Pawtucket tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 1890-189?, 1895-04-10
INVOKED A MEDIUM.
sPiRiTuALlsM'S AID SOUGHT TO
SOLVE A DOUBLE TRAGEDY.

A Weird Mystery In Eastern Connecticut.
storxkiDxIc Accused at Numbering Ifis
Wife and stepson--Theories of tho Local
Police Oniccrs.
In the lonclicst part Of the township Of
East Thompson, In Windbam county, cast-
ern Connecticut, stands Rray and sham
bling old farmhouse, associated with which
Is n murder mystery that seemingly IN In
scrutable. Indeed IL IL "A problem I'm crime
that IL worthy Of the singular analytical
detective powers Of IA Sherlock Holmes.
Tho crime was committed some three
months ago, and only brief paragraphs
have been published about II.
At the time Of the tragedy tho old house
was inhabited by a strange Russian Pole,
Zigie Storzkinzie, "a years Old and his
son, Volgi, and two other children, boys
one o years old, the other z months.
Mrs StOrzkinzic and her stcpson, Volgi,
disappeared suddenly early last January,
and since then country sheriffs and city
detectives have discovered not clcw In re-
spcct OF the way I'm which they were re-
moved, except that the walls OF several
rooms In StorzkinZie's abode arc splashcd
and bcspattered with blood, as IL from "a
Sutchering. The shcriffs of Windham
county aver that, In their belief, on Sun
day, Jan. 13, StorZkinzie, after u quarrel
with his wife, killed her with revolver
which ne habitually carried In his hip
pocket
Going on with their suppos,titious story
OF the murder, these officers declare that he
fired all the bullets in his weapon into tho
woman's body and she fell TO the floor
But no one OF the wounds inflicted by the
pistol was fatal one.
Thercupon the savage Pole, infuriatcd
by the sight Of blood, lcapcd upon her pros
trate form, and with the butt of his re-
volver finished the work.
"The stcpson, Volgi, was especially hat
ed by his stepfather," declares Sheriff
Bates, land he unqucstionably witnessed
the murder Of his mother, and Storzkinzie
had no sooner beaten the life out of his
wife than he sprang upon the young and
wrctchcd little waif. Seizing the first
weapon ready to his hand, n heavy flatiron
he crushed in the little fellows skull"
Such is Sheriff Bates story, crazy
patchwork Of n hypothetical case, the out
come OF observation and deduction on the
part Of a shrewd official, who has patiently
and painstakingly followed the slender and
"The two other children in the house."
continued the sheriff no less positively, she
spared. They had not been witnesses of
his bloody work. Neither did he fear that
they could ever become informers against
him. They were too young Therefore he
simply locked the doors of the blood be-
sprinkled living room and retained his
boys in another part of the old house.
EVERY foot of earth for miles about the
old Joslyn place, the local name of the
homestead, we have searched half a score
of times" said the sheriff. "Sometimes
twoscore of farmers and hunters, with
hounds, have hunted the ground over,
and yet no one has come upon trace indi-
eating that the ground had been broken
for the burial of a body.
"We have not dredged for the missing
bodies in the waters of Long pond small
sheet of water n mile away, nor have we
satisfactorily sounded the swamps that
abut upon one shore of the lake That
part of our investigating work we shall
enter upon, however, as soon as the snow
and ice have been thawed in the great
swamp.
lone thing is certain" continued the
sheriff. "We have to deal with a criminal
of extraordinary sagacity, self composure,
GOODNESS and criminal craftiness
Sin fact, SO craftily did the Pole con-
duct himself after the crime had been
perpetrated that it was not until about a
fortnight later that he was arrested. In
the meantime he had worked steadily to
obliterate all discriminating evidence. A
neighbor saw Mrs. Storzkinzie in the
forenoon Of Jan. 13, but none saw her aft
er that fateful Sunday.
First the neighbors noted how strangely
silent the house was, and how rarely
Storzkinzie came forth from his dwelling,
and what a wild and brooding, careworn
mien he had whenever he did appear.
They recall, however, that for several
nights after Jan. 13 great fires blazed
nightly in the otherwise unlighted 'Joslyn
place, SO that it seemed at times as If the
interior Of it's blackened shell was great,
cleaning, ruddy furnace"
Acting on formal complaint by neigh
Dor, the sheriff of the county arrested the
Pole on Wednesday, Jan. 90.
The arrest was made in q curious way.
Everybody in East Thompson, even the
officers Of the law, had long been afraid
Of him because every one knew that he
was always armed and believed that he
would not hesitate to use his weapon
against any one So the sheriff resorted
to a ruse. 1t was 10 o'clock on Wednesday
morning when Sheriff Bates, In company
with Mr.. Elias Joslyn, a neighbor, drove
into Storzkinzie's farmhouse yard, and
Joslyn, who had previously talked with
the Pole about buying the latter's COW,
raped on the weather beaten panel of
Storzkinzie's door.
The sheriff had been warned earlier by
the Polish priest Of the town that Storz-
kinzie was" dangerous man, who carried
wicked looking pistol and big knife"
Joslyn chatted with Storzknzie. Then
the sheriff got out Of his wagon and saun-
tered forward to the Poles doorstep. II
was thinking about that COW of yours for
myself" put In Sheriff Bates. Then he
looked up at the caves Of the huge house
in n casual way. Then he made q sud
den, darting movement, and there was
sharp metallic click.
OF sudden the Pole, glancing down