Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1921-06-17
MYSTERIOUS ATTACK

Last Thursday night, June 9th, Mrs.
Craig, who lives with her eighty-three
year old mother in a little cottage on
Pine e nj near Hudson avenue, at
nine o'clock locked all the doors and
windows and went to bed. For a long
time she lay awake talking to her
mother. Hearing a little noise she
remarked to her mother, who was
sleeping in an adjoining room, that it
must be a mouse. A little later she
thought she heard something fall in
the unfinished building next door.
Then, at about twenty minutes of n
a man jumped out from behind the
clothes tree at the head of her bed and
seized her by the throat, attempting
at the same time to wrap a coat around
her head. She screamed and struggled
and the rosary which she slept with
beneath her pillow got tangled in the
intruder's hand. Finally, tearing her.
self loose she ran screaming out into
Pine avenue through the front door
which she managed to unlock. The
intruder escaped through the rear door
leading in the direction of Maple ave-
nue. and the West Wildwood bridge as
a large crowd of people formed outside
the Craig cottage.
Mrs. Craig couldn't see the man
distinctly, but she says at first she
thought he was a negro, but later de-
cided that he was white and had either
short curly hair or raj altogether
bald. Mrs. Ellen Wilson, the aged
mother, says that when she heard her
out of bed, but became entangled in
the bed clothes in her haste and fell.
When she was able to get up, the man
had gone and she followed her daugh-
ter out into the street as fast as her
rheumatism would allow her. Mrs.
must have entered just before they
went to bed at nine o'clock when she
went out to examine a small rose bush
which she is growing in the back
yard.
Mrs. Craig and her mother have
OpSII oCNSn OulllllClS III WIN NOOOs
This is their second season in that
cottage which they took about the
middle of May. Mrs. Craig is now
recovering from an operation on her
head, and her mother, when she heard
the screams, thought that she was
having another relapse.
When the representative Of the Five
Mile Beach Journal called, the two
women had the house locked up tight,
and were palpably very nervous Mrs.
Craig had distinct finger marks on the
side of her neck where the man had
choked her. There were footprints on
the floor outlined in white, as though
the intruder had been stepping in
plaster leading out the back way.
Mrs. Wilson is threatening to roast
the villain"
Mrs. Harry Parker, wife of Harry
Parker, a prominent Camden hard
ware man, who lives three doors away,
heard the screams and climbed out of
her window to investigate, leaving
Harry, Jr., two years old, sleeping
soundly in another room. She took
Mrs. Craig and Mrs. Wilson into her
home for the rest of the night.
Mr.. cambridge, who has opened up
a new grocery store on Pine avenue,
heard the screams and hurried out to
find the cause. He met Mrs. Parker,
and they both hurried over to Mrs.
Craig's house. He sent n of the
spectators to the nearest phone for the
police, and then went over the Craig
cottage with a f1ashlight, but discov-
cred nothing but the disordered room
and the real door, which had been
locked, wide open. He then returned
to the Parker bungalow and sat up
with the three women until daylight.
Officers Lockwood and Crawford ar
rived at approximately half past one
and made Investigations. Officer
Crawford left instructions that moth
ing was to be touched, and returned
to make further Investigations the
next day. He hopes to run the culprit
to earth shortly.
-O-