The Marlboro democrat. [volume] (Bennettsville, S.C.) 1882-1908, 1905-07-07
caark on old Mrs. Reichert, on the un.
identified woman killed on the night

of March 3, on May Mcdonald, killed
Aay 1, 1904, GA Lula Muellof, Killed
October l; on Alroa Steingeweg, killed
November 3-the same mark on five
killed out Of thirteen attacked.
1t was not until the mutslate6 body
OF pretty Alma Steingeweg was found
In q vacant lot near Lovers Lane"
that these murders we're recognized
fully rs being tho work CT hi man
q 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 q tele-
phone exchange operator, only seven.
teen years old. She had gone to the
fatal neighborhood in q trolley car,
which she left at the cemetery. That
was the last seen Of her alive. All
about whore the body lay the turf
was torn up. The girl had struggled
desperately. Her clothing was In rib
bOns. Her skull was smashed In. Not
satisfied with knocking out her teeth
In his usual manner, the murderer
had torn open her throat, as though
with claws like an animals.
1t seems strange that although
eight girls who were similarly at
tackled got away with their lives, not
il Of them could give an intelligent
description OF her assailant. All of them
were SO paralyzcd with fright that
they retained only the memory Of al
u~nspeakable horror. Only three days
after the murder Of Alma Steingeweg,
after dark, Edith Claussing. a 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 cal in sight. She
stood near the cemetery fence, just
back Of which was u high tombstone.
She heard q slight noise and saw the
figure Of a man leaping 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
saloon, whittier DR.. r. II. Whallon
vas summoned. The doctor found
that her luxuriant hair had saved her
from a fractured skull. Her mouth
VAS filled with blood, and several up.
per 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 mercy
.- lao 10 hln fn tNintilrn tl,n ~, oniano
rage OF the murderer at having been
driven from his uncompleted work,
for on that same night he attacked
three other girls. Late in the even.
ing Minnie Rode, Lizzie Weimar and
Mamie Weimar were passing along the
cemetery fence when "a wild man, >
SIS they afterwards described him
leaped upon them. He seemed tC
have enormous muscular strength.
He seized all three of them at once
and bore them to the ground. More
by accident than design, one Of tie
Vienna sisters dug her fingers int
the mans eyes. This appears to bf
all that saved them. With a howl O
pain the mar jumped up and fled.
1t was barely q week later that Mrs
Harry Q. WINES, a pretty young ma
tron OF that neighborhood, was at
tackled. The murderer was bol(
enough to follow her to within O dozal
yards of her own back door. Here M
seized her from behind, bent her bod,
back over his knee and was liftipt
something In his hand as though tt
striker her in the face when sh,
screamed so loudly that her husband
appeared In the door with his gun ir
his hands. In the light that streamoc
through the door the murderer saH
that the reScuer was armed. He hasti
ly dropped his victim and disappeared
The other girls who escaped so a
rowly are equally vague IL their de
scrlption OF their assailant. They al
agree that his fcrocity was incredible
In a human being "a wild man" liz
seemed to all or them. There seem!
little hope that the discovery Of this
murderef's characteristic weapon
the brick wrapped in carpeting- viii
lead 60 the Identification Of the mar
who has welded 1t against thirteen
girls and women in n year. 1t has
not been traced to the possession OF
Peter Hill though such a discovery
would be q source OF great relief tC
the Cincinnati police.
But tcter Hill Is not yet freed from
SuS picion. Mary WaloroW, a woman
living In a shanty boat on the river
not far from the cemetery, tells a
strange story Of Hills behaviour on
the evening before the night on which
aged Mrs. Raichert was murdered
Leaving the river and coming up the
street she saw Hill sitting on the curb.
stone. lie rose, she says, and said to
her:
You're looking like a nineteen.
ycar.old tonight"
She made some bantcrlng reply,
when, she says, Hill picked up a brick
and said:
II feel just like Draining ycr. How
would you like to be hit on tie head
with this?"
go ahead and do 1t. | dare you,u
she says was her reply. Whcreupon
Hill mumbled something moroscly
and resumed his seat on the curb.
stone.
Belle Wood, a young woman living
the ReicherG hut, told Chief OF
Detectives Crawford OF meeting Hill
That night going for a bucket Of beer.
she declares that Hill called out to
her:
You had better watch out for
the old woman tonight"
Both these incidents Hill denies.
lie has been arrested twice before on
tho nh1rop re Ir,nLnnooo, IIt.