The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-11-08
New York Barber Who Killed GuIden-
suppe and Helped Mrs. Mack
Dismember the Body.
STORY OF THE BRUTAL CRIME
CASE IN WHICH NEW YORK POLICE
WE'RE SADLY HUMILIATED.
CIews Obtained and UnraveIed by Re-
pOrters bringing to Light the
HeartIess Butchery.

NEW YORK, Nov. THE most sensa-
tional murder trial in the history of New
York begins to-day in Long Island
City before Judge Maddox. From the
first discovery of portions of Will
liam Guldensuppes body, distributed
miles apart III New York, this case
has been one continuous series of sensa-
tions, the unravelling of which is due to the
ingenuity of New York reporters in spite
of the stupid police. Martin Thorn, who
was Mrs. Augusta Nacks tool in disposing
of the object of her vengeance and Thorn's
rival in her guilty love, will face the court
to-day The murder was committed on Fri
day, June %. in a lonely cottage at Wood
side, L. ]. William Guldensuppe, q Turkish
bath attendant, was the victim and Martin
Thorn, barber, and Augusta Mack, a mid
wife, stand accused of being his murderers.
No murder was ever more carefully planned
nor did murderers ever take more pains to
cover UP their tracks by effectually dispos-
ing of the remains of their victim. Yet
within twenty-four hours it was known to
the world that murder had been COM
mitted and the pursuit of the butchers had
begun.
Two of those youths of the lower East
Side of New York, who spend their summer
%
were the accidental discoverers of the hor-
rible crime. The boys were John Mcclure
and James McKenna. They were preparing
for their afternoon dip June 27, at the
foot of East Eleventh street. when the
sight of a rather strange looking bundle
floating with the tide hastened their move
ments. In moment they were in the
water and towing the bundle in shore. Once
m
in cutting the stout cord around the prize
and undoing the roll of oilcoth which
formed the outer covering. There were still
other coverings of heavy brown paper and
cheese cloth. When those had been re-
moved both lads stood horror-stricken at
the discovery of the bloody contents.
THE FIRST BLOODY FIND.
There the pier lay the mutilated trunk
of a man with the arms folded across the
breast 1t was the upper portion of the
body from the hips to the throat The
arms, strangely enough, had been allowed
to remain, but the cutting of the neck and
the trunk had been carefully done. From
the breast a slice of skin as large as
sheet of paper had been removed, and over
the spot the mans arms were placed The
boys were quickly surrounded by people
anxious to view the gruesome find, and then
the police came.
At first it was considered that some med
ical student had played a grim joke at the
expense of the sensbilites of the general
public, but a coroners physician, after a
cursory examination, settled the discussion
to the probabilities and possibilities of
the affair by declaring that undoubtedly a
murder had been committed9 Then there
was genuine sensation. Death, according
to the cOronerS physician, had resulted
from a stab wound inflicted with a long
keen knife, which had penetrated the heart
The knife had also been driven through the
left shoulder into the lung. The detectives
still insisted that it was part of a medical
college cadaver, but New York newspapers
of the sort called yellow showed that the
detectives were in their normal condition
of stupidity and that the man had actually
been murdered. To the New York Journal
more than any other agency in New York,
barring neither the police nor its rival news
papers, is due the successful evolution of
the murder theory. Police made no effort
to find the rest of the body of the unknown
victim perfectly satisfied with their theory
about the medical students joke But an
unseen hand was at work in this case. With
shifting vengeance of an unknown power
clews unraveed themselves and branded the
New York detectives as bunglers.
Another discovery was made. On Sunday
morning, June u, man and two boys While
picking berries in Ogden woods near WASH
ington bridge, in the far northern part of
the city, many miles from the East Elev-
enth-street dock, found bundle which was
similar to that picked up the day before in
the East river. The three had read the ac-
counts of the peculiar bundle picked up by
the swimmers and instantly notified the po-
lice to whom they said that the newly
found package might contain another part
of the body, and in a minute the correct
ness of their suspicious was proven In IN
cloth was wrapped the lower half of a
mans trunk 1t was the half missing from
the East river find
THE POLICE SNEERED.
To whom did this poor carved body be-
long? What was it's owner in life? Who
hn y
murderers? For one person alone was not
concerned in it. Those were questions to be
answered by the detective force, but from
the chief to the humblest member it was
simply a case of blank amazement and alb
solute incompetence even to make a begin
ming of unraveling the terrible mystery.
The police still sneered. The head
and legs were still missing. thus
seemingly rendering it impossible to
establish the dead mans identity. There
was still another find. A man picked up
a valise flung in the bushes by the road a
mile from where the lower part of the
mans body was found. This valise con-
formed d link in the chain connecting the
mutilated body with the murderers. Still
the astute police shook their heads and even
charged reporters with taking hand IN
manufacturing evidence The head is still
missings but the body has been identified,
and the mystery unraveed thanks, not to
the police, but to the keen and smart work
of New York newspaper reporters. Various
semi-identitications were made, but hour by
hour the case seemed to grow more and
more hopeless
The New York Journal offered $1,000 re-
ward for any ciew. Martin COwan saloon
keeper, who had been in the habit of TAX
ing baths at the Murray Hill Turkish baths
West Forty-second street, had missed
his favorite attendant for several days and
had his suspicious aroused by reading de-
scriptionS of the unknown man with a tat
too mark sliced from his breast. Cowan
called up the New York Journal by tele-
phone and told them of his suspicious, and
a reporter was sent out on the new clew.
He found that William Guldensuppe the
missing man, had been employed as rub
ber in the baths and had prominent tattoo
mark on his breast, right where the large
slice of skin had been cut from the un-
known body lying at the morgue. Close in
quiries elected the information that Gull
densuppe had disappeared on Thursday
night or early on Friday morning, the very
day on which the murder was supposed to
have been committed. Where did he live?
Who were his friends? Had he a wife? Or
was there woman mixed up in his affairs?
Love ana jealousy might account for the
cOmmittal of so terrible a deed.
The reporter discovered that there was
woman named Mrs. Augusta Mack, who
had abandoned her husband for Gudensup-
Pc Here was q cleW. Might not the hus-
band have had a hand in the bloody work?
Mrs. Mack lived on the second floor of No.
439 Ninth avenue and thither the reporter
went. Yes, she knew CsuldensuDDe hut sha