Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1903-11-26
MURDERED SIX PERSONS
Hundreds of Bodies Were Sold
to Medical { Colleges.
GRIMES BATTLE POLICE


ohouI King confesses-says He Va
Never AIonS-Mystery of NAM
Assasslnations Cleared Up-TelII
How a Grave ls Robbed-Chlcauc
Cemeteries Easy to Work.
Rufus Cantreli, the negro king q
Grave Robbers" has confessed thai
murder was a part of the traffic that
he carried on In dead bodies.
When before the court he gave de
tails as to the manner of robbing the
graves and disposing Of the booty to
the demonstration of anatomy at tie
Central College of Physicians and Sur
geonR But he never told until now
that his stock in trade was obtained
sometimes by murder.
Superintendent Byrnes, formerly Of
the Ohio State Prison, Is the man to
whomT Cantrell first divulged this
staEtling phase Of the case. At varl'
ous times, when he could not get hold
Of dissectIng subjects in the regular
way-from undertakes or by desecrat-
ing the tomb-Cantrell said he com
mitted murder. He said he killed six
persons. Then he recited in detail the
story of these murders and cleared up
six mysteries with which the police
have grappled in vain.
The FIRST killing was that Of Police
man Watterson. Of this city, Cantrell
sold the body to the College Of Physi-
clans and Surgeons.
His next victim, he said, was Wal
ter Johnson, Of Newark, N. j., whom
he waylaid and robbed of $500. He
had no difficulty in dispOsing of the
body as usual to the dissecting room,
thus enjoying a privilege that does
not fall to common murderers.
The third victim, a Pittsburg man
named Claude, was killed and what
money he had taken.
Cantrell's next enterprise was more
lucrative. He slew Carrie Salvage, a
wealthy woman, three years ago, and
the mystery of it baffed the police.
The fifth victim was Kenneth Law
renee, Of Ohio, and the sixth William
Jordan, of Indianapolis.
Cantrell asserts that he was never
alone in these deeds of death; that
one or more members Of his band Of
body snatchers always had hand in
them.
At first his story was regarded as I'm
probable. The police began a search
ing investigation and they say today
that they have verified it in every ma
terial point 1t has been put in the
form of an affidavit, and this is in the
hands of the Attorney General.
Cantrell made a trade Of body
snatching for many years, according
to his own statements in court. His
career In Chicago indicates that city
as a favOrite hunting ground for
ghouls.
zone cemetery in Chicago" he as
serted. had furnished more bodies to
st. Louis medical colleges than have
gone to the dissecting rooms of the
city from cemeteries surrounding st.
Louis itself.
There are a score Of undertakers
in Chicago" he said, who bury ice in
the coffins instead of bodies, and then
sell the bodies to medical colleges.
Cantrell described the manner in
which a grave is robbed The entire
coffin is not laid bare, he said. A hole
as square as the grave is wide is dug
at the head Of the mound. When the
coffin has been reached a man is sent
into the excavation, and while he is
at work drilling through the casket the
light he requires and the noise he
makes are both prevented from arous-
ing suspicion by heavy robe that is
thrown across the top of the grave
while he labors beneath.
When the coffin has been opened
and an aperture has been made large
enough to permit of the corpse being
drawn through, a second ghoul takes
the first mans place, and, Selling the
body by the shoulders, drags it from
the coffin and lifts it to the surface.