The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-06-19
BODY FOUND
In A TRUNK
Murder Mystery IN New
York.
IDENTITY NOT COMPLETE
The Body Is That Of 4 Young
White Woman.
-s-
Ebe Police are searehins for YOUNG
Chinssaan In whose Room the
Tr,sak ana Ghastly Con-
teats was Found.


New York. June a. Elisabeth siegeL
naughter of Paul Siegel, OF this city,.
land granddaughter of the nlustrious
IFranz Siegel, the German warrior, who
senlisted his services with the Union
lArmy during the Civil War. 10, accord
tang to all Indications tonight, the VIC
aim Of one of the most sordid murders
in the history Of New York. II she is
not the victim, the police are confront
ed with q remarkable series Of coinci-
dental facts.
Taken from trunk In the room Of
q Chinaman above . chop suey restau-
rant In the tenderloin. the body In q
state Of decomposition which makes
identification dihicult. lies In the
morgue.
When the story was told Mrs. siegel.
with as much tenderness as possible.
she cried: My God. EIsie," and tainted.
Sun Leung. proprietor OF the res
taurant. who also conducted the room
ing house above. disappeared shortly
after the murder was discovered, adding
further to the mystery. The case has
many unusual features notable among
which is the fact that Chinaman had
been known to call at the Stegei home.
presumably with the sanction OF the
parents. Elizabeth. or Elsie, was 20
years old and greatly Interested In the
work among Chinese.
Mr.. Siegei arrived at the morgue at
midnight Arrangements were made 70
3 that the badly dishgured face could be
seen to best advantage. but Mr.. Sfegel
would not say 1t was his daughter. In
fact. the police say. he declared pasit-
lively that It was not. but he declined
to look at various letters and other
bits of evidence which would. seem to
indicate that 1t was she.
Three Chinamen Arrested.
Late tonight three Cinnamon were
arrested as material witnesses. Short
~ after midnight. Mrs. Florence M.
Todd. a friend Of the Siegel family.
ing the body, identified some Of, the. un-.
derclothing as that worn by Elsie Sies
KeI
Mrs. Paul siegel. when shown the
0eweiry found in the trunk containing
the dead body, identified 1t as that worn
The hesase. n, s,isisss tlsn heaw was
discovered Is at 1872 Eighth Avenue,
IN the tenderloin district. Sun Leung.
the proprietor. brought about the. rev-
citation OF the crime. he noted q Pc
ruliar odor, and fearing that some one
had committed suicide. notified the po-
lice. They assembled to the top floor.
-sntered q small room and pried open a
steamer trunk. There lay the body,
cramped and partly decomposed, with
rope wound tightly about the throat,
and also tied about the knees and arms.
the clothing was torn, indicating there
had been q struggle. The man who
had occupied the room, evidently had
left hastily, for there had been no eff
fort to remove anything. He was evil
IDENTIFY converted to Christianity. for
thereabout the room, Bibles and prayer
books COMMUNICATING in both Eng
fish and Chinese. which gave the in
formation that he was known in Eng
lish as William H. Lyon and In Chinese
as Leons Loo Lin.
Scrawled on a card, in fairly good
English, was an unsigned note, which
read:
II hope you do not get mad at me,
because all the trouble come from me.
Hope some day the happiness come to
us both"
There was great excitement among
the Chinese In the vicinity when the
murder was discovered. but with the
exception of the proprietor, they could
not be induced to view the body. Ex-
animation showed that 1t was frst
wrapped in a blue blanket, although
the outer clothing was removed The
feet were bare.
Body Badly DecOmposed.
Dragging the trunk out into a hall,
detectives began a more minute inspec-
tion. Decomposition had progressed SO
far. however that excent for the white
ness of the feet. 1t would have been
difficult to ascertain whether 1t was
the body OF white woman. Soon at
ter Mr.. siegel had been notified, it was
removed to the morEue.
Turning their attention again to the
room. officers found q butchers cleaver
which gave further color to the theory
OF murder as borne out by the bloody
corpse. The house where the trunk
was found is three story structure,
used mainly as chop suey restau-
rant The upper floors are rented to
Cinnamon.
Paul siegel went to the Eighth Ave-
nue. house late tonight and examined
the clothing the woman wore. He was
unable, however, to identify any OF the
things as having belonged to his miss
ing daughter. A iocket with the init
ials "E. G. s." or p. G, s." (the letters
were worn and hard to distinguish),
was shown to Mr.. Siegel, but he said
he could not Identify 1T, although he
knew his daughter wore locket when
he last saw her. He suggested that the
police send the trinket to his wife, who
lives in the Bronx, for Identification.
According to Mr.. Sfegel, his daughter
disappeared from home June 10. Two
days later, the family got word from
her in Washington. saying she was
safe and would be home the following
Monday (June 14.) Nothing. her Ia
their said, had been heard from her
since. He gave her age as 20 years.
Tne iOCkcI was sent 10 the mOIneT OF
the missing girl for examination. The
father left the scene Of the murder
soon after making his statement to
the police.
number OF letters. which the police
expect will throw light on the case,
were found in the room where the body
was discovered. One. written in Eng.
Iish. addressed to the missing China
man who occupied the room. but un-
signed. warned him that II he did not
stop paying attention to "Elsie Size
GEL" he would meet a terrible fate.
The other letters found were written
by a girl who signed herself Elsie
According to the police. the nissives
were written in terms of endearment
"A silver spangled bracelet, upon which
were the initials e. c. s.. was found
in a dresser in the room. Some text
books, a spelier and geography owned
by the missing chinaman, contained
rude scraw1s OF the Elsie" such as a
person learning toswrite might make.
man who described himself as Jo-
ssph X Lang, chinaman. called at
the Eighth Avenue house quite unex-
1 DarAadfx during the night Ha said