The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-04-08
MYSTERY IN DEATH OF ROY P. MARTIN Mobile Boy Found Having in
 City Jail SKULL WAS FRACTURED Policeman Had Picked Him Up Early In the Morning at Williamson Fur nace-Did Not Notice Any
 Sign of Violence.

Mysterious death with strong indica- tions of foul play came to Roy r. Mar tin, aged 19 years, of Mobile yesterday.
 Officer Pulley answered a call from the Williamson furnace at Fourteenth street and Powell avenue shortly before o'clock yesterday morning and found young man, apparently helpless, in the furnace stock house. The patrol wagon was sum- moned and the man taken to the county Jail and placed in a cell 1t requiring two men to assist him to the cell. The ar resting officers state that he was not bloody and that he bore all signs of drunkenness.
 About 10 o'clock yesterday morning he was heard grooming and an investiga- tion found him to be in a delirious state with his nose bleeding Dr. Watts, city physician, was summoned and ordered him removed to the Hillman hospital. There was a large bump behind his ear, but the skin was not broken. At the hospital 1t was found that he had sus- tained a fracture of the skull. He died shortly after noon.
 The remains were removed to the un- dertaking establishment of Gaudin & Co.,.
  ner Brasher yesterday afternoon. His verdict was that the man had come to his death from being struck by blunt instrument which fractured the skull
 Officer Pulley states that he did not mo- tce the bump behind the mans ear when he arrested him, while the warden makes the same statement. Ohlcer Pulley found him in the storeroom at the furnace, to get to which it was necessary to walk down one flight of stairs and then up another. The man wore a uniform of the Alabama National Guard and had an extra black coat with him. His hat could not be found by the officer, but he states that one of the negro workmen had a hat on. Martin he said was just like hundreds of other men who had been arrested for being drunk, being limp, and that he never thought of his being other than drunk.
 Martin was a member of Company B. First Alabama infantry, Mobile, and was in Mobile until a week ago, when he left there with the Midget Opera com pany, and went to Meridian. Miss. He came up to Brooksde which is 20 miles from Birmingham, on Monday, and wis., ited his brother, Eugene Martin, there. Tuesday morning at g o'clock he caught a train for Birmingham, telling his brother that he was going back to Mo- bile. but was going to stop over in Bir- mingham and see if he could not take part in the Terminal opening parade with the Birmingham militiamen.
 When he left Brookside he wore a dark suit and black hat with rough edge, bearing the name Meyer. Mobile" :" and carried his military suit wrapped in a bundle That was the last his brother heard of him until he heard of his death late yesterday afternoon The brother came to Birmingham last night.
 The mother of the dead man is Mrs. J. V. Martin, who resides at the Farley house ona Government street, Mobile, with three small children The remains will be sent to Mobile at 3:35 o'clock this after noon for interment. The Martins are in strengthened circumstances and an effort ! Is being made by Mobiles chief of police to raise a fund sufficient to defray the burial expenses.
 Eugene Martin states that his brother never drank, while the physicians who l attended him state that he did not show any signs of having been drinking. Chief Bodeker has detailed men to worh