Weekly Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1908-1909, 1908-07-24
THUNDER AIDS CRIME
YOUNG AUSTRIAN KILLS WOMAN
IN DEAFENING CRASH.
Victim Sinks to Ground, Declaring That
She Was Struck by Light
ming.

NEW YORK, July 20.-The tale of a
crime so revolving and replete with cruel
craftiness as to be almost unbelievable,
is told in the case of Mrs. Ottillie Eber-
hard, well-to-do Niennese widow whose
body was found on the railroad track in
a lonely section of Hackensack, n. j.,
early yesterday. At first it was believed
that the woman had been struck by a
train and killed. Subsequent investiga-
ton, however, revealed that she had
been murdered and her body placed upon
the track in an effort to destroy traces of
the crime.
1t was with this discovery that there
came the first intimation of the deeply
laid and cunningly executed plot. AS a
result of that investigation, the police are
now searching for August Eberhard, the
dead womans nephew who had impOr-
tuned Mrs. Eberhard to come to this
county and to bring with her her little
fortune of $4,000 and her 2O-year-Old
daughter, whom August had promised to
marry. 1t was largely due to the story
told by the daughter of the finding of the
older wOman'G body that the search for
August was begun and the police Of eV-
cry city in the eastern section OF the
country have been asked to take him into
custody if found.
According to the police Eberhard had
been at work for months, carefully plot
ting the crime to gain possession OF the
little fortune that his aunt in Austria
possessed. He wrote many letters,
painting in glowing col0rs the riches
that would be hers if she only would
leave the old home in Austria and come
to this new land, To the woman's
daughter aged 20, Eberhard promised
marriage, if they would but come to
America. Finally, yielding to his impor
tunities, Mrs. Eberhard and her daugh
ter set sail. They arrived in New York
last Thursday on the Steamship Deutsch-
land. the mother carrying $1,000 in the
bosom Of her dress. EbeThard, who had
been employed in grocery store IN ST.
Nicholas avenue. asked his employer for
a vacation on the day of the woman's
arrival and met them at the pier.
1t was the intense heat of Saturday
afternoon which furnished the pretext
for the trip to the country, with its
tragic ending, according to the story told
by the daughter. Mrs. Eberhard con-
sented to the trip, and the three crossed
the Hudson by ferry on their way to
the country. At Rochelle park, two
miles west of Hackensack, the nephew
suggested that they take a walk and
the three left the car to stroll through
the fields. Evening found them at a
lonely spot on the tracks of the New
York, Susquehanna & Western railroad.
Eberhard told the women he had lost
his way. A storm broke and the trio
pushed ahead down the track until in
a deafening crash of thunder the elder
woman stumbled
Il have been struck by lightning"
she screamed. as she fell in heap by
the track A the same instant Miss
Eberhard says she saw flash coming
evidently from behind q car on 4 siding
nearby and then a second, and a third.
AS her mother fell to the tracks the girl
felt bullet Craze her own neck, cutting
a thin gold chain from which a locket
was suspended. Suddenly Eberhard
urged her to run and is a second bullet
the tracks screaming. Once she turned
back to see if her mother was following
her and again there was a shot, which
passed above the bridge of her nose. the
blood from the wound half binding her.
Through the darkness and the storm
the wounded girl kept up her fight until
she reached 4 cottage where she was
taken III and cared for until Sunday,
when the storm had passed. Then the
Hackensac6 police We're notified In the
meantime an engineer on passing milk
train had seen the body of a woman on
the track and when he arrived in JERSEY
City he telephoned to the coroner of
Hackensack. Upon visiting the spot indi-
Gated by the engineer, the coroner found
the body of Mrs. rIDerhard, horribly
mangled. Close examination. however.
showed that the woman had been shot
twice and was dead when the train
struck her. The murderer must have shot
the woman as she lay PROSTATE on the
track, in order TO make sure of her
death. before dragging her body across
the rails.