The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-10
GOLD MINER WILL TRY
 ID PROVE WOMAN'S DEATH
Headiess Body Is Declared To Be Someone Else Than Mrs. Guinness and Many otherAsoBIe Are
 Said To Be Missing.

 Porte settled down today after the ex- citement following the Syracuse arrest, to digging in the garden grave yard os Mrs. Belle Gunness' home.
 Sheriff Smutzer is preparing for a test on Monday such as has never be- fore been made in the investigation of any murder case. It will be in the eff fort to account for the missing head of the body now in the morgue be- lieved to be the body of Mrs. Gunness. Tie sheriff has employed an experi- enced miner, who he says is now in La Porte with his pan, his cradle, his rocker and all the other paraphernalia of the primitive California gold miner. This miner will go down to the cellar of the House of Death" Monday morn ing and begin to sift the debris in search of gold. The authorities mai l. tain that if gold is found at the point where the headless body was recovered it will prove that Mrs. Gunness' head was consumed by fire and that $500 worth of metal in her false teeth was melted by the heat.
 Lamph eres trunk is still in the of fee of the states attorney. What the letters from Mrs. Guinness to Lamphe may say is known only to the auth ori- ties and Ray Lamphere himself.
 These questions were put to Deputy Sheriff Austin today
 Deputy Sheriff Questioned
 ']s there anything in any of these letters which leads you to believe that Ray Lamphere was an accomplice Of Mrs. Gunness in the murders which peopied ller pa@vs.se graves ftlse q cant say that there is,p replied the deputy.
 "Is there anything in them to make you think Lamphere assisted in the murder of Andrew Helgelen?"
 q don't know that there is,' was tue deputy's answer. But I believe he has some Knowledge Of 1t. Hegelein was last seen on January 14, when he and Mrs. Guinness came to the First Ma tional bank in La Porte to collect the darft of $2S93.2O on the First National bank of Aberdeen, s. D.. his nome town.
 "Lamphere has said that he was in Michigan City during the day of Jan nary l 4, ana lne 1lSUI lOWVHS, lHdl he returned to the farm in the morn ing and that Hegelein was gone. He asked Mrs. Gunness what had become of him and was told that he had de- parted for Michigan City.
 ''I have evidence to prove, not be- yond a reasonable doubt, but beyond the shadow of doubt, that Lamphere returned to the farm before Ii o'clock on the night of January IA and the probabilities are that Helgelein was murdered, dismembered and buried on that night. Lamphere at least got some inkling of what was going on.'
 Taking Dispositions.
 From time to time Coroner Mack is taking dispositions in connection with the murders of Andrew He1gelein, Jen- nie Olson. adopted daughter of tho woman of Guinness Hill, and Ole C.. Budberg of lola, Wis, who the only three out of the total of IA bodies thus recovered from the barn yard burial grounds to be positively identi- fled. Frank J. Pittner, cashier of tke First National bank in La Porte made his dispositions this morning.. It covers several pages of large legal paper closely written.
 Expert opinion with regard to the identi- ty of the headless body in the morgue labeled Belle Guinness is conflicting. Dr.
 
 who performed an autopsy on the charred corpse for Coroner Mack, believes the murderess has fled, leaving another body behind to bear the weight of her crimes. Dr. J. II. William Myer. another of the physicians on the coroner's board, took the oppsite view.
 He also backs up his statement by the dimensions of the corpse. The other two physicians, Dr. F. T. Wilcox and pr. J. l.. Gray although admitting that they have opinions to the identity of the body, decline to say what these opinions are in advance of the official report.
 Miner Ready For Work.
 Little progress was made today with the digging, Sheriff Smutzer now being chiefly interested in his gold mining ex- periments. His assistant Hutson did a little proving about the ruins of the house in the cellar this afternoon and picked up Colts revolver the size generally carried by army officers and cowboys It contained five shells, three of which had been discharged. The sher- if thinks it peculiar that if the three cartridges were exploded by the heat of the fire, the other two remained in tact. The revolver, together with an axe which some one picked up around the harm under the impression that it con- tained blood stains, are now in the sher- frs office in La Porte.
 Sheriff Smitzer today received a letter from the president of the Lutheran col lege at Fergus Falls Minn.. stating that Jennie Olson had never been pupil there and that he had never heard of Jennie or Mrs. Guinness.
 Jennies married sister says that when the Guinness woman was making prepara- tions to put her adopted daughter in the garden buryng ground she ordered her !. to write letter to her Chicago rela- pA lives stating that she was going to Fergus Falls.
 Another letter has been received from h f,. A. Neliis, former detective at R west Monterey. Pa, stating that Wake Xlfield Berry of that town is missing and 
 m fCONTINUED ON PAGE 4.)