The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1914-01-07
4 trunk MYSTERY
NEW YORK POLICE FACES PUZ-
ZLING MURDER CASE.
TRUNK CONTAINS corpse

Two Men Rent Push Cart in Which.
They Carry the Trunk, Dumriny
1t on the Sidewalk, While They
Walk Of, Ostensibly to Return for
it in a Few Minutes.
A murder mystery, which promises
to rival the famous barrel murder of
a dozen years ago, was brought to
the attention of the New York police
Monday when q boy notified them
that for half an hour he had watched
a trunk which two men had un!oaded
from a push cart and left in the gut
ter street, on the East Side. When
the trunk was opened at police sta
ton the still warm body Of man
about 40 years old, shabbily dressed
and emaciated, was found in it. The
body was later identified by Joseph
Molloy, former room mate as that
of John Kremen, Russian Pole, for
merly employed in coal mine at
Charleston, w. Va.
According to the coroner, death
had been caused by strangulation. In
forcing the body into the trunk, the
mans neck had been broken. Stout
ropes held the head and neck to the
knees and feet. A large bandanna
handkerchief had been used as gag
and a woman's petticoat had been
wrapped about the head.
About 10 O'Clock Monday morning,
Joseph Cooper, an employee Of a
push cart tables" on Sheriff street,
nearby, rented a cart to two men an
swering the description given by the
boy who called the police to Pitt
street. One of the men had asked
the boy to take care of the trunk
after it was dumped into the gutter.
Cooper said cne Of the men was
tall and well dressed. The other
man, a little shorter and dressed in a
| dark sweater and cap, wheeled the
| cart, and is believed to have been
merely the employee OF the well
dressed man. When the cart reached
Pitt street the tall man gave his COM
panion a coin and then helped him
unload the trunk. After this the man
in the sweater returned the push
cart to its owner, while the other
asked the street urchin to watch the
trunk.
BY drawing in the net of investiga-
ton begun Monday when the body
was found in trunk on the East
Side the police are confident the
identity of the murderers will be pos
itively established. This is the third
trunk murder mystery in four years
The two previous mysteries have re-
NAMED unsolved.
The police also hoped Tuesday to
gather in number of men answer
ing the description of the two who
dumped the trunk containing the
body from push cart onto the side
walk at the Pitt street tenement en-
trance. One of the men, evidently
the employer of his companion, was
tall and we'll dressed. He directed
the unloading of the trunk and EN-.
ployed a boy Of the neighborhood to
guard it, promising to return in a
few minutes The man who pushed
the cart wore dark sweater and cap
and is described as shorter than the
other man.
Both disappeared after disposine
of the trunk, the we'll dressed man
hurriedly, while the other trundled
the push cart down Pitt street and
later returned it to cart yard in the
vicinity from which it was rented.
To identify the body the police
placed it on view in police station
and more than 1000 residents of the
East Side-men and women-passed
by it before Mike Molloy, proprietor
of Polish boarding house, declared
that it was that Of John Kremen, a
former coal miner of Charleston, W.
Va, but more recently employed in
New York city by housewreckers and
as stableman.
Although Molloy was positive in
| ~ 5InrftEnof5nn cornro1
ters detectives were inclined to be-
lieve that he might have been mis-
taken and that the trunk victim
probably followed higher vocation
than that of laborer. Molloy's
statement was borne out in part by
the calloused hands of the dead man
and by his stature and muscular de
velopment that such work would
make possible.
The trunk, which was used to dis
pose of the body, was 90 inches wide,
% IA inches high and "a inches
long It was manufacturer, accord
long. It was manufactured, accord
ined it by the Petersburg Trunk and
Bag company Of Petersburg, Va. But
for the tin corners, which we're
slightly dented the trunk was COM
paratively new. The tray was miss
ing and detectives hunted for it Tues
day.
One of the unsolved trunk mys-
teries" was the murder of Moses
Sachs, jewelry peddler who was
killed June IS, 1910. Just a year be-
fore the murder of Sachs, Elsie Sic
gels body was found in trunk in a
room occupied by her Chinese Sun
day school pupil, Leong Lee, Chi
nese who disappeared, and was ac-
cused by the police as her slayer.
Another unsolved trunk mystery
was the murder of Meyer Weishard,
whose body was found in trunk on
Pier II. East river on January 16,