heard sound about the
house at night. A family which lives
along side Of the Hutt's will not have a
word to say when questioned as to
whether they heard any sounds in the
house on Thanksgiving night and have
a secret dread, it is said, Of being sum
moned to testify at court, The same is
true in the case of others who, it is
thought, could tell something about the
movements OF the prisoners the night of
the murder, but their lips are closed and
they positively do not want to testify at
court during the trial.
THEORY or THE CRIME.
Those who are firm in their belief
that the prisoners in Jail at New Castle
are implicated in the murder advance
the theory that the decapitation of Ben
son was done in the rear shed of the
HUT house, which is used as kitchen;
that the remains were not thrown into
the canal until decomposition began to
set In, and that this accounts for the fact
that no water was found in the lungs
when the hcadess trunk was discovered.
If the head was also deposited in the
canal, ii is argued, that the fishes would
have eaten all the flesh off by this time
and that the skull would remain in the
bottom. II is thought the decapitation
was done to prevent Identification, and
Ii the murderers had been seen with
Benson on the night of the murder they
undoubtedly would have known that If
the man was found murdered, suspicion
would Immediately point to them as the
perpetrators of the crime. Consequently
the mutilation OF Noah Benson's body
may have been done on this account.
If he had been found with his clothing
on, his friends would recognize him by
the garments and so the most logical
reasoning is that the murderers chopped