The sun., 1907-08-19
MYSTERY WITH A BONE IN 1T
KEEPS BRONX CRIMINOLOGISTS
BUSY on 4 DULL SUNDAY.
Thsy Hsu the spot Marked y TO start From
and worked Back tO u Again without
Achieving Even ~ Rcspect able Theory
-MOreue Has what Corpus There u.

-WUtAWt uts WUuN eVttNt- hWttU hNs
The Bronx police, Coroners. newspaper
men and amateur detectives had some
thing 10 do aftor all on what looked like
the dullest Sunday ever. II ail onme about
through a very innocent act OF Nathan
Guesmsn. Nathan is janitor Of a fiat
house at i5e0 Washington avenue. He
makes point every night Of pulling down
the dumbwsiter to see about the garbage.
Saturday night he was an hour later than
usual. and didn't get at ~ until half-past
8. The dumbwaiter was clear up TO ths
top floor When be pulled Il down right
there on top Of IL was the Mysterious Bundle.
Guesman picked up the Mysterious Bum
die. IL was heavy. Perhaps there were
carpenter tools in IL. thought Guesman.
But no. when he had peeled of an after
noon paper Of the date of August II, which
was serving as a wrapper. he discovered
a bone.
As Guesman himself says. q bone 10 q
bone to him. But there was something
about this bone-even the janitor doesn't
know what 1t was about it-that made him
call in the butcher around tho corner for
his expert opinion. The butcher examined
the bone closely and finally decided that
1t had never belonged to any OF the animals
with which ne In familiar. So tho janitor
called in a policeman and the policeman
called in doctor Of the neighborhood and
all hands fell to work. The doctor placed
the bone alongside OF human bones in his
collection. and sure enough it Tailed with
the right thigh bone Of an adult human
being
The policeman called up his precinct
th., M IA a<a&san-QnI
Sam Price OF the Bronx detective bureau
got busy too. Then Coroner Schwannecke,
who was over on his boat anchored near
City Island. was notified. and yesterday
Capt. Price had Detective Kiloline on tho
clothes men Scanned and Fagin and the
Coroners' Office was represented by DR..
Curtin.
The police went over the Washington
avenue building questioning all available
members of the twenty-one families They
went to the roof and looked for blood
stains, although the doctors who examined
1t said the bone had been out of its natural
habitat for from three months to a year.
The newspaper was carefully tied up for
further investigation. The physicians said
that the bone had been boiled and scraped
after the manner In vogue among medical
students, but there doesn't seem to be a
medical student in the neighborhood.
And there you are. Nobody even wants
the bone now. The police thought the
Coroner ought 70 keep 10 In his office. but
the clerk there couldn't sec Il that way,
and IL was finally taken as last resort TO
the Fordham morgue. The detectives
searched the building in vain for other
portions OF body There wasn't even
another bone in sight, And this one hBd
been scraped 30 clean that IL told no tales
The problem has resolved itseR into this
Given q thigh bone and a newspaper with
hysterical headlines. What's the answer
At latest accounts ehe police don't know
the Coroners office doesn't know, and
even the Bronx newspaper reporters. who
have imagination IL nothing else. don't
know. There was a strong suspicion In
the minds of some yesterday that 1t was a
plant" but who planted it and why re-
mains TO be explained. Jsnitor Guesman
and the tenants do not always agree. any
more than other janstors and other tenants.
but why should Guesman play such grew
some joke on the people upstairs, OF why
should they on himp There's a stioker for
you. It's certain the police didn't plant IL,
for they have 20 work on the case through
the hot spell. And finally the newspaper
men didn't plant il or there would be more
details than there are.
OF course, the investigators haven't
given up vet, and there are a lot OF deduc-
tons and inferences and suspicious and
things to be run to earth. But for all that
it does look very much as il another Bronx
mystery had been gotten away with