The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-08-15
Mrs. TnIIerday's story of Seeing
ThOmpsOn's Laundry Wagon Fully
CorrObOrated.
FURTHER EFFORTS BY POLICE
THOMPSON'S HORSE USED TO
STRENGTHEN EVIDENCE.
stopped Near Where Minnie MitchelPs
Body Was FOund-Other Devei-
Opments Yesterday.

CHICAGO. Aug. 14-Becoming desperate
tonight while being subjected to vigorous
examination by Inspector Hunt, Oscar
Thompson who is detained pending investi-
CATION of the Bartholin- Mitchell murders,
confessed to everything that the police
have been trying to make him tell. When
he had finished Thompson laughed deris-
lively and said: Inspector, that story is a
lie. You wanted me TO tell you all these
things. 1 have admitted all. but L must con-
fess that ii is all lie
Inspector Hunt. who has been laboring
with Thompson for days, thought for
moment that the solution of the mystery
was pouring from Thompson's lips, but the
next moment he realized that Thompson
was endeavoring to perpetrate joke.
In making the bogus confession Thompson
said: Yes, Bartholin made me go to the
laundry barn and get the wagon that
Wednesday night He made me bring ii to
the house at 431O Calumet avenue and back
1t up to the curb. Then Bartholin came out
of the house carrying a mysterious bundle
He put ii in the wagon. Then we drove
TO the Englewood prairie and hid the bundle
in the weeds. You have been telling me to
tell you that and admit it is the truth. You
have told me the same stories day after day
and have pressed me to confess that they
things happened, but Inspector Hunt, Will
also state TO you that every word l have
spoken is false. Everything L have told
you is a deliberate falsehood."
The bogus confession came just at the
very moment when a confession was ex-
pected. and Inspector Hunt was greatly
turned TO his cell Inspector Hunt said Il
believe that strange confession is Thomp-
sons last card, and that he will tell a ter
rible story before long"
THE MYSTERIOUS WOMAN.
The identity of the mysterious woman In
black who last night told the inspector she
had seen William Bartholin, Oscar Thomp-
son and "Old Dad" Claffey wrangling over
Thompson's laundry wagon early on the
morning of the Mitchell girls supposed
murder was cleared up. She is Mrs. Mary
Tallerday. To-day she positively identified
Thompson's wagon and horse as those she
ha6 seen with the men.
Confirmation of the story told by Mrs.
Tallerday came when d. A. Meyers,
motorman of a Wallace and Center-avenue
car told the police that he had seen the
laundry wagon where Mrs. Tallerday de-
scribed il as being between and o'clock
of the morning following Minnie Mitchells s
death. Meyers identified the horse and
wagon as Thompson's. This, the police say,
murdered in the BarthOlin home and cart
ed far out on State street
What the police believe to be another
strong link in the chain of evidence being
forged around the men under suspicion was
developed tonight when Police Lieutenant
Bacus, under instructions from Inspector
Hunt, took the horse and laundry wagon
which it is thought may have been used to
convey the body of Minnie Mitchell to the
spot where ii was found, and went over the
same ground again. Two police officers
lOCalltV where
the body was found were put In charge of
the wagon. After proceeding leiSurely to
Sixty-eighth and state streets the horse
was turned In State street and given his
head. Slowly he ambled along within 260
feet of the spot where Minnie Mitchells 5
body was found There he stopped and
nibbled a bunch of grass growing along the
side of the road. Then, turning half cir
Gle, he crossed the road and stopped at a
point directly in front of where the police
had found a pair of bloody cuffs on the
prairie few feet from the road, which are
believed TO have belonged to Bartholin.
At this point the driver turned the horse
about and he crossed Seventy-fourth street
and stopped at a point where Minnie Mitch
ellis shoe had been previously picked up
From this point the horse leisurely took his
way south until within few feet Of Seven
ty-ifth street, where he turned abruptly
and retraced his steps, stopping about
twenty feet north of Seventy-fourth street
and about forty-five feet north of where
the body found. A second test was
made by Lieutenant Backus and upon this
occasion the horse stopped directly in front
of the spot where the body was found.
Witnesses have been produced who will
testify that Oscar Thompson, John Claffy
and a third man, supposed to have been
Bartholin. were in the street with this
horse and wagon at daylight the morning
after the disappearance of Minnie Mitchell
and the police are now of opinion that the
horse and wagon are to play as important
a part in the unraveling of this mystery as
did the old white horse in the celebrated
Cronin case.