The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-09-04
Sickening Murder Revealed In Boston By Confession
 of Murderer
ACTOR KILLS HIS WIFE
 TRIES 10 HIDE CRIME
Confession Is Made By the Miserable Husband, Who Says the Deed Was Committed Without Intent and
 He Then Sought Safety.

Boston. September 3-The most brutal crime committed in Greater Boston since
 the death of Susan M Geary a chorus
 girl, four years ago, and one much re-
 sembling it in it's details, was disclosed
 tonight by the discovery of the torso of
 Mrs Honorah Jordan. an actress, aged
 g years, of Somerville, in a trunk in d
 boarding house at No. ' Hancock street
 on Beacon Hill, this city. Later the head
 and bones of the limbs were found in the furnace of the Jordan home at Som ] eryille, and the scalp. hair and other l grewsome remains were taken from the
 kitchen range of the house
 Chester Jordan, aged % years, an actor. ] of Somerville, is held by the police of- l ficers charged with the murder, and to-
 night, according to the officers, he made
 a complete confession of the crime 1 According to Jordan's confession he accidentally killed his wife Tuesday night in a quarrel at their home. and 1 becoming desperate over what he had l done, he went out and bought butch
 CTS knife, razor and shears. cut up the body and placed the torso in trunk.
 He then planned to take the steamer
 Harvard lst night for New York and
 throw the parts of the body overboard l The fact that the Harvard was laid off i owing to an accident disarranged his
 plans and he was obliged to hire a hack
 man to take the trunk to a Boston
 boarding house to await more favor
 able time.
 Crime Discovered.
 l The discovering of the crime was due
 to the suspicious of the hackman, Geo. w. Collins. Collins reported that he had i taken the trunk from the north station
 this morning, it having come in from
 Somerville on a local train. The hack
 man stated he left Jordan and the trunk this afternoon at No. Hancock street. l Sergeant Micheal Crowley was detailed
 to go to the house and investigate Jor-
 dan was not in, but the officer was
 shown the back room on the second
 floor. which Jordan had engaged, and found the trunk. At this time the trunk
 was not opened. About 5:20 Jordan re-
 turned and was commanded to open the
 trunk. Turning his head Jordan threw
 up the cover of the trunk and then sank
 back on his knees, burying his face in
 his hands and sobbing.
 Sergeant Crowley staggered back aghast at the disclosure, for in the open
 trunk before him lay a sickening mass
 of hacked flesh. a womans torso filling
 the greater part of the trunk, while
 pieces of flesh from other parts of the
 body were stuffed into the corners. The | entire interior of the trunk was bespat- 1 tered with blood. There was no cover l ing of any sort over the remains
 Jordan Arrested.
 Jordan submitted to arrest without pro-
 test, and was led to station and locked 1 up. Giving his name and address he de- ! clared the body in the trunk was that of
 his wife. and said he was perfectly will
 ing to tell everything concerning the case For more than four hours Jordan was
 closeted with the police officials, and time i after time went over the horrible details l While protesting that he was dazed when ! the crime was committed, yet by the l clearness and consciousness of his tale
 1t seemed apparent that whatever preced- 1 ed the actual killing the most careful plans were laid for the disposal of the body and the covering up of the crime. Jordans story of the murder was sub stantially follows:
 ile stdleu that ne was married Tn Sep tember, 1904, to Mrs. Honorah Eddy
 whose maiden name was O'Reilly, and whose home was in Somerville. He did | not know who his wife's first husband 1 was or what had become of him. The | couple went on the vaudeville stage, MT. Jordan taking the part of tramp and his wife that of nurse in sketch. They went first to Butte, Mont, four years i ago, but only remained three or four l weeks. Later they went to Chicago and appeared in some of the smaller theatres there remaining three months. About three years ago they returned to Somer- vile and took flat in the house at 509 Medford street. Mrs. Jordan according to her husband had taken to drinking of late. and. he claims, was associatng with other men, md he became jealous. 1t was in jealous quarrel that the trouble started which ended in the death of the wife.
 Killed by Blow.
 Jordan declares that his wife struck him first; that he then knocked her down. stairs, and was terrified to find that he had killed her. This happened at 7:30 o'clock Tuesday night. Fearing discovery he conceived the idea of cutting the body up, taking it away on one of the steam- CTS and throwing the parts overheard and then reporting to the police the fact that his wife had left him,
 Jordan, according to his confession went our and bought a heavy butcher knife. With this and a razor and shears he severed the head from the body, and after putting the scalp and hair ia the kitchen range. placed the skull in the furnace in the cellar. The legs and arms were cut from the body and the flesh sliced off in strips, leaving the bones of the limbs practically bare. The bones we're placed in the furnace and the chunks If flesh Died into a trunk with the torso. The trunk taken to SQmervlle sta lion and shipped to Boston sometime Wednesday.