River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1892-01-21
The "sLAsHER" CAUGHT.

| The "SLASHER" CAUGHT.
The Perpetrator of Many Mysterious and
Bloody Grimes In New York Arrested at
His sanguinary Occupation-He Had a
Mania for Cutting the Threats of
Drunken Men.
/ NEW YORK, Jan. 1s.-William Dowd
was arraigned in the Tombs police
court before Judge Duffy. charged with
cutting the throat of William Miller
at $3.50 o'clock of the same
| lay, and was committed with
out bail. There is no doubt
whatever that Dowd is the mysterious
man who has come to be known
in the vicinity of Oak Station house as
"Jack the Slasher" Unquestionably
it was he who early Friday morning
murdered John Carson in Christie
treet. Carson was found lying lifeless
on his back, his throat cut from ear to
ear.
! Dowd was arrested. red-handed, with
in two minutes from the time he com
mitted his latest crime. Inspector
/ Byrnes told Sunday afternoon how
Dowd came to be arrested, and estab-
lished beyond doubt that he was
a homicidal crank and that he
was guilty of slashing William
Miller early Sunday morning and John
Clark January Q. He expected to prove,
I he said, that he killed Lawyer Carson
| in Christie street last Friday. These
mysterious assaults on intoxicated men
began in the lower part of the eleventh
precinct and the upper part OF the
4 fourth precinct December 27 The vic
| Tins were:
Dec. 2s-James HelAn--The mucles of his
+ neck were severed by a single blow Of knife
or razor.
/ Jan s-Gcorge wilson-was found lying in
Oliver street with his cheek laid open. He told
I the same story of a mysterious assailant that
Helm had told.
Jan. s-Louis Lawson-Early in the morning
! q policeman discovered him bleeding from
I cash across his nose and cheek He could tell
no more about his injuries and the way in
which they hal been received than HELM and
Wilson could Of theirs.
Jan. 10-JOhn Clark-lle was found uneon-
scious frofl loss OF blood He was slasned
deeply in tile left check md on the neck
Jan. l3-John Donohue-He stated that he
had been stabbed Just below the heart He
showed the wound, which was not serioss.
| Jan. i5-John Carson-F'ound dead with ms
/ throat cut from ear 10 ear. This was the first
/ fatality in the series.
Jan. I7-william Miller-Throat slashed.
| After Clark had been slashed a plan
! to capture the slasher was agreed
upon. Twenty detective sergeants and
/ details of men in citizens clothes were
put on watch. One member of Capt
1 O'Connor's command who was sent out
4 Saturday night disguised as an ordi-
nary citizen was William III. Masterson.
/ He was watching at New Bowery and
1 Chambers street shortly after 6 o'clock
and saw a man slouching along warily
aud watchfully on the other side of the
street.
The officer Swallowed him until at
the corner of Oak and Roosevelt streets
/ he saw him fix his attention on a man
whose gait proclaimed him to be intox'
| icated. The drunkard staggered and
supported himself by putting his hand
on railing. The man with the
handkerchief looked in every di-
rection for several seconds and
then slouched toward the intoxicated
man.
In the next three seconds Masterson
saw the man with the handkerchief
seize the other around the neck with
| his left hand, make quick motion with
the right hand, and dash across the
street, while the drunkard fell TO the
walk Then came a summons for help
| from Masterson, and he started il pur'
suit down Batavia street, followed by
! Officers McCrary, Weidemeyer and
| Carter. The fugitive was soon caught.
When his right hand was drawn from
i Il
wet with blood
While Masterson rushed the prisoner
TO the Oak street station house, near
| by, the other officers attended to the
drunken man, who was bleeding from
\ a cash in the throat, which was pre-
cisely the same, but not so deep, as the
wound on Lawyer Carson. The pris-
oner had given his name as Henry G.
| Dowd, while his victim was recorded
as William Miller, of No 326 Cherry
street.
Dowd was not disposed to talk al
first. All he would say was that he
acted in self-defense. Some man jostled
him; he feared violence aud used the
razor.
Inspector Byrnes had several talks
with him and finally Dowd made
the admission that he was
possessed by a mania that he could
not control, and that was to kill "a
Dutchman." He repeated this several
times, and his most emphatic declara-
tion was: THE only reason have for
doing this is to kill Dutchman, and
I'm looking for them all the time. !"
But while at one time Dowd admit
ted that this homicidal impulse made
him attack Miller, and after admitting
not only that Clark's Identification OF
him was just and that he
Christie street Friday morning and cut
his throat, and that he had com
mitted many such crimes and had
recorded them by day and date, and
that some day he would make a full
statement, he recanted and denied hav-
made such statements
Inspector Byrnes learned in Brook.
lyn that Dowd had been confined in
the Flatbush insane asylum mum Der
of years ago, but had escaped and had
not been recaptured. He also found
that he had been a prisoner in
Sing Sing, sentenced to a fiye-year
term for cutting man in New York,
but had been pardoned through the in
tercession of some prominent people in
New York after he had served two
years term.