The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-09-25
By Frederic Reddale
Copyright 1910, by w. e.. Chapman.)

consequently these associates, now
that Number Three had fallen victim
tremble in their collective shoes, to
wonder who Of their guilty number
might be next marked down by the
ruthless avenger, and to HISTORICALLY
invoke the aid of the municipal po
lice of both cities. Also it should be
noted that by this time the opinions
of press and public had become crys
three taxi murders were the result Of
private vengeance on the part Of some
one who had been wronged in q real
or fancied way by the "interests rep
resented by the three men thus mys.
teriously taken off.
But the regular police were appar
emily powerless to solve the mystery,
and that they were held in sovereign
contempt by the perpetrator-mRn or
of a fourth crime In the series, the
scene shifting to Chicago and claiming
its victim from among the same group
of allied traction fnanciers.
This fourth victim was Marvin D..
Mark. multimilionaire. Again the
same stage setting. q taxicab, and two
men entering it from a great hotel on
Michigan boulevard. The assissin, sp-
parently growing bolder, had reverted
Philo B. Liveridge in New York. But
seeing that Chicago's emile square -
affords lesser distance than New York
or Philadelphia, the time at his dis
posal was proporrionately less.
Board of Trade" was the direction
the Chicago cabby received-a matter
of only a few squares. But upon ar
irving at the destination named the
former sequence of events was repeat
ed; One Of the pair alighted and dis
appeared within the portals. Again,
after waiting a reasonable time for the
remaining "fare' within to make some
sign or sound, the lehu opened the trap
only to see his passenger collapsed in
one corner of the cab. When help and
medical assistance had been summoned
it was patent to all that Marvin D.
Mark had Joined the great majority.
No longer could natural causes or
"the act of God' be accepted as ade-
auate explanations. Some malefc hui"
man agency was clearly the moving
force. The Chicago police were no
more fortunate than their confreres of
New York and Philadelphia in solving
the mystery. 1t was clearly seen that
only master mind could successfully
grapple with the problem, and that was
how Finney Valentine came into The
case, as much in response to popular
clamor as owing to the fact that he
was retained by the family of the Sec
ond victim, Zenas Roker, to run down
the assissin.
''You can't commit any sort of a
crime without leaving a trace OF a
clue, - said the great detective, "Gen,
orally, sooner or later, we pick up the
thread: sometimes we don T.; but it S
there all the same
For paucity Of detail available, Val
entine was early compelled TO admit,
probably the taxicab murders were
unique in the annals of crime-for
there could be no doubt that the four
successive "removals of men so close
ly associated in business affairs as
Liveridge. Roker, Vandal and Mark
had been. was the result of a care
fully outlined plot.
The center human king-pin was un-
doubtedly the mysterious companion
of the several victims who had disap
peared before the bodies were discov-
cred. Two of the crimes had been
committed in broad daylight; two under
cover of darkness. Beyond the most
hazy descriptions Ihe four cabmen con
cerned could give no closer or more
accurate descriptions of the second in
dividual than would fit the average
man on the street,
In each and every case he seemed
TO have been on more or less init.
mate terms with his victims-other-
wise they would not have been In his