The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-10-11
Remarkable Career of "Dr." Def
willer, Who Throve by Robbing
His Wealthy Patients.
CRIMINAL FROM BIRTH
Not Only Lifelong Sneakthef Never But Once
Jailed, But Shone Don Juan-Probabiy
Guilty of Many Murders by Poison.

New York, Oct 10-When the people ot
South Bethlehem were told that DR.. Det-
wiHer, who had not molested them noT
their chattels for some months. had died
at Newport from the effectsof an oper-
alton for appendicitis, they shook their
heads in sceptical fashion. They didn't
believe IL. They said to one another: at
is more likely that sle died as a burglar
ought by the bullet from the revolver of
an outraged householder"
And this is why they arrived at the con-
clusion so speedily. John Detwiller as a
boy in South Bethlehem, was terror and
scandal to the town. His evil incli-
tons would yield neither 10 advice, threats
nor punishment. And because it was re-
membered that his grandfather had ex-
hlbited the same propensities in his youth
which no discipline ha eradicated. he
was treated as a degenerate, as a hopeless
case. and was protected from the law
where another would have found no SYM
patty.
He was born on February Is, 1851, at
Hellertown, a station on the Reading
Railroad, four miles South of South Beth
1ehem. Almost as soon as he was able
to walk he began to exhibit the special
early vice OF constitutionaIly bad boys
he was a runaway boy. by absenting
himself from home he kept his parents in
q constant worry. He seemed unable to
tell the truth, and ne would steal what
ever he could lay his hands on. Even as
an urc4lin his depredations were on a
wholesale scale, unequaled in all the an
nails OF boys. He was Stunned by mis-
school mates; his school master feared
him.
This boy who was so bad he would not
stay at home, and who could not be kept
a school for the same reason. was finally
deemed by his parents material out of
which a doctor might be made So the
young ruffian, whom everyone Ioathed
and feared, was sent to his uncle, John
Detwiller, at Easton, to learn the gentle
art Of healing.
Perhaps his cunning mind forsaw- the
advantages the honorable profession of
medicine would offer to one whose every
impulse was criminal At any rate, he
made such progress with his uncle that he
was in due time enabled to enter the Uni
versity OF Pennsylvania. AS student OF
that institution he found mis- Immediate
opportunities for crime superior to what
the future seemed 10 offer in the same line
The college was furnished with apparatus
some of it valuable. Whatever young
Detwiller saw that he wanted he took,
whether it was in the shape OF costly in
struments or watches and clothing be-
longing to the students. At first his fell
low students were charitable. even sym
pathetic. They believed him to be a
kleDtomaniac. Instead of handing him
over to the authorities. they wrote to his
parents and time and again the old peo-
pie, though brOkenhearted. Unidentified
his victims. In fact they continued to do
20 while they lived.
While studing in Philadelphia, Det-
willer robbed the Academy OF Natural
Science Of its most valuable contents 1t
was his habit to take efuge when danger
OF discovery threatened inside a stuffed
moose. One night he emerged too soon
from his hiding place and after a fight
was captured. This time ne was obliged
10 work several weeks in Moyamensing
Prison before his relatives-one of whom
was Mayor Fox-couid bring TO bear suffi-
cient influence to secure his release.
From prison ''Dr." Detwiller. as he now
styled himself, returned to Bethlehem and
hung ;ut his professional single. Pa
tients went to him. and not few of them
were robbed Of their watches in his Office.
and when the doctor called at APP atients
house ne levied tribute on valuables with
IN reach TO an extent that rendered his
fee insignificant by comparison. He start
ed a systematic scheme of robberies in the
homes Of the wealthy to which he was
summoned. and was so clever that no
specific case of burglary could be made
out against him.
Next his criminal enterprise turned to
the pillaging OF the graves OF Indians bur