Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1917-06-21
EXPECT SENSATION
IN PIPER CASE
Dr. Condor, Prominent Physi.
clan of Brunswick, N. j.,
Placed under Arrest.
IMPORTANT EVIDENCE.
Man in Custody on Suspicion Of MUIR
derlne Recent Tn. of VI. Graduate
Now In Army Medical Corps.

New Brunswick, N. j.. June 19.-No
motive has been disclosed as yet for
the murder of John Vincent Piper, a
1916 graduate of the University of
Vermont and graduate student of Rut-
gers College. whose body was found
near here Saturday after he had been
missing four months. DIR. william j.
Condor, a prominent physician of this
city and a captain in the United States
army medical corps, is under arrest at
Chattanooga. Tenn, charged with the
crime
Prosecutor Joseph F. striker pre-
dicted tonight that there would be
sensational developments and declared
he had sufficient evidence to assure a
conviction in the cas-. Traces of lime
in the cellar of the Condor home where
Piper went every day to care for the
furnace as part of the work he was do
Ing to pay his college expenses, and In
the Condor automobile, coupled with
the fact that Piper's body was covered
with lime when It was found, are de-
clared by the prosecutor to be impor-
tant links in his chain of circumstan-
tial evidence
The prosecutor asserted he had learned
that Allison Wellington, a negro who did
odd jobs around the Condor home, had
had disappeared. what he believed to be
body, but when a detective was sent
to investigate no trace of it was found.
One puzzling feature of the case Is what
disposition was made of Piper's body
from the time he is believed to have been
shot in February until it was dscov-
cred Saturday.
Dr. Condor has been prominent in So
ciety and in politics in this city. He was
lieutenant and assistant surgeon in
the United States army in the Philip
pines and Japan from 1900 to 1902 and was
captain in the New Jersey National
Guard for ten years after that.
Mrs. Condor is suffering from a nerv-
Gus breakdown. She has refused to make
amy statement Or receive callers sinca
her husbands arrest.
Piper who was a graduate of the Uni
Versity of Vermont, not only paid his
college expenses by caring for furnaces
and doing other work. but supported his
wife and two children. He was "a years
old. DIR. Condor is 80.
Prosecutor Stricken says that the sus-
pect has been trapped after months of
patient work by his office. 1t is asserted
by persons engaged in the investigation,
though not by the prosecutor that per-
sons well known socially in New Bruins
wick may be involved, though they were
not directly connected with the crime
Itself.
The prosecutors case has been ma
terially developed by the finding of
Pipers body on English Line road, four
lmiles out of Spotswood. last Saturday.
This established the fact that Piper had
been shot to death with a revolver
carrying the same size bullet as did the
pistol found on Morris avenue. New
Brunswick, the day after the disappear
lance.
! The body was discovered close to the
ffoad by two men employed in scraping
the surface of the macadam Coroner
iJohn Hubbard, who has unearthed much
Iof the evidence himself, gave it as his
Iopinion that the man met death about
Ethe time he vanished. and in this he was
borne out by County Physician Carroll
who performed the autopsy.
Piper. who was twentyfour years
Void, was graduated from the Univer.
eity of Vermont a year ago and in the
fall entered Rutgers to take the degree
of master Of arts He was of religious
Tendencies and was highly regarded by
the Rev. Paul Hayne of the Livingston
Avenue Baptist Church. which he at.
tended. He stood high also in the es.
timation of President Demarest of Rut.
gers.
Among the furnaces Piper cared fol-
were those of Prof. John Helyar of the
college. DIR. William j. Condor anC
Alva Hastings. on the day he dsap-
peared the student left his home al
9:45 o'clock in the evening. telling his
wife he would make his evening round
OF furnaces and be back in half ar
hour That morning, on his early trip
he told Mrs. Condor he would like hi.
money and was told he could have 1t II
he returned at noon. This he did ant
was paid
When Piper failed to return, his wife
Informed friends. and a quiet search
was conducted, it being the genera
opinion that he had ver-studied ant
his mind had been affected. The search
was conducted by the college author
aties and members of the Sunday schoo
OF the Livingston Avenue Church.
At the end of two weeks, when thu
police took up the case, stories BEGAN,
current that shots had been hear or
fhe night of February 10 in the neigh,
borhood of Morris street and Living
fton avenue. About this time Mr.. Aid
Hich, man OF means, went to New
ttrunswick and engaged private detec
hives.
BODY PLACED THERE RECENTLY.
Inquiry estaDllShed the fact beyond
houbt that the body was taken to the
spot where it was found not earlier thar
FRIDAY night, for on Friday the men who
snade the discovery had gone over tho
Same section of the road and would hay,
seen the corpse. Moreover the prosecutor
admits that he has taken possession o,
the automobile in which II was trans
ported.
The amazing part of the mystery il
that the body could have been ken
Tour months almost to day without
beng discovered. II the prosecutor know,
where the hiding place was he has River
no intimation of the fact but he does ga,
that when all the facts are known the,
will porve most astonishing.
The evidence bears out the theory III,
authorities have held all along. This 1,
that the murder was committed not IN,
from the place where Piper was Twin,
with his wife and two small children
eking out a living during his post
graduate course by tending furnaces O
wealthy neighbors. The theory OF privat
detectives engaged by Charles s. Aldricl
OF Troy, N. Y, step-brother OF Piper
was that his body had been burned Il
one of the furnaces for which Pipe
cared.
The detectives insisted that Piper ha,
been killed and then burned and de
manded of the police that they enter ,
private house and search a furnace Tn
police asserted they had no authority an
that the alleged evidence did not warran
their asking the courts to authorize
search. Later, the detectives drained
s,at1 a Of he Tna1a II