The Devils Lake world and inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, N.D.) 1915-1920, 1916-04-13
SCENTINC A CRIME
How a Russian Police Inspector
Formulated a Theory.
WORKING UP A MURDER CASE.

WORKING UP A MURDER CASE.
He Made All the Known Facts In the
Case Fit Into Each Other Perfectly
and Then Proceeded to Demonstrate
His Accuracy of Deduction.
We are not encouraged to believe
that the Russian police inspector is the
equal of the trained French official ii
Anton Chekhoff's story of the deduc-
tive method in Russia is illustrative.
One morning q youn. man hurried
into the office of an Inspector of police
and reported that his master, an officer
Of the guard who had been separated
fom his wife and lived alone, had
been murdered. He was greatly ex-
G1ted. The inspector went with him at
0ce to the scene Of the tragedy.
When he arrived at the house he
found the door to the officers bedroom
locked, the key on the inside. The
servants, unable to awake their mas
ter. had concluded that he was dead.
The inspector found the door unin-
3ured. He had it forced open. The bed
had been tossed about, the pillows on
the floor. On a table neal the bed was
the officers watch and some silver
coins. The officer and his clothing
were gone except for a single boot that
lay on the floor. The inspector exam
hed the room carefully. The only
thing he found was q partly burned
safety match. 1t was known that the
officer did not smoke and used only
sulphur matches for his candles. he
examined the garden below the win
dow. The grass and some bushes had
been trampled. He found a piece Of
cotton IN some twigs and some fine
threads Of dark blue wool. At some
distance from the window, in the gar
den under q bush, he found the second
top boot.
The inspector came to the conclusion,
from the evidences, that the man had
been strangled and his body taken out
through the window.
The fact that the watch and money
wire u~ndisturbed showed that the pur-
pose Of the crime was not robbery.
The safety match indicated that some
person above the ordinary was con
nected with the affair, since peasants
or common servants would have only
sulphur matches. The fact that one
boot remained in the room made the
inspector believe that the guardsman
had been killed while he was undress-
ing. The finding Of the other boot in
he garden indicated that this one had
heen partly removed and, had fallen
~ while the body was being carried
away.
The inspector in his report recon
stucted the crime: On the evening in
Question the guardsman, who had been
a q prolonged debauch, went to his
room drunk. As he sat on his bed,
taking of one Of his boots, he had been
attacked and smothered with the pill
low. During the struggle the candle
was knocked over and afterward one
Of the a%ssassins relighted it, striking a
safety match. When the man was dead
his body had been taken out. through
the window and carried across the gar
den. AS it passed the lilac bush the
remaining boot, partly removed by the
man before he was attacked, dropped
of.
The inspector, having arrived at this
deduction, determined to locate the
safety match. He went to all the shops
In every direction, but not one Of them
carried in its stock such a thing as q
box OF safety matches. Finally, at
some distance from the scene of the
tragedy, he found a shopkeeper who
had a single pack of such matches. It
was a broken pack, with one box miss
ing. The shopkeeper remembered pre-.
cdsely who had purchased this missing
box. 1t was the wife Of the guards.
man, a big, masculine woman of IN
usual physical strength. She lived near
the apartment in which the guards
man had been murdered. It was now
night, but the inspector went at once
e. the woman and charged her with
the murder Of her husband.
II know all about it," he said. 'Take
at once to the place where you
have concealed your husbandw
She got a key from a nail on the
wall and went out into the courtyard.
The inspector followed. They finally
reached a little house at the end Of
the garden The woman unlocked the
deaeef and they entered. By the light Of
. candle the inspector saw the long
body Of a man lying motonless on a
bed In the corner of the room. He
approached to examine the murdered
body.
But here his deductions went to
pieces. The supposed dead man sat
up, and the explanation Of all the
tragic Incidents appeared. The guards
man was going to bed every night
drunk. His wife heard of it and went
across the garden to his window to
demonstrate with him. He put the
window up and, seeing who it was,
threw his boot at her. She was a
resolute woman in masculine efficiency.
She climbed in through tho window