The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-09-25

IIOUl tnlS 1dCU FDIeQClnO
deduced and confirmed the primary
fact before referred to that the quar-
tette of murders were in all likelihood
a matter of private vengeance for finan
cial losses indicted. Yet this only com
plIcated the case, for the ramlfcations
of the various enterprises in which
Liveridge and his allies had been en-
gagged We're such as TO embrace the
whole country. Victims could be found
IN any corner of the United States.
Finney Valentine was never the man
to MT his facts to pet theory. Give
him a basis, clue, however slender,
on which to work, no man in his pro.
fesslon could construct a clevcrer super
structure of logical inference. But the
taxicab murders at first seemed abso-
lutely barren of evidence. either de.
scriptive, personal or tangible.
However, proceeding upon his own
axiom, that the criminal invariably
leaves behind some discriminating evil
denee. he stumbled upon one tiny clue.
This consisted of the third of a torn
postal card found on the floor of the
cab which figured in the Roker murder.
On the message side there were only
two words left, evidently the beginning
of lines. "meet' and "sure.H But
the address side bore the figures of a
street and number, "4S9 West 23d.
missing.
The fragment might have been tossed
on the floor of the taxi by one of half
dozen previous occupants; the New
York police apparently had "passed it
up as worthless. Not so Finney Val
entlne. Where all was blank even those
few blind words were like water in a
thirsty land.
Not the least puzzling details pertain,
ing TO the four widely separated crimes
was the fact that each victim had ap-
parently died natural death-one not
out of keeping with the age and the
personal habits of the victims The
most rigid autopsies had failed to dis.
cover any symptom that might not be
covered by the stereotyped "heart fail
ure' or apoplexy'; there were signs
of neither violence nor robbery; for all
evidence to the contrary, Liveridge and
Roker, Vandal and Mark might have
died peacefully in their beds But the
condolences were too many for all but
the most casual observer, Finney Val
entine believed that deliberate murder
had been committed in each case, and
proceeded accordingly.
His solitary clue was that bit of torn
postal card; YET before that he had
raked with a fine tooth comb the per
sonal acquantances and associates of
the four dead men. How many promis.
cuous thousands had been ruined
though their operations no man could
say. But one transaction Valentine did
unearth which seemed to promise re-
suits.
In going through the affairs of Philo
B. Liveridge he came across documents
relating to the foundation of n stock
company to float a certain electric de.
vice applicable to traction cars in which
the name of a certain Arthur Sarell ap.
peared as the inventor, dated some ten
years earlier. Later paners showed
that the company had been reorganized
and under the new order of things Sar-
ell s name did not appear, AS matter
of fact, the brains of the invention had
been frozen out by his associates.
This was clue number two, and bore
heavily in favor OF Valentines S theory
that the four murders had been the re.
suit of private vengeance for some busi-
ness wrong. 1t then remained to con.
meet the address on the torn postal with
the name Of Arthur Sarel.
To get line on 4S9 West 23d street
and It's inmates was such simple and
natural move that it was matter for
surprise that the regular police had not
done so long before; yet, OF course. thev
knew nothing Of the hidden affairs of
Philo B. Liveridge nor of Arthur Sar-