The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-11-05
BOSTON POLICE
 SOLVE MYSTERY
Think They Have Man Who
 Committed Assaults
WEALTHY MAN ARRESTED
It Is Said, However, That He Is Men tally Unbalanced, and, If Found Guilty, Cannot Be Held Ac-
 countabIe for Acts.

Boston. November 4-In connection with The fifteen murderous assault cases which have occurred in Cambridge, Brookline and Somerville in the last few months two of which resulted fatally, the state police today arrested Allan c. Ma son, of Boston, a well known and wealthy business man, a member of the piano firm of Mason & Hamlin. a promi- uent club member and a Harvard grad uate. The police suspect from evidence In their hands that MT. Mason has been involved in nearly all the cases referred to, as the crimes were very similar. Mr Mason is a middle-aged man, but he has been victim of mental trouble. for which he was treated at the Mclean asy- lum at Waverly About year ago he was permitted to leave the institution. Since that time, it is said, he has been permitted to go and come at will and the fact that he has been frequently seen about the localities in which the assaults occurred led to suspicion against him.
 The peculiar Assault cases which have terrorized Cambridge and vicinity as well
 
 June. During the summer there were half dozen victims of an unknown as- sailant, each of which was struck down and beaten with a blunt instrument. Early in October, Miss Agnes McPhee was assaulted in Somerville and died from her injuries. An iron wrench was found and fixed upon as the weapon. During the same month eight other cases fol- lowed, the last of which occurred last Saturday night when Clara Morton, a iaundress at the Mclean asylum, was accosted on the grounds of that institu- ton and beaten with a blunt instrument. Miss Morton died Sunday.
 Arrested at Home.
 MT. Mason was taken into custody at his mothers home on Newbury street. He made no objection and on his way to police headquarters it is said MT. Mason admitted to the officers that he was in Somervile on the night on which Miss McPherson was fatally injured.
 The prisoner is about 39 years of age and is the son of the founder of the firm Of Mason & Hamlin, organ and piano manufacturers. He was graduated from Harvard in 1886 and entered the firm of which his father was the head. Mental troubles developed within few years after his graduation and he was sent to the Mclean asylum for treatment. Af- ter time he showed improvement and left the institution. A second time it be- came necessary for him to return but he soon improved and he was refused A third time. In 1901 however, symptoms more serious than any previous ones de- veloped, and his mother and brother found it unsafe to be with him at their Newbury street home. He had threat ened both and a petition was filed to have him sent away on the ground of in- sanity and Mason was sent to Waverly for the third time The man himself pro- tests against what he termed an injustice and said that he was perfectly sane and would conduct himself as we'll as possi- ble while he was there. He remained six months. Since then he nas been free and has been a stock taker at the Mason & Hamlin organ factory at Cambridge.
 Mason has a mother and three brothers, Edward Palmer Mason, Henry Lowell Mason and Daniel Gregory Mason. He is a cousin of John Mason, the we'll known actor.
 Had Musical Taste.
 While in college Mason displayed pro- nounced musical taste and was president of the Glee club. He was also an athlete of some note.
 State officers went to the Mason home in Newbury street this afternoon and searched it thorouhgly. Nothing was found which could indicate that Mason was connected with any of the mysteri- ous assaults on women
 Inspector Murray of the Cambridge force and Lieutenant Carter of Somerville, who have been for weeks looking for the ''slugger' say they have nothing that will identify Mason as the man they want. They believe tonight that they had found a witness who would swear to seeing Ma son in the Mclean hospital path, in which Miss Morton received her death blows, but they think that eventually he will make some admission which, however, they admit will not be worth much be- cause of his mental condition. The po- lice say they can prove that Mason passed great many evenings about the streets of Somerville and Cambridge, during the 'sluggers" period of operations, and they know that he often went to those cities on a bicycle.