Morris tribune., 1902-01-25
SUSPECT A NEGRO.
MILLIONAIRE ST. LOUIS BUSINESS
MAN MURDERED IN A
eATHHousE. -
AN EMPLOYE UNDER ARREST

Robbery Believed 70 Have Been the
Motive Of the Crime, the Victims
vaiuables Being Found Later In
Another Part Of the establishment.
Injured Man Lives for Several Hours
/ but Never Receivers consciousness.
st. Louis, Jan. IA. Dean Cooper,
the millionaire treasurer of the Ora
ham Paper company, died during the
day as the result of an assault in
which his skull was fractured while in
the cooling room Of the Vista Turkish
bathhouse, at Grand and Franklin
avenues. .a- ~
William Strother, the negro attend
ant at the bathhouse, who was on duty
at the time and who notified Mr.. Coop
er's family shortly after midnight of
the assault, is held as a prisoner at
the Dayton Street police station.
A diamond ring valued at $1,000 and
a diamond pin worn by Cooper when
he entered the bath were found in the
basement of the bathhouse. They had
been concealed under the flooring in
a crevice above the top of joist.
A sledge hammer bearing fresh
blood stains was found in the base
ment soon after the police had been
summoned to the scene of the assault.
The hammer was one which is used in
the basement for breaking up coal.
Strother told the police at the time
of his arrest that two women and a
man had called to see Mr.. Cooper, who
was proprietor of the place, shortly
after IL o'clock. They came in car
rtage and were preceded by boy with
q note. The colored man said that he
had admitted them to the cooling room
and had returned to the basement He
did not know, he said, when they de-
parted. ~'1' '@57 ~ Y
Strother said that two colored wo-
men-Josie Houston and Florence
Banks-had visited him in the base
ment earlier in the evening. +
Erastus Fountain, janitor of the
Vista block, says that the two women
were in Strother's company at $3.50
o'clock, when he made his last visit
to the premises. The police say there
is no other evidence than Strother's
statement to prove the visit of two
women and man to the bathhouse. i
Cooper's Family Informed.
A few minutes after midnight Theo-
dore Cooper, son of A. Dean Cooper,
answered the door bell at the family
residence, 3713 Washington boulevard.
Strother was at the door.
"Your fathers been hurt" said the
negro to young Cooper. Hes over at 1
the bathhouse now"
Without stopping to question the
man closely Cooper hurried to. the
Vista block. In the cooling room Of
the bathhouse, on a cot in the. middle
of the long compartment, he found his
father, covered by a sheet. go
Doctors we're Immediately called and
the police notified. The latter made
an investigation and discovered the
blood-stained hammer. Young Cooper
told the police that the ring usually
worn by his father was missing and
they made another search, finding the
ring and pin in the cellar, as already |
stated
worked over Mr.. Cooper, who did not !
regain consciousness. They decided |
to perform an operation and remove
the pieces of bone from the jagged |
wound in the skull that were pressing
on the injured mans brain. This was
successfully performed, but Mr.. Coop
er passed away a few hours later.
Strother stoutly maintains his in
nocence. Fountain, the janitor, was
taken to the police station but was re-
leased after telling about the presence
of the two colored women in the bath
house when he left.
Josie Houston, aged 26, and Florence
Banks, aged SO, the latter married,
both colored, are held at the Dayton
Street police station, where they are
being sweated by the police. The
women were arrested as result of the
statement by Strother, who said the
women had been with him at the bath
house during the night.
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