Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1896-04-02
4 TRUNK MYSTERY.
Man Buys Box at Chicago Auc-.
ton Sale and Finds
a Body.

Chicago. Ill.,, March 27-The badly de-
composed body of an unknown man was
found yesterday in trunk bought at an
auction in Wakem & McLaughlin's ware
house at 5O4 North Water street. The
auction was the regular disposal of unre-
deemed property. When Il large rough
box was brought out bids were made and
the box was knocked down to two men
from the suburb of Austin, Philip Grief
and Charles Haas. Inside was square
trunk which was broken open. 1t con-
tanned the badly decomposed body OF q
man. On the top of the box was written
&c. NJ. Morgan. 166 Jefferson court,
Chicago Nothing else was found to
establish former ownership.
J. Wallace Wakem, senior member of
the warehouse firm, said last night: THE
goods we handle are secured from rail-
roads in the majority of eases. lncalled
for baggage is sent to us and we keep It
as long as the law requires Then, after
proper advertisement. we sci! IT.. 4 thlnk
this box was sent to us by the Michigan
Central Railroad company. They sent us
a lot of baggage year ago ana the nOX,
if remember correctly, was included.
Chicago. ILL.,, March PIT has been
ascertained from the books of the North
Western Railway company that the box
containing corpse, which was sold at
Tie uuclstllllcu lIelSIl SColSiu0se
was shipped from Salt Lake City, Feb
ruary 3. 1898. The consignor was q.
NJ. Morgan and the consignce q. NJ.
Morgan, 1876 South Jefferson street. Chi
cago. The big box remained in the
freighthouse of the company III Chicago
for five months and was then sent to the
storage warehouse, where it remained
until the auction sale Monday. The
police here have communicated the facts
to the Salt Lake City police in the hope
of learning something regarding the
identity of the mysterious corpse and
how it came to be sent to Chicago as
merchandise. Quicklime had been used
to hasten decomposi ion of the body.
A singular circumstance is that the
name G. NJ. Morgan belongs to one Of
the most efficient officers of the United
States secret service He has been i'll
there, being on intimate terms with the
officials of the Mormon church. Still it
IS quite certain he was not in Salt Lake
at the time of the shipment of the body,
for he was in Chicago during the Worlds
fair.
Last winter Mr. Morgan was in Chi
cagO and was at that time an invalid.
He quite often ridiculcd the idea that
detectives were unrayelers of mysteries
and one day said that he had often made
failures and the failures were at the
times he was most sure of success 1t
Lake was made by someone knowing
him to be in Chicago at the time. Then
there is a possibility that the name was
chosen at random. At present none of
his Chicago friends know of Mr.. Nor
gans whereabo Whether he can
help solve the mystery is doubtful.
Chicago, ILL.,. March 2S.-The body of
the man found in a zinc box two days
ago and since awaiting Identification at
the county morgue. was claimed today
as the body of Oliver Pike of Seattle,
Wash Mrs. Theodore 0. Moshier of
Ravenswood called at the morgue and
produced 50 many evidences that the
body was Pike. who disappeared from
Seattle over three years ago, that the
police were almost satisfied with the
correctness of the Identification. Pixies
mother lives in Fayette, 0.
Examination today of the corpse
showed that the teeth were all sound
and in good condition and contained no
filings whatever. This casts a decided
doubt of the identification of the body
as that of Chasal, the Frenchman, who
disappeared from Salt Lake City SO
myStnriOuSly.