The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-06-18
N. Y. Woman Lawyer Springs
GruesOme Sensation.
Her Persistent Search Found
Body of Ruth Cruger.
q OTHER CELLAR TRAPS
Clique PrOcurers Place Shops
About High Schools.
She Involves Police and Shake
up Is Threatened.

New York, June 1S.-The hand of
the law reached out toward Italy from
here today to draw back Alfredo Coo
chi, the Italian repair man who is be-
lieved to have murdered and muti-
lated the long missing Ruth Cruger.
whose body, skull crushed and abb
domen slashed. was found buried in
the basement of Cocchi's shop.
Three official Investigations on by
the police, one by the district attor-
ney's Office and one by the coroner
delved toward the bottom of one of
the most revolving crimes that has
ever shocked New York.
The wife and two friends of the
missing Italian, were held in heavy
bail and thirty-siX witnesses We're
rounded up to appear before the
grand jury probe of the case today
Hold Suspect in Italy.
The state department has cabled
Italian authorities to hold Cocchi.
Mrs. Grace Humiston, the woman
lawyer whose shrewdiess led to the
finding of Ruth Cruger's body, today
limited at an organized clique of pro-
curers and declared she knows the
location of twenty-five other cellars
where high school girls have been
lured and ruined.
! This statement, promises of a shake
up in the police department equal to
that following Police Lieutenant Beck
ers conviction for the murder of Her
man Rosenthal, and the district at
| torney's statement that he has suffi-
! cient evidence upon which to try Coo
Chi were swift developments in the
/ case.
! There are little, harmless looking
shops scattered all around some OF
the high schools and public Schools
said Mrs. Humiston- "Loungers OF
1.-THE most depraved type infest these
places and watch the girls going to
| and from school. When girl enters
one of the shops she is insulted.
other Cellar Grimes known.
There are other cellars in New
! York holding secrets just as hideous
as the one Cocchi hurried away to
Italy from. But if I told names and
locations before my evidence is COM
pleted the criminals 1 want would get
away.
New York does not yet, realize
how systemized is the danger for the
girls who live in it.
1.-The public readily says. when
girl disappears. it was as much her
fault as the mans. I know better.
when a girl is insulted in one OF
these places she usually broods over
the horror of it. Never would she tell
her parents for she feels she is partly
to blame. Little by little her Sc
ducers batter down her moral STAN
ina and soon another girl is missing
I could show you a case equal in hor-
ror to that of Ruth Cruger's every
month in the year.
Was n Lust Murder.
Discussing the case of the CruEer
girl, Mrs. Humston expressed the be-
lief she was attacked by more than
one degenerate. The autopsy re-
vealed what she termed a lust muir
der. ripper crime of the worst kind
Examining physicians agreed with
her
Probably Ruth her visits to the
shop or while passing 1t, attracted
many men," said Mrs. Humiston. II
: think there had been speculation and
: plans about her"
Grand Jury Indicts Cocchi.
New York, June 1S.-The grand
jury this afternoon returned an in
dictment charging Alfred Cocchi with
l the murder of Ruth Cruger, 1S-year-
old high school girl who disappeared
; three months ago, and whose body was
:. found buried beneath Cocchi's bicycle
/. repair shop here Saturday.