The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-05-30
STRIP OF CLOTH
USED TO STRANGLE
MISS VANDERBILT
Man Who Drove Body Swears
bingham Was Corded
Around Neck.

PRINCETON, May 3O.-The body of
Bertha Vanderbilt, the pretty young
librarian of Princeton University, which
was found in the Raritan Canal on
May Is, will be exhumed today at Am
sterdam, N. Y, and it is expected that
evidence will be found that she was
murdered. 1t is also believed that the
motive for the crime will be disclosed
by the autopsy, and hat this bit of
evidence will also reveal the anxiety
of the parents of the girl to halt any
investigation.
William GayI0r, of P~lainsbOrO, near
Princeton, made the startling statement
today that when the body of Bertha
Vanderbilt was dragged from the cnnal.
five days after she had mysteriously
disappeared, there was a piece of blue
checked bingham tied tightly about her
neck.
1t was in Gaylor's wagon that the
body of the unfortunate girl was car
ried from the canal to the morgue in
New Brunswick. the county seat of
Middlesex County.
This is the first time that the authori-
ties have permitted this piece of in
formation to leak out.
From the first the mystery surround
ing the death of the young woman has
been intensified by the evident desire
Of the authorities, not only here, but in
Amsterdam, N. Y. the home of the
Vanderbilts. to ignore the case.
Appeal to Court Necessary.
When State Detective Frank Hoffman,
of New Jersey, called on the coroner
and district attorney at Amsterdam
yesterday and today, they plainly said
they would not assist him; that Miss
Vanderbilt's father was one of the old
est and most respected residents of
Amsterdam, and that they would not
think of offending him.
1t was necessary for Hoffman to APP
peal to Supreme Court Justice Edgar
A.. Spencer for an order to exhume h
body. The result of the autopsy
should be known by this evening.
With the new disclosures which have
been made, comes additional details of
the love affairs of Miss Vanderbilt. She
had many admirers-some of them
very ardent. Among them were numer-
Gus Princeton students. Daily the
young woman received many letters,
both at the Princeton library n at
the house where she boarded. The
woman with whom she boarded said
that Miss Bertha was in the habit of
going into the backyard each day and
tearing up these letters, which she de-
scribed as "love offerings"
The statement of Gaylor that he saw
O. string of blue checked cloth about
the neck of the dead girl has caused a
sensation here. This is taken to in
dictate that the young woman was
garroted to death before her body was
hurled into the Raritan canal,
Stunned, Then Strangled.
1t is not believed hat Miss Wander
bilt was killed at the spot where she
was last seen, three-quarters of a mile
above where 1.-THE body was found.
There is no current in the canal, and
the body could scarcely have 1oated to
where it was found. 1t is now be-
lieved that some one, who had an OBJ
ject to encompass in the death of Miss
Vanderbilt, lured her to the lonely
shrub grown and grassy spot near
where the body was found, and was
there attacked, as was poor BILLY"
Brown by Chester Gillette, stunned,
Their strangled to death and her lfeless
corpse thrown into the canal.
The--prosecution is waiting to hear
the result of the autopsy before taking
definite action.