The Saint Paul globe., 1904-04-17

Cox life. He told wife No. 6 and wife
| No. he had become foreman of
| bakery and that his occupation COM
PEELED him to work frequently allnight
! This enabled him to spend three or
/ four nights in the week with wife No.
at Richmond and three or four at the
Ladysmith road house with No. 4.
Meanwhile No. lay in the tin box
! with the cement hardening around her,
| her friends far and near wondering
what had become of her.
Marries No. 7.
There was not enough variety, how
ever, nor enough money in this Box
| and Cox business to suit CrosSman. He
sought another woman, and by his
usual method easily found her. She
was Miss Ann Welch, of Reading, and
in January of this year he made her
Mrs. Frank Seaton," and wife No. z.
| He got possession of her bank book
and by means of forgery withdrew
$3.50 of her money from postoftice
| savings bank. With amazing audacity
he even brought her once to the Lady
| smith road house. Urging the pre-
text that this woman was going to
adopt his boy by his first wife, and
would not do it If she discovered that
he was married, he induced No. to
| deny that she had married him. No.
did not reappear again until the coro-
ners inquest was held and all of Cross
mans domestic complications and viii
| lainieS were laid bare.
AS for the house in LadySmith road,
| Crossman's need of money compelled
| him to sublet the lower portion of 1t to
| a Mr.. and Mrs Deli, in the early part
of the year. Crossman and wife No.
4, however, still occupied the rest of
the dwelling. About this time his Of
fense, which had long smelled rank to
| hnCon smell 9rfh
The damp earthly odoF" which No.
had for time noticed began to develop
| into something that would no longer
| justify that description So Crossman
dosed the tin box with carbOlic acid,
| lavender water and other perfumes.
Their effects, however, were evanes-
cent The tin box was bent on yield
ing up it's CHASTITY secret at last, and
| scents would not suffice to long delay
| its horrible message.
At length the olfactory organs of
Crossman's tenant led him straight to
the incriminating box.
A Ghastly Joke.
st believe you have a dead body in
! there" said Delf to CrosSman.
Crossman did not pale under the ac-
| cusatiOn. With wonderful nerve, he
treated it as a jest and laughed at it.
He said that the smell came from
'size," a malodorous species of glue
which painters use, and that he would
| soon rid the house of 1t.
But the shadow of the galloWs was
| haunting him now. Overbold before he
| became overcautious. He sought out
| a carman to arrange for the removal Of
the box. He insisted that 1t should be
| taken away at night and would not
| disclose his own name, nor just where
| it was to be taken. He proposed to ac-
1 - - .oIG Il
rect the carman where to deliver it.
| All this aroused the carman' suspi-
cions While consenting to undertake
the job, he privately arranged with
one of his mates" to follow the van
and keep his eyes opened and his ears
alert for evidence of anything
| wrong"
From another direction avenging
| Nemesis was preparing to trail Cross
man. The postal authorities had de-
tected something SHADY" in the with
! drawaI of Miss Welchs savings and
| had instructed an inspector to make
| an investigation. He was to start, in
fact, on the day following that which
was to be Crossman's last on earth.
The fateful evening arrived when the
tin box, with its horrible contents, was
to be removed. The tenant came home
from the city at o'clock and found
| Crossman tugging and sweating over
the box, which he had managed to
! get out of the cupboard and was pull
| ing through the hall. The stencil that
proceeded from it, due doubtless to the
| violent shaking it had received, i'm
pressed the tenant at once as unmis
| takably the result of animal putre-
faction. He slipped out of the house
and bOlted off to a police station.
While he was gone to summon the
| representatives of the law, the carman
with his mate" discreetly hanging
about some distance in the rear, ar
rived. The tin box had been dragged
by Crossman clear of the house by this
time. The carman shifted at it and
made strenuous objections to handling
it. While Crossman was still endeav-
| oring to persuade him that it was only
"size" he smelt, the lodger with two
policemen, one in plain clothes, ap-
peared on the opposite side of the
street
At sight of the blue uniform Cross
man dropped the cigar he had been
smoking and fled for his life. The po-
licemen gave chase.
81 was three yards behind him." said
Policeman Rees in his testimony az
the coroner's inquest. He turned and
saw me and cried oh, God 1 saw q
movement of his hand across his face
He had cut his throat, and the next
moment he was lying across my arm
with the blood pouring all over my
hands, as tried to stop it's foW''
CroSsman had been a barber at one
time, and he knew how to use a razor
effectively. That he had provided him
self with one when engaged in his last
desperate effort to rid himself of the
evidence that would hang him If dis
covered showed he had fully made uI
his mind to cheat the gallows at the
last. The murder of only one woman
was proved against him, but there was
circumstantial evidence that he ha6
made plans to rid himself of two Other
of his seven wives, had they made
things too hot for him..
Vehicles and Trains In London
Colossal were the figures dealing will
the traffic Of London which Mr. Edgar
/ j. HaFper of the London County Conn.