Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-06-19
CRUGER MURDER GANG
GETS ANOTHER VICTIM
Girl Who Told Where Body Lay
Jumps From Apartment
Window
ATTACKED, SHE DECLARES
NEW YORK. Lnnn 10

NEW YORK, June 10.
manner channels of crime apparently
.,ened today as police, private detectives
VA the District Attorneys Office delved
,n,o the sordid pools which swept the pretty
school girl, Ruth Cruger, to her death.
shortly after midnight this morning,
,onsuelo La Rue, a young woman who said
she had furnished Mrs. Grace Humston
With the information which led to the
rndine of the Cruger girls body. was found,
hvaterical and maimed, in a vacant lot be-
side an apartment building at 115 West
EiRhtieth street.
Screams brought n policeman running to
che spot. Miss La Rue was halfclad Her
isft leg was broken in two places She
Rad Jumped from a second-gjory window.
Hes up there" she moaned. Asked what
she meant, she said: "The men. Two men
came and said they had a telegram for
me One grabbed me by the throat and
said L guess youll not tell any more |
hnped out of the dining room window
! preferred that death to the kind they gave
Ruth Cruger.
Then the young woman asked that Mrs
Humiston be notified, that the girl who
eaye her the tip on where Ruth Cruecr's
body would be found wanted her."
Mrs. Humiston was notified one report
is that the woman lawyer went TO the
hospital where Miss La Rue was taken, but
was ordered from the room by the police
She is said to have declared she had known
Miss La Rue for some time. At the hos.
pital all information was refused early to.
day, and from police sources came the sug.
gestlon that the La Rue girls mind had
been unbalanced by reading of the Cruger
crime.
In addition TO this glimpse of the hand
Of the white slave "rinE" Mrs Humistnn
asserts it is trapping, debauching and mur-
dering girls like Ruth Cruger in New York
-N.. lot
dence against believed slayers of Ruth
Cruger were forged today.
A motorcycle uniform found buried with
the roped body of the high school girl under
the cellar of the CoCchi shop was tried on
the unusually tall form of Victor Blady, a
chauffeur held in connection with the crime,
Although he is feet inches tall. the suit
At him perfectly. Close questioning COM
PEELED Blady to admit he lied at the investi-
CATION in March in saying he was not in
Cocchi's shop the day Ruth Cruger was
murdered.
Questioned by Assistant District Attorney
Doong, Blady admitted having been i'm
Cocchi's shop the night of February 13
This is the same night Cocchi is believed
to have let the roped body down into the
cellar through n trap door he cut in the
floor of his shop and to have started digging
the girls grave.
Blady swore he left the shop at $3.50 that
night He admitted three other men We're
there, and he gave their names to Dooling.
Blady Is catalogued as one of CocChis close
friends He said he drove CoCch to his
home that night when he left at $3.50.
Meantime ghoulish curio hunters slipped
into the Morgue where Ruth Crugers body
lay and stole a gold stiCkpin and five shell
hairpins from the little bundle Of trinkcts
placed beside her body on the slab.
At the same time city. State and Govern
ment officials the Italian authorities at
Rome and Bologna and brought all possible
influence to bear to get CoCChi back here to
answer the indictment charging him with
the murder of Ruth Cruger.
Close scrutiny of the Cocchi shop re-
veaed what the authorities consider un-
mistakable evidence that Cocchi and prob.
ably two or three accompliCes butchered
the little school girl.
In the closet washroom, where the actual
killing is believed to have occurred, pieces
Of tin had been newly tackled over what ap-
pear to be splotches of blood. A thin coat
Of fresh white paint had been applied to
other splotches on the wall. Scrapings of
the stains have been sent to analysts.
Removal Of a square Of galvanized iron
from the floor of the shop disclosed a new
trap door which it was necessary to cut
for the murderer to get the girls body
into the basement without taking it out.
doors and down the cellar steps. This trap
door had been rejoined, the saw marks
putted, the whole floor freshly whtewash.
ed and the metal plate laid over it.
The body of Ruth Crhger was buried to.
day somewhere in the country" Morbid
curiosity was given no glimpse Of the
funeral cortege. Quite alone the father
mother and sisters of the murdered girl
Followed her body to the grave.