New-York tribune., 1905-02-21
PORTER SAW MURDERER.
LEFT HART STATEROOM.
Belief That Larchmont Passenger
Befriended Nan Who Killed HIM.

When the steamer Larchmont, of the JOY Line.
reached her pier at Catharine-st.. yesterday. she
Immediately boarded by detectives. who ex-
amned the captain and crew regarding the murder
of passenger, John =. Hart on Saturday night
or Sunday morning, in stateroom No. 12 while
the boat was her way from New-York to Provi-
dence.
Captain D. l.. Wilcox and the other officers of the
Larchmont refused to make any statement, but
negro porter was found who says he saw the muir
derer leaving the stateroom after the killing OF
Hart. This porter Moses Thornton, says that
about 1880 a. on Sunday, as he was eating ms
breakfast in the forward part of the saloon he saw
q man leaving stateroom No. Il. which adjoins an
apartment known the silver ROOM" This man,
the porter says, locked the stateroom door after
him, and he went to where Thornton was sit
ting, remarked. Eat EN- up, jack
Thornton describes this being about nine
teen years old, short and fat, and having smooth
face. lie wore black clothes and slouch hat but
overcoat.
Stateroom No. Il is what is known outside
room-that is it has a window opening on the mar
promenade extending forward from the paddle
box on the starboard side There Is scarcely room
for two persons to pass each other between the
rail and the stateroom deckhousc. The berths are
built athwartshp, so that the occupants OF them
lie with their heads inboard. AS Hart shot in
the left cheek. the bullet having passed upward
into the brain, he must have been lying on his left
side, facing the person who shot him.
1t learned that stateroom No. II. which is
outside room, but which is entered from the
deck. and not from alley in the cabin, as is No
II. was occupied by man who gave his name to
the purser Hansen. A bulkhead less than an
inch thick through which conversation can plainly
be heard is all that separates the two rooms II
Hansen in his BERTH which is fastened to the
same bulkhead the two in No. u, or even in the
room, when the shot was fired II is certain that he
heard the report unless he deaf.
1t has been said that the boat ploughing
through icefoes in the Sound, and that the noise
made by the paddlewheels was so great that the
report of pistol could not have been heard. As
matter of fact, however. ali the noise the boat
was that made by the engines and the creaking OF
the woodwork as she rolled, for she not in the
Sound at all, but at sea, steaming to the east
ward on the Atlantic a point between Shinne-
cock Light and Montauk. when the murder was
committed 1t clear moonlight night and
the sea was comparatively smooth. At o'clock in
the morning there should have been little
noise, under the conditions named and it would
not be surprising if more than person of the
thirty who occupied staterooms on the boat heard
The murderer had landed at Providence before
the murder Of Hart was discovered. Medical Ex
man had been dead from six to ten hours AS
Hart vas the only known occupant OF the state
deck passenger or young stowaway. Hart had
his Kindness was slain while he slept by the object
Of his charity. The lower berth Uttered with
BY a second passenger. whose name did not ap-
pear 9n the e list ar was
scribed as an engineer and the of I4Orin p.
Hart of Providence At the Office of the Standard
OH Company it was learned that for the last few
months Hart employed first class fireman
the conpanys tug Nc. Z. and that on Friday
he drew s.. saying he was going home to see his
father who was sick. His pay was only $50 a
month. Last summer Hart a fireman Fl.
II. Rogers's yacht Vixen
Providence. r l.. Feb. 20.-The police to-day en-
deavored to get some cew to the murderer of John
A Hart who murdered on the steamer Larch-
mont. At present the only definite circums tance
is the fact that a passenger wearing a flannel
shirt and frock coat. who acting nervOuSly
repeatedly asked il the boat would arrive here in
time him catch the u o'clock train for Bos-