The morning times., 1895-12-01
.FLVOR|1E SPOT OF CRIME.
PaImy Days Of Murder Bay Re-
called by Veteran Policemen.
LASTED FOR SEVEN YEARS
Murders Were of Weekly Occurrences
and Fights and Cutting Scrapes
Were Too Common to be Noticed.
Population Was Made UD of Camp
Followers and Refugees.

If the narratives of crime and the rehearsal
OF bloody deeds interest you. just drop
into police station where there is
lull in business and utter the suggestion
that criminal news is little slack since
Murder Bay ceased to be. This Will
start the flow of conversation as few things
WILL and some old veteran, SCARED by con-
flict with Time and evil-doers, VIII tale
unfold, for nothing will touch his memory
SO deeply and stir his reminiscent hunor into
action SO well as the mention of Murder
Bay.
During the war, and for about two years
after 1t had passed into history,s. MurGcf
Bay, held the record for good cases,
as heinous crimes are termed in police Eng
Iisl. and bore the relation to the Washing
ton of that period, that BIoodfield, Louise
Alley, and Willow Tree Court, did 10 the
modern Washin gt on at the time that
Sergeant Daley and his raiding squads
began their missionary work In the Fourth
precinct
Murder Bay was bounded by the Chess-
peake and Ohio canal, Ohio nvenue,
Tniricen-and- IA half and Fourteenth streets,
the canal being then where b street north
west is now. At the outbreak of the war
IL was a omnons, where the boys or the
little town of Washington played the games
OF the day and where the cows of the
neighborhood browsed. Soon after the
guns of Sumter burst out in a chorus OF
war, contrabands began to arrive in Wash
ington and squatted on this piece of vacant
territory. They erected structures OF the
rudest character, buildings, compared to
which the quarters of the south and
the "shacks" of the west Were palaces.
Barrel staves. boxes and odd boards were
crudely nailed together and sheets OF dis
carded tin. pieces of old oil cloth and carpet
constituted roofing. They were erected
without reference TO building regulations,
street lines or the fourfoot rule, though "A
rough dirt roadway was left along the
north bank of the canal
REFUGEES AND CAMP FOLLOWERS.
When the troops began 10 reach Wash
ington many of the women who followed
in the wake of the army located there
More refugees arrived. until by the fall
of 1861 there was not a piece OF ground
remaining vacant big enough 10 build q
shanty ON. Then the late comers con-
ccived the idea of putting second story
on the miserable dwellings. In some in-
stances third story was added. and The
occupants of the several stories may have
been strangers to each other until they
became tenants or the same piece OF land.
In some cases the upper stories were
reached from the outside by staircases of
more or less regularity. OFTEN the ascent
TO the top rooms was only to be made by
means OF a ladder. 1t was the most dis
orderly aggregation of dwellings which
il is possible TO conceive. As the CON
trabands continued TO come up from the
South and the dissoluie female camp fol-
lowers continued 10 come down from the
North. the population Of this shanty settle
ment became more dense
By reason of the number OF foul deeds
discovered in the ramshacklc precincts
the settlement WIS dubbed ny the police
of that time Murder Bay" As time
rolled on. the locality proved itself more
and more worthy of the nanle. Scarcely
a week passed but that some bloody
ghastly corpse, crushed with a club, stuck
or slashel with knife or pierced by buI-
iet. was not pulled out OF the place. To