St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-02-23
MURDERER OF ERICKSON
BELIEVED TO Sc nv THE Tolls or
DETECTIVES.
Two MEN IN POLICE HANDS.

Th circumstances Surrounding
Charles Meyers Look Dark-He
Is Identified as Deing the Muir,
derer by the Brother of the
Murdered Man-Also by An
other Man.
Unless Charles Meyers can satisfy the
detectives as to his whereabouts on the
night of Feb. l. between $50 and $50
O'Clock. he stands a good chance of
being charged with the murder of Mar
tin p. Erickson. II
Meyers was n of the two men ar.
rested Wednesday night by Detective
Werrick, an account of which was
published in the GLOBE of yesterday.
Meyers IL Joseph Mckinney have
been '%'baching" in part of a small
shanty known as No. Is Swede hollow
for the last four months. When arrested
Mckinney was taken to the Margaret
street station and Meyers TO the central
station. This was done in order that
the men could have no communication
pending an examination by the de-
tectiveS.
Some of the police officials do not put
much stock in the statements that either
Meyers or Mckinney We're connected
with the killing of Erickson. but those
of the force who have been working on
the case say the circumstances are such
as to warrant their being held for inyes-
tigation.
Meyers. who is a Dane. was kept at
the central station yesterday. and was
not allowed to see any N except the
detectives, Shortly after 2 O'Clock
Edward Erickson, brother of the
murdered man, was brought to the
station by Detective Werrick, for
the purpose OF Identifying the pris-
oner as the assassin. Edward Erickson,
1t will be remembered, met the muir
derefof his brother within a few feet
OF the shop just after the shots had been
fired. AT the time Edward Erickson
was shouting 'Police!" at the top of
his voice, and the murderer, after leav-
ing the shop by breaking out the glass
in the door, came within five or six
feet of Erickson, and pointing a re-
volver at him, commanded him to shut
up or he would shoot him, too.
Erickson, when confronted with
Meyers at the station. at once identified
the prisoner as the man who shot his,
brother, and who threatened to shoot
lin. He was very positive about it,
and after hearing Meyers talk reiterat-
ed his statement. aud said he could not
be mistaken.
Ole Nelson and John Martinson, the
two men who stood across the street
from the butcher shop at the time the
assassin was making his escape, we're.
also at the station with Erickson.
positively identify Meyers as the same
man they saw because they were not.
near enough to distinguish his features
on the night of the murder. Both men,
however, stated that Meyers answered.
IN every particular as to size, height
and appearance to the man who broke
out the door of the butcher shop after
the shots were fired. Ole Nelson testi-
fed at the coroner's inquest that he did
not hear the murderer threaten to shoot
Edward Erickson, but John Martinson
said he heard the threat made 10y. the
murderer, and yesterday at the Station
vas very certain that the voice of
Meyers was much the same as that OF
the man who threatened to kill Edward
Erickson unless he stopped making a
noise.
A bartender at John Norman's sa-
loon. which is next door to the scene of
tho rnnrdor- xr,C rtuan n Inplr Of EOtN
Meyers and Mckinney yesterday, but
he said he could not identify either of
them as being about the saloon the day
or night of the murder.
From a friend of the murdered man it
was learned last evening that Detective
Werrick had been making investiga-
lions, and was in possession of several
facts which had not been made public.
but which, unless Meyers could prove
his whereabouts on the night of the
murder, would place him in a tight
place.
One of the suspicious circumstances
alluded to by the detectives is that OH
the morning following the murder,
Meyers and Mckinney passed the
butcher shop where the murder oc-
CURED, and, although there was, Grape
on the door of the shop and a crowd
collected in front, neither of them
stopped to inquire as to the cause. They
claim to have not heard of the murder
until Friday afternoon. when they read
about it in a paper at a saloon at the
corner of Eighth and Broadway. When
arrested Meyers had 500 in his possess
sion and Mckinney $50, The money
being sewed up in their clothing. A
patrolman from the Margaret street sta
ton. whose beat is in the neighborhood Of
the shanty whore Meyers and Mckinney
lived, said that Meyers always had
plenty Of money, but did not work.
Both Mckinney and Meyers. he said,
''played the horses at Minneapolis.
Meyers, he said, was arrested about two
months ago TOR the larceny of some
shoes from a store on Payne avenue.
The charge of larceny could not be
proven and it was changed to simple
drunk. Meyers was given ten days in
the Workhouse, he refusing to pay a
fine of $40, although at the time he had
sewed in the sleeve of his coat nearly.
$500 in cash. -
Meyers, when questioned by the de4
tectives since his arrest. said that he
knew nothing about the murder until he
read it in the papers the next day. He
returned to st. Paul, he asserts, al
October last, having been harvesting Ia
Dakota during the summer and fall, as
has been his practice for several years.
Chief of Detectives McGinn declined
to give an opinion as to what would be
the results of the investigation, but said
that both men would be given a search
ing examination as to their whereabouts