El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-11-19
HIS DEATH
WARRANT.
a Story of n Newspaper
Reporter

remarked the city editor. I'VE had q
man on the paper who was simply a
crank on homicides. and he was more
than a mere reporter, for he had de
tcctive talent of the highest order. He
didn't care much for the common
carbohydrates. larcenies and such
hut give him n good. mysterious muir
der and he was splendid. Not only did
he have the history of all the famous
murderers at his fingers ends. but he
delighted In ferreting out the most
mysterious crimes that came within
our province. In every case except the
one ] am telling about-and there were
a good many crimes in that town-he
traced out the murderer before the de
tectives even dreamed of his Identity.
II have since thought the secret Of
his success was that he put himself
mentally in the place of the murderer
and reasoned IL out from motives rath-
er than from the 'clews' of the ordinary
detective
There is seldom much method in
murder he once said to me when in n
rarely communicative mood Most
men would commit it i'm about the
same way under the same circum-
stances. 1t is only when n murderer
goes about it systematically, as do the
thugs of India, that a murder becomes
truly mysterious
II once asked him why he did not be
come n regular detective.
~ was born and bred journalist
he said, and the habit Is too strong to
break
THAT was literally true in his case
Otherwise l might not have to tell this
story
lone morning the body of fine
looking man was found in an alley adj
Joining the electric light works in the
very heart Of the town The afternoon
papers had a chance at IL, but didn't
make much out of IL, SO | ut once as
signed it to Jones. as we will call him.
Although ne did not show up at tho
usual hour, I had no doubt he was al
ready at work on il. as IL was as mys
FERROUS case as even ne could desire
The victim was identified as trav-
eler who had just arrived. and so faI
as known ne had no friends or ac-
quaintances in the town. 1t was not
case Of robbery. for all his money and
yaluables were left on his body. There
was n slight confusion on the back OF
the head and small. needlelike hole
through the mans heart 1t was cspc
ciaIly strange that such a crime could
have been committed in a public thor
oughfare. while there was absolutely
no clew tn the murderer or his motive.
But these difficulties were only such
a. would ordinarily put Jones on his
mettle. so I did not doubt that he
would have Il good account of the az
fair. I was therefore somewhat sur
prised when he came sneaking In about
6 o'clock In the evening to see what his
assignment was. He looked worn and
hacgard. but denied that he was i'll. so
] gave him the murder job. He went
out without n word
Il did not see him again that even
ing About midnight I began to won
der why had not heard from him, but
only specuIated on the possibility OF
something having happened to him, 10.
the idea that he could possibly fail
never occurred to me. Finally. after
an hour had gone by. I telephoned to
1he police station. Word came back
that there We're no new developments
in the case and that Jones had not
been there Sending two men out to
hunt him up. l set to work myself To
make "a story of the murder from the
afternoon papers JUSt then Jones
came in His step was unsteady and
his face flushed. He had evidently
been drinking heavily, something
never knew him to do before, but ne
Has not drunk; rather lie seemed at
high nervous tension, although out
Wardiy as calm as ever.
Il decided to let this breach OF disci
piine pass and merely asked him for
big murder story. He replied that he
hadn't written IL.
We'll, get to work on it at once ]
said rather sharply.
Then he really surprised me by say
ing that he had nothing to write be-
yond the bare facts already known.
The police had developed nothing new. |
and he supposed that l had worked up
abe story from the evening papers.
And has it come to pass that you
wait for the police to develop a murder |
rsse for you? l exclaimed angrily. As |
for the reports In the evening papers. |
Jou can fake" better story than they |
had
lie sat down in apparent despair ut
his desk. Then / relented and caioled |
Aim a little. begging him not to spoil |
his great record by failing i'm such n
rase.
There's n starter for you said 1. |
throwing him the article / had COM
Denced. Now go ahead and fill that