New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-03-21
CLEWSN MURDER
POINTTOFRIEND'
AS CHILD SLAYER
Police Hunt Narrowing to
House Where Girl
Was Killed.
SAY RIPPER" KNEW
AND LURED VICTIM
Candy May Aid Detectives In
Search-Penknife Used to
Slash Little One.


One man already is under espionage
credited with too much knowledge of
Leonore Cohn's brutal murder. With
no tangible lead, with not even a
fingerprint to work on, detectives have
already formed theories that narrow
their suspicious. They hunted yester-
day through the house at $50 Third
Avenue, where the fve-year-old girl
was found slashed to death Friday
night. They went over it with mental
microscope. True, they combed the
haunts of men vile enough to have
been the murderer. But always the
search seemed to close in on the vicin-
ity of the crime.
The idea that the crime was an in
side job, committed by some one who
knew little "Smarty" Cohn well, was
shared, too, by many of the people in
the house. Henry Eckers, the child's
uncle, said last night:
Lured by Acquaintance.
"The man who killed her knew her.
She wouldn't have let any stranger
pick her up. She wouldn't have let him
touch her. She'd have screamed so loud
everybody in the house would have
heard her"
Commissioner Woods took personal
charge Of the case as soon us he ap-
peared at Police Headnuarters in the
morning. He Immediately took the
levers that control the wheels of police
machinery, and by Q o'clock fifty crack
men of the detective service were try
ing to find a way TO run the quarry 20
earth.
A squad hurried to the Third Ave
nue. house. and took up the work al
ready started by the men from the
Second Branch Detective Bureau. With
electric flashlights they examined
every foot of the stairs and Railways.
They swarmed up ladders to look on
top of closets. They climbed the steps
of one house 20 clamher dOwr the
scuttles # others. They interviewed
each ard every one in the double tene-
ment house, verified the stories told
the night before, and took down addi'
tional statements.
Miss Mollie Ecker was the one who
sent the child out to get the milk-ar
errand from which she never returned
alive. Leonore had not been in the
Cohn fiat TO dinner. She had some
close friends. named Savarese, who
lived in the south part of the house --
352. The Coins and the Savareses
were so friendly they had a plank
stretched from window to window
across the air shaft at the back OF
the house. Leonore went over TO dine
with the Savareses. After she came
back, she wanted some milk-and the
animal crackers the milkman always
gave her as a little present.
Child on Fatal Errand.
She started out swinging a big three
quart, granite ware pail on her way to
the bakery downstairs. Because she
was so small her family had told her 20
20 to this bakery rather than TO their
own milkman, block away and across
the car tracks.
Miss Julia Cadis, the cashier in the
bakery, saw "Smarty' come in, and
spoke to the little one. Leonore was a
frequent and always cheerful caller, and
everybody liked her friendly manner.
When Miss Cadis informed the child
the only milk the bakery had was bot
tied Leonore said, "All right. Thank
YOU" very prettily, and went out. She
turned to smile at Miss Cadis, and the
cashier says she looked past the girl
and saw a man standing outside the
glass door.
The little girl went back upstairs to
ask if she could go to Reisen's, at 3l9
East Twenty-sixth Street, where the
Cohn family has a charge account.
you can't go across the tracks
alone" some one said to her.
Clew in Last Words.
"Oh. I'll get somebody to help me-
she confidently replied.
She never returned alive.
One of the persons that saw her last
was Mrs. Helen Spengler. who, with her
husband, conducts the Argus Clipping
Bureau. Mrs. Spengler says her own
children, Hildegarde and Albert, were
in the hall, and were making so much
noise she went out to stop them. Just
then, she says, she saw "Smarty" going
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