The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-07
Italians Wife Feared That He Had Been FOuIy
 Murdered
MYSTERIOUS BOX FOUND
 CONTAINING DEAD BODY
Great Excitement Prevails In New Or. leans for Short Time When 1t Was Fear d That Old Feud
 Had Been Revived.

New Orleans, September 6.-The finding
 of mans body in a box in the Missis- sippl river about seventy miles north of
 New Orleans, was reported here today ] by an incoming packet steamer. The body
 bore marks suggesting cruel murder. 1 but was in sucn a condition as to make medical examination necessary to de-
 termine the cause of death The body
 was buried near the river bank where
 found
 l Great excitement was produced by ina
 report of finding this body. which ar
 rived few hours after the police had
 begun to search for Peter Lamana. report- ed missing for over a week. Lamana ia
 the father of the Italian boy who was Kidnapped and strangled last June, and l following the trial ot whose murderer the state troops were called out to pre- vent lynching.
 lamana In St. Louis. The police had prepared to exhume the body found in the box when an acquaint- anee of Lamana told them that he saw the missing man in St. Louis two days ago, Mrs. Lamana reported her husband,s disappearance to the police. Her frs. visit to police headquarters was a secret one and few knew of her presence about the building She drove up in front of
 the building about S:3O o'clock. and re-
 mained closeted with MT. Whitaker for ] half an hour or more, during which she reeounted to him in detail the mysterious circumstances surrounding the disappear | anee.
 Since the 18th of last month she said not q single letter had come from him. nor had she received information of any kind that might throw some light on his present whereabouts. When she last heard from him he was at d hotel in
 Baton Rouge. He had gone to the capltal i ostensibly to see the Italian prisoners con
 fined there for the killing of his boy. He had intimated that he was coming back 1 to New Orleans at once
 Wife Gets Worried.
 Two or three days passed and he did not put in an appearance. Then the wife
 began to worry, thinking at first, though
 that he had merely neglected to write | | in the next mail. But none came. Con
 vinced that something must be wrong, she telephoned to the hotel where he 1 had been staying, but it is understood
 that he was reported as having paid his bill some time before and left But still hoping that he would come back home. 1 she waited three more days, until last nisth no longer able to stand the strain, she appealed to the police for help.
 Immediately after securing this startling information from Mrs. I.a- mana, Inspector Whitaker took up bis work in a quiet manner, as 1t was de- sired to conduct the hunt with as much secrecy as possible. Mrs. Lamana ask ed him in parting that not a word of the things which had been revealed dur ing the conference should be given to the press but through gossip of the neighborhood some of the facts leaked out.
 Cause of Absence. Further inquiries among people liv- Ing along St. Philip and adjoining streets shows that the fact of the long absence from home of Mr. Lamana was well known in the neighborhood, and has been general subject of comment for the past few days
 This was MT Lamana's second or third visit to Baton Rouge. He had peculiar desire to see the prisoners. but had been repeatedly denied this privilege by the guards He was per sistent however, and came back as aft en as he was turned away He was sometimes found to be armed and the prison authorities thought there could be no good in his desire to see the men and women behind bars.
 The disappearance strongly indicate that he had been foully dealt with.
 Finding of the Box. When the river steamer Trudeau arr rived in New Orleans this morning it's crew told the story of the finding of a badly mutilated body yesterday at Jamestown. La. and said that the body answered the description of Peter La mana. Persons at Jamestown sa wa large box floating down the Mississippi river yesterday and when they went out in q ski1 and lowed 1t ashore it was found to contain the body of & large dark eomplexioned man, who to all apeparances had been foully mur- dered. The body had been badly muti- lated with an axe or some other weapon when being forced Into the box, the top of which was nailed down. Friends of Lamana started for Jamestown for the purpose of digging up the body in order to find out If 1t was that of their friend, but they were stopped by the report that he had been heard from. --s---