Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-07-03
WOMAN DETECTIVE
TELLS HOW CRUGER
CASE WAS SOLVED
Mrs, HumiSton Declares Her
Success Was Due to Her
Faith in Girls Innocence,
Police Were Cynical

NEW YORK. June 3O.-why did Mrs.
Grace Humiston. American woman Sher-
lock Holmes, solve the great Ruth Cru
ger murder mystery when New York's
most famous sleuths failed
Because she believed in the innate
goodness of girl nature, as opposed to
the police theory that most girls who
leave home are bad.
When little eighteen-year-old Ruth
Cruger disappeared early in February.
after going to the motorcycle repair
shop of Alfredo Cocchi in West 127th
street to get her skates sharpened, the
New York detective bureau made a per-
functOry investigation, winked it's cyni-
cal eye and said, Another girl gone
wrong"
But when the distracted parents OF
Ruth Cruger called Mrs. Grace Humis
ton into the case, she decided almost
at once the police were wrong.
Ruth was a good girl, 1 soon found
out from her schoolgirl friends" said
Mrs. Humiston today.
Mrs. Humiston looks anything but the
conventional woman lawyer type. OF
medium build, with dark hair, tinged
with gray, and brown eyes, quietly
dressed in a dark purple gown. Mrs.
Humiston is just the kind of womanly
woman on whom a distracted mother
might call for help to find her lost girl.
I'm the first place." she said, there
were just four persons working on the
case, my secretary, two private detec-
tives and myself. We had utmost con-
fidence in one another. Ny first in
Nquiries convinced me Ruth had not run
away; / felt sure she was a good girl
and COcchi could solve the mystery.
I'VE eliminated every clue that led
outside Maui VnFk GitU rPhaH
CUES, cemeteries and hospitals ! be-
came convinced the girl had been muir
dered and Cocchi could solve the mys-
terry. We investigated the cellar and
found the police search of the place had
been superficial
when Cocchi was discovered In It.
ally, | felt my murder theory was right.
1t became necessary to- make a thor
ough search of the cellar under his
workshop. We began that work but
were stopped by Mrs. Cocchi. l went
to the police and obtained authority to
continue the excavation that resulted
in finding the body"
Back of this simple story is Mrs HUI
missions genius for detective work. She
has, through her law practice, an inti
mate acquaintance with the psychology
of the criminal mind. She has wom-
ans intuition and insight into the work
lnkS Ol the ADOV0 al,
she feels she knows ninety-nine girls
in every hundred are Inherently good
and pure.
Mrs. Humiston declares In her three
months investigation she discovered
twenty-five cellars where girls were
made victims of men.
New York does not know how sys-
tematized the danger is for the girls of
our city," she says. Girls disappear
in this city and too-ready public in
stantly says at least the girl was half
as much to blame as the man. But
can tell you otherwise"
In one year. S2s persons disappeared
from the streets of the big city and
were never heard from again. In three
of it's five boroughs, 244 murders o.
CURED and many remain unsolved.
These conditions indicate either that
New York is the most criminal city in
the world, or the police force is ineff1-
cient. Mrs. Humiston's revelations of
the inactivity of the police in the Ruth
Cruger case have again aroused the sus-
picion that they are still protecting
criminals instead of the public.
81 found myself blocked by some mys-
terious person at every stop" said Mrs.
Humiston discussing her difficulties in
tracing Ruth Cruger against the appar-
ent will of the police.
Mrs Humiston has done remarkable
work as a lawyer. She saved Charles
F. Stielow from the electric chair three
times. She helped prosecute the peon-
age cases in the southern turpentine
swamps in 1906 and in 1907. Her maid
en- name was Mary Grace Winterton.
and she is a member of an old New
York family. In 1905 she founded the
Peoples law firm, where poor people
could secure expert legal aid for a small
sum.