The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-11-13
"JOKE" BETRAYED THEM.
How Police Caught the Gang of
Grave Robbers.
From the Baltimore sun.

Indiana pOnS, NOV. S.--tTi az IL =
sn Indianapolis has been practiced for
many years TO the certain know ledge
of the authorities. and there has not
been a year in the last two decades
when the dead have not been recover
ed from medical colleges. In these
cases however. il was the bungling
work of the ghouls-fOOtprints IN the
earth about the graves or failure TO
conceal the evidences of the resurrec-
tion-that led to the discovery. ana
though certain men were known to be
in the grave-robbing business so wen
was il concealed that no successful
prosecution was ever made. Whlle the
bodies were found in the colleges and
II was known that they had been
stolen no officer of the colleges was
ever arrested. because it was impos-
sible to obtain proof directly connect
ing anyone with the receipt OF the
bodies.
But it remained for the last few
weeks to bring to light all the details
of systematic ave-robbing which mas
no precedent here and possibly not IN
the United States. for it is certain that
hundreds of graves have been robbed
of their dead in the last year and that
the 0OOleS KNOWN 10 nave bVNA $780,
are but a 1.-THE of the total number
Cruel Jest of the GhOUIs.
on the night of Sept. 26 some
one drove up to the residence of Yves
lev Gates in a suburb of lrVlngton'
and called him to the door. voice
from a hack standing at the curb IN
formed him that the body OF ms
daughter. Glendore, who had been
l. Hofr Ia n
derson Cemetery, had been stolen. and
he would find it at the Central College
Of Physicians and Surgeons. Mr..
Gates made an investigation the next
dav. but when he dug down in the pine
pine box inclosing the coffin and found
il intact he caused the grave to be
filled up. believing that he had been
deceived. but unable to divine why
anyone should play such cruel JOKE
upon him.
A night or two later a hack stopped
in front of the home of John Middle
ton. and he also was called to the door
and notified that the body of his
daughter, Stella, had been stolen and
was at the Central College of Ply
sicians and Surgeons. The grave
was opened next day and the truth
of the statement was verified.
search of the college led to the finding
of the body, and il was reburied. The
mystery in these two cases, one of
which was supposed to be false and
the other known to be true. and both
notifications being made in the same
way and presumably by the same per-
son, caused the police to take up the
subject, but nothing further developed
Guns and Negro Preachers.
Early one morning several days later
Attorney Croninger called at police
headquarters and asked TO see Detec-
tives Asch and Manning. When alone
with the detectives he said that he
had very peculiar case on hand and
wanted it investigated. 1t appeared
that his client Gus Habich, a dealer
in guns and ammunition, had sold four
guns to some negroes, and that de-
Inonstrator of anatomy at a college
of physicians and surgeons and doc
tor who held a similar position in an
other medical college had become
surety for the negroes when they pur-
chased the guns; that the guns had
been pawned at ManteFs pawnshop.
and that the pawbroker had refused
to give them up. Habich had brought
suit in replevin. and a constable had
the property in his possession. The
attorney wanted to know what rela-
strators of anatomy and the negroes
and for what the four guns had been
used.
The Leader Confessed.
The detectives called at ManteFs and
discovered that a negro preacher named.
Rufus Cantrel had pawned the guns.
When Habichs was visited the dealer
told them that Drs. Alexander and
Wright had become surely for the price
of the guns. but they had not been paid
for, and because of this he had taken
out a writ of replevin. Cantrel was
known to the detectives as a preacher,
but also as man who was in the habit
of imbibing quite freely. and he was
found at his home and taken to the
station house. When asked regarding
the property that he had pawned, and
Informed that he was suspected of hav-
ing robbed the grave of Stella Middle
ton, Cantrel broke down and made a
complete confession, in which he impll-
Gated nine other negroes and the two
doctors. Both of the physicians were
arrested, and the negroes were found
skulking at different places and We're
soon in confinement.
Cantrel said DR.. Alexander kept a
watch over the death returns at the
City Board of Health office and notified
him. He received $50 for every body,
and had made S420 since July, and the
other members of the gang had made
as much as he. He did not know just
how many graves had been robbed, but
said that he and seven Others had been
In the business for two years.
Sold One of the Gang.
One incident sufices to show how
far below all moral sense these ghouls
had fallen. Samuel Wood was a mem
Der of the gang during his life. One
night, as they were taking a body out
of a grave at the Mount Jackson
Cemetery. they were fired upon by the
Waterman. The ghouls scampered to
their wagon. but Wood fell and struck
his head violently against a tomb
stone, fracturing the skull. He died
a week later at the City Hospital, and
the night after he was buried Cantrel
and his gang stole the body and sold
IT to the Central College of Physicians
and Surgeons for $50. Cantrel laughs
over this as a good joke on Wood, and
says that he had an eye on him from
the time they took him to the hospital
till he died.
The persons under arrest number
seventeen, and include DR. Joseph c.
Alexander. demonstration of anatomy
at the Central College of Physicians
and Surgeons; DR.. ]. c. Wilson. in
terne at the same college: George
Haymaker, custodian at the college:
DR.. Frank NJ. Wright, demonstrator
of anatomy at the Indiana Eclectic
College; Harry Speers, owner of Mount
jackson Cemetery; Cornelius Jones
and Adam Ault, watchmen at the
cemetery, and c. NJ Willis. under
taker The entire medical profession
of the city and state is rallying to