The age-herald., 1900-10-08
POSSIBLE MURDER
 AND NOT SUICIDE
Mystery Deepens About the Un-
 known Man
FOUND DYING AT AVONDALE
Statement Made and Denied That He Was from Fayette County-Circum- stances Arouse Suspicion of a
 Mysterious Murder

Considerable mystery surrounds the death of the young man in the Avonda1e park Saturday afternoon. It was stated Satur- day night that he had committed suicide but an investigation made by Coroner Paris and Dr. Martin of Avondale yester- day inclined them to the opinion that it was not a case of self-destructlon, but of murder.
 The body of the dead man Is stll at the undertaking establishment of the Warner Smiley Company and will be held there for week or more unless sooner identified. Coroner Paris believed for a time yesterday that the identity of the man had been set tied and communicated with the relatives of the person whom he was supposed to be- Officer Langston and two other men who saw the body at the undertaker's yes- terday stated that it was Jim Wilburn whose people live at Bankston, Fayette County. They claim to know Wilburn and were positive that he and the dead man were tho same.
 ollowing this Identification Coroner Paris telegraphed to Wilburns relatives at Bankston. but had received no answer from them up to late hour last night He expects some of them to come today.
 Later in the day other men who claimed to have personal acquaintance with Will burn, after seeing the body. were equally as positive that it was not Wilburp.
 Coroner Paris and pr. Martin went to Ayondale park yesterday morning and made thorough inspection of the ground waere Wilburn, if that be hls name, was first found by some boys Saturday after noon. They found that spot of several feet in diameter, near the top of the hill, and some fifty feet distant from where the man was lying when the boys ran across i..m, had been carefully cleared off, every weed and particle of brush having been removed from it. There they discovered the tracks of two or three other men and saw where they had all been sitting down in the cleared off spot For fifty feet down. war; a pathway had been beaten out and evidences of the body having been dragged over it were in plenty. Along the pathway were noticed the tracks of two or three men.
 The coroners theory Is that Wilburn or whoever he may have been, had gone to <Avondale park with a number of friends for game of some kind. There were no cards, dice, nor other gambling devices to be found near the place where the trag- edy occurred. The theory of the coroner is that the men were gambling and that n.-ourn was drugged and his money taken from him.
 1I.e man now dead was seen in Avondale Saturday, shortly after noon, by several persons, but he was alone, and there is no evidence that he met any other persons during the day. He was found near the top of the hill in the park about S:SO clock that afternoon.
 There are number of persons in Br- mingham who know Jim h ---urn and who Saw him in the city several times last week and even on Saturday morning If it de- velops that the dead man Is Wilburn the officers believe it will then be less difficult to solve the mystery of his death.
 Coroner Paris states that he will hold tne body at the undertaers just as long as possible In order that the fullest chance may be had for positively identifying it. several hundred persons called at Warner Smiley's yesterday and last night to see the body