Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-04-21
UNSOLVEb MYSTERIES
AN OLD DETECTIVE TALKS On
MURDER TRIALS.
TheMolineux Case Remains an On
raveled Puzzle-Mentions Other
Well Remembered Cases

| ACTIVITY nave lOuE paSsSu oss " AuhicoA
of friends in this city. washington has had
goodly share OF great criminal trials.
mysterious murders and remarkable dis
appearances of criminals. but so has every
other city. The police are not infailibls
you must remember. Now l have had .
long career and have been cognizant of .
great deal in my long travel along the
highways of criminal events. and know that
miraculous escapes OF perpetrators OF start
| ling crimes are very common events. And
then-everybody jumps on the police force.
| Certainly when person is convicted Of
a great crime, such, IS murder. for instance,
on purely circumstantial evidence there 10
a chance, however slight 1t may be, that
| he may not be guilty. Now" said he.
| take the very recent case of Carlyle Har-
, ris, who was accused of numbering his
| sweetheart by administering poison and ex-
| ecuted on that charge That boy was con-
| victed on cfrcumstiai evidence and defy
| any one to deny that there are no few
people in New York and elsewhere today
| who have grave doubts as to his guilt, and
| there comes. naturally some mystery about
the murder. IL murder IL was. e. The truth
| is as far as my observations go. persons
who murder. others by administering poi
| sons are very difficult to apprehend.
| 1T requires skill and brains to kill by poi
| sons. That's why 1t is not more common.
| The orientals are much more proficient than
the western folks in the art of giving their
enemies their auietus by poison. The
| Borgias understood il to the dot and the
Chinese have considerable knowledge of the
| art, but were the merest tyros->
The Maybrick Case.
Now" went on the veteran. here Is
| the Maybrick case. Who In this country be-
lieves that woman guilty? II is involved
in mystery to some extent, though 1 have
heard many folks assert their belief that
| Maybrick killed himself. Arsenic was a
favorte dish with him. And she. the wife,
| has suffered death in life whereas, in my
| judgment only the old Scotch verdict Of
/ not proven should have resulted from her
! trial.
Does not almost everybody of the past
| few years recollect the famous Nathan
| ira gedy committed in New York in what
| w-s then most fashionable part of the
| city? Many folks believed that the murder
O: that old gentleman was the result OF
an encounter with his SON who was en-
| deavoring to rob him. The young man
| proved an alibi on the testimony of a wo-
! man in whose company he was on the
| night of the murder and the crime is yet
| on the calendar of mysteries. And here
comes in the recent Molineux case in which
| Molineux was convicted of the killing OF
Mrs. Adams by poison intended for another
| person. Molineux was nearly almost in
the death chair when another trial resulted
! In his acquittal That murder is still in the
realm of mystery. The strongest legal tall
ent and the most acute reaSonings of the
most able detectives in New York have not
been able to unravel the obscurities L
don't think the police force of Washington
need hang their heads because OF failures
to secure criminals in recent well-known
| cases such as the Dennis murder, the case
of the old woman at Anacostia and some
| others The same obstacles to discover
the guilty parties would have arisen any
| where.
Richard Croker you know. was once
! tried for the alleged murder of a man nam
| ed Mchenna, who was killed in broad day
nght during row at the polls. There was
/ he tfdrl,t
against him and he was honorably acquit-
| ted. But the mystery of McKenria's muir
| der remains to this day
Cases in Which He Had Part.
| You ask me- said the old detective to
one of his listeners, IF l remember famous
trials in which 1 had any part. Well, yes
| DO. L recollect famous trial. or series
of trials, a number of which have been coll
lated in a book by the late eminent lawyer
| II. l.. Clinton, who was concerned as coun-
| sci in the case There were various dra-
| matte incidents involved. This occurred as
| long ago as 1914, and was the case of one
| rome Bodine, who was tried three times
| Tor the alleged murder of her sister-in-
| law, Emiline Houseman. Mrs Bodine's
brother, George Houseman, resided on
staten island, and one night during his
absence his house was burned and among
| the ruins were found with marks of yio-
| lence upon them the bodies of his wife and
| child. There was general expression of
opinion that Polly Bodine was guilty both
OF murder and arson: there was intense
feeling against her, but the evidence against
| her was purely circumstantial
Eminent lawyers defended her. and the
case was vigorously contested, but the Jury
could not agree, one dogmatic old fellow
holding out because, he said he could
not render any verdict. on, circumstantial
evidence unless 1t was in the fourth de-
gree, and this he said meant evidence
from eye witnesses who would swear thew
saw me act committed and the defend
ants life WAS thus saved by the incorrigible
old FELLOW who had his peculiar ideas con-
corning circumstantial evidence
"A second time the woman was made to
undergo trial. and Mr.. Graham, the we'll
known eminent lawyer, who was one of
the distinguished array in the Sickles trial
and who was Miss Bodine's principal coun-
sci, took twenty-nine exceptions to the rul-
lnss OF the court and twenty-seven of them
We're sustained by Supreme Court
linen the case was again tried at New
burg. The first trial was in, Brooklyn and
the second in New York. By that time the
ude OF sentiment" had turned toward the
prisoner, who was a remarkably beautiful
woman of somewhere between thirty and
forty years of age. Her lawyers of whom
there were three, adopted on this trial tao
ties OF bring ng her into the court room on
Their arm each morning and nor having her
ushered In like a common criminal by the
sheriff They rotated in this duty each day
The jury pronounced verdict of not
guilty. Thus, in a legal sense. leaving the
murder mystery,
mere was rather ludicrous incident
attending this murdeEsrtriaL ,Rarnum the
great Snowman, catering to the great in
terests of people sof morbid ia stes placed
among his collection what was alleged to be
good counterfeit presentmeat' in wax
of the defendant. 1t was more like dried
up mummy than ii was of the be 4utiful wo-
man under trial and she KEEP up a continual
clamor with her counsei-to- IL re-
moved, but they argued that any act of
this kind would attract too much attention
and be defrimeptal TO her interests. The
eftigy, however. haunted the woman and
the first words she excla lined am d a burst
of tears. when she heard the virdict ac-
quitting her of murder pronounced. were
Can't | have that figure removed
now?' So much for female vanity" said the
old policeman.
Now here s. another .unsolVed murder
mystery, he construed. 1.-The Burdick muir
DER that famous Bond street case in New
York, in which some time after the MUIR
Ger of DR.. BurdeH, a wealthy dentist who
lodged with a Mrs. Cunningham that wo-
man endeavored to palm off newborn
babe the child of the murdered man, to
secure his property on the alleged ground
of having been married to him. The game
didn't work. but the murderer of the doctor
has never been discovered. l could mention
Of xvbe rita