The Saint Paul globe., 1905-02-22


of seven strands of hair, light brown
in color and each hair about three
inches in length.
Glued to the blade of the cleaver
with which the murder was committed,
they have found two more wisps of
hair One contains nine or ten strands
of black hair, rather shorter than the
brown, hair from the murdered mans
own head. The other is a wisp of six
hairs of the same peculiar brownish
tint as that found in the palm of the
right hand
Grabs Murderer's Hair
When Christian Schindeldecker,
dragged unconscious into the back
room, or shed, of his meat market at
523 West Seventh street, began to re-
gain consciousness, slowly opened his
eyes and saw a head of brown hair
bending low over him, and felt a heavy
hand ransacking his pockets, he, still
weak from the heavy blow struck him
in the forehead with the assassin's
hammer, grasped mechanically at that
nearest object and his fingers closed
convulsively into the long hair which
his assassin wore.
The murderer, startled, jerked away
and those thirteen hairs remained
clenched in Schindeldecker's grasp. A
moment later another blow from the
hammer squelched the returning flame
of consciousness and then the mur-
derer began to WELD the deadly cleayer.
The helpless victim had raised his
right hand to ward off the blow from
the hammer, but he could not avert 1T
and the hand fell against his own
skull. A blow from the cleaver sever
ed his hand, and the blood flowing
forth caught intertwined part of the
murderer's and part of the victims
hair, and when the cleaver, bloody
now, was drawn out of the cash the
hair came with it.
This hair has been carefully
cleansed, and is now in the hands of
an expert, who will make an analysis
tending to show the age and physical
condition of the murderer, and who
Will prepare the precious strands that
they may be preserved
The discovery of this hair is believed
to be one of the most valuable clews
in the possession of the police. It is
said that, to the expert, the hair of
two men is never the same.
Initials on Hammer
Another discovery which 1t was be-
lieved would lend much to the ulti-
mate capture of the guilty man was
that of the initials &C. H." dotted
upon the head of the leatherworker's
hammer found in the basket beside the
body of the murdered man. This ham
mer is one at first supposed to have
been tool peculiar to the tinsmith,
but 1T has been positively identified
by leatherworker as one which had
been used in his trade. A quantity of
wax on the end of the handle, and
the fact that the style of hammer
which this was, lend to the identifi-
cation.
The perplexing feature of the dis
covery of these initials is in the fact
that the initials &C. H." which appear
upon the hammer, are those of Schin-
deldecker, his name being Christian
II. Schindeldecker.
While it is hard to believe that the
hammer was the property Of the muir
dered man, for Walter Gerenz. the
clerk of the murdered man, has posi-
lively told the police that Schindel-
decker had no such a hammer in his
shop, yet the bringing out of these in
1tials, the initials of Schindeldecker
himself, spoils the value of an other
wise promising piece of evidence.
Murderer Used Knife
Another mystifying feature has entered
the case. 1t is the declaration by physi-
clans who examined Schindeldecker's re-
mains that a knife played a prominent
part in the murder. Surgeons declare that
a long cut, extending on the right leg of
the murdered man from the knee to the
thigh. was inflicted with a sharp knife.
In substantiation of this theory they point
to the fact that the rent made by the
edged weapon through the trousers and
underclothing was clean cut, as a knife
would part the cloth, and that the cut is
longer than the blade of the cleaver and
not so very deep. The second spot where
the knife is in evidence is in a cut which
split the murdered mans ear. This cut
was probably mis- slip. but the ear Is slit
clean, while there is only scratch on the
skin of the skull back of it. and there is
no other wound in that immediate vicinity
of the skull.
Receiving fresh and confusing. tips and
clews from every quarter every day the
police department finds itself at the pres
ent time in a maze of theories. and pro-
ductive looking series of circumstances
which are so rapidly followed out to their
end and found to amount to nothing
whatever, that they are forced to say:
There is nothing new to tell in the case
today. When we get anything you will
get the whole story"
Clews, theories and circumstances do
play tickle tricks with the earnest work
which the police are devoting to the cap
ture of Schindeldecker's murderer. Ever
since the body of the West Seventh
street meat dealer was found early Satur-
day afternoon sweltering In a pool of his
own life blood on the floor of the back
room of his meat market, every energy
of the department has been devoted to un-
raveling the mystery which had even then
drawn it's folds tight over every detail of
the awful crime that had been committed.
There were numerous stories of people
who claimed to have seen the murderer
pearing characters lurking about in the
vicinity of the meat market. These
stories have been run down one by one,
until perplexing state of affairs has re-
suited.
Schindeldecker was killed and robbed
during the interval of time between 1905
and 1855 o'clock Saturday afternoon. At
12:O5 o'clock Walter Gerenz, his delivery
clerk. left the store to go to his dinner
AT 12:35 O'Clock William Rohland was in
formed by Gerenz that Schindeldeclxer
was lying dead in the back room of the
market.
Gerenz was taken TO the police STATEN
and closely questioned as to his knowl-
edge of the affair. He profeSsed alb
solute ignorance of the whole tranSac-
tion and the police permitted him TO 60
declaring that they were convinced of his
innocence.
Then there were only two stories left
for the police to work upon. One was
that of Elsie Penshorne 295 Goodhuc
street. who went to the shop shortly be-