The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-11-19
A PROBABLE MURDER.
Frank P. Arbuekle, a Denver
Politician Found in the
Street Dying-Valu-
ables Missing.

NEW YORK, Nov. 10, s~1S96.-Frank P.
Arbuckle, School Commissioner politi-
clan and public man generally, of Dem
yer. Col, was found dying in the bushes
at Eighth avenue and 152d street at three
o'clock this morning. Before an ambu-
lance could be summoned, he was dead.
The police are trying to account for
his death on a theory that shall exclude
violence and robbery, and are aided in
the effort by the ambulance surgeons
verdict that he died of heart disease.
On the other hand. there is evidence that
he was around during the night, in that
bad, saloon-flled -neighborhood, flashing
a big roll of bills, and with a SNOWY gold
watch and chain in sight. Money and
watch were missing when he was found
aIoundsman Mclaughlin found him at
2:45 A. M. lying just inside a fence that
shuts in a vacant lot on the corner. h
policeman on the post had passed that
way a little while before, but had seen
nothing in the dense fog. The rounds
man heard something stir in the bushes,
and, poking about, found a wel-dressed
man evidently breathing his last He
summoned help and the policeman who
came called the patrol wagon, but when
it arrived the senseless man was still.
They drove to the station house with a
corpse.
When the search was made of the mans
clothes there. letters addressed to the
Hon. Frank P. Arbuckle, sent in care
of the 'Tammany Times" in this city
were found upon him. One dollar and
sixty cents in change was all the money
he had. He was well dressed and would
have attracted attention in a crowd any
where. Though there were no visible
marks of violence upon him, and though
the doctor said that he must have died
of heart disease. the place and manner of
his finding were suspicious to the police,
and Captain Kirchner went out with his
men to find a clew to his movements, if
they could.
They found one soon enough. The bar
keeper in the Atlantic Casino, whom they
reused among others, remembered him
from the description perfectly. He had
been in the saloon during the night drink
ing, and had displayed a big roll of bills.
At the time it was noticed that he wore
a snowy watch and chain. The watch
was gone, and the money also, when the
police found him.
The track began and ended at the
Casino. Search as they might and did, all
morning. the policemen could find no one
else who had seen anything of the dead
man, or who would own tina he had.
There are many saloons in the neighbor-
hood, and some of them not unknown
to the kim of persons Arbuckie's show of
wealth would attract at three A. M. The
police reasoning that he might have been
Followed in the fog and darkness to the
lonely spot by the fence and there struck
down, and thinking thai a man of his
size and strength would not yield without
a struggle. searched for evidence of a
fight, but found none. The watchman IN
the Eighth avenue car stables. John Glen
non, was within earshot all the morning.
and around in his shanty in $3.50 street
John Shanley was awake, but neither
neard any noise. Again, there was no
mark of any kin on the mans oody'
There are, however, such things as sand
bags, and a drunken man might be hoored
with one blow which would neither make
a noiSe or leave a mark.
The b~artender's recollection of the roa,
and the watch were backed up by the as
surance the police received when the dead
mans friends were reached. that he had
Light came with the police oficiaily salts
ned that The man had died a natural
death. while bending every effort toward
tracing his movements, during the small
press Information about the money and
the watch. And so the case stands vet.
Colonel Feigel, of the sTammanv
Times" claimed the body of his friend
here on a visit and had been stopping al
the, Fifth Avenue Hotel until within a
few days. Arbuckle was a silver delegate
from Colorado to the Chicago convention.
ana a nan OF both wealth and influence.
In the politics of Denver he was long
prominent.
He was at one time a School Com
missioner, and figured in a somewhat fam
Gus eleotion light a few years ago, after
an investigation into the methods Of the
School Board in awarding contracts. Mr..
Arbuckle was cleared OF all charges that
were made after a good deal of litigation
and retained his leadership in the poll
Highlands.