Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1917-10-05
on old Dinah and myself. there wou1u


be no one alive in the apartment.
II Is quite likely that it would have
taken a long time to rent ii. Most
people have some superstition hidden
away, which comes to the front with
enough power to keep them out of
place where every one has been
murdered.
One more crime was. however, to
finish the dark list. II came a month
after the old mans death.
My old nanny was killed-stabbed
through the heart--on the 2Sth day
o. October. We had just run down
young scoundrel who had murdered
his aunt in the same fashion. He was
to have benefited by her will. had we
let him go unhanged.
~ The dagger with which the stabbing
had been done in old Dinah's case
gave no clue. 1t had lain. with sew
eral other rather gruesome curios, on
the mantel of my front room, after
serving as evidence in the conviction
of bad Sicilian.
The murderer OF my aged servant
had picked it up and used 1t.
Now, without considering these
crimes from the standpoint OF my
feelings, but gather. in the light of
such cold reason as a detective Is
/ supposed to employ, they were with
out motive. so far as could be seen.
The one conceivable motive would
have been revenge upon me. In the
second dogs slaughter, the culprit
had thrown the dog from the window
directly over my bed. Certainly he
might as easily have killed me. The
murders of the old negroes showed
that he was deferred by no fear of
killing man.
The motive was not-all that was
shrouded in mystery. | worked for
months on the last two crimes. put
all my best men on them at one time
or another. Not only was l anxious to
save the reputation OF my depart
ment; was so enraged by the killing
of my faithful old servants that l
could hardly have permitted justice
to take its course had We run down
the murderer.
The month after the death Of the
old man, got only half my accustom-
ed sleep. / had not been to bed on
schedule time in four weeks-until
the very night which proved fatal to
the negroes.
The eight weeks that followed were
even worse. l was distracted. almost
a mailman, over the battling and
hideous mystery.
At the end of that time was forced
to admit that we were defeated. There
was no real clue of any sort.
OF one thing we were all convinced:
tic. A motiveless crime is almost al
ways the deed Of mailman.
The limitations of previous crimes
in each case-crimes which had been
described in some detail in the news,
OF course-also pointed to weak-mind
edness. And it is doubtful whether
any but a mailman can succeed in
hiding his tracks so that there is no
chance of tracing them. Madness
sometimes gives a superhuman cum
ming that Is utterly battling to sane
minds.
But-where was the mailman? Was
this his only Madness desire to
ortwit the chief of detectives?
We had no case of any similar out
break. Not person who gave the
slightest suspicion of insanity but we
traced the history of his every move
,nent during those nine months. In
every instance we had an absolute
alibi for the afflicted person on at
least two of the nights when the
crimes in my apartment had been
committed.
/ do not know what 1t was that
BROUGHT the old theory of the moons
connection with lunacy to my mind.
II was on the night of the 26th OF
December.
AS / had attended the Christmas
services the day before. had tried to
rid myself of all that was vengeful in
my desire to run down the murderers
of my servants. / had almost deter
mined to drop the whole matter, since
we had absolutely nothing on which to
20 ahead. But the thought OF the
moon and lunacy aroused my interest
sufficiently to cause me to glance over
an almanac.
There quickly discovered that the
moon had been full on the nights OF
February 5, March 6, April 5, May 5,
September 20. October %. Novem-
Der q!
On four Of these dates my rooms had
been entered and life had been taken
in a fashion to indicate the work Of
some mailman with close knowledge
of the city's murder-cases.
I. On September 20 the moon was
full early In the morning. which
brought the night to correspond with
the murder of the negro man.
{, This left April and November n
on which no crime had been COM
mitted. glance at the table of eclip
iaas ahowed that there had been a