New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-11-06
Torso, Wrapped in News
papers, Is Found
in Lot
Dead Only "a Hours
Laundry Mark on Shirt Dis
covered Near by the Only
Clew

PATERSON. n. j.. Nov. 5.-0ut OF
the bushes which cover the lot front
ing on Sixth Avenue and East Seventh
Street, the Paterson police dragged a
bulky newspaper bundle this morning.
and were confronted with the grotesque
mystery of a headless man and a
Scriptural quotation.
Wrapped about the awkward. mis-
shapen package were several sheets OF
newspaper. On one of these, the edi-
torial page Of New York evening
paper, the following quotation stood
out in bold-faced capitals. like label:
Hear my cry, oh God. attend unto
my prayer. For thou hast been a shell
ter for me and strong tower from
the enemy"
When the paper was torn away. the
headless. legless torso Of man lay
revealed.
Herman Hoek, of 125 Peel Street.
discovered the bundle. He stumbled
upon it while taking q short cut across
the field to work early yesterday morn
ing. The dark stains on It's covering
sent him running for the nearest tele-
phone.
Victim Dead Only q Short Time
DR.. Walter Dunning, who was sum-
moned from his Office near by, said
that the man had not been dead TWEEN
ty-four hours.
Police reserves held back the NOR
bid crowd which focked like flies to
the field, while Police Chief William
Parry and Detectives Lord and Kepp-
Ter made their investigation. There
was no sign of a struggle in the thick
tangle of grass and weeds in which
the body lay. Most of the papers in
which the torso had been wrapped
were Paterson dailies of recent date
Only the editorial page with the Bibli-
cal text held any significance. .,
This bore the date Of June l. II had
been fixed to the bundle, apparently.
with the intention to display the quo
tation.
Working out in a spiral from the
spot where the body was found, the de-
tectives tramped the entire plot, look
ing for clews. Hidden in another thick
ct, seventy-fve feet away, they came
upon the mans legs. A little further
off they found a pair of mems draw
ers. Still further out, toward Sixth
Avenue. they discovered several pieces
of women's lingerie. Then they found
a black and white shirt.
Meanwhile, DR.. Dunning had been ex-
aiming the body. The head apparently
had been cut away by a knife. The legs
had been severed above the knee.
The mans hands we're soft and well
manicured. The police say that he was
about 8 feet 1 inches tall. His skin
and hair were dark.
Inside the collar OF the black and
white shirt was the only definite clew
that has been obtained as yet. This
was a laundry mark in indelible ink
-. L. r.-4.'
Following the line suggested by the
Bible quotation. the police questioned
a man of the neighborhood said to be
a religious fanatic. He proved an alibi
and was not arrested.
Il is the belief of Chief Perry that
the head has been buried or else thrown
into the Passaic River, whose cloudy
waters flow within few hundred yards
of the place the body was found, in an
effort to prevent identification.
SO far the laundry mark, the only
clew, has brought forth nothing. All
the lsundries of Paterson disclaim the
symbol. One OF the laundrymen be-
lieved that he recognized 1t as the type
Of Identification used by Newark con-
Germ. Detectives will canvass that town
to-day.
The body has been taken to the
morgue, where DR.. William McAlester,
county physician, will perform an
putonsv