The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-09-22
SLAIN IN MYSTERY
AT GATES OF PARK
Suspected Freight Car Thief
Identifies Body as Com
rade in Crime.
FOUR OTHERS DISPUTE 1T
Parents Of Bronx Youth Who
Served in 9th Division
Offer an Alibi.

William Harran, sergeant Of the
private police force of the New York.
New Haven and Hartford Railroad,
car in the Rear Swamps yards in the
Westchester section of The Bronx Sat
urday night between 10 80 and IL
o'clock. He locked two Of the men in
the car and when tho other three fed
he fred FIVE shots at them. They
escaped. and he took his two prisoners
70 the Westchester police station, where
they gave their names as Joseph Sim
bolle of 100 st. AIMS avenue, and AL
bert VESSEL OF 625 East hath street
The Bronx. There they were charged
with larceny.
About an hour later, or, as nearly as
they could recall, about IL: 40 o'clock.
Samuel jacobson of 1886 Van Buren,
street, Louis KRplan OF 1870 Taylor
avenue and William Goodman of 144S
Boston road, all in The Bronx, were
walking along Boston road, and stopped
for a moment at 1924 street, where
there Is an entrance to Bronx Park.
Two or three minutes later, the boys
told the police, they heard shot fired,
and only a few minutes after that
man staggered from the park entrance
and fell at Jacobson's feet, crying, I'm
shotl I'm shotv' jacobson tried TO
help him, while Kaplan and Goodman
ran and brought Patrolman O'Day of the
fremont station. The wounded man
was then sent to Fordham Hospital
where he died soon after midnight. He
had been shot in the heart.
Identified ms Comrade.
The hospital authorities through en-
velopes in the dead mans pocket, identi-
fed him as Harry Bierman, 20, OF 300
East 169th street. The police were noti-
fed, and the detectives thinking there
might be some connection between the
shooting of Bierman and the attempted
freight theft, took SYMBOLIC to the hos
pital to look at the dead mans body.
SYMBOLIC said that Bierman was a man
known to him as skinny" and that he
had been with them when they tried to
rife the freight car, and were found by
Sergeant Harran. Acting on this in
formation, the police then made no effort
to investigate further the shooting OF
herman, but questioned SYMBOLIC and
VESSEL until they gave them the names
of three other men. who they said also
were implicated in the freight car Job
These men. arrested early yesterday
morning. gave their names as William
Garrigan, II, of 532 East 1921 street
and Arthur McGlory, 25. Of 41s East
142d street. all in The Bronx.
Soon after the arrest of these three all
1--WE of the men were taken to the morgue
to look at Bierman's body. There Sim
bolle reiterated his statement that Bier
man had been with the gang at the
freight car, but the other three men said
that SYMBOLIC was lying, and that they
never had see Bierman before. Sim
bolle was then asked how Bierman had
been dressed when he was with them,
and replied that he had worn cap,
whereas when Blerman fell at the foot of
jacobson he wore Fedora hat
Parents Dispute story.
SYMBOLIC also said that the five men
were together all afternoon. while the
parents and brothers Of Bierman told
the police that he did OF leave his home
until o'clock Saturday night.
The distance between Ele railroad
yards where Sergeant Harran fired at
the burglars, and the point where Bier
mans body was found. is about three
miles. Physicians told the police that it
would not have ben possible for Bierman.
with a bullet in his heart. I'd have gone
that distance between 10 AZ o'clock, the
time that Harran thinks he flerd. and
IL 40, the time when his body was found
In view Of these circumstances. to-
gether with tho fact that the three boys,
Jacobson and the two others, heard a
shot only q few minutes before Bierman
came out Of the park. the police have
now abandoned the theory that Bierman
WAS a member of the gang trying to
rife the freight car and are centring
their investigation near the point
where the mans body was found. Bier
e..t.. Nn1I IAfA NI.oN l..
served overseas as a member of the
military police of the Twenty seventh
Division. and that he had worked every
day since his return