The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-08-28

ance companies, both life and fire, in
which the alleged murderer, Frank A
NOvak, had his life and establishment
insured, had held to the opinion that
Novak was not dead, and that the fire
in which he was supposed to have lost
his life, was part Of a well-laid plan
to swindle the insurance companies
For this reason the death and fire
claims had not been paid, and every
effort was made to track Noyak down.
Mr.. Ives gave the following account
of the crime and the efforts made by
the agency in running down and cap
turing Novak
Frank Alfred Novak, Familiarity
known as Frank, was conducting a
mercantile and banking business at the
little town of Walford. He had for his
partners in business a widowed sister
and brother-ln-laW, and was apparent
ly doing prosperous mercantile bust
ness besides a sort of9accommodatiOn
and loan business in the way of a
private bank. where the farmers and
residents of the town did their banking
transactions. However, Novak had
contracted a gambling mania and was
playing the grain market. His losses
in the past three or four years are
figured a more than $4,000. The day
of reckoning was fast approaching and
NoVak, realizing the sad denouement
which would blast the confidence and
hopes of those about him, proceeded TO
take out about $4,000 of life and acct
set about to procure a victim to be
used in his own stead as a cremated
corpse, upon which his beneficiaries
could draw the insurance. He also had
his. stock and store building insured
for about their full value in solvent
fire insurance companies and took into
his confidence a near relative, who was
designed to collect the insurance after
the disappearance, of Frank Novak A
ruse was manufactured of danger to
the stock of goods through expected
burglars or incendiaries, and on this
pretext NOvak began sleeping in his
store, ostensibly to guard against such
calamity. He also began assiduously
plying his acquaintance, who CHANGED
to be about the same age build and
weight as himself, with invitations to
sleep with him in the store, which
invitations were fortunately declined
by each person approached, until the
night of Feb. 2, 1897, when a reputable
young Irish farmer by the name of
Edward Murray, acceded to NoVak' s
solicitations and remained with him in
tllG SlOIe up TO the nOur OF ret1f1nS.
They were seen together at II 80 p. m;
and at 1:30 a. m. of Feb. g. the building
was discovered on fire and was soon a
mass of ruins, with the conviction
forced upon every spectator that Novak
and Murray had been consumed in the
conflagration. Upon searching the
cooling embers, however, it was found
that only one partly charred corpse was
III the remains of the building and
while a number of Intellectual efforts
were made by interested parties to es-
tablish the identity of this corpse as
that of Frank Novak, the anatomical
differences were so great and the dental
distinctions so peculiar, that a coroner's
jury found no great difficulty in arriv-
ing at verdict that the remains were
those of Edward Murray, and that no
trace of Frank Novak was left in the
building.
Steps were at once taken by the au-
thorities of the state and county to
search out and apprehend Frank No
yak and other persons took a hand in
the search, including Thiel's detec-
tive service. A trail was
struck, and Novak was followed across
the country over several counties in
Iowa to Iowa City, which was believed
to be a happy rendezvous for him, as
he was known to have friends living at
that place. He was believed to be in
hiding in that city or vicinity, until the
description of man tallying with that