New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-01-28
Man Forced Child to Drink
LysOl While Mother
Was in Store.
BRONX TERRIFIED; 20
DETECTIVES IN HUNT
Parents Fear Variation on Jack
The Ripper Is In Region
Police Mystified.

As three-weeks -old julius Clemens
lay in his go-cart outside a store in
Crotona Parkway yesterday. crowds
passing on either side, man stepped
up to the carriage. forced open the
baby's mouth and poured lysol down
his throat.
The death Of the burned baby is ex-
pected hourly. Meanwhile. detectives,
Opurred on by the women of the neigh
torhood, are searching the district.
The deed mas stirred the Bronx no less
than the East Side was aroused by
ripper crimes year ago.
According to the mother, Mrs. Bea-
trice Clemens, of 1870 wilkins Avenue,
a. $3.50 she took the baby in his new
gocart and her daughter Leonia, four,
on a marketing trip. They stopped IN
front of Anthony Disalvo's shop at
1880 Crotona Parkway, almost at It's
junction with Southern Boulevard, near
10th Street.
Leonia skipped into the store to buy
a penny piece Of candy. Mrs. Clemens
who had placed the gocart near the
curb, facing the store, stepped inside
the door for two or three seconds. She
had noticed tall man, with a brown
felt hat and dark suit and a moustache'
STOPPING near the baby.
Case Puzzles Detectives.
Having bought the candy, the family
group moved south, past police BOOTH
for a block and a half. Then, Mrs.
Clemens says, Leonia cried out:
Mamma, mamma, look at baby's
mouth"
The baby was writhing with pain. A
dark brown streak spread from one
side of his mouth. She ran several
blocks to the home of Mrs. julia
Krubia, at 1860 Southern Boulevard.
Awaiting the ambulance the two women
gave Julius the white of an egg.
Detectives cannot understand why
the baby did not cry out. Doctors at
Fordham Hospital, where the infant
was taken, told the police that baby
suffering from burns would inevitably
cry. Further. Acting Captain Andrew
Wise and his men have been unable to
understand why the mother, since the
baby was facing her, would not see
some one standing over and deliberate
~ pouring, not throwing, lysol.
No one at the store remembered Mrs.
Clemens, Leonia, or any disturbance.
No trace could be found of man
answering the vague description Mrs.
Clemens gave. A thorough search Of
the neighborhood did not reveal an
empty lysol bottle. At Mrs. Clemens s
home a bottle of lysol, with few drops
gone, was found 1t was practically
full, however. =,
News of the crime did not reach the
notice until two hours after II was
committed. Then it was telcphoned
70 the Seventh Branch Detective Blu
reau by the father, Charles Clemens,
a mill worker, who has lately been out
of employment. He had received the
news over the telephone from Mrs
Kruba's apartmnt.
Twenty detectives were put on the
case. They used automobiles to cover
ground quickly, men taking up each
angle of the case at once. They have
been unable to find any clew.
According to Detectives John r.
O'Meara and James CYCLIC, who ques-
toned Mrs. Clemens, she acted little
strangely, with a coldness and reserve
not usually associated with women I'M
der emotional excitement.
Since their marriage, six years ago,
the Clemenses have lived at the Wilton
Avenue fat They were the first ones
in the building. Several neighbors said
they were always apparently happy,
although Mrs. Clemens is Jewess and
Clemens q Lutheran. They had longed
for a boy, and when Julius, :en-and-
a-half pound baby, was born, their
FL IL