Connecticut western news., 1915-11-18
BILLY COP BACK
Had Been Abducted to Dutcher's
 Bridge and Thrown Into River.

Had Been Abducted to Butchers
 Bridge and Thrown Into River.
 Billy-cop has come back, badly bat tered and with his head off and in' capacitated for immediate resumption of sentry duty, but he's back. He IS somewhat dazed, as yet, probably as result of having his head violently wrenched off his shoulders, and thus far has been unable to give any CO., herent accountiof his adventure.
 From his wandering testimony, how ever, and in view of the circumstances attending his return to partial con- sciousness and his return to town, it is gleaned that on that awful night, November 3, long after street traffic had ceased and most honest men were at home snoring the snore of the just. he was invited by friend to join his party for a midnight joy ride. Billy cop pleaded that he was too busy, it was too late. it was too early, he couldn't leave his job, he'd rather walk. he didn't like the looks of the rest of the party, he had a prior on. .gagement, and so forth, but none of his excuses would be accepted, and he finally gave in, and, whispering he would ne'er consent consented" He got into the auto, with little willing assistance, and the expedition started toward Salisbury.
 All went we'll until Dutcher's Bridge was reached, when the auto stopped, iand two of his companions laid violent hands upon Billy and proceeded to drag him off the machine. Billy struggled with might and main, but was over powered by superior numbers and borne, still kicking and fighting, to the railing ot the bridge, in the center of the structure, and deliberately thrown overheard, while the murder car and its band of midnight assassins drove off at lightning speed.
 That's all Billy remembered until last Sunday afternoon, when he came to, while the rescuing expedition con- ,sisting of Bert Brewer, Len. Caldwell, Frank Blass and Fred Brewer were trying to pour spoopju down his twisted throat at the spot where his head used to be. He was tenderly carried by lowing hands to the waiting auto, and after his head had been fislled up from the muddy depths, the party sped swiftly to the Brewer barn where Billy and hts head were comfortably dumped in corner to await further develop ments.
 The local Shylock Holmeses are piec. ing together their theories as to how the abduction outrage was carried out. The mystery might have remained a mystery forever but for the human equation thai enters into most anvster- ies to render their solution possible. The scrupulous zeal of the unscrupul- ous midnight assassins was the human equation agency that thwarted them. The one apparently trivial mistake that inevitably attends the bestlaid plans of eonspirators, to insure their feilure or discovery, was not absent from this billy-cop abduction. The abductors had too accurately calculated the center of the broad Housatonic river and had not reckoned on the fact thaG the exact center was the spot where the archi- teet of the bridge had planted the pier. But such was the case. The sequel showed that Billy-cop landed on the edge of the pier foundation, just under the surface of the water but nowhere near the river bottom. In striking, his head came violently in contact with a projecting timber, breaking his iron neck off and allowing the big dial to fall into the river and land on the river bottom.
 That was the situation up to Satur- day, when Martin Buckbee came driv- ing up, on the west side, to cross the bridge. AS he approached the struc- ture he thought he imagined he heard a sound exactly like the voice of a headless billy-cop under water, plain lively walling, "Keep to the rightr' He stopped, went to the end of the bridge, which commanded a view of the space underneath, and by shading his eyes and sharply peering at the pro. jecting foundation at the base of the pier, distinctly saw the decapitated form of poor Billy, sprawling on the edge of the stone ballast. He hastened to town and told the story of his dis covery, with the result that Billy was rescued, as related.