Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1907-06-01
WOODSTOCK. VT. SATURDAY. JUNE /, 1907
KILLED IN FLAT.
Believed That Armenian Priest Was
Suffoeated as He Slept.

New York, N. Y,-It is now certain
that FIR, Kasper, the Armenian priest
who was found dead on Sunday in q
trunk In room In the Sherrer Hat on
West 37th street, was murdered in that
room on Wednesday afternoon. He
was alive at 8 p. m. on Wednesday, for
at that hour he was in the fiat of Che
gar Donabedian, 224 East 25th street
paying a pastoral call. He had with
him the little brown satchel that he
always carried.
AT that hour the trunk in which his
body was afterward found was in the
Sherrer fiat The police have been
looking in vain for some place where
the crime might have been commit
ted and from which the body. still
Warm-the victim being, perhaps, still
| allYe-might have been carried to the
nat In Hells Kitchen. The supposi-
tion was disposed of by an inquiry
among Armenians of all classes made
by reporters.
The murder was done in manner
! novel to those familiar with homicide
methods in America. FIR. Kasper was
nearer 70 than so years old. Every
body knows that a man OF his age is
likely to feel drowsy in the early af-
teTnoon.
Fr. Kasper feeling the need of 40
Wlnks, called on the young men, John
and Paul In the Sherrer fiat, In 37th
street, where he had often slept. He
took off his coat and waistcoat, shirt
and shoes, when he lay down on the
lounge in the room back OF the front
room occupied by Mrs Mooradian and
Paul Sarkisian.
Mrs. Sherrer in her kitchen in back,
did not hear the priest come in and
did not hear Sarkis Ermoyian enter the
room. Between himself and the wall
the priest placed, as was his custom,
his precious black bag, that was sup
posed to contain his money, The fact
is that the most it contained was pair
of shoes. If FIR. Kasper had money 1t
"SNo hiNhCA III OhC Vi pOChGlo.
The murder was carried out on a
plan familiar in country where the
stranger asleep under ones roof is or
dinarily as sacred as an envoy from the
King of kings, but where, sometimes, a
criminal murders a guest.
One Of the murderers brought a rope
with which the arms OF the sleeping
man were tied together behind the ell
bows so tightly that he could not move
them.
Then the actual murderer put his
thumb and forehnger to the nostrls
OF the priest, stopping his breath, and
spread the palm of his hand over the
mouth, preventing any outcry. His
left hand was under the head of the
sleeper. Others held the victims legs
The priest began to struggle out of
sleep into consciousness of danger,
but it was too late. He was dead in a
few minutes.
The rest was easy The trunk was
emptied of its contents and the limp
body was crowded In. With regard to
the actual circumstances of the murder
the police learned for the first time
from Mrs. Sherrer that John and Paul,
her tenants, spent Thursday night in
the room they had occupied. That was
by grace of her good nature for they
had already told her they could not pay
rent. They knew what the trunk con-
tanned.
Three Armenians were arrested In
Jersey City on suspicion in connection
with the murder.
The prisoners were looked over by
New York detectives and an Armenian
witness, and then set free.