Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-08-25
LEROY IS ARRESTED
IN SOUTH AMERICA
Man Wanted in Connection With
Detroit-New York Trunk Muir
der Mystery Found on Ship.
by Associated Press to Every Evening

BY Associated Press to Every Evening
Rio de Janeiro. Aug. 25.--Eugene
Leroy warted by the police of Detroit,
Mich. in connection with the murder of n
woman whose body was found in n trunk
IN New York, was arrested on the British
frcighter Dryden which arrived here
Yesterday. He WAS member of the crew
and was held nj the request of United
States authorities here.
While the Dryden j. in port he will
be guarded by -four meiVbers of the mari
time police. The ship will later proceed
to Buonos Aires and thence to New York
where Leroy will be turned over to officers
from Detroit.
New York, Aug. 25.-The British
freighter DRYDEN. upon which Eugene
Leroy was arrested at Rio de Janeiro,
sailed from New York on August 3, ten
days after the body Of his supposed wife
was found jammcd in trunk in . local
warehouse.
The authorities learned, week after
the DRYDEN sailed, that a man answering
Lcroy's description was on board, and the
frcighter's captain was requested by wire
less TO hold the suspect for the Rio de
Janeiro police simultaneously Detroit
police officials filed with the State Depart
ment at Washington an application for
Leroy's arrest and tradition, should he
attempt to land in Brazil or any country
en- route.
The trunk murder" mystery in con-
nection with which Eugene Leroy was
arrested at Rio de Janeiro has ramifioa-
tions which extend from New York to
Michigan, Mississippi, Alabama, and
South America
\ few minutes after an employe of the
American Railway Express Company
here had discovered the nude and mutt
lated body of n young woman IN trunk
stored in the unclaimed baggage warehouse,
police of New York and Detroit began
following the train of evidence which led
to the victims Identification as Mrs.
Katherine Lou jackson of Sturgis, Miss,
and the location of A. A. Tatum, whose
name and a Detroit street address were
found marked on the trunk which CON
cealed the crime for more than a month.
At los Harper street, Detroit, Tatum
was unknown but someone there told
detectives that a young couple known as
Mr.. and Mrs. +. Leroy had disappeared
from that address about June 10, the date
on which the trunk was shipped to New
York.
The publicity given these two names,
Leroy and Tatum, brought forward
Andrew j. Branic, a New York express
man who said he knew Leroy under the
name of Fernandez. He told the police
he had handled a trunk for Fernandez
or Leroy, who he said, also used the name
Of o. J. Woods. He produced letter from
Leroy, enclosing check for the trunk
IN which the body was later found, asking
that IL be removed from the express ware
-. J. Il II
should call for it.
A Detroit policeman, Leo Trumbull,
then came to the front, declaring that he
and his wife, knew the young woman who
lived with Leroy as his wife at the
Harper Avenue address. When the body !
of the murdered woman arrived in Detroit |
Trumbull and his wife identified it as |
''Mrs. Leroy"
Then from the south came positive word |
that Mrs. LEROY" was really Mrs. /
jackson, wife of Kid Mccoy jackson of /
Sturgis, Mississippi.
The town was too small for Kitty |
Lou and she went away" jackson said, |
when asked to tell what he knew OF his |
wife's wanderings.
Next Tatum, the man whose name |
appeared on the mysterious trunk, walked /
into police headquarters at Birmingham, /
with the case.
He told the authorities that he had |
known Mrs. jackson in Birmingham, |
where he works as linotype operator. |
At her invitation, he said, he visited her |
in Detroit, where she told him she had |
married Leroy and that he was terribly |
Jealous" Shortly afterward, Tatum said, I
he returned 10 Birmingham. He declared /
that the next he heard of the woman was |
when he read of the discovery of her body. |
Reports have poured in from every I
quarter Of the continent indicating that /
Lerovhad been seen in this or that place. /
4 $1,000 reward offered by the police Of |
Detroit stimulated the search and he was /
reported variously as escaping to Canada /
hiding in Mexico. sailing for Brazil and |
the Bahamas and under arrest in Chicago.