Daily Kennebec journal., 1913-12-08

tempted to hide the tracks of his deed,
by cremating the bodies? Had he
sprinkled the bodies with kerosene oil
and set fire to them? All these things
appear as circumstantial evidence
against young Eldridge.
He admitted being intoxicated, Sun
day night, and he had been seen or
heard, it was thought it was he. go
ing towards home that same night.
Attracted by the smoke neighbors
had extinguished the fire and found the
two bodies. where they lay on the floor,
the unkindled fire in the sitting room
stove, and the kerosene can beneath
the kitchen table.
On the kitchen stove was the Sunday
mornings breakfast of beans, ready
to be dished up. And within the black
ened walls of the sitting room lay the
dead body of the mother, blackened
and charred beyond recognition, where
the work of fieDd had slain her. On the
throats were marks, seemingly from
the fingers of a person who had chok-
ed her and might still be only freak
of the flames.
In the same room lay the body of
TIC l1AtlCit N1i1li Sle]DpCd W - e-4iNAS
rescuefs and carried to the open air,
in an attempt to revive him. only to
see ii was too late His head and
shoulders were blackened and his right
side burned and charred to crisp.
A slight bruise ran across his fore
head just above the eye, and evidently
where he had been struck by the man
who assaulted him.
Mrs. Eldridge had evidently been ly-
ing on couch in the sitting room
when she was attacked. The couch had
burned and fell through hole, burn
ed in the floor to the cellar. The walls
too, were charred and blackened.
Absence of a motive is the most
striking feature. The money under the
bed mattress, the ring and watch in
the drawer bespeaks that certainly
robbery was not the motive, for who
ever committed the crime must have
left quickly in the frenzy of horror
at what he had done.
Young Eldridge. who now stands
charged with the murder, has always
been wayward boy Perhaps the in
dulgent fondness of a mother and
father perhaps his own love for liquor
has caused the terrible blow to fall
upon the family.
He was married to girl by the
name of Whitney and she left him and
is now in a Massachusetts hospital
as nurse. He has attempted suicide
once while in Chelsea, Mass, and has
been arrested several times.
A eoroner's jury was impanelled on
the scene, and Sunday evening, viewed
the place of the crime. Those on the
jury are: r. Harry Spear, 7. l.. His
Geek, Warren H. Davis, Charles Tint,
Allen E. Wakefield and George r.
Wentworth foreman.
The coroner's inquest, under Coro-
ner Harvey E. Bates, will be held in
the Washington schoolhouse, at
o'clock, tomorrow.
Eldridge's seeming indifference as to
what became of him, his letters to his
mother-in-law and mother and the
rope, noosed and looped ready for his
neck, all point toward one conclusion,
that he intended to attempt suicide.
His attitude upon arrest, was not
that of a murderer, he seemed to
think he was again being arrested for
drunkenness. He calmly asked the
sheriff if he could smoke a cigarette,
and quietly joked with others in the
electric car.
AS he entered the Jail room to his
cell he carried a box of cigarettes,
for which he had asked the sheriff's
PERMISSION Il don't care" he eX-
claimed, while walking with the sher-
iff, 'it will not hurt me, only my folks
and my Wifes folks"
About his neck, attached to little
string he carried a picture of his wife,
to whom, this very day, he declared
he loved, as his letters to his mother
in-iaW showed. He seemed to know
little of the crime for which he is in
Jail. and cared less.
Time and again he declared, he was
simply discouraged and if he could
get away, he would make new start
and begin all over again.
He was closeted, little less than an
hour. after he arrived at the jail, with
William II Fisher, county attorney,
Sheriff Getchell and Coroner Bates.
County Attorney Fisher gave out
statement saying that Eldridge denied all
knowledge of the crime. and claims to
have been in Gardiner. today. He said
he didn't know anything about the muir
der until the county attorney told him.
He was not visibly affected at the news
Eldridgs - Q young man. fairly tall,