Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-11-14
Suspected Slayer Of As
bury Child Covers
in Cell.
MANGLED BODY OF GIRL
TELLS HORRIBLE STORY
Little Body of Child, Twisted
and Torn, Rehearses Scene
in Lonely Wood.

ASBURY PARK, Nov. 14-While tho
mutilated body Of 10-year-old Marie
Smith, who was slain last Wednesday
in a lonely wood, is lying cold in the
city morgue. Thomas Williams. negro
pugilist with a prison record and held
by the police as a suspect. is covering
in his cell. maintaining a determined
silence.
Fearing violence from the crowd.
several hundred strong. congregated
around the city lookup, the authorities
maintained a strong guard all night as
precaution against lynching. Feeling
is today high in the community and
trouble is feared when the negro is
brought out for examination
That little Marie Smith was slured
into the woods of Wannamassa and
there overpowered by someone is made
only too plain by the mute testimony
of the poor little body. The remains.
found by w. L. Benson, a local florist.
gives evidence of her terrible struggle
and that the fend who took her life
was a man of almost superhuman
strength.
A nicked ak, mud stains on the cloth
| ing of the girl, piece of newspaper
Spotted with blood smears and red
stained piece of cloth are ciues by
which the police hope to u1ravel the
mystery and fix the guilt
Williams. the negro. is known to have
| been ehopping wood in the second
growth where the girls body was found
the afternoon she disappeared, Tie
ak, which the police have, has hicks
| in the blade which correspond with
marks on trees near the spot. where
broken twigs, crushed leaves and scat
tered turf tell their own story of the
struggle.
imprint of Fingers Taken.
The police have taken record OF
williams's finger prints and a micro
scopic examination of blood-stained
piece of newspaper found near the
scene of the crime is being made, with
the hope that finger marks, printed in
blood thereon. may be found to corre-
spond with the unchanging mark OF
the negro.
Clothing on the body of the little girl
was stained with a reddish brown mud.-
! 4
bears mud stains of the same shadA
Analysis will determine whether the
mud is the same chemical composition.
Prints of mud stained fingers are also
plainly marked on the suspects brown
shirt, and the microscope is expected to
reveal whether they were made by the
! little girls struggling hands.
Analysis will determine if the red
2 in f17a l7nxr
where Williams was found are the
stains of blood Here again. the mi
croscope and the chemist will figure in
the attempt to fix the guilt.
| Child Drops from sight.
! Little Marie Smith disappeared soon
after leaving school at Asbury Park
last wednesday afternoon. 1t was first
/ thought she had gone to the home Of
her aunt, who lives near by, but when
she did not appear at school in the
morning, her parents became alarmed.
The school was closed for the day and
children searched the wood in vain for
4 their playmate.
/ Then it was feared the little girl had
fallen into the waters of Deal lake and
had been drowned. The lake was
dragged in vain.
The search became the sole topic of
Asbury Park, and practically the entire
population of the city joined in the
! hunt Yesterday the mystery was
solved, when the child's body was
found, huddled under a clump OF
bushes, only a few hundred feet from
the home of her aunt Mrs. Della jack
] son.
/ The girls skull had been smashed in
H. -
marks of her assailant, and drawn
tightly around her neck were the bright
blue hair ribbons she had worn and her
worsted skating cap with its jaunty
tassel. Not alone these terrible injuries
/ had been inflicted on her, but the
greenish- bruises showed that she
\ had fought until she had died. But it
! had not served to save her from out
! rage
Attempts TO Burn Body.
! Like Albert Wolter, the murderer OF
Ruth Wheeler little Marie Smiths as
sassin had attempted to conceal his
crime by burning the body of his VIC
tim. On Wednesday night last. about
twelve hours after the child's disap-
pearance, the woodland began to blaze
The flames spread so rapidly that it
was necessary TO call out the fire de-
partment to check the fire.
The alarm for the little girl had al
ready gone out from her home, and the
fremen, after their work of stopping
the fire, used their swinging lanterns In
search for Marie. hundreds of men
and boys assisting. beating the brush
in all directions. But the body OF the
little girl was not then found. although
the flames had been checked within
only few feet Of where she was lying
with her arms outiung and her disfig-
ured face buried In the moss
/ The police had held Williams under