The sun., 1908-01-06

PRTSONER GAxS FRIEND SIGNED
REG DEAD WIVES NAME.

HAhAAHZuh AAIAAAIp@
Murder - Brother IN Law says sus-
poets Tears Are Faked-HendricksO
Held and Another witness Arrested.
Th0odore 8. WhitmorO, the Third Avenue
Elevated motorman who Ii looked up In the
Harrison IN. ~ jail on suspicion Of having
murd" ID his wife, Lena, ON Christmas Day,
wac ed to admit yesterday afternoon that
he had faxed q telegram to Mrs. Bessie
Sohmitter. Mrs. Whitmore's sister. and that
the name LENA, which was signed to this
telegram, sent on December 20, three days
after his wife's body was found in Lamp
Black swamp, was forged.
Prosecutor Vickers Of Hudson county
and Judge Branogan Of Harrison questioned
Whitmore for hours. during which the ex-
convict cried, begg%t for drink Of whiskey
and excitedly denounced his wife's muir
derer as man who ought not DO executed
but torn to pieces. The admission as TO the
telegram they didn't got until near the
end OF the inquisitAon.
The telegram which Mrs. Sohmitter re-
ceived December 70 read:
Bessie, take care Of trunks. Send Mon
day or Tuesday. LENA
First Whitmore denied absolutely that
he had sent the telegram OF that he knew
anything about il Then he said he remem-
bered that he had asked a friend named
Fred Elliott to send it for him. Elliott had
written the telegram at his dictation and
had signed LenA's name. Elliott was a
Baltimore and Ohio fireman he had met in
Albany a year ago, he said. and whom he
hadn't seen again until December 2S. Elliott
came here from Springfield Mass, where his
home is out Of work and broke. and Whit
more gave him money and took him to the
rooming house at 2S6 Adams street. Elliott
framed up the telegram as an act Of friend
ship, he said.
They asked Whitmore why he had denied
sending his wife's trunk to Mrs. Schmitter's
house at 4s0 East 10th street and had said
that somebody must have stolen the trunk
out Of the Adams street house. and why
he admitted shipping the trunk by express
when they produced evidence that he had
helped an expressman load IL on a wagon.
WhitmOrs said that he was confused and
agitated and couldn't think clearly after the
shock Of finding that II was the body Of his
wife which lay in the Harrison morgue.
Then they put up to him suddenly a note
which the expressman had delivered with
the trunkful Of rubbish, a note whose hand
writing corresponds very closely to the let
ter which WhitmOre himself wrote to Mrs.
Schmitter on January 1. This note read
DEAR SISTER BESSIE: Please take care OF
these things for me and will send up more
things Monday. l expect to get all my things
next week. He 10 trying to be awful good
now. but l will not trust him any more.
will send my things by express. He has not
been working for two days. He Is afraid II
he goes to work ! will take the things out.
= a - A. -
everything will be all night next week. Yours
truly. LENA,
PS The bearer 10 q friend OF mine whom
can trust and he has helped me In my trouble
Whitmore stuck to It that he had not
written that note and they could not get an
admission out Of him after hours of ques-
tioning
Since he was put under fire ne has made
a dozen remark ably contradictory state
ments First of he said he had parted
| from his wife at o'clock on Christmas
afternoon; then he said it was 4:8O o'clock
whes. she left home to go to Schenectady.
Mrs. Daniel O'Neil and others heard them
| quarreling as late as O'Clock Christmas
| night. He said he knew so little OF his
wike's friend Harry that he couldn't tell
whether the mans name was Hendrickson
| OF Henderson. IL has been found that he
| knew Hendrickson at least four years.
! He certainly lied about sending the tele-
| gram ana ABOUT tno tr1lnk ne salu tnat
| his wife wore her diamond rings when she
left home. The rings and other iewelry
were found in Radin's saloon at 20 Tillary
street, where Whitmore had left them the
night Of December 30 or 81.
He said that always he carried his wife
around as II she had been half an eggshell"
All Mrs. WhitmOre's family and some of
| her rOomers told the police that WhitmOre
| i'll treated her for fifteen years He told
the police that his wife was a woman Of
i 4
in Brooklyn for soliciting and Whltmore
helped get her out both times. He de-
! clared that he had always been loyal and
| faithful 10 his wife and now the Brookly lyn
| police are hunting for George" patron
| Of the Haymarket in Manhattan. with whom
| WhitmOre has been mixed up for some time
and with whom he spent the night after
Christmas
William B. Salter, Whitmore's brother
in-law, told the police yesterday that Whit
more ran away with a woman named May
| Cook several years ago and that she
stabbed him. He took the hint and went
| back to his wife.
! Both Charles Salter and William B. Salter
accused Whitmore through the bars Of his
cell yesterday OF having killed their sister.
! Whitmore cried when William Salter refused
| to shake hands with him.
THAT cuts no ioe with me- said Salter
-Whitmore 10 q man Of iron nerve. He
doesn't cry 30 easily as this. These are
|
! Harry Hendrickson. who was arrested
at Roslyn late Saturday night. was arraigned
before Magistrate Tighe yesterday in the
| Adams street court, Brooklyn. He gave
! his residence as p3 Clermont avenue and
| said he had no occupation. The Magistrate
! held him on a charge OF vagrancy in 81, 600
/ bail until tomorrow. Judge Branegan ab
| Harrison said yesterday that application
| for reQuisition papers in Hendrickson's q
| case would be- made to-day. Hendrickson
| said he had been as much friend of Whit
more as he had been Of Whitmore's wife.
Detectives Murray, Roddy and Ward of
| Brooklyn police headquarters arrested yes
| terday Caleb Evans, train dispatcher for
| the b. X. T., at the Manhattan terminal OF
! the Brooklyn Bridge. They heard that
| Evans, who Is 3S years old and lives at
J l42O Fortieth street, Borough Park, had
| taken something besides exercise last Sat
urday night and In a number OF saloons in
! Brooklyn had Dragged that he knew the
| real story OF the murder and knew the man
! who killed Mrs. Whitmore.
! When they arrested him he denied that
| he had made such statements. He said.
| though, that he was well acquainted with
T, Whitmore and Mrs. Whitmore and that
the woman used to come TO Manhattan fire.
! quently in the early morning hours TO meet
| her husband when he was through work
4 running the shuttle train between Chatham
I Square and the bridge. He added that the
| B. r. 7. employees knew WhitmOre and
the woman and didn't think particularly
! well Of her. Evans was held by Magistrate
Tighe as a suspected person and material
| witness.
So far Whitmore hasn't had a lawyer