Birmingham age-herald., 1895-08-30
AND NEW THEORIES ARISE
The Manner of Harlow's Taking Off Would
 Proyea Puzzle to Sherlock Holmes.
WAS THE MAN DRESSED OR ADDRESSED
When He Received the Fatal Blow P- Those l.
 Blood Stains-A New Factory to Be
 Built at Prattville-Fat Es- 3eA5zF tate Divided.

Montgomery, Aug. 29.-(Special)-Th preliminary trial of the two negroes who areScharged with the murder of R. R. Harlow, near Coosada last week, will take place in that town tomorrow. An Age-Herald correspondent visited Coo sada yesterday and made some inveSti- Gations into the case. The prevailing, in fact the almost unanimous, opinion in and about Coosada is that the negroes Under arrest are not the guilty parties. Frank Baker, the older negro, was born nnd has always lived in the neighbor- hood and bears an excellent reputation. He killed a man about twenty years ago, but the courts pronounced him justifiable and discharged him. Frank Phfer, the other arrest, who is his son-in-low, is young negro, not much known about Coosada but who has impressed every body as a reliable, hard-working fellow. The only evidence against them is that blood stains were found on the flcor and walls of a house in which they lived and which is only a short distance from the scene of the crime. The dead man, it will be remembered, was found without any clothes on, excepting his under clothing His underShirt had been pushed up under his arms, as though he had been dragged by his feet to the place where he was found. The theory advanced was that he had been mur- dered elsewhere and his dead body drag ged to the thicket. Frank Bakers house was near by. In a shed room of the house, the roof of which was only about feet high was found a bed, upon, be- side and on the inside of the roof over which were found blood stains. The conclusion was that Harlow had stopped at the negro house for the night, had un- ta ell in, hic haA and, while lying there. had been struck over the head with the coupling pin, which shattered his skull and killed him. Then it was believed the body had been dragged into the thicket and the clothes thrown down beside it, after having been robbed of the contents of the pockets. An examination yesterday, however, of the clothing revealed the fact that blood was found on every gar ment. The man was struck on the right side of the head and the right side of the coat, shirt and pants were much more bloody that the other portions of them, which lends color to the belief that he was murdered with his clothes on and afterwards stripped. What the object of the murderer in stripping his victim could have been, however, cannot be sur missed.
 The explanation of the negro's O3aker's) wife as to the presence of blood stains in the room is that a surgical operation was recently performed upon her daugh- ter, Phifer'S wife, there, which is evi- denced by the presence in the house of 1-month-old pickaninny. Another expla- nation was given by some other member of the family to the effct that the blood was that of a chicken, which had re- gently been killed.
 The people about Coosada incline to the belief that Harlow was highwayed and murdered by some of the railroad con struction hands encamped nearby, and believe that if officers were sent to search their quarters watch with the number oIf the Identification card in young Har- lows pocket would be found. It is sug- gested, however, that if Harlow had had a watch in his pocket he would not have undertaken to walk to Birming ham, where he was evidently en route, but would have negotiated his ticker" and purchased ticket. Every article of clothing worn by the man, however, be- tokened easy circumstances. His clothes were better than those worn by the aver age business man. About 30 cents in change was found in his pockets. One reason to believe that Frank Baker did not murder the man is that only a few hundred yards beyond his house is an enormous swamp, which is not entered once year by any human being. The natives say that Frank knows more about this swamp than anybody and that had he murdered Harlow he would have dragged the body to the center of the swamp where it would never have been discovered.