Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-05-12
Big Crowds Hold Up Search
For Murder Victims.
Newly Found Evidence Is DAM
aging 10 Lamphers's Case.
Completely Seems EstabIlshed'''
neIgeIeln Fought For Life.


the shreds of the evidence tending to
connect Ray Lamphere with the deaths
of Mrs. Guinness and her three chill
dren and perhaps also Of Andrew Hell
gelein, is the main purpose of the au-
thOrities here today. Sheriff SmutZer
has indicated that further excavatlng
for bodies may be postponed until to-
morrow. The sheriff has found difficulty
in carrying on this work because OF the
morbidly curious persons who have
fioclled to the place where III corpses
were discovered last week. Friday the
eXcavating in the barnyard was hind
cred and Saturday it was halted by the
crowds. 1t was expected, however, that
the number Of visitors would be lessen
ed today, some $4,000 persons having
inspected the grounds yesterday and
presumably satisfied their curiosity.
The grand Jury was to have met to-
day to consider Lamphere's case but
this procedure has been postponed for
i week, although Prosecuting Attorney
Smith has announced that he was
ready to go into court with the evil
dence at hand Since his announce
nent the case has been strengthened
by the discovery of Lamphere's trunk
containing several letters which arc
said to establish his participation in
the murder OF Helgelein and by infor-
nation extracted from a number of
persons who are intimate enough with
Lamphere to learn from him much con-
corning his relations with Mrs. GUM
ness. If the sitting Of the ashes in the
cellar of the home reveals more evil
G 20 hof naS
pushed rapidly. Prosecutor Smith is
anxious to bring Lamphere before
jury during the term of the court
which opens today. The attitude of the
defence has not been revealed to any
great extent. The attorneys have been
free in announcing theories to account
for Lampheres actions before and fol-
lowing his arrest and have also given
out alleged evidence which they say
establishes the fact that Mrs Guinness
and not Lamphere set fire to the house.
The adult headless corpses found
with the blackened bodies of the chill
dren was, they assert, that of another
victim of the Guinness woman, the
theory being that the head was severed
by Mrs. Guinness in order that it
might be thought that the body was
hers. The facts found by the four ply
sicians who performed post norton
examinations on the corpses do not
bear out the contentious of the defence.
Friends of Lamphere's attorneys
have been busy discussing the case
wherever opportunity occurred, the ar
gument being mainly that Mrs. GUM
ness was too shrewd a woman to be
caught in a fire. Prosecutor Smith de-
nounceS these methods but there is no
gainsaying the fact that the impression
that Mrs. Guinness is still alive is
widespread, despite the almost total
absence of definite evidence to sup
port it.
That Andrew Helgelein did not give
up his life without a struggle is evil
denced by the fact that in one of his
c!enched hands was brown tuft of
short hair which is said closely to re-
semble the hair covering the head Of
Ray Lamphere. This new phase was
disclosed in the deposition of DR.. ]. H.
William Myer, one of the examining
physicians who went into an exhaus-
tive examination of Helgelein's body.
After full report on the conditions
of the various parts of the dismem-
peIeu corpse, al u WHICH were louHu
to be in a state Of almost perfect
preservation, he states that one of the
hands of Helgelein held the lock of
curly brown hair.
DR.. Myer also made his report on
the body Of Jennie Olsen, the 17-year-
old adopted daughter and believed VIC
tim of Mrs Guinness. This body also
was found to be in good condition,
with exceptions. In the case of Hell
gclein and the Olsen girl, the cause
Of death is given as unknown.