The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-01-26

the gate IN a nlgn renee al tiS Iodi VI 10
premises also unlocked and open The
boy was missing from his room and had
left nothing to Indicate where ne mad
gone.
IN the first place." said Mr.. Sewers,
yesterday, Il want TO say I am perfectly
satisfied now that my son was murdered,
How do 1 know? From the evidence
have secured through detectives and
which, although largely OF a circumstan-
tial character is sufficient TO warrant me
in believing as 1 do. Ny son left Wichta
to come to Kansas City because his
grandmother wanted him to bew ith her.
Ell took position here at smaller wages
than he had been getting at home, but
was willing TO do that, as he was very
affectionate boy and thought great deal
of his grandmother. After he had been
here a year ne wanted to go back home
TO visit me, and he wrote me the week he
was killed that he expected to start some
time that week. The next 1 heard about
him was a telegram sent me by man
named Blanton, who said my boys body
had been found on the tracks OF the Mem
phis road and wanting to know what
should be done with it In the meantime
had received a telegram from his uncle,
Charles Schattner TO the effect that Char
ley had disappeared from his house some
time Wednesday morning and that he did
not know what had become of him.
Later he wrote me a letter, containing
many expressions of grief over Charley's
death, and telling what a kind. affectionate
boy he was. 1 Immediately wrote back to
have the body and all my boys effects sent
to me. and when the box of letters that
had been taken from the corpse arrived. l
turned them over to a. couple of detectives.
Messrs. Sutton and Wood to examine.
told them the letters had been taken from
the body. and asked them what they
thought OF the blood stains. After a care
ful examination, one of them said: I do
not think corpse could sprinkle blood
on letters, and then put the letters back
in his pocket Now, as to the circum-
stances of mis- disappearance 1 have
learned that he was very anxious TO come
home and see me, and that he wanted to
start Monday, but had no money. His
uncle promised to buy him a ticket, but
persuaded him to wait until Wednesday
SO he could see the parade. Monday night
he went to his uncles room appearing
to be very frightened. His heart was fiut-
tering at a rapid rate, and ne asked to
have mustard plaster put on it, The
next night ne still felt i'll, and stayed at
home with his grandmother. At 10 o'clock
he went to bed, and that was the last
seen of him alive. The next morning the
kitchen door was found unlocked, and the
back gate open. Why he should go out
that way do not understand, as he had
key to the front door. and it would have
been much easier to have gotten out that
way. He disappeared some time Wednes-
day morning, but mis- body was not found
until Thursday morning. The question now
is, where was he all day Wednesday and
Wednesday night?
when found, the body was badly man
gled, and papers and envelopes that
are supposed to have been in his pockets
were strewn along the track. There was
quite lot of these papers. and what seems
queer about this part of it is that he
never carried any papers in his coat pock-
cts, as he was deformed, something of
which he was very sensitive, and the car
rying 0 fpapers made his coat stick out
so as to acoentuate this deformity. ct
the men who picked up the body found pa
perS dated as far back as 1892, papers that
he always kept in his trunk. Most of these
letters showed his address to be 1924 Char
lotte street, yet here another queer thing
occurs. Instead of notice being sent there,
distance of eight miles, a notice of the
finding of the body was UT me by Mr.
Blanton, who found It clear TO Wichita.
''Now here is some OF the evidence have
gotten to prove that he was murdered:
Among those who first saw the body was
a lot of section hands and gardeners whose
places were near by. All remarked on the
peculiar fact that, although the body was
torn to pieces there was no blood on the
tracks. The blood on the clothes was
stiff and dry, so dry that it cracked and
broke when the clothes were bent That
| indicated that the blood had been on the
clothes for at least twenty-four hours.
His new straw hat lay at the side of the
track and was uninjured. Inside the hat
was big clot of dried blood. The section
boss said there was not enough blood on
the track to account for the killing of
a rabbit. Sixteen firemen and engineers
on the Memphis road have testified under
oath that they had been ordered 10 keep
careful lookout for people walking along
the track from Wednesday night until
Thursday morning as it was the day after
the parade, and the officers os the road
expected there would be a number of peo-
pie coming along the track from the city.
Under oath they testified that they had
seen no one dead or alive. In my opinion
my son was killed in Kansas City. his
body hid until early Thursday morning
and then hauled out 10 where IT was found
and thrown under the wheels of the cars,
the men who did It being careful not 10
place II on the track for fear the engineer
or fireman would see It and the fact ex-
posed that the body was dead before the
train struck him. Two physicians nave
testified that At the inquest they examined
the corpse after it had been washed and
found on the head four deep cuts that
looked as though made by some sharp.
beveled instrument, cuts that could not
possibly have been made by any part Of a
train. The undertaken who prepared the
! body for burial has testified the same.
| Marshal Powers and Deputy Marshal
| LiShtfoot, OF Wyandotte county. have
! worked up most of the evidence in this
/ case and have worked hard and faithfully
/ on It. They have established the fact that,
although the boy left home Wednesday
morning and il body was not found until
/ Thursday morning. not a soul saw him al
/ any place. Another piece Of evidence that
/ viii cut an important part in the case =
/ the fact that. although blood smeared en-
/ velopes were taken from his pockets. the
/ blood found on his clothes had not soaked
! through the clothes deep enough % reach
/ anything in the pockets The coroner s
| jury returned verdict 81 death from IN
| known causes, bur the coroner and nearly
al the inrnrs sid ny hax,s body had been