Omaha daily bee., 1917-08-12
j.J. KRON SOLVED
CRUGER MYSTERY
Chief Detective on Mrs. Grace
Hpmiston's Staff Was Man ,
Who Found Missing
New York Girl.
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN.

come the leading figure in the sensa.
tional drama OF the New York streets
Everybody is trying to find her: the
newspapers are full of her; LAWYERS
phllanthropistS and policemen are
making regulations out of her.
But the one man who has probably
put more time and thought on the
missing girl problem than any other
person, who solved the Rhuth Cruger
mystery and number of others
seems to have been barely mentioned
He is Jules J. kron, chief detective on
Mrs. Humiston's staff, a former em-
ploye of the United States Depart
ment of Justice and a detective whose
originality of method and variety OF
adventures make him a fair candidate
Tor Sunday newspaper publicity.
Hungarian by Nationality.
Mr.. kron, however. neither looks
nor thinks the part. In person he is
about five feet lour, Hungarian by
nationality. and modest by nature. His
attitude toward life is intensely prac-
teal. Take, for example, the way he
solved the Ruth Cruger mystery as
Mrs. HumGston's assistant, which is
the only thing about the famous case
that has never been told. When Mr..
kron sets out to solve a crime he not
only goes back to the very beginning
OF the incident, but to the very birth
OF the criminal. His first step, there
lore, was to trace Ruth Cruger's his
tory from the day she was born. He
discovered that she was, and always
had been, a girl OF particularly strong
and honorable character, the kind of
girl who was not likely to be easily
persuaded to run away from home. At
that time the case was complete
mystery. Not breath of suspicion
had touched the Italian, Cocchi; the
police believed the girl to be alive, and
the general public was thoroughly
convinced that she was bad.
Mr.. Kron, on the other hand. vast
ed no time on theories concerning a
false sweetheart. He knew that he
was on the track of criminal OF the
worst order. The only other clew he
aad was that the girl had taken her
skates to be repaired at Cocchis
workshop around the corner on the
day that she disappeared. Mr.. kron's
perspective at once narrowed to the
Italian. He made a house-to-house
canvass of the neighborhood, ques-
tioning men, women and children as
to what they knew and saw of Cocchi,
and finally he came upon bit of in
formation that aroused his interest.
Two men told him that at midnight
on the two successive nights follow
ing the disappearance of the Cruger
girl they had seen Cocchi come up
out Of the cellar beneath his workshop
in stealthy manner, his clothes COW
cred with dirt.
Case Practically Solved.
From that time on Mr.. Kron was
firmly convinced that Ruth Cruger
was dead and that her body was
buried in that cellar. Kron recognized
this type of murder; he had seen it
often before. A few years ago kron
was called to Budapest by the chief of
police of that city to help solve a
murder case. A woman had been
found with her throat slashed in the
kitchen of farm house, and her
daughter ofJ5 had disappeared. Three
months had gone by when Kron ar
rived on the scene, in which time the
father had gone insane, and the police
had still failed to locate the girl. The
detective made a thorough search OF
the premises. On the stoop of the
farm house in the crevice of rotten
piece of wood he unearthed an Amer
lean dime. In the kitchen stove, url-
used during the summer months, he
discovered . handkerchief covered
with blood-unmistakably a product
of the United States of America. The
case was practically solved.
All that Kron had to find out after
this was the name of the American
OR the man who had been in Ameri-
ca--who had frequented this farm
house. He soon found him working
as an assistant barkeeper in a vii
lage not thirty miles away. The muir
derer had been a former employe on
the farm and had become infatuated
with the daughter, whom he had
known since she was baby. He had
gone to America, but his infatuation
had brought him back. He had wait
ed until all the men we're away from
the farmhouse. Then he had tried
to carry the girl away; the mother
had screamed and SO he killed her,
and when the girl resisted him he had
killed her too, and buried her body
in the neighboring woods. =
How He Used Confession.
When Kron had secured this con-
fession from his man by tempting
him with enough money to get away,
he phoned his friend, the chief Of po-
lice, and together they excavated the
girls body. From Budapest Kron
returned to the United States just in
time to be employed by the police
Of New Jersey in collecting evidence
on a somewhat similar murder case
In this instance, the police had cap
tured German-American whom they
believed to have committed the muir
der of a little girl in a lonely stretch
of woods, but they did not have
enough evidence to construct a case
Kron Immediately assumed the per.
sonality of a man of the underworld
who by stealthy means had acquired
A lot of money but was something
If a fool. He then hunted the Ger
man-American up and allowed him
,eIf IN become his tool. They lived
in the same room on the money sup.
Piled by Kron, they dined at the same
places, and the detective soon knew
the whole life Of his man-all except
the murder. which he scrupulously
avoided. Then Kron decided to force
the issue in what he considers most
practical way, but which sounds de-
cidedly theatrical to the average citi,
zen. He hired an Italian to go and
stand by a certain tree i'll neigh,
boring stretch of woods, and then he
aeoo,,nao;ad h,y tba Germ n,