New-York tribune., 1920-06-28
The Tribune Fresh Air Fund Clew
Clew Sought
At Home of
Elwell Friend
CONTINUED from page one)

connection with the crime certainty
and the police are unwilling to make
an arrest without this strong evidence.
The suspect, however, will not be lost
sight of and his movements and state
ments will be gone over carefully un-
til it is established that he is undoubt-
edly the murderer or that he knows
nothing of the crime.
Lead to Feud Motive
The investigators, it appears, are
finding their greatest difficulty in un-
raveling the mystery because practi-
cally nothing was left behind by the
murderer but the shell of the bullet
that pierced the whist kings brain.
They have been thus thrown on the only
other resource left, the discovery of a
motive.
In this connection, while they have
not abandoned the unwritten law, the
love or Jealousy motives advanced for
the Killing from time to time, there is
strong tendency to accept the theory
OF racetrack or gambling feud.
One of the leaders in charge of the
Investigation threw some additional
light on the circumstances surround
ing the murder in discussing the feud
theory. He said that Elwel was found
IN his pajamas and bare feet. This,
Judging from the habits of the man.
was an unusual circumstance. Mrs.
Marie Larsen, his housekeeper, has
said that Elwell was extremely sens-
tive, and that he would never appear
before any one without his false teeth
or toupee if he could help it.
On this basis, says the investigator,
one would hardly expect him to answer
door bell in the state of undress in
which he was found dying in his re-
ception room. 1t is entirely possible
that shortly after the mailman de-
livered the mail at about 1885 o'clock
on the fatal Friday morning that Ell
we'll came downstairs rot expecting to
see any one. If there had been any
excited ringing of the bell. he rea-
soned, it would have been the most
slipped on his trousers and into his
slippers before going downstairs.
Not expecting anyone, he opened
the first door to pick up the mail
when the murdered appeared at the
door. The shooting, it is the belief Of
this authority, occurred soon after
Elwell got his mail and began reading
it. The evidence shows, says the in
vestigator, that he had opened only
one letter, which was found in his
hands, and that the others were on
the floor, indicating that he may have
had them in his hand and let them fall
when struck down.
Believe Slayer Was Friend
The official is convinced that the
man who shot Elwell was either a sub
ordinate or man SO familiar with
him that Elwell had no compunctions
about appearing before him without
his teeth and in his bare feet. 1t is
think that the crime was committed
by one of Elwel's acquain uances of
the racetrack.
The bare feet element for the moment
is being emphasized more than any
other in an approach to the solution
OF the murder, and as indicating the
type of man that fired the shot. 1t
is pictursd by this authority that
Elwell may have been entirely unaware
of the presence Of the murderer, even
after he had picked up his mail and
gone into the reception room to read
it. An examination of the soles of the
dead mans feet showed scarcely any
indication of his having walked about
the house after coming downstairs.
There apparently were no distressful
moments before his death, when Elwell
might have paced up and down room
in the course of dispute. Had there
been such a time, it would have shown
on his feet.
The supposition is advanced too, that
Elwell heard some noise in the house
and that it would have been natural
for him to investigate in his bare feet.
Finding no one, as he descended the
three sets Of stairs, he casually picked
up the mail in the vestibule and, as he
proceeded to read, the murderer came
suddenly from behind a chair or adj
joining room and fired the fatal shot.
In this connection it has been pointed
out that the chair opposite to the one
in which Elwell was killed had been
moved, and that it was quite possible
that the murderer might have been
concealed behind it before Elwell took
his seat in the reception room. The
question of how the criminal got into