The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1920-02-15
N the morning OF January the
brakeman of a train pulling slowly
into Rochester. N. Y, thought he

into H0cnester, N. l., thouSnt NO
saw a 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
II had passed out Of the range OF their
vision. The conductor thought. too, that
the partly snow-covered object might be
q 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 on to the
bridge. They found the huddled heap
It was the frozen, naked and mutilated
body OF murdered man.
But there was that about 1t which made
the officers, hardened as they were to
gruesome 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 a broken skull. The bone had
been crushed In at the base and the
upper Jaw was broken. But both ears had
been cut to shreds. The skin had been
scratched away from the face and fore
head Six knife wounds, each half inch
in diameter, ringed 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 were eight stabs and an
other below the left collar bone. One ear
had been penetrated by a knife. A rib
had been broken and one of the lungs had
collapsed from the weight Of the blow.
The intestines were exposed by long
cut crossing from side to side OF the
abdomen.
In Just such fashion might the ape OF
Edgar Allan Poe's famous tale, 1.-THE Muir.
ders in the Rue Morgue," have vented its
brute wrath upon its victims.
Casting about, the sheriff found on 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 IOllOWeU ILLS IIdu thiOuSh th0 ohoV.
It led them to a split tree.
Here, written red in the snow, was a
story OF torture and death. Blood was
scattered thickly about the sapling's base.
The snow was trodden down close to it.
as though pounded in the agonies of the
one bound to It, There were the foot.
prints Of two men.
But also around the tree were numer-
Gus imprints of a 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!
IL the Sheriff and his men had ever read
De Maupassant's story of the old French
mother and the vengeance she wreaked
on the Uhlans who at last came into her
grasp, they would have found therein some
parallels to the signs of. struggle before
thCh anu, poih"PS, 'hC Aho'iNO, III IL
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 to Rochester and placed 1t
In the morgue detective at headquarters
remembered that on the night before a
taxicab driver had reported to him that q
Detective Arnold" wanted to hire him to
transfer himself, a young woman and a
manacled 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 he might be
one OF the numerous private operatives or
an officer from one Of the surrounding
towns. He had told the taxicab driver to
Use his own judgment and to report to
headquarters II anything of a suspicious
nature happened.
The taxicab driver was found. He had
made no report, he said, because nothing
out of the way had occurred He had
taken the party to a little cross.road set
Element, had collected his fare and re-