New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-04-13
Discovery on Thames Embank- :
ment InClineS London Police
to BELIEF That Memphis
Broker Was Murdered.
MONEY GONE FROM WALLET
Illiterate Workman Picked Up
Articles Week Ago and Knew
Nothing of Their Importance
-Neignborhood Infested
with Hooligans.
LBv cable TO The Tribune. !


London. April 13.-The police early
this morning announced that the
pocketbook and opera hat of Joseph
Wilberforce Martin. the' Memphis cot
ton broker. missing ten days. had been
found on the south side of the Embank-
ment near the Charins Cross railroad
bridge. George Barnes, a workman
who heard Of the mans Disappearance.
took 10 the police the articles men
toned, saying that he found them q.
$50 a. m. on April ,. thirty-six hours
after MIR. Martin was last Seen alive.
The pocketbook was ripped open aud
torn and no money was in it. 1t con-
tanned. however, passage ticket of ne
Cunard Line. visitin. cards bearing the
name of ]. w. Martin. Memphis, Tenn.
and others bearing the names of Gotten
brokers in London: a receipt for SO
from safe deposit company, a lard
Of T. Lockhart Anderson, at whose
house Martin was staying: a card with
the address Of a Pail Mall doctor and
card from the Savoy Hotel.
Barnes said that he picked UP the
battered opera hat ten yards from the
pocketboOk. He took both home, but
thought little of them. as he could not
read or write. and did not know what
the papers in the pocketbook meant.
He first thought again of the black
morocco wallet and the hat when some
one read him the Martin story last
night from newspaper. Previously his
wife had almost thrown the pocketbook
in the fire.
Seek Traces of Scutfe.
The workman was taken over the
scene Of the discovery early this morn
ing by two Scotland Yard detectives.
and a search was made for traces Of
scuffie in the mud. The neighborhoOd
Of Charing Cross Railroad bridge is
infested by a desperate gang of hooli-
gans and the police now are more in
,clined TO think that Martin. while wan
dering in a dazed condition. was as
saulted and robbed and the body
thrown over the Embankment than to
the suicide theory previous held.
The inspector of the Vine street po-
lice station said last night that he be-
lieved that Mr. Martin. while suffering
from a fit Of remorse, had thrown him
self into the Thames, and would never
be heard of again until the body was
washed up by the tide.
Il am confident the man threw him
self overheard" said the inspector 1T
is practically impossible TO be so long
missing in London otherwise. The only
motive Of the murder would have been
robbery, and nowadays hooligans don't
want 10 take a chance Of killing man
10 get his money and jewels. "-ey
would much rather use sandbag, but
if this had been the case, Martin long
since would have recovered and re-
turned 10 his friends. or if in dazed
condition. would have been found wan
dering the streets Identification would
be easy. as he had no clothes except
his evening dress. Besides full de-
scription is now scattered all through
London.
Hard to Conceal Body.
Il can't believe that he is still with
a woman, as a man Of his instincts
very probably would have tired Of her
days ago. If run down by bus he
would be in hospital; if shot. il would
be very hard TO conceal the body. l
think probably he jumped off the En-