The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1901-02-11
DURING AN OUTING A DETECTIVE
SOLVED A MURDER MYSTERY.

friend shrugged his shoulders and said he
did not believe him. Why" remarked
the friend. n suppose the next thing YOU
VIII say VIII be that you killed MAI
thews."
ut was a lively race between me and
Matthews continued Jenerds. "If no
had minded his own business ] would not
have killed him!' The man I'm the boat
with Jefferds laughed. why. Jefferds. IL
was proven in the Walton trial YOU were
In Brooklyn that night Jefrerds sneered
Then he told how, after shooting Mat
thews. ne had turned the corner and lay
hidden under stoop while the crowd
whirled by.
Then he slowed the pistol In a crevice
I'm the wall and jumped on Fourth ave.
nue. car Opposite the Astor house he
dashed down Broadway 10 Whitehall
street, leaped on "a ferry-boat just going
out, and was soon sitting In the public
room OF the hotel with other loungers.
Jeferds' friend pooh-poohed the whole
story.
SURPRISE FOR THE MURDERER.
About week after this Jefferds and
his friend came 10 this city 20 have
good time. The two ended their bout In
a tavern called The Store" I'm Bleecker
street. As they were coming out police
man arrested Jefferds. For what" quer-
ied Jenerds. For the murder OF John w.
Matthew'S
"fiddle-sticks." replied the young man.
The man who killed Walton killed Mat
thews' and | was acquitted of killing
Walton. What farcev Jefferds begged
his summer friend 10 visit. him often.
A year and half haH passed since
Walton's murder. The trial OF Jeftefds
for the murder of Matthews came on.
Jefferds' summer friend had not abandon
Ia IA. L..
the courtroom.
Jeterds was cool and unconcerned He
was confident OF acquittal. He said so to
his friend frequently, and the friend nod
ded his head and smiled as ii to say.
They have a poor case"
one day during the trial Jefferds turned
deathly pale. He clutched the chair In
front OF him for support His eyes fairly
started out of his head His friend had
left his side and gone on the witness
stand at the beck Of the district attor-
ney. These were the questions Jefferds
heard the district attorney ask and the
answers OF his friend:
What is your manner"
William V. Moore"
What is your occupation?"
Member of the metropolitan police
force"'
Then came the rest-all that summer
friends story OF what Jefferds had told
him about the killing of Matthews. But
what Of that without corroborative evil
dence? IL came--the pistol that was hid
den in the wall. Two bullets were miss
ing
The ones that killed Walton and Mat
thews were of the same calbre They
fitted the pistol. More than that-Moore
had found the man who had sold the pis-
tol 10 Jefferds. He identified it.
Guilty OF murder in the first degree"
was the verdict of the jury.
BREAKING-DowN OF MOORE.
Jeherds WIS never hanged. wtnttu tf1s
trial was on the law abolishing capital
punishment was repealed. so under the
then existing law he was to remain in
prison for year under sentence OF death
and then when the governor should fix a
date he was TO be hanged.
But no governor cared TO make him.
self the hangman and so Jefrerds remains
ed there, ,perpetually under the sentence of
death.
But one day he himself was murdered
by a fellow convict who almost cut his
head OFF with an AK while Jefferds was
reading a novel in hay loft in the iail
yard, And strange to say the convict who
killed him was acquitted when put on
trial
As for Moore. the happiest day OF his
life was when he heard of the death OF
Jefferds, for he had sworn IL he could
ever get out of prison II would be to kill
Moore. Moore was for years after this
terrible detective work a clerk I'm the de-
tective office in Mulberry street when
John A. Kennedy was superintendent of
police.
He never got over the terror OF Jefferds'
threat TO take his life and gradually
broke down, became half demented and
had TO be retired.