Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1895-04-14

Hartford. Conn. April FIN tho
loneliest part OF the township OF eaRi
Thompson. in Windham county, east
ern Connecticut, stands n gray and
stumbling old farmhouse, associated
With which Is n murder mystery that
seemingly, is inscrutable. In it's latest
phases 1t has developed no end of
curious complications and weird Incl
dents. involving clairyoyant incanta-
lions and splritualistic divinatiuns. In
deed, 1t Is problem in crime that is
worthy Of and might tax the singular
analytical detective powers Of Sher-
lock Holmes.
The crime was committed some three
months ago, and, strangely enough.
only brief paragraphs have been pub
lished about IL. The rural officers. an
parently are no nearer a solution OF
the mystery than they We're at the time
when It was first revealed
AT the time of the tragedy the old
house was Inhabited by a strange Rus
Sian Pole, Xigie storzkinzie. "a years
old, and his Wife, Rosa. about %: his
i-year-old stepson. YoIgi. and two
the other months
Mrs. StorzkinZie and her stepson.
Nogi, disappeared suddenly early last
January, about as mysteriouslv as n
the earth had opened and swallowed
them, and since then country sherins
discovered
a clew in respect Of the way in which
they were removed. except that the
walls of several rooms in Storzkinzie's
abode are splashed and bespattered
with blood, as IL from a butcheflnu,
The country sheriffs Of Windham conn
~ aver that, in their belief. IT was on
the afternoon Of Sunday, January 1s
that Stor2lSinZic, after quarrel with
MS Wite Killed her with a revolver
Whlch he hGbitually carried in his hin
pocket. '''N
Going on with their superstitlous
story OF the murder-in what way pre-
uiscly they have arrived at their
analytical deductions about the tragedy
mo- one appears to ltnow-these officers
declare that he fired all the bullets I'm
hiE weapon into the woman's body and
she fell to the floor. But no one OF the
wounds inflicted by the pistol was "A
fatal one, they continue. Thercupon
the savage Pole, infatuated by the
sight Of blood. leapcd upon her pros
trate form and with the butt of his
revolver finished the work begun with
the bullet.
The stepson Volgl was especially
mated by his stepfather declares Sherifr
Bates, of Windham county. "and he
unpuestionably witnessed the murder
of his mother, and Stor2kin2ie had mo-
sooner beaten the life out of his wife
than he sprang, like u tiger. upon the
Young and wretChed little walt. He
was now mad with passion. Selling
the irst weapon ready to his hand, a
heavy tlatiron, he crushed In the little
fellows skull"
such, Mt least, is High Sheriff Bates |
Stpiy-a story that has been picced to- |
Eether by him, crazy quilt patchwork, |
~ a Hypothetical case, the outcome |
"t observation and deduction on the |
part Of a shrewd official, who has ma
la tft yf
slender ana dubious clews vague as
cubweb threads.
The two other children in the
house, continued the sherlm. no less
positively, he spared for obvious
reasons, They had not been Witnesses
t ms ploouy work. Furthermore he
loved thcm-thcy are his own on
Sprlng-and neither did he fear that
they could ever become informers
against him; they We're too young for
mat Therefore he simply locked the
doors OF the blood besprlnlIled living
room IN which were the mutilated
bodies OF his victims on the floor and
thereafter retained his boys in another
part Of the cavernous old shell of a
house,
Every foot of earth for miles about
NE old JuslNu place the local and
nclent name of the homestead on
which the Russian Pole and his family
Il score of times,' said the sheriff.
sometimes two score OF farmers ana
Aunters, with hounds, have hunted
the ground over, and yet so far as
we Know, no one has come upon "A
trace indicating that the ground had
been broken for the burial of a body. d
II Is true that we have not dredgcd
for the missing bodies in the waters
OF Long Pond, small sheet of water
IN east Thompson, II mile or so away
rom the home OF the Pole, nor have we
satisfactorily sounded the vast dreary
morass and swamps that abut upon one
shore Of the lake. That part Of our
investigating work we shall enter upon
however just as soon as the snow
and Ice have been thowed in the great
swamp.
zone thing is certain" continued the
sheriff. and that is we have to deal
with criminal Of extraordinary sa-
gRoitS. sell oomposute, coolness and
criminal craftlness Under a mask
OF pretended stupidity and ignorance
or our language is a personality as
Intelligent as It is vicious. endowed
with wonderful resolution and deter
mutation and with phenomenal gift
pr dupHcity. In fact, so craftily did |
me Pole conduct himself after the
crime had been perpetrated that It was
pot until about u fortnight later that
u" was arrested, accused Of having
none the murders. In the meantime,
you can be sure, he had worked warily
nd steadily TO obliterate all incrimin-
4 ing evidence. A neighbor saw Mrs
Storzkinzie In the forenoon OF Janu-
hfy ~, but none saw her after that j
lateful Sunday. ,
Storzlilnaie and his family had kept !
themselves very much apart from their {
nlStant neighbors, Hence 1t is not so !
orange that East Thompson residents 1
Pr not misrust that there was any I
Ihng amiss In the gloomy old "Joslyn
0omcstead' until about ten days at {
Per the Pole had slaughtered his wife I
lnd stepson. First the nelghhors. In !
passing his house, noted how strange
\ silent II was. and then how rarely =
lor1klnzle came forth from his DWELL I
Pc or what a wild and broodlng 4
eareworn mien he had whenever he '
IL appear in public. At this late day /
ney recall. however. that for several \
'ights after January 10 great fires Z
elnzed nightly in the otherwise I'M y
aShted ''Joslyn place. so that Il SEEM n
~ at times, as II the interior OF It's a
,lhekened shell was great. gleam- d
~ rudy furnace. They are not !.
tble to account satisfactorily for the Z
49nsular and marvellous illumination to i
What was storzklnEie doing by Il