The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-11-08
STILL A MYSTERY
DEVELOPMENTS IN MASON CASE
HELP THE LAW LITTLE.
BROKER NEMSER TESTlFlES.
But FAILED TO IDENTIFY PRISON
Err AS PAWNER OF WATCH.

Ihnt the TWO tAWneu I1mepieces
Were the Property of the Young
Women Who Were Killed Is an
UndOubted Fact, But No Further
Evidence Has Been Adduced to
Connect Alan G. Mason with the
Two Trngedies-GOv. Crane Has
Interested Himself in Case.
Boston, Nov. lin the develop
ments of the day in the Mason case,
which has puzzled the police of Boston
since Miss Clara A. Morton was struck
down and killed in Waverley last Sat
urday, there are several striking de-
tails. No further evidence, however,
has been adduced which tends to In
criminate in the case Alan G.. Ma
son, the member of a prominent family
who is under arrest on the charge of
murder. In fact the police are in
| clined tonight to the belief that Ma
son stood out clearer in the light of an
! innocent man, because of the failure
of Joseph Nemser, the West End jew
eler, to identify Mason as the man who
| had offered for sale Miss Morton's
watch last Saturday night.
An important detail in connection
with the disposal of the watches was
the establishment tonight that the
signatures on the check kept on file
| by the jeweler in Identification of per-
sons who offered him the articles.
| were written by one and the same per-
| son. This confirms the story that the
two women were, murdered by the
| same man.
Another late incident was the arrest
on suspicion tonight at Watertown of
l laf 20 kRgf 4ertat
here, but Nemser failed to identify
him. The man was released.
So serious has the case become that
| Gov. Crane has interested himself and
looked over the scene of the murder
while on a visit to Waverley
Prompted by the finding in
a pawnshop here of the watches
of Agnes McPhee and Clara
A. Morton, the two women who have
been murdered in assault cases in this
vicinity the police are pressing with
all their energy to place, If possible
the responsibility for the crimes. The
pawnbroker, Jose Nemser, in whose
store both the watches were found
was at police headquarters to day an6
repeated his story about the watches
after which he started for the IEas
Cambridge jail to see Mason for th'
purpose of identifying him Capt. Du
gan of a bureau of criminal inyestiga-
t ton said that Nemser had. insisted tha
it was a mulatto who offered Miss Nor
| tons watch for sale Saturday night
| and that it was the same individual
RI who brought the watch to the store
on Monday and sold ii for 81. He fur
: Their stated that another ne
gro, older, heavier and blackel
t than the mulatto, joined the
latter just as he was receiving the
, money. An apparent coincidence was
noted to-day in connection with the
pawning of both the McPhee and Nor
ton watches, in that the address given
in the McPhee case was % Grove street
and in the Morton case the same num-
Der, %, in Greenwich street was given
In probing the case at WaVerly the
state police have found evidence that
Mason had made at least two at
tempts to have women meet him al
night at 1.-THE Oaks" a section of the
Metropolitan Park reservation not far
; from the Mclean Insane Asylum
where Mason was a patient and on the
, grounds of which Miss Morton was
! killed
Nemser failed to identify Mason
At the jail Mason was placed among
six other men, and Nemser carefully
scrutinized each one. He picked out
one man as the person who pawned
the watch, but it was not Mason. The
/ negro VINO has charge of the house
where the Masons live was about his
work as usual to-day, although the po-
5 lice claimed that he had gone away
, He said to-day that he was at his post
; yesterday, and could have been found
there by the police if they had looked
| for him.
' During the day the attention of Chie1
, Wade was called to a published inter.
view between Nemser and reporters
in which Nemser said he was paid tC
stick to his story that mulatto sole
: the watch. The chief said:
THAT is perfectly outrageous. The
! story is all bosh Nemser was tolC
that he would be paid for closing vi
shop and for going about with thu
officers to help them on the case. HI
will be reimbursed also for what III
gave for the two watches. He is
poor Jew and very much excited, am
> he told me that he was besieged by
so many reporters that he did no
: know what he was saying or had
said"
1 Chief Wade's statement that Nemse
i hardly knew what he was sayin
seems to have been borne out by tn
: fact that he told the police positivel,
to-day that the man who pawned tn
McPhee watch was a white man an,
later admitted that he might have bee
d a colored man: in fact. he rattle
7 thought he was.
A similar change of opinion was not
ed in connection with the man VIII
: Nemser claims tried to pawn the Nor
L ton watch on Saturday night. At frs
Nemser was very positive that 1t wa
= a negro. Then he said he was of ligh
y complexion and might have been a mu
d latto. Later he admitted that he nigh
= have been a Spaniard or an Italian.
The story that strange negro wa
in Waverley Saturday evening wa
70 made known by a woman who lives i
: winchester, and who, at Porter's sta
u ton, in Cambridge, on the Fitchbur
% division of the Boston and Maine Rail
II road saw a negro purchase a ticke
) for WaVerley. State Detectives Ham
3 mond and Dexter weRt to Wincheste
/ tonight together with Chief of Polio
: Mcintosh and interviewed the woman
e who is a nurse. Her name at present
withheld She says that Saturda
o evening she started for Weston an
i waited in the Cambridge station 70
n her train from 1880 until p. m. Durin
y this time she had an excellent Opportu
y nifty of observing the actions of tw
4 white men and a negro who were a
the station. and she told the officer
n to-day that she was positive she coul
= identify the three men wherever sh
might see them.
The two white men were looking :
a photograph; then one Of them sal
Il We'll. we might as we'll buy a ticket
j. They purchased a single trip ticket
II Waverley, and this ticket. the nuri
= ! Saws she saw handed To the negro 4