The sun., 1897-09-11
PITTS MURDER UNSOLVED.
SUMMIT Police UNABLE TO FIND
Clue OR MOTITE.


Davis Tells n little More-Twe Railroad
tickets y Possible Cise-ReWArd offered.
SUMMIT. ". j., Sept lo.-Two railroad tickets
found near the house where James Z. Pitts was
murdered last night have been identified by the
man who sold them. and who remembers the
faces OF the men to whom he sold them. Beyond
this there has been no progress toward the do
lection of the murderers
Mary Davis, the mulatto woman who was
doing on a couch in the corner when Mr.. Pitts
was killed and who herself WAS attacked saw
ngely before she was fully Hwske. has not re-
covered sufficiently to DO able to tell much OF
what she may remember. She is tall and strong,
and, though between rs and so years old, she
has been noted for her quickness of wit and her
erect carriage and activity.
Not one OF these traits was left to her when
she appeared ,t o'clock last night on the door
stcp OF house Of 4. q. Woodruff. which IL
about 100 steps away from the quaint century
old house where she lived with Mr. Pitts. She
was doubled up and trembling and was num-
bling Mr.. Ptts's name inco erently. Her face
was covered with blood and she seemed almost
to fear those to whom she had come for help.
Over ami over again she cried:
Somebody's been pounding ms. He pounded
M on my poor head. Mr.. Pitts! oh, what will
poor Mr.. Pitts dol They pounded me out OF
the door. They've got my black silk waist
Somebody. go get the black silk waist"
To-day. from time to time, she has told . moro
coherent story. She said that when she went to
sleep on the lounge Mr. Pitts was reading beside
! the lamp. Charles Spinning. West Summit
grocer. had Just called to deliver some groceries.
! Spinning SAYS that it was about o'clock when
! he left tho place. The 1t thing the negress
| knew she woke to SEQ q masked man coming
toward her with weapon in his hand. She
| tried to sit up and he beat her back. She tried
' to get away from him and save her black silk
waist When she was going out Of the door she
! was struck twice on the back OF the head.
What she herself cannot remember about her
| attempt to escape is shown by the tran Of her
blood through the house. The kitchen in which
she and Mr. Pitts were resting is a narrow. she'd
| ike room at the back Of the house. There are
marks on the ceiling and wall where her assail-
ants bludgeon made nicks Ill tho plaster. On
the hoCr near the head Of the couch Is splash
| OF blood There are marks the sides Of the
passageway that leads into her ROOM there are
Tas trunk in which lay her ,presi s as
Sad bsen The Sa itself had
picked up with bloody aaSers and dropped.
From there the hnger prints run from door to
door through the whole house back into tho
kitchen. She LETT the house by door not two
Feet from the lounge on which she had been
The Doors. that OF her bedroom. behind her. II
is impossible to tell whether she was struck
|
through that door or when she was leaving the
house. She saw Mr.. Pitts. she said. lying in q
heap the floor. She does know ntt he 10 dead
When Woodruff and the hired men ran to ths
Pitts house Mrs. Woodruff kept the dog with
her. The men hal hardy gone before the dog
houses. barking sIvagelv. The dog oas repu-
tation for rood Sc nse. and Woodruff says that
there must have been somebody down there to
excite him so much.
Justice OF the Peace and Detective Ke ly and
Chef OF Police stewart were the first to re-
spond TO the alarm spread in Summit by viii
liam 8alantine, one OF WOodru6s hands. DR..
W. Il Lawrence was about Ave minutes he Ind
OF Gustav Schwah he cam. suddenly upon two
men consulting together in the MIDDLE Of the
road. They sprdng apart as h" approached.
doctor looked e. him, He wore a white coat or
shirt. The other looked full into the doctor =
face. lie Was fathtr sa.ler thac Ing t:.. nnd
had a mustaehe. This was at a quarter past 10:
out at II O'Clock BY Chief of Police stewart. Il
was not thought safe TO send the whole depart.
detailed to hunt for the murderers. Bioodhounds
were sent for but did not come.
dayl.sht The ID rst Thing % 70 be picked % up was as
the butchers samor,l; with which Mary Davis
si%ashterer of hogs The eamar!! Is a stout OAK
stick used to PEy apart the hind legs OF the cal
stick Ss S
ming to the house last night; The heft OF 1t
hatnt suited MIN and he had dung i aside. not
noticing that II was covered with clotted blood
and the hairs Of be old negress
On the spot where he had arst picked mp the
Saam9ril were found a .foldedup copy of a New
York morning paper or the date Of Sept. 3 and a
ticket from Hoboken 10 summit stamped D.,
l. ~ W. X. p: 3 =. VI, sept. 8, 1897, Barclay
stree. Ferry" The ter-y coupon had been torn
OF and the ticket had been punched with a
trip ticket was found It was dated rom the
same station. Sept. Z. A littl. var from the
copy Of the Newspaper Vas a black mask like
The tickets we're taken to Now York and
ahn IN FhsaH fiFsE ~ aaIl At R1aw
, street ferry. Agent Charles II. CODE recognized
them.
mans who came up to my window late Thursday
afternoon. The half OF an excursion ticket dated
OF Tor several days The Pm stamp tar doesn s NJ
signify. The time Is changed once in three
IN heishsIsnd I had G9 round orid face He haG e
; aiiEht mustarhe. l should put his age at o.
,w He was clearly German; an, He wore ore bIaGG
The other / didn't SEQ so we'll He was q
! head taller. Hc seemed to hare q dark com
plexion He wore an unusually light suit and
weighed about l5o pounds He seemed to be
! The only conductor on the IAckAwauna road
who uses q square punch Is John Jewell. Hi'
7 Leaving Barclay street at $50 o'clock in th,
afternoon; it reaches summit at 6:54. Jewell re
members the two Germans and their !icketa Il
up tickets. Jewell doesn't kr ~ whether tn,
Germans left his train at Summit. but takes Il
! Except for the uIen that DR.. Lawrence saw Il
10 not known that 40 such men were seen bJ
anybody In Summit last evening.
Chief stewart. assisted by private detectivl
from New York, worked out theory that sri:cc
him exactly. IL was based fhcSe facts: Mar
Davis had four children. All were born in tn;
Pitts house. Three OF them showed their negrt
blood; the fourth girl. was almost white anc
grew up TO be surprisingly he iufiful.
She remained In a summit family as mait
. unit! she 16 years old. Then she went Il
Newark to earn f. living as n lressmaker. n,
1 ! one there knew her paren age. Ten years ago
1 whom she vas barely 20, she was married
20 the son Of a wan,thC SCwark man, an Ameri
+ can With German name. They lived togethe
Q until her death. six years ago. without her hus
n band ever knowing that her mother
: negress.
He suspected that something was wrong will
0 her history. and quarrelled with her about il
He made several trips 10 summit to investigate
Z He visited the Pitts house, but did not learn tn
4 truth until n year ago, when Mary Davis tol,
:. him that she was his mother-in-law.
n Here. according to Chief Stewart, was motv
a In plenty for the murder OF the Davis woma,
= and OF her employer The Chief went to New
= ark. failed to IND the man. and became con
! Vinrad that he had fled Stewart alan an