The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1903-10-02
WAS IT MURDER :?
Peculiar Mutilation Of the
Body Found in the North
River Raises Sus-
pioion.
LIKE THE GuLDENsuPPE CASE
After Minute Examination
DIR. Converse ADVISES In.
vestigation.

are trying 10 solve the snySlery WHICH
surrounds the finding of the nude and
nuch-mutilated body of man in the
North River yesterday. If a murder
was committed the deted res declare
that this is another Guldensuppe case.
physician on one of the transfer
ba-ges belonging to Ellisf Island noticed
the body Of man floating in the North
River early yesterday. The barge pro-
ceeded, and no effort was made to re-
cover the body. The body was about
two hundred yards from the Hoboken
ferry landing. Fifteen minutes later
passengers on the Hoboken) ferry-boat
Orange saw the body. BY that time it
had ~drifted toward the Jersey shore.
Captain Hickman, of the ferry-boat,
| passed a line to it and towed it to the
ferry slip. From there it was taken to
A. ]. volk's morgue, No. 633 Washing
ton street, Hoboken.
|
The body was that of man about
| ffty-fye sixty years of age, about six
feet tall, and weighing between 255 and
250 pounds The face was rather fleshy,
with a heavy gray mustache and hair
Of the same color, The hands We're
rather large. They did not appear like
the hands of a man accustomed to hard
work. The finger nails were in excellent
| order.
! There were absolutely no marks by
which the body might be identified
The upper part of the skull was missing.
The brain was not there. The renia;n-
ing part of the skull showed a rather
gone. They had been cut off a few
inches below the upper joint. The flesh
was badly lacerated. There was large
bruise on the right side of the thick neck,
fracture of the left forearm, and the
flesh of the left hand had been torn on
top as if by dull knife.
| A closer examination showed that
nearly every rib had been fractured, al
though there was no marks on the skin
to indicate such fractures. The body had
not been in the water more than twenty
four hours.
| Chief of Police Hayes detailed all his
detectives to the case. but at night they
reported that nothing new had been dis
| covered. The entire absence Of clothing
made the sleuths arrive at the conclusion
that it was a murder.
County Physician Converse made
minute examination of the body.
s.All these marks" said DR.. Converse,
'may have<been made BY heavy machin-
cry, perhaps by the propeller or paddle
wheels of steamer. At the same time
they may have been with heavy axe
1t looks as if some heavy weight had
rested on the chest. and 1t must have
come with great force.
DR.. Converse was asked if death could
have been due to drowning and the cuts
and bruise have been made after the
body had reached the water.
''You can tell that in ordinary cases by
the presence or absence of water in the
lungs and stomach" said DIR. Converse.
sBut in thisscase | doubt If we shall be
able to determine this even by an au-
topsy, because of the body is so torn that
water might have entered even if the
man was dead before striking the water.
ssThe man might have been struck on
the top of the head with hammer and
then throwf into the river. The main
thing is to establish tie identity Of the
man, and then we shall have something
to work on
Detective Weinthal was sent to New
AViA " iVoA W ti tift IetofuS at ollce
Headquarters, but he could find nobody
answering the description Of the body.
There is a possibility that the body
was cut to pieces BY one pf the ocean
liners that sailed yesterday. Among
these were The Moltke and the Pretoria,
of the Hamburg American line; the big
Barbarossa Of the North German Lloyd
and La Lorraine, Of the French line.
Many people viewed the body at volk's
Morgue yesterday, but none could iden-
tify X.
Harry Johnson, boatswain, and John
Delansy. water tender on the steamship
Manhattan. Of the Maine Steamship
Company. moored at Fifteenth street,
Hobpken, say two men fall overheard
from tho tug Protector on Wednesday
sftezuoon. 4 seemed 70 them that the