Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1907-09-19
A CRi MINAL ENIGMA.
Constantine, Alleged Slayer of Mrs.
Gentry, Soon to Be Tried.

Constantine, Alleged Slayer of Mrs.
Gentry, Soon to Be Tried.
The authorities of Cook county, Illinois,
must soon deal with a criminal enigma
whose crime shocked the whole country
and led to the crusade against law-break-
ers which for the time being almost freed
Chicago of criminals. This man is Frank
j. Constantine, slayer of Mrs. Louise
Gentry. The fellow has spent several
months in Jail and his trial is about to
open. 1t will be one of the hardest fought
on record in Cook county, for, though
there is little doubt in the public mind
that Constantine is the murderer, he will
be ably defended and the evidence against
him is all circumstantal. The prisoner
is of Italian birth and his mother runs
a grocery store in New York.
Although he admits nothing, the police
assert that they have him positively iden-
titled and that they not only have his own
admission of his identity, made when he
was arrested in New York, but that he
made statements about the crime. Mrs.
Gentry was a young woman, married but
a year, and lived in fiat where there
were other occupants of similar tastes.
Her husband was a man of some means
and they lived in a refined manner. In
the Latte part of 1905 a young man
named Constantine came to live in the
same fat and made the acquaintance OF
the Gentrys. He spoke of fine family
connections and conveyed the impression
that his people, who, he said, lived in
New York, were rich. About IL o'clock
in the forenoon of Jan, 6. 1906, Mrs.
Gentry. fully dressed in street attire,
dashed down the stairs from her apart
ments and rang the bell of a Doctors
office on the ground floor, who, upon
opening the door, saw her fall to the
floor. Her throat was slaShed almost
from ear to ear and there was blood ell
about her and trailing down the stairs.
She pointed up the stairway in mute
testimony that the attack had occurred
there. In four minutes she died.
Suspicion at once pointed to Constan-
tine because he had disappeared, leaving
his hat behind. From that time on Tor
well over a year Frank Constantine was
hunted as suspected criminals seldom are
hunted, the chase leading through three
continents, being participated in and
urged on constantly by an aggravated po-
lice force aroused by series of dastardly
women murders in Chicago.
According to the story Constantine is
alleged to have told the New York police
after his capture he went from Chicago
to New York; thence to Naples, remain
inc a month in that city before going to
Argentina, South America. After five
weeks he returned to Italy, went thence
to London, where he remained until he
sailed for New York in January, 1907.
His relatives hid him in New York, but
when he was about to return to Italy he
was captured on the docks April 2 by an
Italian detective of the New York force.
Constantine's shrewdness in evadlng
arrest, his conposure and alertness when
under questioning by the police, and his
present attitude of nonchalance and al
most absolute silence show him as man
of self-composure far beyond what might
be expected of a man of his years.