Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1892-01-21
THE "sLAsHER" CAUGHT

Bloody Crimes in New York Arrested at
His Sanguinary Occupatlon-He Had q
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 $50 o'clock Of the same
day, 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
street. 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
Byrpes 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 8. He expected to prove,
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
fourth precinct December 81 The vic
tins were:
Dec 28-James Helfn-The mucles of his
neck were severed by single blow Of a knife
or razor.
Jan. 2-George Wilson.-Was found living in
Oliver street with his cheek laid open. He told
the same story of a mysterious assailart that
Helm had told.
Jan. 8--Louis Lawson-Early in the morning
policeman discovered him bleeding frcm a
cash across his nose and cheek He could tell
no more about his injuries and the way in
which they had been received than Helm and
Wilson could of theirs.
Jan. l0-John Clark-He was found uncon-
;ious from loss of blood. He was slashed
eeply in the left cheek and 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 serious.
IAN. 15-John Carson-Found dead with his
throat cut from ear to ear. This was the first
fatality in the series
Jan. 17-William Milier-Throat sashed
l. After Clark had been slashed 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.
OConnor's command who was sent ont
Saturday night disguised as an ordi-
nary citizen was William II. Masterson.
He was watching at New Bowery and
Cham bers street shortly after s 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 proc, aimed him to be intox.
icated. The drunkard staggered and
supported himself by putting his hand
on q 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 band, and dash across The
street, while the drunkard fell to the
walk. Then came a summons for help
from Masterson, and he started in pur-
suit down Batavia street, followed by
Officers McCrary, Weidemeyer and
Carter The fugitive was soon caught.
When his right hand was drawn from
his pocket it clutched a razor that was
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 6.
Dowd, while his victim was recorded
as William Miller of No. 1926 Cherry
street.
Dowd was not disposed to talk at
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-
ton was: "The only reason l 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
found drunken man lying in
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 full
statement, he recanted and denied hav-
ing committed such crimes or having
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 prisoner in
Sing Sing, sentenced to a fve-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 a two