Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-10-31
cIRcUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE.
Mere Trifles That Hav. Led to the
Complete Expose of Murder.

| How accidents that have solved
crimes are legion. The experienced
detective recognizes aid often given
him by coincidence-by a mere trif1e
shat has led to the complete expose OF
a murder that would otherwise have
perhaps merged into the mists of the
past as an unsolved and forgotten
puzzle in the annals of crime. The old
saving that murder will out" cannot
be substantiated by statistical infor-
nation. No detective doubts that there
are hundreds of unsolved crimes right
in this generation that probably never
will be fully unraveled.
| On the other hand. records of Amer
lean courts show some remarkable
cases where the most insignificant ac-
tion on the part Of a guilty murderer
or thief led to his apprehension and
often to the gallows. Let us, for ex-
ample, take the case Of Andy 10th
who spent twenty years in the peni-
tentiary for the alleged murder Of a
fellow steel worker. 10th laughed be-
cause a fellow workman stumbled over
a cuspidor when they arraigned the
workmen in the office after the MUIR
der, and his fellow countryman was so
incensed that he pointed him out as
the murderer. And 10th was sent to
prison on circumstantial evidence.
How this Hungarian confessed to
the atrocity and how 10th was freed
has been told in the columns Of the
daily papers recently, but there are
| other tales more remarkable than this
We may assume a condition in which
no rule Of logic will apply-where the
police will be baffled and helpless. A
and B are enemies. Their mutual ac-
quaintances know of the bad blood
that exists on both sides. A decides
secretly to avenge himself on B to the
extent Of doing murder.
A knows BIS habits-what route he
takes from the suburban station home
what hour he generally arrives, and
departs, and how he conducts himself
generally Selecting a dark, stormy
night, A lies in wait for B, and sees a
form he believes to be his enemy pass
ing beneath the blurred radiance of an
arc light. AS the man approaches A
steps out from the dark and strikes
inficting a mortal wound on the 9TH
er's temple. The man is found dead
an hour later-and there Is no clew
to the crime. A walks miles before
boarding a street car and casts his
brass knuckles into the river.
The man murdered Is not B, but c.
with whom neither A nor B is ac-
quainted. No i'll feeling has ever ex-
listed between the two principals in the
crime-nobody has so much as seen A
leave the spot or arrive in the neigh
borhood. Every source Of reason ex-
hausts itself. A learns Of his error
later, carries his secret to the grave
and another unsolved mystery passes
into the criminal annals without a sim
gle ray of light to illuminate it.
! At other times the most trivial cir
cumstances point the finger of accusa-
tion directly at the guilty one, who has
been cautious in all things except the
one that has led to his undoing.
In Marathon county, Wis, some few
years back young girl was attacked
in the woods-and was found stran-
gled to death. A man named Fulweil-
er reported the finding of her body and
also stated that a few moments prior
he had seen two tramps hurrying
along the Chicago and Northwestern
railway tracks.
Numerous tramps were arrested and
held for examination. No evidence
could be worked up against them
and most Of them were permitted to &c
on their way.
Some of the residents of the wooded
vicinity, not reared in the detection OF
crime, noticed that the footprints OF
only one man could be found leading
to the spot and away from it. These
marks tailed exactly with the size OF
the foot Of Fulweiler, upon whom a
detective was put to work.
Getting his victim drunk, the detec-
tive kept awake while the other slept
and soon the suspect began to babble
telling of every horrible detail Of his
deed while talking in his sleep. He was
sentenced to a life term in Waupun.
Here the detective had a definite
record to work on and was employed
not to hunt the criminal, but to secure
confession from the one whom popu-
lar opinion held responsible for the
deed.
Had Fulweiler left the finding Of the
bo6y to others, it is questionable If a
case would have ever resulted against
him.
Some trivial instances have led to
the arrest, trial and conviction of men
and women against whom no suspicion
had ever been directed. Within we'll
defined circle police. officials can often
bring a guilty person to justice. The
arts and crafts of crookdom carry with
them the fine hand of perfection. The
neatness and dispatch with which a
Sate is DlOWn directs SuSplClOn lOWdl u
the only safe cracker capable of doing
so thorough a job. Drawn in by the
dragnet and put through inquisitorial
examination each known crook seeks
to save his neck by knowledge relative
to the special work under advisement.
In a strict sense this is detection Of
crime after the manner Of the thresh-
ing of wheat. The grain is separated
from the chaff and the net result is
abundant evidence against the guilty
person.
Beyond the pale of the 'methodical
comes that something else that defies
explanation, and which is best eX-
planned by the term coincidence" ."
And yet the law depends to a marked
degree upon this fortuitous culmina-
ton.
The reading public frequently ridi-
cules the plots of many novels and
short stories, designating them as
a,., onh h1 a