The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-12-12
KANSAS NEWS.
Body Snatchers Arrested in
Kansas City, Kan.
Two GhOuls in the Custody of
the Police.
A CONFESSION MADE.
Corpse Found at the University
Medical College
Was That of LenOra Todd, a
Young COlOred Girl. &
CONFESSION MADE.

Kansas City, Kan, Dec. 12-Grave
/ robbers have been at work again. The
| body of II year old colored girl, Le-
nora Lee Todd, was dragged from a
grave in WoodlaWn cemetery, Kansas
| City, Kan, about midnight Saturday
night and taken to Kansas City, Mo,
where it was found in the University
Medical college. Two men, one white
and the other colored, are locked up at
the police station. Their names are
Sam McClain and Charley Perry.
According to a confession of the ne
about midnight. After opening the
grave, a small handsaw six inches long
was used to cut a hole in the coffin.
"A rope was tied around the neck of
the corpse and both men took hold of
the other end and dragged the body
out 1t was the work of a moment to
strip the shroud from the corpse. When
ali the clothing had been removed and
Stuned back into the coffin, the body
was rolled up in a blanket and placed
IN a large gunnysack taken along for
that purpose. The grave was then re-
nlled and carefully patted down, so that
1t would show no signs of having been
disturbed.
1t was nearly o'clock Sunday morn
ing when the grave robbers reached
+ their destination and disposed of the
corpse. They at once drove to FIynn's
saloon at Forest and independence av-
enue, Kansas City, Mo-, and the negro
ordered drinks. When the time came
Tor paying for the liquor he offered the
bartender a 500 bill.
Just then Police Officers Ryan and
cassidy came along. The incident OF
the $40 bill looked suspicious and the
clothing of the two men was covered
with mud. They placed the men under
arrest, took them to the station, placed
them in separate cells and by 4:3O a.
M, the negro had confessed to Lieut.
Weber He told the police the corpse
would be found at the University Med
zeal college.
BY order of Lieut.. Weber, under
whose direction the arrests had been
made, several officers went at once to
the medical college at Tenth and Camp
bell streets. The nude body of the girl
was found in the elevator of the col
lege. The mouth of the sack had been
opened and the head of the corpse was
sticking out Undertaken Carroll was
notified, and by o'clock the body was
at his establishment.
The body is that of person five feet
three inches tall. dark-skinned and very
slender, having the appearance of emac-
iatiOn from disease. There are no marks
or mutilations on the body except for
few slight scratches about the neck,
where the rope used to drag the corpse
from the grave chafed the skin.
LenOra Todd died December ofrheu-
matte fever at the home of Thomas P.
Shelton, 94S Freeman avenue, Kansas
City. Kan. Shelton, who was formerly
a member of the Kansas City, Kan,
police force, had adopted the girl. W. B.
ficiated at the funeral, held December 6.
1t is the custom of Stephen Gray, the
sexton of WOOdlawn cemetery, to take
a walk about the graveyard every
morning to see that nothing has gone
wrong. Yesterday morning, while max
inb his rounds, his attention was at
tracted to the grave of LenOra Todd.
1t was evident to him that the grave
had been disturbed. The mound had not
been rounded up in just the proper
fashion and some of the clods We're
scattered in the snow. Most of the 9TH
er graves were covered with snow and
this made the work of the ghOuls very
apparent. Had it not been for the
white blanket that covered nearly all
the ground the traces of the robbery
might have been concealed.
Sexton Gray examined all the other
graves carefully but found no evidence
that the ghouls had been at work else
where. This was the first time, he said,
that any of the graves at WOOdlawn
had been disturbed, so far as he knew.
Woodlawn is one of the best cemeter-
les of Kansas City, Kan. 1t contains
the graves of many prominent people.
The part of the cemetery in which the
Todd girl was buried, however, is a
lonesome, rarely frequented part of the
graveyard.
DR.: Charles F. Wainwright, president
of the University Medical college, ap-
peared at Central police station at 8
O'Clock last night.
Il don't know thing about this af-
fair" he said. I'VE are plentifully sup
piled with subjects at our dissecting
rooms, and there would be no need for
us to buy a corpse now"
When asked why he had come to the
station, he said he had heard that one
of the students had been arrested, and
Io6 70 a