The San Francisco call., 1908-07-12

ing annoyed by the boys, struck out
with a heavy prong used for scraping
up refuse and knocked Buchnoff un-
conscious and then. fearing he had
killed him, cast him into the garbage
bin, in the hope that the body would
be consumed in the furnace.
The stories told by the dead boy
playmates eliminated much of the mys-
tery attached TO the case and made posi-
tive at least one fact-that Buchnof met
his death on the premises Of the sani-
tary reduction works. The boys who
were with him UP to short time be-
fore his death We're Valentine Arata.
946 De Haro street; Tom and Robert
Mcclellan, S33 Rhode Island street, and
Anthony Grassis, 902 Rhode Island
street.
LAST SEEN IN WORKS
According TO their stories Buchnof
was with them at the lumber yards
near Alameda avenue and Rhode Island
street shortly after o'clock Friday aft
ernoOn, gathering wood to take home.
At the suggestion Of one of their num-
Der the boys went TO the sanitary re-
dUctiOn works, across the street, in the
hope of finding discarded candy and
crackers, collected from the nearby fac
tories.
we went up the chutes to the bins. -
said Valentine Arata, and found some
candy, but as soon as we began to
gather il up the man in charge chased
US away. We all ran. but Buchnoff
went back to try and get some more
candy and we did not see him again."
The man in charge" was Augustine
DelmOnte, an Italian. whose duty it was
TO aid in the unloading of the wagons
and 10 clean up the refuse scattered in
the process Of dumping. He was iden-
tilted by the boys as being the man
who drove them away.
The question for us to solve" said
Detective Regan. who, with others, was
detailed on the case. lis what took
place when the boy went back. AS far
as we can find out there were no others
on the scene except Buchnoff and Del
monte. The boys had run away; the
wagon drivers had finished their
work
The next thing we find is the boys
body in a doubled up position, with a
wound behind the right ear. The pc
cUliar part Of the wound is that there
is a hole in the skull, as if the lad had
been struck by a pitchfork. There is
also fracture Of the skull. In the
face of all this circumstantial evidence
our supposition is that Delmonte struck
al Buchnoff with the heavy prong he
uses in his work. thereby inficting the
hole and fracturing the skull, and then,
thinking he had killed him, dumped the
boy into the debris.
There is a chance that the boy fell
into one of the bins and suffocated, but
this theory is not very strong, as there
was less than six inches of dirt cover
ing the lad when his body was found.
The bins were full at the time and he
could not have fallen more than two or
three feet. This would not be sufficient
to render him unconscious, and. be-
sides we would be still confronted with
the peculiar hole in the boys head"
CAUGHT BY DELMoNTE
According to the tales told Detective
O'Connell, Buchnof did not run back for
the candy, but was caught by Del
monte when he tried to get away the
first time.
The boys" said O'Connell, told me
the same story they told Detective Re
gan, with one exception. They said
they all ran from Delmonte but that
candy and was caught by the former
II this is true il makes the case against
Delmonte all the harder"
Delmonte was arrested at noon while
eating his lunch, the arrest being made
by Detectives O'Connell and Regan and
Mounted Policemen Bates and Richards
He nearly collapsed when told he was
wanted, but as soon as he could re.
cover his speech commenced denial OF
any knowledge of the boys death.
Fred Buchnoff, the boys father, i.
one Of the chief personages in a HOLY
Roller organization, which holds regu.
lar meetings at his home, $50 De Hare
street Accompanied by his wife b,
went to the morgue yesterday. They
approached the body murmuring Z