The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-09-05
GofhaUl'S Latest
Murder Mystery
From the New York sun.


IN THE FIRST half hour Of tine morning Of
I Sunday, two weeks ago, Fred Scharn, an ID.
L year.old boy, appeared at the street door
Of the house in East Thirty-iourth street
where lived his landlord, druggist named Ty'
Ter. He made such noise in trying to arouse
Tyler, who was not at home, that the wife OF
the janitor Of the house came out to him. To
her the boy reported that Ais sister, Katharine,
with whom he lived in third-story back rooms
Of Second avenue tenement near Thirty.sey.
cnth street, had been murdered, and that he
had found her body his return from day
spent away from home. lie had come to get
the aid and advice Of Tyler, whose store in
the Second avenue tenement building, and who
acquainted with both Fred Scharn and his
sister, The hoy seemed to the woman to be
half out OF his senses. With another tenant
she led him to the police station IN East Thirty
fifth street
Detectives and a hospital surgeon were at
once sent to the tenement. They found the
body Of Katharine Scharn lying face down on the
floor between her bedroom and the living room
Of the apartment. Her body lay in position
suggesting rather that 1t had fallen, insensate,
in the place where it was found than that the
birl had dragged herself there from any other
part Of the room. The body that Of girl
% % years old, Of comely figure, and OF pleas.
ing il not beautiful features She had red
hair, and wore gold spectscleS There was
much blood on the floor near the girls face
Her hair was much 6shevellcd. Her hat and
number Of cheap hairpins and comhs were
| scattered about the room in disorder, 4 crulr.
pled.up sheet lay under the upper part of the
body. bood-stained hammer lay near the
girls head, IL was the sort OF hammer that
would be ordinarily used for household Jobs
such for instance, as the mailing up Of por.
| teres its place in box under the kitchen
sink. number Of parcels, still in their dry
goods store wrappings, lay on the bed which
| was neatly made up number Of portieres lay
| in heap on alounse. There was no money,
no iewelry to be found on the girls person or
! anywhere in the rooms
! Thus at 2 o'clock in the morning of Sunday,
/ Aug, 10, the police had before them Just such
a grisly problem it is the delight Of the
writer's of certain department Of fiction to
construct for themselves in order that il may
| he worked out with entertaining ingenuity. There
can be no complaint that sufficient ingenuity
has not been exercised in the effort to find out
who killed Kate Schsrn. For two weeks fifty
or more persons, some connected with the police
/ department, and others privately employed all
/ of them experienced in detective work. have di.
rectcd all their energies TO the solution Of the
/ problem Yet there is no reason to believe TO.
| day that the police have any more certain in.
! formation to the identity OF the murderer OF
Katharine Scharn than they mad at daybreak on
that Sunday morning
Something was learned Of the Scharn girls
friends, Of her manner Of life, and of her move.
ments for part Of the day before her body
was found 1t was established that her brother
was liar and thiefGand one who was content
to live at his sisters expense while he was out
| Of employment as he was normally. But II
| was also established by the testimony Of eleven
dislnterested persons that however much he
may have been pleased TO lie 70 the police about
his actions on Saturday morning, he was north
of the Harlem river from hali-past 4 o'clock in
O'Clock midnight, and that IL was an imposs,
hility for him 10 have reached his home more
than a few minutes before hs appeared at his
landlords house. TIE condition Of the body at
the time when the police entered the rooms was
such that life must have been extinct before
midnight. The brother taken In charge
soon after his arrest by a counsel who forbade
him TO have any further communication with the
police. lie has been held in custody first rs
suspected Of murder and then as a thief
80
Before the boy became silent tire police
were told by him that his sister was engaged
had been acquainted for four years. Letters
10 her from the clerk were found in the rooms
II was learned that Kate had agreed TO meet the
clerk at One Hundred aud S1ty-sixth street and
Third avenue nt half past O'Clock on the ev.
! ening before her body was found. The bank