New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-04-06
Lone Burglar Hid in Res
taurant Cellar Fled AT
ter Robbing Sarv.
OWNER AND HELP
FOUND DEAD BY WIFE
Peculiar Features of the Crime
Lead Police to Belief
Arrest Is Near.

To effect robbery which. IN the eno'
Melted only 500. a masked burglar
murdered three men with hatchet
carly Yesterday morning in the cellar OF
IS Third Avenue.
Though the slayer escaped, circum-
stances which the police refuse to de-
.ail for publication. oppose his chances
az long-continued freedom.
The victims were Otto Zinn' forty
five. who owned ard lived above the
restaurant al % Third Avenue; Roman
Held. thirtv-cight. Of 1865 Avenue A.
nor,cr in the restaurant, and stephen
rumenccw. twenty-cight, Of 100 u FL
bridge Street, kitchen man in the res
,aurant.
Zinn bought the restaurant from his
former emplover. i. 2einken, three
oars ago. His prosperous business re-
c,;ired the services of thirty-hve en-
Moves His patrons were drawn almost
cvciusively from the immediate nelgh-
borhood. The majority of them were
>rolI known TO him and TO most OF ms
cr,nloves. whose term of service had
hcen remarkably long for middle
class dining place.
There were few patrons who did not
know that the days receipts were put
INTO a small safe behind the cigar
counter.
Cash Kept in Small Safe.
The restaurant was closed at J. go
o,o,nct ON sunday night Zinn and his
no Emily. were then in their apart
,,,oDt on the second floor, giving UMPIRE
.crtious entertainment to small group
~ friends Frederick Tauer, the chel'
,,ort 20 his room on the thlrd moor
Robert Schulz, the cashier, hnlsheu ms
~ and locked the cash drawers az
rcctly behind the cigar counter Whscn
- near the door, and departed Tor
home about the same time the oIneI
employees left the place. Inc only E.,'
workers then remaining were Ou'neA-
COW and Held. ,..-, ..hi.b
Cuncncew was in the kitchen; Wnich
iq I'M the rear and divided IRON INC o'!'.
ing room by partition, pISpSI,nh +b ~
bank the fires. Held haG plIcU ~ tho
cbairs on tables showed against Ihe
,,ails and was sweeping. Gas burned
Gimlv from four jets halfway DacH
frow the sidewalk There are no
.bsdos on the two large windows. Inc
l1irdr ON the two door windows were
5ravn. The front doors we're loched
and Zinn had the key ia
Inside the store two stairwsys leao
to the basement. whose floor Is BOARD
I'd throughout. One stairway oescehus
from tho extreme rear Of inc kltcneh'
Tho other from the north side and cloSG
fo the front of the store. II IS useu
lv natrons going to the washroom.
SLAYER Hid in Cellar.
,oaaonable assumption is that the
r,,rdorer- whose action at the time
would not have caused even a second
Glance 10 be given him-went down the
Mushroom stairs some time before the
patrons thInned out and sccrercd nm
self. Opportunity for hiding tempo
larilv in the cellar was easy.
Developments show that Held was
the first victim. He went downstairs
10 get a scuttle Of coal. probably about
! o'clock. He got TO the coal BIN,
which is under the sidewalk. lie was
probably reaching for the shovel
when the blade OF a hatchet caught
him at the base Of the skull lie
6ropped face forward in the coal HIS
murderer. who must have hid in the
Jark. narrow passageway opening at
right angles to the coal bin, closed the
door on his victim and waited for the
next one.
Cumencew was the next. Obviously
there is nothing TO tell what brought
him TO the cellar lie reached the fur
mace. ten feet back from the coal bin.
Two blows on the back Of the skull