The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-12-28


where he had worked Ia this country and
about the purchase Of the Idle Hour. III
declared Ee had a record as clnsn as ans
MIN in the United States and frequently
referred TO his thrifty and temperate
habits. Then he talked about women ant
hs views of them. While lie does not say
so in a ,iirect way. he makes 1t very plair
that he Is what NIGH; be called a woman
hater, and frequently cites his dislike fol
women as one Of the reasons why he
should not be suspected of having any
thing to do with the murder.
You may be very sure of one thing" he
said; mo woman ever put her foot in that
boat. That's why | say the police are silly
I'm keeping me here. | have very little use
for women, anyway. or course they are
all right in their place, but, so far as L am
concerned. l want them to keep their place
and I'll keep mine.
Now. I'll tell you. something about thai
murder. You know here's an old saying,
Set q - TO catch a thief Well, ]
say, set q 'boatman to catch n boatman,
I'm n boatman. and | know what the
f, habits and methods of thought of boat
men are. / don't mean this in any crimi-
mel sense, but I put it this way just to
: make myself clear. ] know what I'd done,
| and all watermen are pretty much alike.
A waterman will make for the water and
n landman will make for the land, do you
understand me?
Now. let's see what happened. Here
was a man. maybe more than one, who
wanted TO get rid of "a woman's body.
| What do they do? They take that body
| directly away from the river and leave 1t
in n shallow pond. Then they make some
sort of blunder and leave the clothing on
| the bank or in the river, so hat it is found.
That's the work Of a landman.
what would a boatlnan have done? Ill
tell you what I would have done. First I'd
taken that body and wrapped it in sail
cloth and then | would have tied it up tight
with galvanized wire. There are hundreds
Of yards of wire around the river not far
from the boats. After tieing up the body
and the clothing with it I would have taken
it quietly in n rowboat and gone out a way
and tied a heavy stone or some other
anchor to it-and down it goes to the bot
tom. Once anchored in the bottom of the
river it would remain there twenty years
and nobody would be the wiser.
80 much for that. Now the police have
me shu Up here when / ought to be out
at work On my boat. 1t is absurd to say
a woman could have been murdered in that
boat when you know the condition of the
cabin. When l bought 1t 1 found there
wos only five feet four inches standing
room and | wanted to make 1t six inches
higher. | found ! could do that by tear
ing out the floor. and SO I ripped out the
boards. ard now the glrders are exposed
so that we nave TO step from one to an
other when we move about there.
How co aid a man kill a woman when
he had to poise on these beams while do
ing 1t? It's wrong to keep me shut III
here, but of course the police have to ar
rest somebody. But here's what l will do:
/ have quite u bit of money in the bank,
and II anybody will prove that / ever saw
that woman or that I have had any
woman on that boat since l owned it or
that / have had any social talk with any
woman in a year III turn over every dol
lar / have to any charitable institution
you may name"
Coroner Bunnell late yesterday after
noon empanelled a jury of eight men, four
of whom live in Jersey City and four In
Harrison. Arthur Fitzpatrick, of Harri-
son, is the foreman of the jury. Serving
with him are John Breitenbucher, Will
lam Burgessen. William Curtis, William
H. Witt, Smith Wicker, William Wilkie
and Arthur Donovan. The jury met and
adjourned until Friday, January 8. when
an inquest will probably be held.
A man giving his name as William
George Smith, who said that he was a
chemist living at Kingsbridge, N. Y, Wis
tied the morgue yesterday and looked upon
the body. Smith said that his sister, Mrs.
Lillian May Clough, Of Buffalo, had written
TO his parents at Kingsbridge that she
would visit the old home at that place
Christmas. She had not been seen, although
she had written that she would surely
make the trip, and had even gone SO far
as to specify that she would come over
the Erie Railroad. He said that the lie
s~cription of the dead woman had CORE
sponded with that of his sister. He was
unable TO identify the woman. but was
not sure that It was not his sister. Later
he declared that his sister was not the
dead woman.
Samuel R~oSenbaum, manage of Open
helm, Collins 81 Co., looked at the woman's
Jacket yesterday, when the police took it
over to the Brooklyn store, but his in
formation wasn't of much help. The suit
to which the jacket belonged was one of
a lot OF t~wenty-four red cheviot military
effect suits that the firm received in a con-
Segment OF 800 suits last September.
The red suits were the first to go, be-
cause red was a popular color. The date
of this sale, MI. was sure,
was somewhere in the first two weeks OF
September. The store had no records that
showed who bought the suits.
Constable Jerolamon left Harrison late
last night en- route to Flushing, l.. l.,
where he told an EVENING STAR report
er he vas going to investigate a clue. 1t
is said that Frederick Kirkman, one of the
boatmen who are detained by the police,
is the son of a minister living at that
point, and this story Jerolamon went to
investigate.