New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-03-20
GIRL OF 5 YEARS
SLAIN BY FIENDS
ON HOME STAIRS
She Smiles to Friend and
Few Minutes Later Is
Found ButChered.
FAINT CRY ROUSES
THIRD AVE. TENEMENT
Milk She Had Been For Stood
Near Body and Candy Was
Still in Child's Hand.

Trotting up the stairs OF her home at
352 Third Avenue last night, Leonore
Cohcr, Gye-ycar- old pct OF the tcne-
ment, shot rogush glance through the
railing at a neighbor Chuckling with
glee, the little girl held up first the
bottle of milk for which she had been
sent and then the bag Of candy which
was the reward.
Fifteen minutes later her body,
I slashed and lifeless, was found on the
opposite side of the house. Beside it
stood the bottle of milk, not a drop
spilled. Near by was the bag Of candy,
its neck still twisted into the slender
grip Leonore's fingers had made.
Nothing remained to betray the mur-
derer HIS hands and garments still
stained, he must have been within
hearing of the shrieks that resounded
when Miss Augusta Johnson stumbled
over his victim. The stairs were as
clean as the janitor's broom could make
them. No knife was found. Detectives
picked up a piece Of cord, TO which a
few hairs were clinging, and took it TO
the station house IN hope that micro
scopic examination might make some
thing Of IT.
Leonore lived on the third floor. Her
mother. Mrs. Emma Cohen, Is trained
nurse and much away from home. Mrs.
Z I nd hot
husband, Henry Ecker, look after
things when she is away. Early last
evening Mrs. Ecker asked Leonorc TO
go to the bakers after milk. A penny
always accompanied such a request, and
, LeOnore, as usual, was eager.
No milk was to be had at the baker s
AMI she returned to ask If she might
20 to the grocer's. Getting the permls-
sion, she skipped down the stairs.
Above the first floor there are two
sets of stairs at 352 Third Avenue
one to the right and one to the left of
the single stairway that leads TO the
street. Leonore got back to within
three steps Of the top of the --seeon1 ]
fight on the right--the side where her
home is. It was there that Mrs. Helena
Spengler, who lives on the second floor,
saw her at 7 o'clock.
Fifteen minutes later Miss Augusta
Johnson, whose home is on the second
floor on the other stairway, heard a
little cry. She opened her door and,
seeing nothing, stepped into the hall.
Leon0re's body tripped her.
Her screams aroused the house. The
child had been a general favorite. She
attended the kindergarten of Public
School Il, in East Twenty-eighth
Street. and had a nod and smile for
ali her neighbors on her way TO and
from school. Her playmates called her
"Smarty." and the nickname was quick
on the tongues Of every one in the
house. She was pretty and had dark
hair and eyes.
Mrs. Ecker was incredulous when the
news first reached her. II was but a
few minutes since she had seen her
niece. The child never used the stair
way on the east side of the building.
/ Mrs. Cohen was in the Office OF DR..
A. Herzlich, of 260 West Seventy-sec-
ond Street. DR.. Herzlic. brought her
to the house in his automobile.
Detectives Talt and Moore searched
the premises and the neighborhood in
vaint hunt for some trace OF Leon
ores assailant. 1t med impossible
that in that busy part of the East side
he could have vanished, marked as he
must have been. No one could be
found who had sec h'm.
His knife he had carried away with
him. The piece OF cord picked up
might have been lying there for days
The police were left confronting the
problem that some one had lured or
forced the girl back froM tn ; stairs
she had almost ascended to different
part of the house and had there
slashed her with keen edged knife.
Continued on page 3. column