Barre evening telegram. (Barre, Vt.) 1898-19??, 1899-06-14
THE BAY RIDGE AFFAIR
Identification Made Of Dismembered
Body In the Morgue.
BUT NAME STILL UNKNOWN.
Brooklyn Police Get Inquiries From
Boston About Man Who
Has Not Been Heard Of
For Some Time.

New York, June 14.-Elias Whitman
of SO Boerum place, Brooklyn, has posi-
lively identified the dismembered body
found floating in the bay as that of a
man against whom he heurdSa fierce
threat of revenge.
Mr.. Whitman visited the Brooklyn
morgue, and the moment he saw the tat
too marks he recognized the strange
cross. He said at once:
eyes, it is the same cross. l recognize
| it, There isn't enough Of the man at the
morgue to be sure l recognize him with
out the cross, but l am sure about the
| tattoo mark on the arm"
Mr.. Whitman's further statement is as
| follows:
About 2 o'clock in the morning of Fri
| day, June 2 saw two men Quarreling
on South street, at Fulton market. One
was very tall and thin and weighed
about 145 or $50 pounds. His name,
though | heard it at the time, l do not
now remember.
"The other man was not quite so tall,
was older and very heavy set. He was
called Reilly by his adversary. He wore
blue jeans trousers. and gray long
shoreman's jacket without any sleeves.
son his right arm was tattooed rude
cross of the crucifiXiOn.
Il was walking along between John
and Fulton streets when | saw the two
men fighting in the middle of the street
l couldn't hear what they said at first,
but all Of sudden the tall man pulled
hatchet, such as longshorcmen carry,
and rushed at the other man, yelling,
"Reilly, I'll chop you to pieces and feed
tc tho Il Shns hn frcfn bop I ~
"Then the other man, the one with A
cross on his arm, pulled hatchet, too,
but other men caught them and pulled
them apart.
"The heavy set man laughed when the
other one threatened to cut him up, and
he answered, Maybe you will IL you get
the first chance, hut I'll keep lookout
for you Then the men separated"
The Police ut Sea.
Expressions of opinion as to whether
the man was murdered or not are hard
to obtain from the police. They were at
first reluctant to accept the theory or
murder and inclined to believe that the
man had been drowned and his body cut
up By the propeller blades of a passing
steamship or the paddle wheels of a
steamboat Captain Reynolds has now
assumed a somewhat different attitude.
He said:
"In my capacity as u police officer
will not commit myself to an expression
of opinion, either that it was murder or
that it was not murder. Privately, be-
lieve that the man was dead when he en-
tered the water and was cut up by pro-
peller blades. To support this view there
are the statements by the corners ply
sicans that the lungs are waterlogged,
and there Is further the piect of under
shirt found on the right arm. am con-
yinced that no one would cut up the body
while it was clothed Further, do not
see how it would be possible for any one
to cut the face in the manner that it has
been cut. | want it understood that |
have no theories about how the body
came into the water or whether the man
was murdered or not before he was cut
up. That is what | am trying to find
out"
There ca"9 to Captain Reynolds a let
ter from Boston, the writer of which in
quires for friend living in this city
who had not been heard from in some
time. There was no description of the
man, but the letter writer remarked that
in case of foul play the legs might have
been cut from the body to prevent identi-
fcation.
~ wrote back at once" said Captain
Reynolds, 'for a full description of the
missing man. For the present our most
experienced detectives are at work on
this mystery all the way from the city's
water front down the bay and around
to Coney Island. If we can identify the
man, it will be Il long step toward the So
luton of the mystery. Chief Mackellar
has issued instructions to every precinct
in the borough for special work on this
mystery. | admit that we seem as yet
to be working in the dark, but some
thing may develop at any moment"