The Forrest City times., 1896-05-29
THE PREAChER-FIEND.

Church fnvestigstion-Further Evidence
 or Niilainy-Bones and Blood Stained
 Wearing Apparel Dug Up in the Base
 ment of the Church-What the Ashes from the Furnace Revealed.
 SALT LAKE, Utah, May 25.--This has been an exciting and eventful day in the vestigation of the Scandinavian Methodist church tragedies, the net re. suit being chain of circumstances which, taken with those previously discovered, fasten the guilt of murder. Ing Miss Clawson on Rev. Francis Hermann beyond a reasonable doubt and also go to show that Miss Sam nelson fell a victim to the pastors sa- tanic actions and that he may also have had other victims.
 The work of excavating the floor of she basement of the church began 1t an early hour this morning. A vast amount of earth was removed and quantities of bones found in vari- ous stages of decomposition. Some were plainly identified as human bones, others were in such condition that it was impossible to tell whether they were human or the bones of an animal, and others were plainly rec ognized as being those of cattle and fowls. The general appearance of the place was such as to suggest the Idea of a cemetery, and there is no telling how many human beings have been inferred in the basement of she sacred edifice. At certain spot beneath the stairway, where the soil showed evidence of having been re- gently disturbed, the sole and heel of woman's shoe were found near the surface, and little deeper down in the same spot a piece of bloodstained overalls, which, it is claimed by the tenants of the church, were worn by the pastor while he was engaged in laboratory and other work separate and apart from his books. The over- alls were bloodstained on almost every part.
 Ed Johnson, tho young man whose room was heated to such high degree of temperature the day the minister built the big fire in the furnace de- clares that Hermann had them on when the latter was met by him on the base ment stairs with a gunpy sack under
 
 of like goods. All effort to find this article of clothing were futile
 Then came piece of confirmatory evidence as to what became of it. The furnace ashes, on being sifted, were found to contain the requisite number of steel buttons for such an article of apparel, and the strong point is that they correspond exactly with those on the blOod-saturated overalls.
 Miss Clawson wore five or six artifi. cial teeth and further examination of the ashes taken from the furnace resulting in the finding of two arti. 6cial teeth with metallic rivets similar to those worn by the dead girl
 This afternoon the detectives found In a secondhand store Miss Clawson's trunk, which the pastor claims to have sent to her by an un- known express some weeks after her disappearance. The trunk, it trans pires, contained the wearing apparel of the missing girl. Among the ar tcles of clothing was the dress in which Miss Clawson had the photo graph taken now in the possession of the police. In addition to this, now appears that Herman sold the trunk and clothing himself and that he disposed of the girls gar ters at the same time. The date of this transaction was December II last, just two months and eleven days after the girl disappeared. Whether the bones found in excavating the base. nent of the church, include those of Miss Samuelson, the other girl who is believed to have fallen victim to the preachers lust and bloodthirstiness, remain to be seen. He was intimate with the Samuelson girl, and he per- formed an abortion on her few weeks before her disappearance in January last.
 A few days prior to her disappear ance the pastor had large box made at the lumber yard, and the officers hold to the theory that the boards found in the church are too old to have been in the church only since January. Miss Clawson, it is known, gave him $500 shortly before her dis appearance, and Miss Samuelson had also given him several sums of money while she was living with him.
 Hermann drank heavily at times and kept stock of wines and liquors in his study. The officers are keeping up the search in and about the church, and the place has been visited by thousands of curiosity seekers to-day.
 Dr. Meacham, who made an analysis of the stains upon the various articles
 
 not prepared to state that the stains