Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1908-07-21
CRIME STIRS GOTHAM POLICE
Evidence of Deep Plot in Murder of
Viennesse Widow.
SEARCH STARTED FOR NEPHEW
Believed He Lured Woman TO Amer
lea by Cunning scheme and
Then Murdered Her for
Money.

! crime so revolving ana replete with cruel
craftiness as to be almost unbelievable is
told in the case Of Mrs. Ottileo Eberhard,
wcll-to-do viennesse widow whose body
was found on the railroad track in
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 investigation, however, re-
vealed 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 cum
nngly executed plot, which places the case
almost in a class by itself in the history
Of crime. As a result OF that investigation
the people are now searching for August
| Eberhard. the dead womans nephew, who
| had importuned Mrs. Eberhard to come to
this country and to bring with her her
little fortune Of 5000 and her 3-year-old
daughter, whom August had promised to
marry.
| It was largely due to the ttory told by
the daughter after the finding of the older
woman's body that the search for August
was begun and the police of every city in
| the eastern section of the country have
| been asked to take him into custody II
! found. He is wanted to tell what he knows
| OF the circumstances related by the girl
who was to have been his wife. The
young woman herself, however, refuses to
| believe that August had any part in the
| tragic death OF her mother; but despite
her protestations, detectives have gone to
| the home of the mans parents, who live
on a farm near Dutchess Junction, is
Duchess County. New York, and the
search for him is being prosecuted in
many other quarters.
Evidence of Deep Plot.
According to the police, Eberhard had
been at work for months, carefully plotting
the crime to gain possession of the little
fortune that his aunt in Austria possessed
He wrote many letters. painting in glowing
colors the riches that would be hers IL
! she only would leave the old home In
| Austria and come to this new land. To
| the womans daughter, aged 20, also bear
ing the name Ottileo, Eberhard promised
marriage, II they would but come to
America. Finally, yielding to his I'M
portunitties, Mrs Eberhard and her
daughter set sail for this country. They
arrived In New York last Thursday on
the steamer Deutschland. the mother carry
ing 1900 In the bosom of her dress. Eber-
hard, who had been employed in a grocery
store in st. Nicholas avenue. asked his
employer for vacation, on the day OF
the wo,nan's arrival, and met them at the
pier After settling them temporarily at n
| little hotel. at Tenth avenue and Twenty
! third street he took the elder woman to
a money changer. where her little store
of wealth was quickly converted into
American notes.
Fatal Trolley Ride.
1t was the intense heat of Saturday af-
ternoon which furnished the pretext for the
trip TO the country. with its tragic ending,
according to the story told by the detec-
tive Bberhard suggested trolley ride In
! New Jersey Mrs. Eberhard consented TO
the trip, and the three crossed the Hud-
son by ferry on their way to the country.
At Rochelle Park, two miles west of Hack
ensack, the nephew suggested that they
take a walk and the threee left the car
to stroll through the fields. Evening found
them at a lonely spot the tracks of
the New York, susquehanna and Western
railroad. Eberhard told the, women he had
lost his way. storm broke and the tril
pushed ahead down the track until in a
! deafenng crash of thunder, the elder w man
! stumbled. IT have been struck by light
ming" she screamed as she fell in a heap
by the track. Al lne same instant MISS
| Eberhard says she saw a flash coming evil
dentIy from behind car on a siding nearby
and then a second and a third AS her
mother fell to the tracks, the girl felt a
bullet Craze her own neck, cutting gold
chain from which a locket was suspended
Runs from Rain of Bullets.
Suddenly Eberhard urged her to run as
a second bullet plowed into her shoulder
she started down the track screaming. Once
she turned back TO see II her mother was
following her. and again there was sho.
VIII ch passed above the bridge of her nose
the blood from the wound half binding her
Through the darkness and storm the
wounded girl kept up her flight until she
reached a cottage where she was taken in
and cared for until Sunday, when the storm
had passed. Then the Hackensack police
were notified. In the meantime. an engineer
on a passing milk train had seen the body
of a woman on the track and when they
arrived in Jersey City, he telephoned to the
coroner Of Hackensack. Upon visiting the
spot indicated by the engineer, the coroner
found the body of Mrs Eberhard, 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
i'm order to make sure OF her death, before
dragging her body across the rails.