The herald., 1898-10-20
SING NAV MURDER
e1xAx or HARDY F. CLARK TO
DuGIN TODAY
The STORY OF THE TRAGEDY
Foundation Of the Charges Preferred
Against the Young Man Ar
rested at Tropico

der Of Wong Sing Hay, q Chinese iauhory'
man, on May 3lst last, will begin tins morn,
ing before Judge Smith in Department one
Of the superior court: Inc disappear;St px;atw " y,
nis countrymen, even before it was known
that he had been foully murdered, and toT
iour days the officers were engaged IN what
-seemed to be hopeless search tor some
trace Of the missing laundryman. Inc last
that had been seen OF him, so iar as could De
On fso that % day he had been observed as he was
driving up to the house belonging to Joe
Hunter. off the San Fernando road, near
Tronico. on his rounds collecting and DIS
Iributing clothing for the laundry. .Four
days afterward his dead body was found
hidden under the house and IN an advanced
stage of decomposition. lie had been snot
t~;ce with a shotgun, once in the left collar
hone and again in the left side of the cheek
Suspicion fell upon Clark, who bad been
living with Hunter In the house tor some
time. where they had been "bachlng.
When the Chinaman drove up on that DAY
wards believed that Clark was the only, one
about the premises Some OF the neighbors
had noticed Wong's horse and wagon, trst
in the driveway south of the house and later
st the side of the cottage. George Hunter,
cousin of Joe Hunter, who lived about 2oo
Yards away, had seen the Chinaman drive
IN. but thought nothing Of that occurrence
until a half hour or more afterward, when he
saw the rig still there, and wondered that
Wong Sing should be lettering. SO.
Directly in front of Hunters house and
about l5 yards distant was the home, OF j.
W. Penland. Mrs. Penland, too, had seen
the laundry wagon near the Hunter house
and Aurelian LIE Page, a sheepherde;r, ;,s pHy 9Hy
wagon standing there. At 8 o'clock that
night, the driver not being in sight, Charles
Hunter saw the same wagon by the road.
a;de. about a mile and half northwest Of
Joe Hunters house, and two hours later, IN
repassing the place and again seeing the
wagon, his suspicious were awakened that
something was wrong, and he drove the rig
up to old man Hunters place.
Under Sheriff Clement and Deputy Sher-
if Aguirre went out to see Clark and ques,,
toned him about the Chinaman. Clark said
that the laundryman had called and dis
played some money while sitting, on bench
in the kitchen, but that he had afterward
driven away and he saw no more OF him.
The officers were not satisfied with his
answers and decided to take him along with
them while they drove over to the laundry
of Wong, which was located at Garvanza.
Leaving Clark without a giard, the latter
leaped into front seat and escaped with
The team. He was captured a day or two
county Jail. 1t was after his arrest that the
body was discovered, securely packed away
under the house.
Sheets which had been used to cover the
dead mans head were ascertained to have
been taken from bed in the house, and
dark stains on the floor were observed.
which the officers thought marked the plnce
where the Chinaman fell when shot. The
wounds on the body indicated that the vic
tim must have been seated when the fatal
shot was fired In order to make sure of
the deed, a second shot, it was assumed, had
been discharged at the PROSTATE form, the
gun being placed against the face of the
Chinaman 1t was this discharge which
had torn the CHASTITY hole in the cheek of the
Iaundryman, the blood from which bad
saturated his white blouse and run out upon
the floor.
It was ascertained that young Clark had
borrowed q shotgun in the afternoon of the
same day the Chinaman disappeared, this
weapon having been secured from Samuel
Hunter, who lived quarter of mile from
Joe Hunters place. His excuse was that
he wanted to kill squirrels. Hunter re-
fused to give him any cartridges, so about
2 o'clock in the afternoon Clark called at
the Penfeld house, and there borrowed four
shells.
He went to the Joe Hunter place, and Mrs.
Penfeld stated that she heard him shoot
once at the side of the yard, and again,
about five minutes later, from the rear of the
house. These shots were fired about 2:30
o'clock About $50 o'clock she saw the
Chinaman's rig in the yard, but did not see
the owner About $50 she and her hus-
band heard third shot from the house of
Joe Hunter, and this sounded dull, and no
60 loud as the others in the afternoon
They were eating supper, and paid no at
tention to the matter.
One of the witnesses, whose testimony is
relied upon largely by the prosecution, is
Aurelan lie Page, the shepherd boy, who
says that his sheep were on hill about $50
yards from Joe Hunters place, and he saw
Wong Sing drive into the yard and enter
the house. The Chinaman had been inside
only about ten or fifteen minutes when lie
Page says he heard two shots at little in
terval apart: Almost Immediately Clark
came out of the kitchen, went to the
Chinaman's wagon, looked into it, walked to
the other side of the house and looked
around over the neighborhood, after which
he went back into the house. This was lust
before sundown.
On the strength of these facts, and others
of a corroborative nature, Clark was
charged with the murder OF the dead man,
and held for trial to the superior court. The
last chapter in the story will be told before
a jury, with whom it will be left to de-
termine the guilt or innocence of the ac
cused.