New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-01-15
WOMAN RECLUSE DEAD
IN D0G-F|LLED FLAT
Starving Animals VlClousIy At
tack Policeman Who Makes
the Discovery.
NOT SEEN SINCE SATURDAY
Much Jewelry and Silverware
Found Hidden in Strange
Parts of Room-Birds
Dead in Cages.

Dead in Harlem room. with pack
of yelping, half-starved Pekinese ter
riers, a turtle and a lifeless canary ana
parrot, Mrs. Fannie Luff, a reclusc'
was found last night by neighbors WHO
had not seen her since Saturday even
ing. II is believed she fell dead from
heart disease soon after she went on
Saturday to the roof of the apartment
house with her dogs-her children
she called them.
Beneath the carpet, and behind the
head of the bed and in other hooks was
found jewelry and silver plate tor the
table. Most of il had never been USED,
the police say, and it is certain That
Mrs. Luff never wore any Of the gems
into the street. Her rusty black clothes
we're too plain for any jewelry to nave
been worn without the neighors see
ing it.
The woman, who was fifty years DID,
kept to herself wellnigh all the time
and was devoted to her children. On
Saturday night she had been out shop
ping. and when she got home she sug-
gested to julius stetzyezkewsky, the
tanitor, that he take her check for the
rent, due that day.
ooh, never mind, Mrs. Luff," he said.
Its so late now. Let it go until next
week."
She toiled up the stairs Of the house.
which was at No. 90 West l23d street,
and went into her own fiat. y little
while afterward she went TO the ROOF
with her little dogs and watched them
as they romped about That was the
last time any one saw her alive, so
far as is known.
The janitor remarked about IT once,
but it was not until yesterday, late IN
the afternoon, that Mrs. Clayton
Slaughter. who lives across the hall
from the Luff fiat, complained that the
dogs were making terrible racket.
The janitor called I'm the agent OF the
house. Morris Hulfelder, OF No. 30
Franklin street, and they tried to get
into the apartment through the door.
II was locked, and there was no answer
to their knocks. Then they called in
patrolman.
This policeman. James Turbridy. of
the Lenox avenue station, and the jan
itor went to an adjoining apartment
and stepped from the window 10 Mrs.
Luff's bathroom window. They raised
this, but inside was the yelpinG pack of
dogs. seemingly so savage and so Wild
that the men finally went around to a
fire escape and pried open the window
TO the front room. The dogs rushed up
10 them, but were beaten back. and
then the janitor stumbled over the lit
ter and trash and lighted gas jet.
Mrs. Luff lay face downward beside
her bed, the covers trailing over her
as if she had caught at them in an at
tempt to climb back to the couch. The
canary and the parrot were stiff and
cold in their cages. only the dogs
raced about, and the turtle still swan
serenely in his aquarium, nosing the
glass peacefully and peering out at the
weird scene.
The dogs had turned the apartment
into a wreck. Chairs lay upturned, a
portiere torn from an arch was in a
heap in a corner. The pantry was in
confusion. for the Pekings had clawed
at the cupboards and thrown down
tins and pans In an effort TO find food
Lamb chop bones and the frame Of a
turkey were strewn about the place.
In one room .itood half dozen great
packing boxes, unopened since the &c
centric woman moved into the fiat, in
April. She had not furnished any
thing except the bedroom and parlor
i'm all the eight rooms she rented.
Neighbors said the woman bought the
most expensive food for her children"
Last Saturday night she purchased sew
eral pounds OF choice cuts for the Sun
day dinner. Part of this was for some
cats she owned. These had disappeared
from the fat when she was found.
When the policemen tried her door they
found three pounds Of meat wrapped up
in paper lying in the hall.
Agents from the Society for the Pre-