Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1920-02-15


saw human body lying beneath the
bridge that crosses a small stream Just
outside the city. He had time to call the
conductors attention to the heap before
it had passed out Of the range Of their
vision. The conductor thought, too, that
tho partly snow.covered object might be
a corpse.
They did not stop the train to investi.
gate further, but when they reached the
depot they notified the authorities of what
they had seen. The Rochester sheriff,
with a couple OF deputies, set of to the
bridge They found the huddled heap.
1t was the frozen, naked and mutilated
body Of murdered man.
But there was that about it which made
tho officers, hardened as they were to
Eruesome sights, shrink back appalled,.
The ferocity Of the attack manifested in
the wounds seemed to indicate that they
had been death by something not human.
The immediate cause Of death had
been broken skull. The bone had
been crushed in at the base and the
upper jaw was broken. But both ears mad
been cut to shreds. The skin had been
SCIAlCQoQ away llOuu tuC luNC anu AL g
head. Six knife wounds, each half inch
in diameter rnged the skull base; two
more were on each side OF the neck.
There were deep cuts in both wrists and
over the backs of the hands. In the left
side OF the chest we're eight stabs and an.
other below the left collar bone. One ear
had been penetrated by knife. A rib
had been broken and one of the lungs had
collapsed from the weight Of the blow.
The intestines we're exposed by long
cut crossing from side to side of the
abdomen
In Just such fashion might the ape OF
Edgar Allan Poes famous tale, 1.-THE Muir
ders in the Rue Morgue," have vented its
brute wrath upon its victims
Casting about the sheriff found OH the
bridge above marks that might have been
made by the dragging OF body. The
trail stopped just over where the form had
lain, as though the corpse had been raised
at this spot and thrown over. Sheriff and
men followed this trail through the snow.
1t led them to a split tree.
Here, written red in the snow, was a
story OF torture and death. Blood was
scattered thclsly about the sapling's base
The snow was trodden down close TO it,
as though pounded in the asonies OF the
one bound to it, There were the foot.
prints of two men.
But also around the tree were numer-
GUS imprints OF q woman's small and
dainty shoes!
These imprints merged into the trodden
space close to the base of the tree, as
though she who had made them had aided
in the torture: and they appeared in a
half circle a little distance away, as
though the woman had danced there in
the snow while the prisoner was slowly
dying.
II the Sherin and his men had ever read
De Maupassant's story OF the old French
mother and the vengeance she wreaked
on the Chlans who at last came into her
grasp. they would have found therein soma
parallels 10 the signs OF struggle before
them-and, perhaps the motive; for 1t
was clear that human beings and not
beasts has done this murder.
Mutilated as were face and body, with
no strip OF clothing to aid Identification,
the trail seemed to end at the torture tree.
But when she sheriff and his party brought
the body back 10 Rochester and placed II
IN the morgue a detective at headouar ters
remembered that on the night before a
ta1icab driver had reported to him that
Detective Arnold" wanted to hire him to
transfer himself a young woman and a.
manacied man from a private car which
had broken down in one Of the city streets.
BEFORE acceding to the request the chauf.
feur had taken the precaution Of telephon.
Ing and asking whether the commission
was legitimate. The detective who had
received the call knew no Detective
Arnold, but he thought that lie might he
one or the numerous private operatiyes or
an oHlcer from one OF the surroundin q
towns. He had told the taxicab driver n
use his own judgment and to renort tn
headquarters II anything OF a suspicious
nature happened. ''u'
The ta1icab driver was found. He had
made no report, he said, because nothina
out OF the way had occurred He had
taken the party to a little cross.road SGT.
tlement, had collected his fare and 70.
turned to the city. The manacled m.n
mad made no appeal nor outcry of anv
KIND He had sat silent and the other two
mad not spoken. 20 far as the chauffeur
;ould hear, throughout the ride.
Here was greater mystery! WHY. I,