The Washington herald., 1911-11-19

boxer Of renown. and a member Of va
rious athletic clubs. He was more than
| a match for an ordinary assailant, even
| though the latter was armed with
wrench. Thus, II the first blow had not
| absolutely knocked him unconscious, the
ensuing uproar would have brought
dozen persons, who were only few feet
away, to the scene. The first blow laid
Mickle helpless at the feet of his as
saildnt; the other blows were delivered
with a savage malignity that could
only be caused by a cold-blooded deter
mtnation to get revenge on the part of
some individual of an almost animal
nature. Thus they reach the half-witted
colored man who quareled with Mickle
This is the brothers story Of the quar-
rel:
My brother william-Billy every one
called him-was the best-natured fellow
| in the world. He was always giving
| away bits of broken cigars, money, and
cigarettes to the colored men who visited
his shop, and many OF them took ad-
vantage of 1t. One of them was an old
| fellow who used to frequent the place.
Demanded Some Cigars.
This fellow came in one day and de-
manded some cigars. My brother re-
fused to let him have them. He gruffiyj
! complained that he wasn't in the habit
| of being refused and afterward left the
store. Later he returned with an order
| from another man and obtained the
! cigars.
There was another quarrel after that.
! Neither of the alterations seemed Sc
| rious at the time. My brother used to
| laugh at them. He would tell how the
| old man came into his store and taunted
him. What these arguments aroused in
| the mind of the colored man I do not
know"
The police agree that II this is the
case, Nickel probably had bought the
weapon with which he was killed and 1t
was lying in his back room when the
second man came in. There has been no
evidence yet that the tobacconist did not
buy the wrench
There are many flaws in this course
of reasoning. noticeably the one offered
by the family, that Mickle was muir
dered for money and not through the
continuation of some quarrel The dead
mans brother and wife are consistent
ly confident that he could not have been
killed by a man who sought his life for
revenge
With the destruction of this line of
Investigation, the policies till seek the
small, slenderly built man wearing a
black overcoat, black derby, and hav-
ing a small black mustache, who col
lided with a resident OF the neighbor-
hood at Seventh street and New York
avenue within a few minutes after the
murder had been committed.
Hurrying for Car.
The police have the name of the man
who ran into the stranger. but they are
Withholding it. The former is a SUBJ
stantial business man of this city. He
states that he was hurrying for a car
when the stranger ran toward him, and,
after collidlng, apOlogized. and turned
westward in New York avenue. He
watched the man, attracted by his heavy
breathing and evident excitement, and
saw him enter a public comfort station.
This is the same man who was seen by
the man in charge of the station TO
change a collar hurriedly and go out.
Where this man disappeared to the po-
lice cannot learn. Nobody in the neigh
borhood knows him. He did not enter
Mickle's cigar store on the day OF the
murder or during the week preceding,
according to those OF the dead mans
friends who we're present from time TO
time.
DESTROYS of learning whether he had
left Washington for Baltimore the po-
lice examined the conductors reports on
the Baltimore, Washington and Annapo-
would most probably have taken. car
passed fifteen minutes after he was seen
to enter the public comfort station, but
he did not board it. The records show
that no passenger climbed aboard until
after the car had reached Fifteenth
street northeast. Nor did he take any
of the succeeding cars.
Fourteen detectives are now making
every effort to learn where. this man
ha 1-ifIn
taChe," they call him, and they more
than half believe he can tell something.
Not Seen by King.
Strangely enough, the man named King, !
who saw Mickle at $780, only a few min |
utes before the murder was committed, |
saw no such man as the one described |
when he walked down toward New York |
avenue. If the black-clad stranger came !
to the store by the way he left, King |
could not have missed him. King dis |
tinctly remembers that he stood at the |
corner of New York avenue for a few |
minutes and saw no one remotely resem-
bling the man who fed so soon after |
the murder had been done.
The rumor of the card games and the |
attack for revenge after a heavy losing |
keeps cropping up despite the bitter de-
malls Of Mickle's friends, who declare !
it is false and unjust statement of the |
truth. From various sources has come
the story of different little games" in |
which the dead man participated and of
and losings not easily accounted
for. Furthermore, it is known that the
dead man constantly banked $40 every
other day, besides carrying large roll |
of bills with him on all occasions.
Efforts OF detectives to locate the place
where the monkey wrench was purchased
proved useless yesterday, and after an
all-day attempt to identify the package
by the peculiar brown paper wrapping
the Central Office men were compelled to
give up. They admitted last night that
they had no hope at present that their
main conclusions had not been borne
put. and that the future must bring
forth something more certain than the
past before they could see light in the
ease. \
Funeral services will be held at 2 o'clock
Tomorrow afternoon from the home
under Masonic and Maccabee auspices.
Rev. Samuel H. Greene, pastor of CAL
vary Baptist Church, will oficiate. In
terment will be in Glenwood Cemetery.
The pallbearers have not been chosen.