The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-11-29
No Clues Found to Indicate
FrOntenac Murderers.
Black Hand Stories Afloat But
Officers Discredit Them.
ONE OF MANY MURDERS
Twenty Bullet Wounds Found
ON Body Of Victim.
Conclusive Evidence Points to
More Than One Slayer.

Frontenac. Kan, Nov. 2e.-It is not
believed by the authorities that the
slayer of William Bork, his wife anG
3-yearold son. who were murdered on
lonely road five miles north of here
last Friday night, will ever be appre-
hended. Not the slightest clew to es-
tablish the identity of the murderers
has been discovered.
Should the guilty man be arrested, it
is probable that summary punishment
will be melted out to him by the miners
in this district.
Ten minutes after the hundred mine
whistles around Frontenac had blown
for the supper hour Saturday evening
low speaking group of coal solled men
gathered about a certain point on the
unpaved main street. The men moved
lightly and spoke softly, for upstairs in
the Patton undertaking rooms lay the
bodies of a young miner ana ms young
wife and their 3-year-old child.
AT 8 O'Clock Friday night William
Bork, % years old, and his wife, Lottie
Bork. 81 years old, with their S-year-oid
son had started home in buggy from
the farm house of William HOLDS, MRS.
Bork's father They had driven per-
haps three-quarters of a mile north and
east. when a tragedy was enacted that
wiped out the three lives. All were
shot TO death whether by one person or
several is unknown.
When Frank Mauser, g. miner, on his
way to work, had stumbled upon the
BODY of Bory lying by the road not a
sign of the other two victims was ap-
parent. Later searchers found the body
of Mrs Bork who had been mistreated
before death, lying 80 feet away from
that of her husband in roadside corn
patch.
the bottom of the buggy, where the
naurderers, after half mile flight IN
the general direction of the Hobbs
farm had abandoned it.
There Is more than an ordinary mys-
terry in the killing. The motive at mrs.
was believed to have been assault, but
the unlikelihood that the criminals
would choose a woman with an escort
for their victim has almost caused its
abandonment.
A Cosmopolitan Population.
To know just how mysterious it all is
you must know Frontenac. 1t is a coal
mining camp of about 5000 population.
There is a riotous mixture of dozen
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. French, Itai-
ians. Poles, Americans and negroes.
Coal mining is the industry and the
life of nearly all. They have their own
little towns within towns their own
little private feuds; their own separate
existences.
In the last nine years there have been
80 killings in Frontenac- In the last
two months there have been two muir
ders in broad daylight, one successful
assault which resulted in the death Of
the victim, and one unsuccessful one.
It is a prohibition town, but there is
plenty of liquor. So, when there is
murder. there are dim whisperings of
the Malta and the Black Hand. Among
the groups gathered about the Patten
undertaking rooms that was the under
current of every conversation, muir
INJURED by the Italians and denounced
by the Americans, but believed by all.
The officials of Crawford county.
though, are working on an altogether
different line. Bloodhounds were I'M
successfully tried. Three of them were
brought over from a neighboring town
and started on the murderers trait.
They ran whining to the spot in the
corn patch where Mrs. Bork's body was
found and back again to the road and
the spot where the buggy had stood.
There the murderers had plainly jump
ed into the buggy and with body of
their baby victim lying on the floor,
driven away.
Looking Up His Enemies.
The dogs were given up. Now the
authorities are putting all their energies
drto tracing up any possible. enemies
two have been discovered. Last spring
he and French coal miner had an ar
gument over a horse deal. It ended in
the Frenchman's swearing he would
kill Bork. A week later. though, he left
town and was not seen again until two
days before the day of the killing. The
only other suspected person is a negro
miner who quarreled three days ago
with Bork over the unloading of a
coal car, and losing his argument de-
clared his intention of getting even"
He is also being hunted.
Had the murderer been arrested it is
probable the town people would have
made trouble. So worked up were they
that Sheriff Merriwether believed it best
to release negro who was arrested
for begging. In some way the word
became current that he was the MUIR
derer and 80 or 30 people gathered about
the tall.
More Than One Slayer.
Everything seems to indicate that
there was more than one man concern
ed in the killing. Four bullets taken
from Bork's body We're from 3S-caliber