The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-02-20
NoRwALK MURDER MYSTERY.
Police Hopeful Of Capturing the Man

Police Hopeful of Capturing the Man
Who Committed the Crime.
Norwalk, Feb 19.-Chief Vollmer and
the entire South Norwalk police force
are leaving no stone unturned to dis
cover the identity of the Italian woman
who was murdered on the railroad near
White Bridge, East Norwalk, on We'd
nesday night, and they hope before
night to establish beyond question the
woman's identity and perhaps have her
murderer or murderers under arrest.
Policemen Pennington and Hall of the
East Norwalk police made some I'M
portant discoveries in Stamford last
night. They found that a railroad
brakeman and Policemen Nevins and
Foley of the Stamford police force who
remembered seeing three strange ltal-
ians in the depot on Wednesday night,
and observed that they boarded an
east-bound train. The policemen went
to South Norwalk last night and iden-
titled the dead woman as one of three
who were in the Stamford depot the
night before The policemen said that
the trio talked excitedly while in the
station. and that when the train ar
rived the woman at first held back and
| did not want to get on it. One Of the
men asked the brakeman II the train
went to East Norwalk, and when in
! formed that it did, he paid the extra
| fare for, three to that place. When
| the train ran into East Norwalk the
woman refused to leave the car, saying
| that she did not know where she was
| 1t was not until after much persuasion
i that she was finally induced to get
off,
The murderers evidently We're well
prepared for their work. for the autop-
sy last night and to-day disclosed that
| the victim had been repeatedly stabbed
with a knife and hacked with some
sharp and heavier instrument, probably
hatchet or cleaver, and as though
these were insufficient, heavy Jagged
stone was also used. The head of the
murdered woman was literally hacked
to pieces, there being no less than six
teen gashes on the scalp some pene-
trating the skull.
Covered with the evidences Of his
crime the murderer must have made
his way up the banks and down hill
across lots and by many houses through
East Norwalk's most populous sec
| ton
The theory that two or more mer
We're with the woman is diseredited by
some persons. The footprints in thu
snow, they argue, are witnesses thai
the woman struggled with only one
man. No other tracks have been dis
covered, and no other evidence has beer
brought forward except the story o
the brakeman and Stamford policemen
The cash on the woman's head, ex
tending from the back Of the neck tx
a point under the left ear, which near
| ly severed the head from the body
seems to have been made with {
Ratchet In fact, there are three gashe!
in one as if the murderer intended tt
hack the head from the body. A Gu
in the shape of a Maltese cross crushed
in the skull at the crown and pene
trated the brain for an inch. Thre,
other cuts fractured the skull in va
lious places. Two other clean cuts OF
the head seemed to have been mad,
with a dirk Two other crucial wound.
| We're made with a blunt instrument
like a hammer or stone There ar,
three stab wounds in the back, on,
of which penetrated her corset and en-
tered the flesh for an inch.