Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1914-01-15
TRUNK MURDERS
BATTLE POLICE

New York, Jan. 14.-Three weeks ago
today a murder was committed in New
York and another added to the list of
so-called trunk mysteries that have sci.
dom failed to BATTLE the detective talent
Of the metropolitan force. To all appear.
ances the murder was of a most ordinary
character, as such crimes run. Yet three
weeks have passed without the authori-
ties being able to find the slightest clue
to the perpetrator Of the deed. Even
the identity of the victim has not been
satisfactorily established. The precise
manner in which the murder was accom-
pllshed also is in dispute.
The new heads of the police depart
ment are hard at work on the case and
it Is possible that in the course of time
the mystery may be solved. Yet. if the
person or persons who committed the
murder Of December 20 and placed the
body Of the victim in a trunk aid dump.
ed it in the gutter On Pitt Street, on the
East Side, are apprehended and convicted
something Of a precedent will lave been
established in the record of New York's
famous trunk murders.
Many persons are inclined to believe
that this latest murder is likely in the
end to stand with the other four unsolv-
ed trunk murders that have occurred in
the metropolis in recent years-the East
River pier trunk mystery. the murder of
Father kaspar, the Armenian priest;
the killing Of Elsie Siegel, and Of Moses
Sachs, the jeweler.
The East River pier trunk mystery
happened fourteen years ago this month.
Mayer Weissbard, an aged itincrant deal.
err in jewelry, was the victim. We!ssbard
was lured into an East Side tenement,
it was reasoned but never proved, and
was there beaten to death. His body
in q small, old, rusty hinged green trunk
was found on the s%tringpiece of one Of
the East River piers. He had ben robb-
ed Of all money and valuables. No solu.
tior. or anything approaching q solution
Of this mystery was ever made by the
police and the murderer is still at large.
The mystery of the murder Of Father
kaspar in February, 1907, still stands.
His body was found in q trunk left in
a'lodging house in West Thirty.seventh
Street. Two men had hired rooms there,
and after they had given up the apart
ments 1t was discovered they had left
a trunk behind. AS in this latest murder
mystery, the victim had not been stab.
bed or shoe or wounded in any way The
autopsy showed that he had been thrust
into the trunk while alive. The suppose
ton is he was drugged, forced into the
trunk and the lid clamped and securely
crime was supposed to be robbery, al
though the priest "a a Door man, de-
pending for support on the small cash
donations of the Armenians in this city
and vicinity, to whom he ministered.
The Elsie Siegel murder, which occur.
red in June, 1909, is still fresh in the pub
lie mind. Her body was found in a trunk
The young woman, a granddaughter of
Gen. Franz Sieger Of civil war fame, had
gone into missionary work in Chinatown
and ended by having several romances
with her pupils. William Leon, a Chris
TANNED ~Chinaman, to whom she was re-
ported, engaged, disappeared, and the pol
ice have never been able to find him.
though alleged clues to his whereabouts
have been reported from time to time
In Texas, California and other parts OF
the country. The evidence pointed to
Leon rs the murderer, chiefly because
he was known to have been an intimate
Of the murdered girl and had occupied
the room in which her body was found
The supposition is that the pair quarrel
ed because Miss Siegel had received at,
%tentions from an aged and wealthy resi-.
dent Of Chinatown and that the younger