The Washington herald., 1911-12-13
MYSTERY In DEATH
OF SINGER BY GAS
Woman Companion Is Found
Unconscious Near By.
GIRL OWNED MUCH PROPERTY
Furniture in PhIIadeIphia Flat In
Costly, but Dust-covered - All
Antecedents OF, the Girl Are I'm
knOwn-CoIOred Woman Some
times Called Her Mother.

Philadelphia, Dec. u.-While eighteen
year-old Mary Teresa Harman. owner of
Baltimore property, yet singer In
moving picture show, lies dead at the
morgue, her colored half-housekeeper,
half-mother, Louisa Harman, is uncon-
scious in the Hahnemann Hospital to-
day, dying so rapidly that police fear
she will never be able to solve the mys-
terry of how. she and her charge suffered
gas asphyxiation in the house at 2l0
North Fifteenth street, when all the jets
were turned OF.
Not a trace of gas was found in the
little home last night when Sergt. Greg
ory and Policemen Weir and West
smashed down a bedroom door and
found the girl dead on bed and her
companion unconscious on the floor be-
side her, their mouths covered with froth
and half-dried blood.
According to physicians, they bear all
the symptoms OF gas asphyxiation, yet an
uncovered oil lamp burned on the bureau
beside the bed, making an explosion GER
tain II gas had filled the room.
Every step taken by the police dlscloses
some additional mystery. Louisa Harman
aged about forty years, was undoubtedly
colored. Her charge bore her name, but
her race has not been determined. She
was barely five feet tall, yet weighed 235
pounds, so that five policemen were nee
essary to lift her body into the patrol
that took her to the mOrgue.
They lived over butcher shop in mag
nihcent squalor, their furniture being Of
the best, the appointments fine, but dirt
covered everything. In some of the rooms
a broom apparently had never been used;
the bed upon which the girl died was
dirty. but had cost much; the clothing of
woman and girl was fine, but in need of
Nra ~hn i'll rIf HaH
pianist. Although deeds to Baltimore
property were found under dust-covered
papers in a corner of the room, she work
ed until Saturday in a moving picture
parlor on Chelton avenue, Germantown,
and her last weeks wages were found
under the carpet near the bed. She was
discharged Saturday.
Girl Popular in NeIEhbOrhOOd.
In the neighborhood the girl was pop
ular. although once she had complained
to the police OF the Fifteenth and Vine
streets station house that small boys were
making fun OF her because of her stout
ness. She was a striking and unusual
figure, dressing with an extravaganza
that attracted attention. Many stories
were afioat about her. She told neigh
bOrs that the colored woman with her
was her caretaker and that her own
mother was in Colorado. Her sallow COM
plexion and the rumors of vast wealth
stories in which she figured as the child
OF rich, aristocratic Southerners.
Because OF all this people living near by
marked her comings and goings with in
terest. When she failed to appear last
night, Mrs. J. Ford, of 219 North
Fifteenth street, and Mrs. NJ. Scott. Of
2l3 North Thirteenth street. notified
the police. They could give no reason for
their misgivings, but they both felt
that something was wrong.
Neil and Thomas McNamee were in
duced by the police to climb the iron pole
in front of the butcher shop, walk across
the awning, and go through the window.
They then let the policemen in. Led by
Sergt. Gregory. the exploring party
went through the house. A dog barked
from a closed room and two canaries
twittered. From beneath the door that
barred entrance to the second-story rear
room came a thin beam of light. Gregory
grasped the handle OF the door and called
loudly. When no response came he put
his shoulder to the door and crashed
into the room.
The Bodies Found,
In her disordered night clothes lay
Mary Teresa Harmon, dead. but unmark-
.. save by the crusted bubbles about
r mouth and the two streaks OF dried
ood that had trickled to her chin. On
The floor, head upon pillow, was the
housekeeper. Blood had stained her dark
ace but there was no sign of bruise
or blow upon her.
Through long experience with Ten
derloin suicides Sergt. Gregory diagnosed
the case as asphyXiation. Then he sniffed
the air, even as he helped the men carry
the women out, for he could detect no
taint or odor. After the hospital was
reached he returned to the house and
tried the gas Jets Every one was turned
off and the oil lamp burned quietly on
the bureau.
Although the room was in a slovenly
disorder there were no signs of a struggle.
The girl had died quietly, but her more
vigorous companion had resisted longer.
The police proved to their own satisfac-
ton that the victims could not have been
carried into the house and left to die.
as Mary Harman weighed so much that
the neighborhood would have been
aroused.
But the police and coroner's detectives,
who were quickly assigned to the case,
pointed out that they could not have
died from gas in a room where there
Rad been no gas. They quickly discarded
the theory that 1t might be possible for
some one who wished to murder the
women to drug them as he chatted with
them, turned on the gas, and secreted
himself until he felt that they were dead,
n>1 A. "a 6sA