New-York tribune., 1919-07-12
After He
Is Mysteriously
Beaten at Desk
Gardiner C. Hull, Senior
Partner in Stationery
Firm, i'm Fulton Street, Is
Found Unconscious

Gardiner G. Hull, senior partner in
the stationery firm Of Hull & Dep
pisch, was beaten into insensibility
shortly before $3.50 yesterday after
noon as he sat at a desk in his office
on the fourth floor of 108 Fulton Street.
lie is dying at Volunteer Hospital
NO other person was in the office
when Mr.. Hull was discovered. Ten
minutes before Thomas Timonylo, the
porter who found him, had seen Mr..
Hull seated on high stool at book
keepers desk, poring over a ledger.
Inc statloner's spectacles were in the
open ledger when he was found with
his head crushed in. They lay as if ne
mad put them down to talk with some
one who had stepped in.
Cash Box Rif1ed
Behind the ledger was a tin cashbox.
The checks in that cashbox ordinarily
are arranged in neat little piles. When
the porter entered for the second time
and found Mr.. Hull stretched out on
the floor the contents of the box looked
as though some one had rifled it has
tlly in search of money.
Apparently no attempt was made to
search Mr.. HulPs pockets. Neither his
watch nor his money was taken. His
scarfpin also remained in place.
The building is a large office struct-
ure on the south side Of Fulton Street,
between Nassau and William streets.
1t is just across the once famous "dead
line" which Inspector Byrnes estab-
lished.
The police used every endeavor to
conceal the details of the crime and
refused to say whether a robbery had
been committed. They instructed en-
ployes of the building and of the firm
to say nothing to newspaper reporters
concerning what had happened. They
specially instructed the porters, super
intendent and night watchman at the
office building to permit no reporters to
enter.
Found by Porter
1t was 5:15 when Timonylo, the por-
ter, reached the Hull &; Deppisch Offices
on the fourth floor in the rear of the
building in the course Of his closing
up tour The gray-haired senior part
ner, spectacles on his nose, was seated
on high stool, poring over ledger
on the bookkeeper's desk. Near by
sat Mary Smith, seventeen years old,
bookkeeper for the firm. Mr. Hull
turned as the door opened and greeted
the porter with smile.
Come back a little later" he said.
81 won't be long"
1t was five minutes later that Miss
Smith, the bookkeeper, started for
home. Two men had entered just as
She left, she told relative of Mr.
Hull, and were talking to him.
At $3.50 o'clock Timonylo, who had
closed the windows and pulled down
the shades in the adjoining Offices, re-
turned to Room Ala, the entrance to
the suite occupied by Hull & Deppisch
The kindly old gentleman, who had
smiled at him fifteen minutes before,
lay sprawled on his back on the floor,
breathing heavily. A red stain was
spreading beneath his head. The por-
ter remained long enough to slip a
towel beneath the injured mans head
and ran for the street
Look Like Axe Wounds
DR.. Edward Nachumson, who came
with an ambulance from Volunteer
Hospital, found on his arrival that Mr.
Hull had regained consciousness, but
was unable to speak. His right side
was paralyzed. The surgeon thought
at first that Mr.. Hull had suffered
stroke of apoplexy.
Then he saw the wounds, which were
so deep that the skull was opened, and
were about the length of >an axe blade
There was one on the top and left side
the paralysis, and three more at the
base Of the skull about an inch apart
DR.. Nachumson was certain the blows
had been struck as swiftly as Mr..
Hull's assalant could use his weapon.
There was not a chance, he said, for
Mr.. Hull's recovery. A blood-staned
hammer was found in the office and
taken to headquarters.
With the coming of the ambulance
"a
closed every avenue of information.
Captain Himmel Of the Old Slip police
station took charge of the place, lcav-
ing woman whom he brought with
him on guard in the corridor.
Bookkeepcr Tells Story
Miss Smith, the bookkccpcr, came
down with her mother and told what
she knew to the police, cutting down
the margin Of time in which the in
trudcr had to work to scant ten min
utcs.
Mr.. Hull was ffty-cight years old.
He lived with his wife and recently
widowed daughter, Mrs. Edith Jones,
at 731 Chauncey Street, Brooklyn, and
was deacon in the Bushwick Avenue
Baptist Church. His wife and daughter
we're in Caldwell, N. J. They started at
once for New York
The firm Of which Mr.. Hull was head
is one Of many ycars' standing. His
partner in the business, August
Dcppisch once was an Office boy in tho
place. He is "A clergyman, though with
out church Mt present. While Dr.
Walter Keenc wilkins was at the Mas
Eau County iail at Mineola Mr. Dem