Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-01-25
ARREST OF MADMAN
Charged With Deliberate Muir
der of Two Boys.
GOTHAM MYSTERY SOLVED
Police Are Confident They Have the
Right Man.
CHILDREN KILLED IN PARK
Lured to Their Death by Man An
swering to Description of
the Prisoner.
GOTHAM MYSTERY SOLVED
CHILDREN KILLED IN PARK


the Prisoner.
| NEW YORK, January 2h.-Herbert
Jerome Dennison. formerly a magician,
was arrested yesterday by headquarters
detectives on suspicion that he Was the
! man who had shot and killed little Robert
Tomas and Arthur Shibley in Highbridge
| Park on the afternoon of January II.
Dennison has been confined several times
In insane asylums. The police believe he
Is also the man who shot John Fredericks
four times on the night Of January 8 on
the railroad bridge at 153d street. He
is about Twenty-Five years old and when
not In asylums has lived with his mother
at 152 East 12sth street.
Entry on the Blotter.
The entry on the blotter at police head
quarters. whence Dennison was removed
to the night court, read as follows:
Herbert Jerome Dennison. thirty-two
years old; occupation, magician; color,
white; born in United States Of America;
single; residence, No. 152 East 128th
person, in that on January IL he shot and
killed two boys in Highbridge Park. and
also that on January at Ii D. m, he
shot John Fredericks of No. ST. Gerard
avenue, on the viaduct between Mott and
Park avenues"
| Inspector McCafferty said last night
| that he had not the slightest doubt that
Dennfson was the armed lunatic who
| killed the Tomas and Shibley boys, shot
Fredericks and terrified children in Bronx
| Park. In his best days he was an expert
revolver shot. often giving stage exhi-
billions.
| The descriptions furnished to the police
by Foreman Casey of Hight,ridge Park,
by little Arthur SHIRLEY, who struggled
| for nine days against death but succumb-
| ed, and by others, of the man who had
been hanging around Highbridge Park
for a day or two before the shooting
tailed closely with the description given
! by John Fredericks of the man who had
shot four times at him without cause
In both cases the man wore long gray
coat and SLOUGH hat, had black. stub
by beard and leaned his head to one
side.
Effort at Disguise.
Efforts apparently had been made to
change Dennison's appearance by having
his hair and beard shaved off. Den
nison told McCafferty his mother had the
shaving done, but she denied it. The in
spector would not say afterward whether
the prisoner had admitted the shooting
1t is known that the mother defended
her son strenuously, and insisted that a
terri5,c mistake had been made. Casey
fdentitic.! - rnison positively as the man
he had seen hanging around the park on
the day before and the day Of the muir
der.
conference was held between McCaf-
ferty. Acting Capt. Price, in whose pre-
cinct the murder took place. and Capt.
Barnett of the Harlem branch detective
bureau Commissioner Baker told Nc
Cafferty something must be done to solve
the murders. District Attorney Whit
man was consulted by McCafferty yester-
day and advised the arrest of Dennison.
Barnetts men searched the vicinity of
the murder all yesterday morning, and
their efforts were rewarded by the dis
covery of the pistol. a 32-caliber
Hopkins & Allen revolver: which had
been buried in the snow. Three bullets
had been fired from 1t. This corresponds
with the number of shots fired BY the
man who killed Robbie Tomas and
Arthur Shibley.
Mother Makes Protest.
Their convictions strengthened by this
discovery. the police took Mrs. Dennison
with them to the asylum. Dennison was
mother by Detectives Gildea and La
garenne. The Dennisons were told they
must go to headquarters. The mother,
who Is slightly deformed, protested ear
u0bLIys OUT Tue pOlCCmcQ carried out their
instructions. Dennis0n himself took the
whole affair as q matter of course He
was still wearing a long gray coat when
he entered headquarters, and Fredericks
| was sent for at once to come down and
identify him.
Dennison. it is stated by the police, has
been musician. an actor and magician
by turns, all Of amateurish variety He
has acted strangely for several years. at
tracing the attention of the police as far
| back as 1895. He had several men ar
rested, in the belief that they were chas-
! ing him. He had q delusion that persons
| were insulting him by sticking out their
tongues at him. Normally intelligent, he
| would relapse into childish ideas when
| excited or disturbed.
His mother, a widow, was advised by
MAGISTRATE Peter 8. Barlow, a friend OF
| the family, to have the young man con-
fined in sanatorium. He was at River
crest for a while and then was removed
to an asylum in Connecticut. So greatly
did he improve, apparently, that his
mother brought him back to her home
January /. He stayed there for a few
days, but January he disappeared
What he did in the next few days is not
known, but he, or a man very like him
stepped up to John Fredericks on the
viaduct at $3.50 street the night of Janu.
/ airy s and fired four shots, standing sc
close that the flashes burned Frederick's
coat.
Fires as They Approach.
| -Four days afterward. as Robbie I.o-
| mas and Arthur Sbihley u,ero rI,,,s~.