Los Angeles herald., 1910-07-31
WENDLING SEIZED
IN SAN FRANCISCO
APARTMENT HOUSE
,"GreateSt Man Hunt in Modern
Tines Name Given H.
0OO-MiIe Search
SUSPECT FOUND UNDER SINK
Accused Admits Identity but De-
MES Staying Little Girl
~. in Louisville, KY.
ASSOCIATED Press)

SAN FRANCISCO, July 30.-Dragged
from beneath a sink in the wash room
of a Third street lodging house in this
city, where he had been crouched for
twenty-four hours. Joseph A Wend-
ling, accused of the murder of little
Alma Kellner in Louisville. KY, and
whose twistings and turnings have
baffled the police for four months. was
arrested toda-- by Detectives Burke
and Ryan of the local police depart
ment Vending admitted his identity.
but protested his innocence of the
crime.
A few hours after the arrest Cap
tain of Detectives J. P. Carney of
Louisville arrived here to learn that
his 11,000 mile search for Vending
had been crowned with success for
it was the final telegraphed tip from
the Kentucky detective that led to the
arrest of Vending. In his relentless
pursuit of the supposed murderer. Car
ney many times lost the trail, but the
secret of the whereabouts of his quarry
always lay unconsciously with Mrs.
Cora Muena, a. milliner of Hume, Mo,
and it was from her home that Car
ney flashed the information that led
to his arrest here. 1t seemed the irony
of fate that the only respectable wo-
man connected with vending during
his wanderings should have been the
unconscious means of betraying him
Mrs. Muena met Vending at the home
of her aunt in Houston, Texas. and
before she returned to her home in
Hume she was engaged to the dashing
young Frenchman, who dazzled the
aunt with tales of his foreign estates
and wealth in France which would
come to him with the death of his
aged father. Before Mrs. Muena left
ton -I - lfr,rr
and after her return to Hume she
broke the engagement.
SENDS DECOY LETTER
When Carney received the clew that
Vending was working for a grocer in
Houston he began the long search
which led him to every county seat in
Texas. When he reached Houston he
found that Vending had fled to San
Antonio, where he had secured a posi-
tion on a ranch twenty-five miles from
that town. A trip to the ranch proved
abortive, as the hunted man had fled,
leaving some of his effects behind.
Here Carney lost the trail and returned
to Houston. He sent a decoy letter,
ostensibly written by the aunt to Mrs
Muena, asking for the address of
Henry Jacquemin, the name assumed
by Vending when he left Louisville
The reply, intercepted by Carney, in
formed him that his prey was in Los
Angeles. The detective captains trip
to Los Angeles proving fruitless, he re-
turned to San Antonio, where he found
that Henry Picard, a friend of Wend
ling, had received postal picture
card from the fugitive. This communi-
cation, written in French. was post
marked Rio Vista.
Abandoning his Texas hunting
ground. Carney Immediately came to
hi nj xryIa he sell Gf
ance of the local detective bureau. Ac-
companied by Detective Conlin he went
to Rio Vista, but their man had flown,
leaving behind him. however, his name
on the pay roll of company which
was building jetties along the Sacra-
mento river. Then the trail again be-
came so cold that Carney determined
to visit Mrs. M"ena at her home in
Hume. He reached there just in time
to prevent the destruction of a postal
which gave the address of Vending
in Vallejo, Cal Mrs. Muena had de-
stroyed her other correspondence with
her wilom lover and was on the
point of burning the postal when the
Louisville police official arrived.
HAD BURGLARS TOOLS
When the address was flashed to
San Francisco Detective Burke was at
once sent to Vallejo. In the posses
sion of Alice Miller, with whom Wend-
ling had been living, he found his
photograph and complete kit OF
burglar tools. A further search of the
place led to tho discovery of many
articles which had been taken from
the residence of Thomas Saunders,
which had been burglarized three
times This was the house formerly
occupied by Charles Widemann, for
whom Vending worked as a gardener.
vending was soon traced to this city.
but the detectives were thrown off the
track by a strange double, who left a
suit case In a deserted house In the
North Beach foreign quarter.
The death by his own hand of this
suspect two days ago again left the
detectives without the scent, but they
caught 1t again when Captain of De-
tectives Wall received a tip Thursday
night that the fugitive was In a Third
street lodging house The number
proved a vacant lot. Next door, how
ever, was a lodging house frequented
by laboring men. Mrs. Mary Moriarity.
the owner of the house, declared that
q man answering Weddings descrip-
tjon had been there but had left few
days before. The detectives were still
and after watching the
house for twenty-four rours deter
mined this morning to make a search.
Their efforts were rewarded by the dis
coVery of Vending crouched beneath
the sink of a wash room. Dragged
forth, he did not make the slightest re-
and when the bullet wound in
his hand and the tattooed ship on his
arm were exposed by his captors, he
readily admitted his identity.
PROTESTS INNOCENCE
In the arrival of the detectives with
Vending at the city prison Chief Mar
tin and District Attorney Fickert were
With the detectives, these
two officials remained closeted for an
hour with the prisoner
He protested his innocence of the
Kellner murder, declaring that he knew
nothing of it until he read of the find
ing of the body, Vending maintained
that he had adopted the name of his
(COntinued on Page TwOl