Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1905-08-03
STATE
NEWS
DETROIT SCENE OF MOST
BRUTAL MURDER AND
ROBBERY.
POLICE UNABLE TO TRACE MUIR
DERERS OR OBTAIN A
GLUE.
MEAGRE DESCRIPTIONS OF MEN
SUPPOSED TO BE
GUILTY.
Detroit's Greatest Crime.

Beaten down with either a Ratchet
or a meat cleaver while attempting
to defend the many thousands of dol
lars worth of jewelry and other val
tables in his pawn shop at AZ Monroe
avenue, Detroit, Joseph Meyer, a
wealthy Jew. "a years old, was batch
cred in his shop early Friday evening
while hundreds of persons were pass
ing the place, and the robbers escaped
with nearly $4,000 in cash and jewel
ry. Meyer was not dead when
found. He was unconscious. but
he never revived TO whisper
word as TO the description or
shortly before Z in the evening when
the dying man was taken from the
pawn shop, where he has been engaged
in business for years, and carried on a
stretcher TO an ambulance. He was
conveyed to st. Mary's hospital, where
he died without regaining conscious
ness and before his wife could reach
him.
The murder was committed while
the clerk was out for supper and
Meyer was alone in the store. Accord
ing 70 an unfinished ticket in the shop
register the last visitor was "A. f.
Roberts," who gave his address as
BOX 2S, Delray," and tried TO pawn
a watch within ten minutes of the
time the crime was committed. No
such man lives in Delray; no such
man receives his mail at Box 2S, Del
ray postoffice. One A. +. Roberts lived
on West End avenue about a year ago,
but moved away. No one recalls the
man, his appearance or his business.
The belief exists in the minds of the
police that the man who pretended
TO pawn a watch induced Meyer to
leave his place behind the counter,
and, upon some preteXt or other, got
him around to the spot where he was
struck on the head and felled TO the
floor.
Descriptions, meagre however, are
given of two men who may have been
the murderers.
II. b. White, proprietor of a cloth
ing house, AZ Monroe avenue, opposite
Meyers store, saw a short man, wear
ing straw hat, and tall man wear
ing a black fedora stand near the
Meyer store about 6:15. The short man
entered the store and the tall man
waited outside as White left his sore.
The story of the murder itself is
written in blood on the floor of the
pawnshop. In narrow pathway be-
tween two showcases on the right
hand side of the store Meyer was
attacked. He was struck over the head,
with blows raining upon him, until
he fell unconscious and bleeding to
the floor Then like an OK that had
been stunned in a slaughter house he
was dragged farther back TO permit
the finishing of the butchery. A trail
of blood, smeared upon the floor
shows. how he was dragged from the
place where he fell, across the reai
of the store through a narrow uoor
into the little back office where the
job was finished and the victim was
left to his fate. Here lay a puddle of
blood.
What makes the crime unparalleled
in the annals of murder In the city
is the boldness with which II was ex-
ecuted the almost incredible brutality
with which the helpless victim was
slain and the large amount of booty
that was secured. 1t was, as Capt Nc
Donnell summarized It:
I'VE have had bank robberies where
larger amounts of money and val
uables have been secured, but no per.
sonal injury was inflicted We have
had brutal murders but no large loot
was obtained. The present crime, how
ever. Is a combination of both: which,
therefore. makes it the worst crime
ever committed in the city
The very hour of the murder sug-
gests its holiness. Meyer was butch
cred between 6:10 and ego o'clock
Friday evening-an hour when Monroe
avenue is crowded with people passing
by and hurrying home, when 1t Is still
broad daylight, when policemen are
coming and going to change duties at
police headquarters, in the very shad-
ow Of which lies the scene of the mm
der.
In fact. at the exact time when two
men rained their terrific blows upon
the head of the defenseless pawnbrok
er, Capt. Mcdonnell, chief OF detec-
tives, was on the same street less than
two hundred feet away.