The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1912-10-10
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TIE P07HAH CENTER MuRDrR
The Clearing Up Of a Pu.zling Case

II you have been reading tGe daily
papers at all in the last two Year.
you already know something of the
Popham Center murder ccse. You
Rnow--for the reporters spent oceans
of words in telling ycu-that Herman
Bauder, the twelve year old son of q
millionaire florist at Popham Center,
Pennsylvania, was found dead On his
fathers lawn one jury evening with
his toy air rife by his side, and ab-
solutcly no trace Of Why or how he
met his death or Who was respcEsiola
for the dastardly decd Later it was
discovered that the boy had died from
suffocation, which further complicated
the mystery; for how he could have
succumbed in this fashion out there
. on the open lawn on a sumner even.
ing was inexplicahle More ilvesti-
cation Showed fiat be Ind been
choked. You know also bow h'7
father frantic with grief, had ragged.
placed his fortune at t.e disposal CT
anyone who could clear up the ny
stery, and how for woois tho press
rang with stories Of ere Of the n 51t
sensational man hunts in tho history
of detective annals in this country.
All This and moro you know if y-u
We're reading the papers at the tiI ,,
What you do not know, and what I
propose TO tell, is how the mystery
was cleared UP In almost as startling
o manner as that IN which the crime
had been committed. Startling to the
layman, that Is, for to Cluffer and my
self as operatives in the Burns De
tectiye Agency it came merely as
part of the days work, and to Ls IN
no way differed from scores OF cases
which we were assigned to clear UP in
order to earn our weekly salaries.
The Popham Center murder occur
red on q Monday evening, and Tues
day morning the papers were playing
UP The Popliam Center Mystery"
BY this name the case became known.
On the Thursday following the office
manager Of our agency sent word for
me to go in and see tho Chief. ChIf-
fer, another operative, a short, bow
legged and good hunorcd little Eng
lishman, already was in conference
with Burns. Cmffer was an old man
in the office; l had been detective
only a few months.
Cornell" said the Chief, we've
been retained to clear up that Pop
ham Center case over in Pennsyl-
vania The sheriff and the police
and the county detectives over there
are all up in the cir. They've already
arrested three negroes for doing the
Job 1t isn't likely that they've cot
the right man There ID a reward of
fve thousand dollars offered nv the
boys father. In addition to that. the
fathers lawyer has retained 10 by
wire Now, you and Clutter 20 over
TO Popham Center and clear that
thing up"
had been reading. tho newspaper
accounts Of the murder ard had boon
impressed by the apparently ipsur-
mount95le difficulties that lay in a So
luton Of the case. 1t seemed mighty
cool of the Chief to order us to run
over and clear it mp, bat that is the
way the modern high class detective
agency works. Crime and the dis.
coyery Of it's perpetrators are only
matters Of business, and the hf~n
class agency hsndies thcr, exactty as
another kind Of hufiness Office hand.
les IN order for goods
Have you any theory you want us
to work on?" asked.
Eyes" said the Chief. IT'S 9 ro,,.
berry crime, sure. The I'D must have
got hold Of some money or yalnables
and somebody must have put him out
of the way to get them. That's the
way these crimes most always shane
up. I've listed two hundred of them.
and petty robbery has heen the motive
in 100 cases. don't know the situa.
ton over there, but that's the idea
/ want you to base your work Oh
until you find that I'm wrong, IL I
am wrong II the thing looks very
involved after you've been there three
or four days, let ne know by wire"
That was all. Clutter and cashed
an order for expense money, packed
our grips, ard within two Hours were
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