Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-08-06

| been the farmer. Mcfarland If a party
of hunters had told Swigert of finding Hig-
| gins body. why had they not told others
and gwen q general alarm? If they had told
| Swgert only. Why had he not notified the
| Higgins family? And. if Swigert had not
| heard the news from the hunters. as he told
| his family. wEele had he gained his in
| formation and why had he kept it within
| his own family circle? These questions
suggested themselves Immediately Sw;gert's
| boy told me of the breakfast-tab,e narra-
| tive. Then, again. why had Swisert not
| manifested any neishborly interest in the
, sensational death of Higg MS? Why had he
| not attended the wake?
| Seeking in my own mind for answers to
these and other questions, l walked slowly
! back through the woods toward the Swigert
| place, AS l neared the Swigert house 1 de-
| termined to seek an interview with Mrs.
| Swisert and to take Il survey of the prem
| Uses.
| / approached the house from the side in
| which there WAS no window and took
| haSty look around me. At the corner of
| the house under q rain-water pine stood
| tub containing clothes in soak for future
| washing. Not being seen, | took the lib
| erty to poke around in the tub with
| stick. and just under the surface of the
| water and some other clothes | found
| pair of overalls. On the lower part of the
! legs of the garment We're dark red stains.
AS punched them with the stick blood
oczcd out OF them and redeemed the wa
/ ter in the tub. After making the dscov-
! cry of the blood stains l hurried to the
| front of the house as though l had just
| appeared on the scene Mrs. Swigert re-
sponded to my knock. After telling her
| was Chicago reporter | asked her sew
| eral questions concerning the relations
OF the Higgins and Swigert families. The
| ntrl hi Of 7fg,,, ITO,
! elected was this:
Some time ago Higgins and my hus-
hand had some words over wages. The
difference between them. though. was
only about dollar, and Higgins paid it,
and after that they were as friendly as
ever. This was several months ago
Inc path from Swigerts house led down
the hill to the bars near which Higgins
had been killed, distance of nearly half
mile. The grass grew high in the angles
of the old-fashioned. rail fence. A few
lengths of the fence distant from the bars
through which Higgins had passed, and
iE hidden angle of the fence, l found
the grass mashed down. as though some
one had lain on it for some time and SO
recently that the evidence was still there
The appearances indicated that the muir
derer of Higgins had expected his victim
to pass through the bars and had used
the high grass in the fence angle as
hiding place. If this theory was correct
the murderer must have been some one
familiar with the habits of the victim or
who at least knew of Higgins punctili-
BUSINESS in attending o'clock mass at
Gross Point on Sundays. This fact was
known to all who knew the man, and
therefore, while not of great value mar
rowed the scope of inquiry somewhat
The Gross store. like most country
stores, was the center of neighborhood
gossip, so to Gross l went, introducing
myself as reporter for the Times After
some rambling conversation with Gross I
asked:
Did you attend Higgins funeral?"
Yes" he said
Was William Swgert there?"
No
Did his absence excite any COMMENT"
We'll, since you mention it. I did hear
several say it was strange he wasn't
there"
Did Swigert and Higgins have any
trouble?''
Not that I know of"
DO you know whether Swigert owned
a revolver"
No; he didn't own one. for about
borrow one. He said he wanted to kill
some polecats that had been around the
house"
Did you lend him one?"
Il let him have an old revolver we had
around the store to shoot rats"
Has he returned it?"
NO. 1t was about four weeks ago that
he borrowed it, and two weeks ago 7
asked him for 1t He said he had killed
two of the animals he was after but
wanted to keep the revolver until he
could Kill two others he had seen The
other day L asked him for 1T again and
he said he had forgotten to bring it-that
it was at home in a bureau drawer"
Did the revolver have any peculari-
ties?"
1T was an old affair with very short
cylinder-so short, in fact, that we had to
cut off the ends of the bullets in the car
tridges so that the cylinder would revolve
My son Charles cut off the bullets that
were in the revolver when Swigert Dor
rowe' 1T and had cut them crooked re-
marked at the time that they would not
shoot straight cut off in that way and
Charley said he guessed they were good
enough to kill rats with"
with this information in my possession 1
began to work with fixed idea In mind
The first step was to secure one of the bull
lets that had been dug out of the ground
under Higgins body when 1t was found
This bullet proved to be of the same size
as those used in the Gross revolver; and
the point had been cut off unevenly.
One of the peculiarities of the case was
the fact that the body, SO far as was able
to find out, had remained where 1t fell
from early Sunday morning until nearly
dusk the same evening. AS expected
William Mcfarland had not been the first
man to come upon the body after the mur-
der. BY dint of inquiry 1t was found that
Thomas Dwyer, an employee of the Chicago
and Northwestern railroad, had passed over
the fatal road about 10 o'clock Sunday
forenoon and had found the body of Hig-
gins. He made examination enough to sat
tsfy himself that the man was dead and
then hurried toward the Swigert house in
order to give the alarm. AS he neared the
house Swigert appeared in the door and
Dwyer hurriedly told him of his grewsome
| find.
| Il have to go to work" he said to Swi-
CERT Go to Higgins house and tell his
II can't leave here" replied Swigert my
| baby is very sick and don't dare leave 1t
| alone"
Dwyer, 1t seems believed he had dis
| charged his duty In the matter and had
| gone on about his business. After l receiv-
| ed his statement l made inquiry to deter
mine If Swigert's baby had been sick on
| that day and if he (Swigert) had been alone
| with it at the time Dwyer had notified him
| of the finding of Higgins body. Both OF
| these statements / found to be false as the
| baby had not been sick and Swigert's fam
/ ily at hen