Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-09-09
SEIZE STERNEMANN
AS A WITNESS IN
MURDER MYSTERY
Clue Furnished by Newark Fac
tory Narr0ws Hunt Down TO
One Person.


Peter H. Sternemann, supposed to
be the father of the girl whose dis
membered body has been partly re-
covered from the Hudson river. was
arrested today and is held as wit
ness pending furthe investigation into
the murder. Sternemanri had written
many letters to the police declaring
that the victim is his daughter Ella.
Sternemann was arrested at his
boarding house, conducted by Mrs
Mathilda Weiss. There was bed in
one of the rooms, but il appeared that
Sternemann did not sleep in it. He
used a mattress on the floor. In he
other room fourteen bibles were
found.
Through clue furnished by the
Robinson -Roders Company, of this
city, the New York and New Jersey
police have narrowed down the hunt
for the murderer who skilfully cut up
his girl victim and sank her body in
the Hudson river less than ten days
ago. The clue was the information
that the local concern had sold TO
! George Sacks, a New York dry goods
storekeeper, the pillow-case in which
+ the lower part of the dismembered
( torso was found in the mud flats OF
/ Weehawken last Friday.
Sachs has his little secondhand
store at Eighth avenue and 141th
street. There was sold the pillow
with the fancy red and blue ticking
in which a portion of the slain girl $
body was found. a middle-aged
/ woman. stout and poorly dressed,
/ bought it last April
/ The hunt narrowed today to
I search for this middle-aged woman.
4 esls
questions a swarm of detectives set
] themselves to answer The pillow
was traced directly TO her, because
I the manufacturers had made but a
dozen of its kind, had sold that dozen
+ to Sachs, and Sachs had sold but two.
/ One of these was accounted for, the
other went to the woman sought Dy
detectives. The ten remaining pillows
| lie on Sachs's shelves.
Two Girls Missing.
The river had yielded today no fur
ther members of the victims body.
and identification was still guess
work. Until detectives find the head
or the woman who bought the pillow
Identification probably will be impos-
/ sible. Stories of girls missing from
home have gone by the dozen to the
New York district attorneys office
since the murder came to light. There
were two instances, however, in which
4 detectives were interested above all
others. One was the case of Ella
4 Sternemann, missing a year. whose
/ father is the author of several lnco-
herent letters sent to the morgue-
keeper and the district attorney.
Sternemann himself has disappeared,
and is sought to tell more of his con-
viction that the slain girl was his
daughter.
! The other case is that of Jeanette
Norman. a vaudeville actress, who
was employed at New York amuse-
ment park. She disappeared on
August 81. That is the date of the
newspaper wrapped about the second
portion of the torso. Indications that
the slain girl was an actress nave
caused the police to institute a gen
erai search for Miss Norman
Grounds for the belief that Miss
Norman and the dead girl are one
centres about marks on the shoulder
of the torso Miss Norman had com
planned that apparatus used in fht
vaudeville performance had bruised
her shoulder.
Practically the entire Manhattan
detective bureau has been put tc
work tracing the pillow. and develop
First Clue from Here.
Many hours of difficult searching
preceded the discovery of the first
really important clue obtained by tho
police. When the second part of the
woman's torso was dragged from the
1 water on the New Jersey side of the
river on Sunday, the odd figuring il
the pillow cloth suggested itself as &
possible clue. Attached to the pillow
was a small paper tag bearing tn,
name of the Robinson Roders Com.
pany, of Newark, n. ]. 1t bore alsC
the marking, Chicago Grade. siz'
2e-27.'
On the reverse side of the tag waI
the simple inscription 'S9.' 1t wa:
this additional mark that puzzled tn,
police. Early yesterday morning
however, the police came to Newark
with the tag and presented it t.
Cyrus H. Young, president o
the Robinson -Roders Company. Mr.
Young set practically everyone of tn,
FIRMS clerks to work in the effort L
develop TO whom the cloth had beer
sold
The task was easier than had beer
expected. The Chicago grade is al
| unusual one and class for which
there is not much sale 1t is very
| cheap. one of the cheapest of all ths
grades manufactured by the firm
Every sale made by the firm was
! traced until finally the records FOL
March were reached Then it was
! found that only twelve pillows oil
the feather variety over which tbs
covering was of this particular ma.
terial had been sold by the firm this
year.
| Detectives were hurried to ths
Eighth avenue store. Mr.. Sachs was
questioned for more than two hours
! He went over his records without
any success. Finally, however. hs
recalled the sale of one of the pillows