Evening star., 1899-04-13
BURIED UNDER ASHES
Human Skeleton Onearthed Today at
Riders Castle,
POLICE ARE NOW INVESTIGATING
Body Believed to Have Lain Two
Years Where Found.
POS SIBLE DEVELOPMENTS

The remains of an unknown man, sup
posed to have been colored, were found
this afternoon by David Johnson and
Frank Shepherd, also colored. in a vault
under the pavement in front of No. 423
New Jersey avenue northwest. They We're
taken to the morgue and Coroner Carr
notified An inquest will be held at the sixth
precinct police station to morrow morning.
The corpse was almost nude and almost
entirely a skeleton. The head nearly
severed from the body. 1t is thought the
remains were placed where they were
found al least two years ago, as the ashes
under which they lay had not been re-
moved for fully that length of time. The
unDearable that Lieutenant Kelly of the
sixth precinct ordered 1t to be cleaned.
Yesterday morning Johnson and Shepherd
began carrying the ashes away, and they
had nearly completed the work when the
CHASTITY discovery was made.
The building at which the remains were
found is known as Riders castle, which
Tor years, until recently, was the scene of
frequent disorders, resulting in raids by the
police, and often those arrested were sent
to the workhouse. Once the owner of the
building, George F. Rider, now upward of
eighty years of age, was convicted of keep
ing a disorderly house and was fined $25,
but sooner than pay the amount he chose
the alternative of serving term in the
Workhouse While Rider was in prison he
explained his financial circumstances to a
fellow prisoner, whose term expired before
his own, and the newly found friend, it Is
said as soon as he was released, visited the
tenants in the house and collected and kept
considerable rent which had become due to
the owner of the property.
Riders Castle a Tenement.
Riders castle is a nondescript tene-
| ment house. the front of which looks very
1
Washington. but in its interior arrange
ments has. it is believed, hardly a dupIi-
cate. 1t was built as a tenement, and the
numerous rooms are small and lily venti-
lated. The material used was brick and
frame, the latter consisting of wood from
the old Chain bridge, three miles above
Georgetown. Some of the stairs are por-
tions of the gigantic timbers used under
the floor of the bridge. which We're cut to
lengths of about three feet and laid loosely
one upon the other, each receding suffi-
clently to make room for a person to get a
| foothold.
Mr. Rider has long been regarded as hav-
ing some very unique ideas. For example,
1 for long time prior to the breaking up
of the place by Lieutenant Kelly he kept a
plgpen on top of shed just in the rear of
the castle and at height of three stories
from the ground. Almost as high from the
pavement Rider for long time carried on
blacksmith shop.
Poiice Will Probe the Case.
While the police have only the slightest
basis upon which to work, it is their inten-
tion to probe the matter to the bottom
Some think 1t possible that in one of the
many fights which occurred in the castle IL
| man was killed and his body placed where
1t was found, but il is also REGARDED as
strange that if this was the case the mans
disappearance was not reported TO the
authorities by some of the mans frienis
MIR. SchOenberger's Statement.
Mr.. William Schoenberger, superintend-
ent OF the morgue, who removed the body
to that institution, said this afternoon that
| when he reached the remains the head was
| entirely separated from the trunk and was
| a little higher than the latter. 1t was his
| opinion that the corpse had not been buried
| IN the ashes more than six or eight months
| colored woman who was well acuuajnt-
| ed with the castle and with some of those
| VINO had lived there. said it was her opin-
| ION that the dead man was an old Den-
| sioner called Pop Williams. who some
| tlme ago suddenly disappeared from his
usual haunts and has not since been heard
from by any of his friends