The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1912-07-08
FIND GIRL Of L
STABBED, DYING
Child Cut and Beaten in
Rooms Overlooking
Bronx Lot.
TWO ARRESTS ARE MADE
Julia COnnOrS Enticed and
Tortured Half a Block
From Home.
TWO ARRESTS ARE MADE
FEW CLUES TO GO UPON
Efforts to Revive Child Re.
wartlcd ut First. hut She En-
pircs Soon Aftprward.

julia Connors. q little girl who d1saps
pcarcd in daylight from one of the most
crowded streets in The Bronx last Sat-
on an ashheap in vacant lot half .
block from her home nt 1872 Third
avenue, naked. covered with stab
Wounds and dying.
Her life went out while men bent
over her irving desperately to revive
the child long enough for her to name
or describe the man who had cut her
80 savagcy.
At 1880 this morning detectives ar.
rested Giovanni Gressi. 80 years old, at
his home. 1899 Fulton avenue. The
lar next door to where the body Of
the murdered girl was found.
Gressi was taken to the fremont ave-
nuc station and confronted with Flor
ence Molz. the twelve year -old chum Of
the Connors girl, who had told detec-
tves story Of an Italian having taken
her and Julia to the cellar.
Florence positively identified Gressi
as the Italian and her story could not
be shaken. Gressi was held as a sus-
pect.
Half an hour earlier the police had
placed under arrest Jefferson Kelly. 81
years old. a piano tuner OF 741 East
2l7th street. Kelly had been examined
by the police all afternoon and evening.
Blood stains had been found on his coat
when he was taken into custody In the
Crotona Park woods opposite where the
girl was found
Florence Molz. who was taken into
custody at 2 o'clock. was held as a wit
ness
She told several stories. one Of them
was that she was with Julia until
o'clock Saturday night. They were
walking in Third avenue. she said. when
they met the Italian. She said he took
them into a coal cellar and there strip
ped off Julia's clothing and gagged her.
Florence said she ran away. She de-
scr!bed the Italian.
Coroner's Physician Riegelman was
sent for early this morning and he will
make an examination Of Florence. Some
Of her stories are almost unbelievable.
Frequently she told the police some-
thing and then remarked that she was
only bidding
Detectives put on the trail Who had
been searching every apartment house
along the two built up sides Of the
vacant lot from l72d street to l73d
street in Third avenue and from Third
avenue to Fulton avenue in 173d street.
found what they were looking for--the
house into which Julia had been en-
ticed and the apartment in which she
had been battered with fists and gashed
with n knife until her frail body was q
mass Of bruises and a network Of cuts.
The house is at 396s Third avenue.
the second from the southeast corner
of Third avenue and l73d street. On
the third floor. In an unoccupied apart
mcnt whose kitchen windows overlook
the rocky. treeless ground where the
little girls body was found, the de-
tectives found plain evidences Of a
maniacs crime.
The bathroom was spotted with blood.
The tub was REDEEMED. Some Of the
child's hair was there. adhering to the
tub or scattered on the floor. And
Lieut.. Wines picked up a braid comb
Of hard rubber which Julias mother
identified at once as the comb she had
done up her daughters hair with when
Julia started on Saturday afternoon to
go to confession at the Church Of Our
Lady Of Victory in Webster avenue.
No Clue In Apartment.
But there wasn't a thing In the bare
apartment that might be used as a
clue toward capturing the man or men
who had held the child prisoner
through the night while her parents and
their friends were running up and
down the streets calling Julia! julia"
or searching by lantern light every
inch OF CrotOna Park and the big vacant
lot. Whoever 1t was that persuaded
the child to enter the apartment
house and then tortured her with
knife until n stabwound In the heart
made death imminent. ran away before
dawn after putting the body In q small
box and carrying the box and Julis's
clothing to the vacant lot only a few
steps from the basement OF the house.
Twenty plain clothes men were work.
Ing as hard as they knew how last
night trying to find anything that would
point them in the right direction. They
believe that the murderer OF the twelve
year old girl was an Italian. a maniac
OF the kind whose tendencies are de.
scrlbed In medical books 1t was an
Italian. they think. because q stiletto
obviously was used. The weapon that
made forty-one stab wounds up and
down the child's body was two edged and
1t was difficult to imagine any other sort
Of knife having been used.
Relieve MurdsPer Insane.
That the murderer was insane Aftag