New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-04-16
GIRL AUNT SAID
WAS DEAD LIVES,
SAYS BROTHER
Identification of Rockpile
Murder Victim Upset as
Mystery Deepens.
NIECE IN TROY
KNEW PRISONER
Declares She's Alive and the
Wife of w. n. Burns-Accused
Admits He Knew Her.

A remarkable development yesterday
/ in the case of the murdered girl whose
body was found on the Astor estate in
The Bronx last Saturday has left the
/ police bewildered.
Mrs. Christopher Carr. Of 2883 First
Avenue, had identified the body with
positiveness as that of her niece,
| Claudia Elizabeth Hansbury, of Troy,
/ n. Y. Then word came from Troy that
Claudia Hansbury was alive at her
/ home, II Hamilton Place, in Troy. Her
! brother and the Troy police declare
| there is no doubt that Claudia Eliza
] beth Hansbury-she is married, her
husband being William II. Burns-is
the person supposed to have been slain
here.
Not only does Mrs. Carr insist that
the victim was her niece, but Rafaello
Piciullo, the Bronx contractors fore
man charged with the murder of Jane
Doe" the temporary legal name given
I the murdered woman, declares he knew
the girl as Claudia. He says he didn't
know her last name. Mrs. Burns, in
Troy, says she knew Piciullo and that
he used to annoy her with his atten-
tions. That presents to the authorities
this amazing set of facts:
A girl dead and a girl living are de-
clared 70 be the same person. The
man charged with causing the death
OF the girl here is we'll known to the
girl living in Troy, whose name was
the same that he knew the dead girl
i by. A relative of the girl declares she
/ is dead. Another relative insists she
is alive and brings her TO Troy police
headquarters to prove it by her own
statements.
Aunt Makes Identification.
When Captain Arthur Wines Of the
fifth branch Of the Detective Bureau,
in The Bonx, resumed work on. the
cast. yesterday morning he felt certain
| that nothing but a few comparatively
| immaterial ends remained to be COW
cred. Mrs Carr had identified the
/ body in the Fordham Morgue as that
of her niece, Claudia Elizabeth Hans
bury. She said Claudia came here
from Lansingburgh. near Troy, nine
months ago. worked in laundries and
factories on the East Side, and for a
time lived with Mrs. Carr
IN a way not revealed by him, Cap
tain Wines had learned of an acquain-
tance between Claudia and Piciullo,
contractors foreman. living with his
wife and seven children at 655 East
iS9th Street. A fountain pen found
near the scene of the crime was iden-
tilted by one Of Piciullo's sons as the
property Of the foreman. So Piclullo
was arrested.
In his pocket was found a note, un-
signed but in a woman's handwriting,
asking for So. Mrs. Carr was men
toned in that note. Piciullo declared
that he hadn't seen the Claudia he knew
for several months. and that the note
was not of recent date. He refused at
that time this was on Wednesday
night to look at the body. Mrs. Carr,
brought into Piciullo's presence, identi-
fled him as the man she had warned
her niece not to associate with.
After that the case seemed simple
TO the police Yesterday morning Pici-
ullo, arraigned before Coroner Flynn
in the Bronx Coroner's Court, was held
without bail on a charge of murder.
Two hours later the situation was
turned upside down. Captain Wines
telephoned to Troy TO have some mem
Der Of the Hansbury family come 70
New York and make identification alb
solute. A detective visited the Hans
and. after he had announced his mis-
sion. went away with the understand
ing, which he communicated by tele-
phone to Captain Wines, that Thomas
Hansbury. a brother, would leave Troy
for New York on a train departing at
9 a. m.
An hour later the Troy police tele-
phoned that Thomas Hansbury wasn't
coming down here because his sister
was alive in Troy. Captain Wines then
flashed back that this couldn't be so,
for the murdered girl had been identi-
fed as Hansbury's sister.
Troy Girl Adds to Mystery.
Chief of Police Goerold Of Troy sent
a detective to find Iansbury and get
him to bring the girl he said was his
sister to Troy Police Headquarters.
About noon Hansbury, accompanied Dy
a young woman, who said she had been
Claudia Elizabeth Hansbury up TO early
last December. when she was married
in New York TO William II. Burns, OF
Brooklyn, appeared at Police Head
quarters. There she was questioned by
the chief and by Detectives Flanagan
and Mcguire. O.,
She said she was living at II Hamil-
ton Place, Troy; that she left Troy
last December and went TO live with
her aunt in New York, leaving her
aunt's home on December 6; that on
December she was married to Burns
and that she returned to Troy on Janu-
airy 4.
iT have not seen my aunt since De-
cember G." she said. 81 am living IN
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