The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-09-26
MAY BE THE MURDERER
FURTHER EVIDENCE AGAINST AL
ExANDER, A NEGRO BURGLAR.
Flat Irons and a Coffee Can Stolen
from WiIharm Place Found
at His Home.

superintendent Quigley is about ready to
| place the charge of the murder of Chris
| tian Wilharm against Charles Alexander.
| OF 1712 Linden street, the robber of at least
| fifteen houses in his neighborhood, man
| who escaped from the Tennessee peniten-
| tiary, where he was confined for burglary,
who carried two loaded revolvers in his
pockets, who wore rubber shoes to deaden
| his footballs and who is a. desperate-look-
ing, surly negro. The suspicion of the po-
| lice that Alexander was the murderer of
| Wilharm grew to confidence last night One
of the evidences against Alexander was the
finding of two fiat-irons and a coffee can
belonging to the Wilharms at Alexander's
home. Alexander is now in Jail, being held
for grand jury action on the charge of
robbing the house of E. NJ. Campbell at
Woodruff Place. 1t will probably be not
more than twenty-four hours before the
charge of burglary will be changed to that
of murder
Yesterday morning Detectives Asche,
Dugan, Thornton and Weible went to Alex
anders house, under instructions from Su-
perintendent Quigley and Chief of Detec-
tives Colbert. to make a thorough search Of
the place. 1t occurred to the detectives that
it would be a good plan to take some men,
Der of the Wilharm family to the Alexander
house, so that he might identify any arti-
Gle there which might have been ST. en-
from the Wilharm home. Mrs. Mary Ma
ford, the married sister of Christian Will
harm, agreed to go with the detectives to
the home of the man who is suspected of
killing her brother. After some turning
over of things in the house. Mrs Maford
saw two fiat-irons and green tin coffee
can.
Those belong to u.s. she cried. The
sight of the simple articles brought back
to her mind the murder of her brother and
she half-swooned. When she became calm
enough, the detectives questioned her
closely about the articles, and she asserted
with all positiveness that they had been
stolen from her home. This was enough
for the detectives, for they had the founda-
ton on which to put Alexander in the
sweat box" with the hope of some sub
stantial result.
HIS WIFE TERRORIZED.
In the afternoon Alexander's wife, a
woman who was a school teacher in Ken
lucky and in New Albany, and a woman
with personality which would seem to fit
her for almost any other position than that
of wife to an ignorant and british man like
Alexander, was taken into the private office
of Superintendent Quigley and questioned
for two hours and half. At first she tried
to shield her husband. not from love for
him, but from fear. She said that two
weeks ago he had struck her, and that she
was preparing to leave him when he was
arrested She did not know what kind of a
man he was when she married him, two
years ago. she said, but she needed a home
or her DIR
came to this city a year and a half ago.
After a time Mrs. Alexander began to talk
more freely, and a great deal of damaging
evidence against her husband was secured.
He slept in the front room of the house.
He could easily come and go without my
knowing it, she said, because he always
wore these rubber shoes. Anyhow, had no
clock in my room, and could not have told
what time it was had heard him come in
or go out. He always went out of the house
after supper and when the time came / went
to bed. Usually when l woke up in the
morning and went about the house would
tons. l was afraid"
Mrs. Alexander was asked if she remem-
bered the night of the Wilharm murder.
YES" she replied, readily. IN the morn
ing the woman next door told me there had
been a murder over on Spruce, street"
Her husband she said had gone out OF
the house that night. In the morning when
she got up to prepare breakfast he was sit
ting in the kitchen with all his clothes on.
She did not know whether he had slept in
the kitchen or not, and she did not ask him.
HOW THE IRONS CAME THERE.
In regard to the two fiat irons she said
that she had been in the habit of borrowing
irons from neighbor. The last time she
had occasion to iron clothes she told her
husband she was going to the neighbor's
house to borrow irons.
"You needn't borrow irons no more" he
growled. There's irons in the closet"
She went to the closet and found the two
irons which Mrs. Maford yesterday morning
said had been stolen from her home Again
she asked no questions. She had begun to
understand that her husband was not living
the right kind of life, she said, and secretly
she made ready to leave him and take her
daughter with her.
During the examination of Mrs Alexander
her husband was in the next room being
sweated'' by questions from Chief Colbert.
alexander was suriy; held his 3 head head down I
shutters and his words were almost unin-
telligible. Superintendent Quigley entered
the room with the irons and the coffee can
in his hands.
How did these come into your house,
demanded the superintendent.
II d-d-don't know" muttered Alexander,
his eyes fastened on the floor.
81 want you to tell me where you got these
things"
"S-s-second-han' store"
what secondhand store?"
Il d-d-don' know.
The above questions and answers are a
fair example of what the whole examination
of Alexander was.
The case against Alexander, or as much
of il as the police are willing to make public,
as 1t stood last night is epitomized in what
follows. Alexanders house is within two
squares of the Wilharm home. at 1850 Spruce
street. His house may be seen from the
Wilharm place. The night of the murder a
colored man, who answers Alexander's de-
scription, was seen by neighbors lettering
about the neighborhood as late as IL O'Clock;
the murder occurred half hour later. The
bullet which killed Wilharm was of thirty
eight caliber; two of the revolvers found
by the detectives in Aexander's possession
are of thirty-eight caliber and one of the
chambers of one of the revolvers is empty.
Alexander's wife found him sitting in the
kitchen the morning after the murder, fully
dressed as if he had been out all night.
Alexander Is a known burglar and a desper-
ate man; he made a hard fight when he
was arrested once before. And last and
strongest evidence against the man is that
two fiat irons and coffee can which had
belonged to the Wilharms were found at
Alexander's home and he gives no explana-
tion of how they came there.
Superintendent Quigley said last night:
1.-The rope is Tightening around Alexan-
AI-