The San Francisco call., 1908-05-10
SIRENS CORPSE,
NOT STRANGERS,
FOUND IN RUINS
La Porte Doctors Tell of Many
Marks Identifying Body
OF Mrs. Guinness
Solution OF Death Farm Mystery
Involved in Row of
Officials
No More Cadavers Are Found,
but Inquiries for Missing
Men Increase I

SAAe-ANN NcI4f -es Asy tAuS Os-lNNas OOEA
Belle HERON. widow of Frederick n.
Heron, former president of the Seth
ness chemical company of Chicago, who
was arrested by Syracuse detectives In
Pullman sleeper this morning ON sus-
picion of being Mrs. Belle Guinness, the
La Porte alleged murderess, was
quickly able to prove her identity and
viii go on to New York this afternoon.
Sign papers releasing the city of Syra-
cuse from liability for her arrest, which
she characterized ms '-an outrage with
out the shadow OF an excuse"
LA PORTE, Ind, May 9.-The dis
sensions which have been brewing
among the officials of the city and
county of La Porte interested in the
solving of the mysteries of the Gun
ness farm broke out today. 1t is open
ly charged that the political affiliations
of some of the men concerned had
much to do with their attitude toward
the labors of the sheriff and the prose-
cutting attorney and a factional fight
in the party to which the latter be-
longs is blamed also.
The widespread reports that evidences
had been found tending to prove that
the corpse supposed TO be that OF Mrs.
Bella Guinness is in reality the body
of another woman are said to have had
the members of which are OF opposits
political faith TO the sheriff, and OF ths
faction opposing the prosecutor. These
reports had their origin in statement
said to have been given out by DR.. II
P. Long. a former coroner. and one OF
the four physicians who performed ths
autopsies on the bodies found In tha
ruins of the Guinness home. DR.. Long.
however. said today that he had not
issued such a statement. but had mere
ly expressed a personal opinion that hs
was not satisfied as to the identity Of
the corpse in question
CORPSE OF MRS. GUINNESS
Two other members of the board re-
fused to be drawn into the controversy
but DIR. j. II. William Meyer. the fourth
member. said that he had no doubt that
the corpse was that Of Mrs. Guinness.
He too. however. declined to reveal thu
] findings of the physicians.
The attitude of the coroner as be-
tween the two factions has not become
manifest. At the prosecuting attor-
ney's office. however, it was asserted
that DR.. Mack. the coroner. had
changed the first report as TO the idon-
tity of the Guinness body and an in
spection OF the documents showed this
TO be the case
to the facts and conditions surrounding
the bodies taken from the Guinness
home.
There was absolutely no difference
among US" said one OF the doctors.
and this was confirmed by other msm-
bers of the board. There Is absolutely
no Indication that tho skull OF any OF
the bodies of the three children bors
penetrating wounds. It had been as
serted that fractures caused by soma
blunt instrument had been found on
these skulls. Neither was there any
kind of brain hemmorrhages and tha
heart and lungs OF at least two OF thu
children revealed the same conditions
found in these organs in the body OF
their mother. The hearts were all di-
lated and full of cloth and tho lungs
had collapsed. This condition Is found
in the cases OF persons who have died
from suffocation. and the circumstances
is taken as another evidence that tha
theory regarding Mrs. Guinness having
cremated her children. substituted an
other wOman's body for her own and
then escaped after setting are 70 ths
house Is not tsnable.
REDUCED BY HEAT
/ One of the alleged circumstances
upon which the theory is based Is the
fact that the body of the woman Is
much smaller than Mrs. Guinness was.
The intense heat TO which the corpses
were subjected. according TO DR.. Meyer.
would. however, fully account for this
circumstance.
Mrs Guinness was an abnormally
large woman In every particular When
the corpse was cut open a layer OF fat
two inches thick still existed over ths
abdomen.
Still further evidence that the body
was that OF Mrs. Guinness was found
in the fact that the remains OF a finger
ring which she is known to have worn
| were found in the ashes several days
later. The buckle Of money belt. such
was also picked up and later stul a