Evening star., 1907-09-02
DEAD BURGLAR IDENTIFIED
MAN KILLED BY VERBAL MUIR
DERED SOPHIE HECKLER.
Robber Who Tried to Asphyxiate
Family Had Been a Lieutenant
in the German Army.

NEW YORK, September 2.-The burglar
who was shot and killed by Charles Yer
rail- early Saturday while attempting to
rob Verralls fiat at 225 East SD street,
after he had tried to asphyxiate the fam
lily, was identified yesterday as Henry Hoff-
man, once lieutenant in the German army.
The Identification came about through the
efforts of the police to run down a mys-
terious murder, and Hoffman turns out to be
the murderer.
Saturday, August 8. a passerby noticed
Smoke issuing from the windows Of the
home OF Leo Mack, an emr loye of Open
helm. Collins & Co., who lives at 2Cs East
62d street. The fremen had to break into
the house through the front door before
they wtre able to get at the fire, which
WAS in clothes closet on the second door
The fire had all the earmarks of incendiar-
ism. and Fire Chief Kane came to the con-
clusion that 1t had been lighted with a
candle.
Mr.. Mack was away for the day and the
house had been left in charge of sophie
Heckler. a servant girl. When Mr.. Mack
returned at night and heard that the fIe-
men had to break in he thought that it
was queer, as the girl seldom went ont.
The fire occurred at o'clock In the after
noon, and when the girl had not sh ,wn
up at 10 o'clock that night Mr.. Mack and
the insurance men started in to make a
search of the house.
Found Woman's Body.
After the upper part of the house had
been searched they went to the cellar. They
found a door leading to the cellar locked
and broke 1t open. At the bottom of the
stairs lay the body of the servant girl The
autopsy showed that the girl had. been rit
on the jaw and her body had been thrown
down the stairs after which the house had
been robbed and the fire started. The po-
lice were called into the case and In
spector McCafferty assigned Detectives
Cary, Flahey, Butts and McMullen to the
case.
Cary first got list of,sll those who knew
the dead girl and also Of persons familiar
with the interior of the house. Among
these names was that of Lizzie Mollom,
who had formerly been a washerwoman for
the Mack family. Lizzie Mollom said that
as she was entering the Mack house a few
days after the family left for Maine Sophie
had gone out to a nearby grocery store.
When Sophie returned she was met by
man who asked her If she remembered
him. Sophie said that she did not, but the
man recalled himself to the girl as hav-
ing worked with her in a bakery shop.
Mrs Mollom said that the man called again
later and that Sophie confided to her that
the man wanted her to marry him, but
that she had refused him.
Cary also learned that on the Saturday
preceding the murder one Schaeffer, driver
for the American Bottling Company, had
seen a man looking at him from the parlor
window of the house, although the driver
himself had failed to rouse anybody when he
knocked. Schaeffer described this man as a
German in appearance.
Clue to Hoffman.
The detectives then set to work to look
up Sophie's history. They found that she
had come to this country from Rotterdam
in May 1903, and that in the following
June she had gone to work for baker by
the name Of Wilhelm ON Amsterdam avenue
near S4th street. Although Wilhelm had
sold the business the detectives found a
former employe who said that he remem-
bered a man by the name of Henry Hoff-
man who had worked there for short
time and who had been fired for whipping
another man.
The detectives set to work then to locate
Hoffman, and two days later they found a
Hoffman who had worked in the bakery and
who lived in Staten Island He established
an alibi, but he gave one important piece
Of information. The man with whom he
had had the fight was also named Hoffman,