The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1900-05-09
FRESH GOSSIP
FROM GOTHAM
A Bad Boy Who Murdered His Com
panion for Pay,
F. H. WEEKS OUT OF PRISON
Strange Case of a Young Woman
Who Writes Her Letters Back
wards-A Lawyer Com
mits Suicide.
F. H. WEEKS OUT OF PRISON

NEW YORK. May S-SpeciaL-Jonn
Cara brandt. the lad who slew his com
pin:on, I, boy three years his junior. is
one of the toughest cases that the police
iis,ve met for many a day. lie had been
employed in factory. but was discharged
and Mas employed in his stead BE en-
ticcd the younger boy into u cellar ana
murdered him with IL sitirS Shot e1ter
which he robbed him of his weeks gay,
amounting to three dollars. As soon as
he was captured he made a confession,
and did not attempt to conceal anything
When shown the body of his victim. and
asked if lie knew who IT WIS, he promptly
replied: OF course I knew him. That is
Hennfe Mas, the boy killed. He
showed ne sign Whatever of emotion or re-
gret 1t now turns. out that his aunt.
L;hbe Garrabrandt, murdered her erll-
poyer by means Of latdantrnl OF arsenic,
ard placed in his hands note purportins
to have been written by him. SAYING that
ne had taken his life because he believed
the girl would desert him. I15bbie was
only sixteen years of age when she COM
mitted this crime. She confessed. but like
her nephew, gave no evidence of reInorsa
NOTED E1NrEEZzLE1R RELEASED.
Francis III. Weeks. who was committed
to prison in 1893 for eribezzlsmeht, has just
been released His wife is living in Salt
Lake City and he will soon join her. The
case attracted much attention at the time
Weeks was a lawyer, a tirancter ana
trustee Of estates. He was a prominent
figure in Wall Street and was rep,Eted TO
be millionaire He moved in the highest
social circles and entrusted with
about seventy estates of old New York
families. His entertainments amounted to
something like 81 COO. 600. In May. 1883. he
made an assignment, after which he
quietly left the city and he and his wife
| went to Philadelphia. where they took pas
| sage on Boston fruit companys steamer
| for Jamaica. They finally landed in Vene-
! zuela, where Weeks passed as an Ayneri-
| can capitalist. From there he went to
| Costa Rica, where his identity was discov-
| cred He was brought back. tried and
| convicted and sentenced to Sing Sing
| prison. Only s5S.00O OF assets could be
| found after the wreck.
! WRITES LETTERS BACKWARD
| y we'll known physician of this city has
| a most remarkable case under treatment.
| 1t is that of young woman Who owing
| TO SEINE peculiar mental or nervous
! lesion. has fallen into the habit of writing
| her letters backward. She has written
several letters in such way as that they
can only be read when held up before q
mirror. Anybody who has ever tried TO
accomplish this feat knows how difficult
it is, yet this young woman has written
| easily read when presented TO the sur
face of a mirror, and the strangest part
of it all is that she was unconscious of
| having written in this way. The doctor
reports, however, that she is improving.
and expects to bring her around all right
| before long.
A young lawyer named Moses j. Martin
committed suicide in a saloon yesterday
by swallowing carbolic acid. He leaves
young wife. whom he married q short
while ago. and his relatives and friends
say that his home life was happy and his
| business in prosperous condition. They
! could give no motive for his act, and at
| tributed it to temporary insanity.
! Something of stir has been made in
| political circles by the recent action of
Comptroller Coler, who has stricken the
| Croker-F'reednan Bond Company from
| the list of 'sureties acceptable TO the city
! upon the bonds of officials and eontrac-
tors engaged upon municipal work.