The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-08-17
WHO KILLED HER?
ecOntinuea. from page ONE,

family, hopeless grief has occupied
them since the tragedy. As the sis
tiers moved about the house making
preparations for the funeral, when
association with the dead girl revived
some tender memory of her, they
| would stop to clasp one another and
weep. The younger brothers, Gus and
Albert, have passed the time in 81
lent, dry-eyed sorrow. Friends of the
family have flocked in to help and
| floral offerings, despite the scarcity
/ OF blossoms in late summer, have
been plentiful. for shipments from
florists in larger towns were ordered
by many when the local supply be-
came exhausted. The funeral con-
Quoted by the Rev. Ward Hartman,
| was attended by nearly 1000 per-
sons and large gathering assembled
at the cemetery.
The Murder Story.
To those in whom the detective in
stinct Is excited by criminal mystery,
the death of Bertha .Benignus offers
much to puzzle over. In picturing
ner death one sees the murderer emp.
tying the two-ounce vial of chloro-
FORM upon a handkerchief, pausing to
set the bottle gently on the dresser
and then deftly thrusting the folded
cloth across her mouth. The sleep
ing girl inhales the fumes and the
first deadening impulse is followed by
reaction in which she. perhaps still
more asleep than awake, tries to free
herself and gain the air which her
life demands
She tears at the strong hands and
the cloth which muffies her. The fin
gers of the murderer close tightly
around her face and his other hand
is underneath her neck in a hold
which leaves the dull prints of his
fingers on the skin. Both the girls
hands are pulling at the hand and
cloth and little of the burning LIQUID
is squeezed out against her face,
where 1t leaves a blister. Some of it
busters her finger tips. Finally her
struggles cease. The figure above her
bends and listens intently to her slack
enlng. heart-beats. He startles when
and the hands that have torn at his
relax He pulls the allow from be-
meath her head and presses it tightly
across her face and holds it there to
make assurance doubly sure. 1t is
not time to take the risk of her
awakening, for the struggle hitherto
has been noiseless one.
Possibly he intended only to smother
her while he ransacked her room.
w men her first struggle had quieted he
mad started to bind her hands and had
knotted his red bandana handkerchief
about the left wrist preparatory to
binding it to the right Then. possibly.
she had moved again and he had ap-
piled himself to the work of chlorofern-
ing anew and so effectively that death
had oVertaken her. 1t was no use now
to tie her hands, no use, even, to re-
move the handkerchief from about her
wrist
The left arm lies by her side, the
hand against the body. The right arm
he forces downward and leaves it
crooked flat in the bed and doubled so
that the hand is under the armpit
Carefully he draws up the bedspreads
and smooths out the evidence of 1t
struggle. The covering is drawn close
about the chin and the pillow is laid
squarely across the face, still excluding
all the air.
Could She Have Taken Own Life?
The vial still stood uncorked upon
the dresser in the morning when her
father entered.
81 looked at the bed when came in
said he. land it was so smooth that
1 thought she was not there When 1
looked again found her, and 1 hur-
ried to call the DOCTOR
After the arrival of DR. Steelsmith |
he looked once at the dead girl and |
perhaps to shield the family from what |
he supposed to have been her own
crime, told them she must have died |
from natural causes. Roy Shearer, |
the brother-in-law, had been tele- |
phoned in the meanwhile and he ar
rived at the Benignus home by O'clock |
Sunday morning. He was the next per-
son to examine the ROOM 1t was he |
who discovered the torn window screen |
and the evidences of murder.
Two windows, separated but few |
inches, opened from the girls bed |
room upon the roof of the front porch. /
Both we're screened. the frame which |
held the wire being fastened at the top |
by hinges to the window casing. A
small hook on the inner side made each !
secure. In one of these screens a small |
Init a m 6.
hand, had been cut. The wire had !
been cut on three sides of rectangle |
and the flap of screen pulled out, al |
though the cut edges of the screen were
bent inward as if cut from the out
side. On the roof outside was a large.
wire spike. Four or five rows of
shingles from window small object
glittered on the porch roof. Shearer
climbed out and found piece of knife
blade. He examined further and found
a burned match charred only as though
it had been permitted to flare up and
go out again. On the edge of the tin
gutter a bright place showed where the
paint had been rubbed lately.
The Telltale Note.
Shearer went down stairs and into
the front yard and in the wet grass
picked up a tightly folded note which
of the evidence up to the present time.
Written in English it had yet the look
of the writing of an individual accus-
toned to the use of some other script
than English. Badly spelled and faint
in places as though written with a
pencil broken so the wood instead of
the graphite pressed the paper at
times, it read:
my god men, killed herr fore christ
sacke take the poneys and meat me a
couple of blocks of here
To no one who read it then or after
ward does it mean anything which
helps clear the mystery. 1t was evil
IDENTIFY disguised for difficult words arc
correctly spelled while extra letters are
added to her and for
Two depressions. evidently where a
narrow ladder had been placed for the
ascent to the porch roof, were found
Just beyond the concrete walk which
runs around the front and south side
of the house. There was no such lad