The Green Forest tribune., 1912-10-04

My first business was to take s look at the dead crook. I knew many of them, but had never seen him before. He was sturdily built fellow above the average height, wore good clothes, and had black mustacle and dark, curly hair. Rochot claimed the credit of killing him, and said he was the man who carried the candle. looked instinctively at the fellows clothing, to see where he had been hit. l could not find any blood marks on his head or shirt near any vital part. did not think this was strange at the time. and I went upstairs to look through the house for clues.
 "A rope ladder had been left hang ing from the roof of the back stoop. Some scratches on the paint showed that the thieves had forced the bath room window after reaching the roof. This was only the sort of work that tip-top crooks deal in. The method of bursting the safe also indicated that there were some genuine bank opera tors in the gang. The drag, which is the most powerful tool used by bur glars, had forced the back out of the safe as if it had been made by paper. The crooks were rewarded by getting S90,00O in money, securities and jewel ry. They had left nothing but the dead crook as clue to their identity.
 His body was taken to the Morgue. Every detective in the city took a peep at him, but no one remembered having seen him before. This was ex- plained later by the fact that he had just finished serving a twenty years sentence, which meant, with good time" twelve years and six months in Connecticut prison. The usual form of inquest was held upon the body.
 Then came a startling piece of in- formation. Deputy Coroner Boldte, who made the examination of the body was unable to certify the cause of death. The police had reported that the thief had been shot, but there was no sign of bullet or any other wound in any part of his body.
 No autopsy had been held, and one was immediately ordered. The organs were found to be in perfectly healthy state. The only abnormal condition was a small clot of blood near the heart. The surgeons, after long hunt to find where this came from, found puncture in the heart so min- ute, that it could hardly be detected by the naked eye. Cores bonding to this was an opening through the chest over the heart, so small that not @ drop of blood had escaped from 1t. The hole that closed when the instru. ment which made it was withdrawn, and all the external evidence was little red spot not much bigger than pin point
 "Dr. Boldte's opinion was that the wound had been made by what is known as the needle stiletto, weap- on much used by the Cammora of Si- cicily. He had never seen one or heard of one being used in this coun. try.
 "Who killed the thief?
 The mystery aroused public inter- est. A large crowd attended the in- quest. Among the spectators was & woman. She sat in a secluded place and paid deep attention to the testi- m9ny. No one had claimed the dead mans body. 1 studied all the facess carefully. I saw this woman wipe a tear from her cheek when the Jury brought in verdict that the thief had been killed by an unknown person. followed her from the coroner's of- flee, and spoke to her when we got out of the crowd.
 q asked her what interest she had in the dead man. She parried my questions for a while and wept worked upon her sympathies so well that she finally admitted that the man was Billy Reilly, her husband
 "The ice was broken. She said that when Reilly was in jail she had talk en up with Bill Hendricks, an English crook. When Reilly's term was ended she deserted Hendricks and returned to her husband. This made Hendricks insanely jealous.
 "She attended the inquest to find out how her husband was killed, if he had not been shot. She knew immediate ly that Hendricks had put Reilly out of the way, because he had a needle stiletto.
 "She told me where Hendricks was, and gave me the names of the crooks who rohhad Pocb0t HapdricEc IIaarp ed, had skipped, after following Mrs Reilly to the coroner's office, but caught Pendergast, Mccormick, Mack and Moses. and recovered large DOT. tion of the stolen goods. Old Rochot buried Reilly and gave his wife a re- ward"