The Washington times., 1901-10-27

L
the third degree"
Byrnes seated UTnger In a chair comfort
| ably. and gave him cigar to smoke The
| manner of Byrnes at this moment was
| not that of "A hard master OF criminals
/ but that of the urbane. polite entertainer
| who had gone to great trouble to fix up
an interesting diversion for the stoiid and
lowering Unger. Byrnes began something
| like this:
"Unger, here's a great story for you to
| listen to. / have just killed man and
I've got his body in there" (pointing to a
supposititious side room ''or maybe I've
| got him over here. Now. l don't want
that body lying around here. and 1t seems
| to me that the best way out of 1t is TO
| cut him up and ship him away some
where haven't got anything here that
L can lay him on that will allow me 20
| work comfortably. because I've got to do
a fine job. so guess I'll get him out and
| lay him on that lounge. All right now,
I've got him on the lounge. Now, then,
| want a good sharp knife. Let's see;
| there was knife around here n while
| ago. A fellow tried to cN me with one q
while ago. What's become OF it, / Won
| der?''
| AT the mention of the word knife" IN
| ger gave slight start and shifted uneasI-
/ work Byrnes went on in this way for
some time, and went over all the ground
| that he had already traversed In his mind
| Only once or twice did Unger show any
| signs OF paying any attention whatever
| TO what ByrEes was saying, but that was
| enough After Byrnes had finished his
| story he turned to the men in the room
| and said: Well wnereupon Detective
| Crowley came out of the shadow where he
had been standing. and walking over to
Unger said nonchalantly and as though it
were a matter of bet passing curiosity:
Did he cut you at all?"
The fshy blue eye of Unger flashed the
briefest CLINT of fire. and he beloved out
MOI! followed by string OF particularly
vituperative German oaths.
Unger was doomed from that minute;
he had confessed by that brief expression
almost as completely as though he had
already told the whole story After that
| there was continual string of quiet, in
sinuating suggestion and questioning with
continual references to the poker and the
knife. the blood stains on the lounge, and
every bit of the gruesome exhibit. At the
end of two hours of this sort of thing Un-
ger, in fit of rage at the hectorings and
Fostering. told all, OF at least enough of
it to warrant his conviction, which oc-
CURED on Febr airy 10, 1857. and he was
sentenced to twenty years in Sing Sing
Good behavior cut the sentence down very
considerably, and Unger was released on
June 81 1893.
Another instance of the work that is de-
scribed as the third degree is that of
the Kronman case. that occupied the at
tention of the public for some time dur
ing August, 1899.
Mrs. Kronman was found all but dead |
in her fiat on Eighth Avenue. She had |
been beaten about the head and shoulders |
with the blunt end of hatchet Several |
thousand dollars worth of jewelry that |
she was known to carry about with her
was missing. Captain Cooney of the West |
Thirty-seventh Street station set to work
on the case Immediately. and he felt that |
circumstances warranted his lrresting the /
womans husband, at about the same hour
she died in hospital.
At the stationhouse Kronman was sub |
jected to all the rigorous examina .ior that |
goes to make the degrees short of the |
third degree" Failing to elicit any sat
isfactory information from Kronrnan, he |
was turned over to the headquarters de- |
tectives for the third degree" Captain |
McClusky was in charge of the Detective
Bureau at that time, and with the success
of Byrues and his methods in the Unger
case in mind, he had setting made of /
many of the furnishings OF the Kronman
fat and with the blood-stained hatchet |
occupying conspicuous place, Krouman
was put through the third degree. much
as Unger was. The only thing against
Kronman in the minds of the police was
the fact that he could not establish clear
alihi for the time that the murder was
supposed to have been committed, but SO
far as general evidence was concerned
they had little TO work on. Kronman was
badgered for three or four hours, and one
may easily imagine what terrible ex-
peTience the third degree would be to
go through, when 1t Is stated that Kron-
man was taken out of the room in a dead
he had gone through.
When they had finished the police were
fairly certain that Kronman was not the
man, but as circumstances developed al
most Immediately which caused them to
begin on a new tack they thought 1t
would be well to let it appear that Kron-
strengthen this idea kronman was even |
taken to the funeral of his wife, where
he was again subjected to many questions
while standing over his wifes coffin.
This incident called down a lot of ad-
verse criticism OF the police, but was soon
forgotten in the excitement surrounding
the arrest of cousin Of the dead wo-
man, named Neufeldt. Neufeldt was an
eX-convict, and a ne'er-do-well generally.
1t developed that Mrs. kronman had been
deeply interested in the reformation of
Neufeldt, and had desired his marriage
with a girl frien6 Of hers. To further this
the day before the murder she had ar
ranged meeting at her home between |
Neufeldt and the girl. and during the con-
versation had brought forth a great num-
Der of jewels and decorated the girl with |
them, and told Neufeldt that when he
married the young girl in question she
would give her this or this pointing
out ONE of the less valuable of the jeW- |
elry. The sight of the jewelry aroused all
of the low cupidity of Neufeldt. who came
the next day and committed the crime
ana robbery. The Idea of the police max
ing 1t appear that Krcnman was the real
led Neufedt to be less cautious
than he perhaps ordinarily would have
been, and he was arrested in one of the
cheap cafes OF Houston Street. disstplting |
on the proceeds OF the robbery. Neufeldt |
was given speedy trial, was sentenced |
to death, and executed.
There is another kind of third degree" |
other than that which has been described |
in the two preceding incidents. which con-
sists largely in creating an atmosphere |
around an alleged criminal from which |
very few can emerge without having com |
raitted themselves in some way or an !
other If they are guilty. Here is an in ,
stance:
On November 20. 1900 Alexander J. Hub /,
bard OF 13 North Street, Baltimore Md. :
was hrutaIy assaulted by John MIrphy, =
alias Thousand Dollar Diamond Harry"
and Henry Mas. both of whom ere ex- :
Hubbard was a jewelry mer- !
chant. and was alone in his store at the :
time. Mas and Murphy came in and /
asked him to show them certain goods. Z
When the goods had been exhibited the I
men beat Hubbard into inSensibility with c
the butt of pistol. and got away with T
the f,ooty Capt. George Titus was in 7
Charge of the New York Detective Bureau i
al that time and the Baltimore police I
wired him to look out for Mas and Muir a
nhy. who. they had reason to believe, had {