The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1905-07-05

October !; on Alma SGe1ngeWeg, Rllleu
3-the same mark on i've
killed out Of thirteen attacked.
It was not until the mutilated BODY
OF pretty Alma Steingeweg was found
In vacant lot near Lovers Lane"
that these murders we're recognized
fully as being the work OF one man
a degenerate OF the most ruthless and
hloodthirsty character-whose pecu'
liar passion was not satisfied until he
had torn out the front teeth OF his
victims. Miss Steingeweg was tele-
phone exchange operator, only seven
teen years old. She had gone to the
fatal neighborhood in a trolley car,
which she left at the cemetery. That
was the last seen Of her alive. All
about where the body lay the tur1
was torn up. The girl had struggled
desperately. Her clothing was in rib
bons. Her skull was smashed in. Not
satisfied with knockirg out her teeth
in his usual manner, the murderer
had torn opcn her throat, as though
with claws like an animals.
It seems strange that although
eight girls who were similarly at
tackled got away with their lives, not
one OF them could give an intelligent
description OF her assailant. All OF them
were so paralyzed with fright tina!
they retained only the memory OF an
unspeakable horror. Only three days
after the murder OF Alma Steingeweg,
after dark, Edith Claussing. q very
pretty girl seventeen years old, was
waiting for a trolley car near the END
Of Lovers Lane' After lying in a
stupor for two days she remembered
that there was no car in sight. She
stood near the cemetery fence, just
back OF which was high tombstone.
She heard a slight noise and saw the
figure Of man 1eaping upon her from
the top OF the fence. After that she
only remembered being borne to the
ground.
Two laborers were approaching, and
this fact saved her life. They found
her on the ground, unconscious, and
carried her to the nearest shelter--a
saloon, whittier Dr.. R. b. Wha!lon
vas summoned The doctor found
that her luxuriant hair had saved her
from a fractured skull. Her mouth
vas filed with blood, and several up.
ger and lower front teeth were miss.
ing. She did not recover conscious
ness for twenty. four hours. Hysteria
followed for nearly two days during
which the poor girl kept her hands
before her eyes and begged for me.cy,
One is able to picture the maniacai
rage of the murderer at having been
driven from bis uncompleted work,
for on that same night be attacked
three other girls. Late in the even.
ing Minnie Rodie, Lizzie Weimar and
Mamie, Weimar were passing along the
cemetery fence when "a wild man, %
as they afterwards described him,
lesped upon them. He seemed to
have enormous muscular strengt?
he seized all three Of them at once
and bore them to the ground. More
by accident than design, one OF the
Vienna sisters dug her fingers into
the mans eyes. This appears to be
all that saved them. With howl OF
pain the man jumped up and fed.
1t was barely week later that Mrs.
Harry G. WINES, pretty young ma
tron of that neighborhood, was at
tackled. The murderer was bold
enough to follow her to within a dozen
yards Of her own back door. Here he
seized her from behind, bent her body
back over his knee and was lifting
something In his hand as though to
striker her in the face when she
screamed so loudly that her husband
appeared In the door with his gun in
his hands. In the light that streamed
through the door the murderer saw
that the rescuer was ass-eed. He hasti-
ly dropped his victim and disappeared.
The other girls who escaped so mar.
rowly are equally vague In their de-
scription of their assailant. They all
agree that his ferocity was incredible
in human being wild man. be
seemed to all OF them. There seems
little hope that v1he discovery Of this
nurderer's characteristic weapon
the brick wrapped in carpeting- will
lead to the Identification OF the man
who has welded it against thirteen
girls and women in one year. 1t has
not been traced to the possession OF
Peter B.il-though such discovery
would oe source Of great relief to
the Cincinnati police,
But Peter Hill Is not yet freed from
suspicion. Mary Waldrow, woman
living In a shanty boat on the river
not far from the cemetery, tells a
strange story CT Hill's behaviour on
the evening before the night on which
aged Mrs. Reichert was murdered.
Leaving the river and coming up the
street she saw Hill sitting on the curb
stone. He rose, she says, and said to
her:
You're looking like a nineteen
year-old tonight" :"
She made some bantering reply,
when, she says, Hill picked up brick
and sai6:
Il feel just like Draining you. How
would you like to be hit on the head
With thiS?"
''Go ahead and do 1t. I dare you,"
she says was her reply. Whereupon
Hill mumbled something morosely
and resumed his seat on the curb
stone.
Belle Wood, young woman living
near the Reichert hut, told Chief OF
Detectives Crawford Of meeting Hill
that night going for bucket Of beer.
She declares that Hill called out to
her:
You had bsester watch out for
the old woman tonight %
Both these incidents Hill denies.