The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-10-31
ARREST OF THE BECHYELS.
CHARGED WITH BEING ACES
SORES AFTER THE FACT.
The Murdered Girls Lover. Eckstrin.
Also Arrested-An Refused TO Answer
Questions BloOdstains Found I'm the
House shown to the Coroner's Jury.

Also Arrested-An Refused 10 Answer
Questions -BIoOdstains Found I'm the
House shown to the COrOner's Jury.
ALLENTOWN, Pa, Oct. 3O-As the result
OF the verdict Of the Coroner's jury that
heard the evidence In the case Of Mabel
Bechtel, the pretty mill girl whose body
! was found Tuesday morning in an alleyway
At her home, four members of the girls
family, with Alois Eckstein, to whom the
girl was engaged. were arrested tonight on
a warrant charging them with having con-
cealed the girls body in the house with in
tent to hide the crime of murder and thereby
being accessories after the fact.
The members of the girls family against
whom this charge has been made are the
girls mother, who is 80 years old; her young
est sister Martha, 10, and her two brothers,
Charles and John. All these lived in the
house at 627 Cedar street, where the crime
Is alleged to have occurred. The girls old
mother. whose air Of motherlness seems
almost to belle the charge collapsed during
the inquest and is in very weakened con-
dition. The prisoners were admitted to
bail in 81, 900 each and were allowed to 90
home tonight. They will be held to await
the action of the Grand Jury, which meets
Nov. o
Acting under the advice of their respective
counsel, all Of the five persons arrested re-
fused to answer any and all questions put
to them at the continuation OF the inquest
to-day. This was on the ground that it
would tend to inorminate them Their
attitude upset the plans OF the District
Attorney and the police, who are now con-
WINGED that Tom Beohtel who committed
suicide in his cell, was the murderer.
They had hoped to-day that one OF the
family could be induced to tell what hap
pened in the house. In the absence of this
testimony the jury could not fix the crime
on any person. 1t found that the girl had
come 70 her death in the house on Cedar
street, some time between Sunday night
and Tuesday morning. her skull being
fractured by the blow of some unknown
person in the house
I'VE believe" said the verdict, that the
inmates of the house, Mrs Catherine Bech-
tel. Miss Martha Bechtel. John and Charles
Bechtel and Alois Eckstein, were accessories
after the fact of the crime"
Testimony at the inquest to-day tended
strongly to show that the crime was COM
mitted in the house. The stains found on
the wall in the girls bedroom, on the sheet
Of Tom Beohtel's bed and on the blade of
the Ratchet found In the attic were declared
by Prof. Lear, the chemist, to be blood
stains. Exactly similar stains were shown
to the jurymen on the steps leading down
from the Kitchen to the cellar.
In fact, the evidence was 30 strong on
this point that the family's lawyer gave as
reason for his advising them not to testify
the fact that the evidence had shown that
the crime had been committed in the house,
but showed a possible line of defence by
asserting that it could have been com.
mitted by some one coming in from out
side.
The theory Of the police. which they say
they can yet establish, Is that Tom Bechtel
struck the girl i'll her room and then took
ner into his room, where she died. Their
contention is that the others, two Of whom,
the mother and Martha, slept in the next
room, became aware of the crime and al
lowed Tom to take the body into the cellar
and Oh Monday night put it In the alley
way.
1t was the desire OF mother to shield
his own act that the police ailege is the
motive for her silence and that OF the others
in the house. 1t il not difficult TO associate
such q motive with the poor old bereaved
woman, who sat in the court room to- day,
sobhing.
The inquest was continued at 2 o'clock
and the first witnesses heard we're Chief
of Police Eastman and detectives who had
made Z search OF the house after the crime.
They all tod OF the mothers story OF
how she had stumbled across the girls
body in the aleyway after seeing In the
middle of the night the carriage drive out
in the rear street and a bundle taken out
by two men They also told OF how the
mother and 1.-THE Martha. herself pretty
girl With an almost childish face, had taken
them through the house willingly One
thing which several detectives swore to
was that an ingram carpet was on he floor
OF the front room on Tuesday 1t had been
replaC al by a rag carpet on Wednesday,
they said, and was found rolled UP in the
attic.
The Garnet was shown and SPOTS were
pGuted ont whore il looked as though some
one might have scrubbed SOMETHING The
same detectives told of finding on the
rext dav n SPOT on the wall over the bed
IN the front room snots on n sheet on Toms
bed in the royt room. and In n closet of
the room n wnshrng. a blue apron and a
mart Of the pirls clothing. also with stains
on them. An attempt had evidently been
made to scrub these.
The collar stairs which had been cut ont
were shown 10 the jlIrymen There were
dark blotches on ali Of them. Chief Fast.
man w,id that Tom Berhtel had assisted in