The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1922-04-14
True
Detective Stories
THE DOUBLE CRIME

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Copyright BY The Wheeler Syndicate, Inc.
TT WAS In the late summer of 1908
that the New York police discovered
the body OF a man, evidently an
Italian, concealed In a barrel on the
East side. Every mark that could
possibly supply clue to his identin-
cation had been removed--even the
labels had been clipped from his
clothes-and the manner in which his
face had been mutilated rendered him
totally unacceptable.
But, Just as the case was about to
be entered upon the book Of New
YOrk's unsolved mysteries, 1t was
cleared up through a coincidence so
startling that no writer Of detective
fiction would have dared make use
Of 1t.
On the night Of the murder, William
J. Flynn, then chief of the Eastern
division OF the United States secret
service, with headquarters In New
York, was working on one of the
numerous counterfelting cases which
occur so frequently in the Italian Sec
ton of tf7e metropolis.
Flynn himself was elected to trail a
pair Of Italians whom he had reason
to believe were working for or with
the cOunterfeiters. The trail led to
an Italian grocery, where, from the
shadow of a doorway across the
street, the government detective could
see into a lighted room In the suspect
ed house. A few moments later q
covered wagon drew up in front of
the house, a man got out, entered the
grocery, and made his way into the
very room that Flynn was watching.
The light from the lamp fell directly
upon his face, and the secret service
operative realized that this must be
new addition to the gang, for he was
certainly no one that he had seen be-
fore. Then the curtains to the win
dow were drawn, and Flynn aban-
doned his chase for the time being,
The next morning the murdered
man was discovered, nearly half a
mile from the place where Flynn had
hidden himself the night before. 1t
was several days later that the opera
tive read the official account of the
crime and noted that the body had
been found In a sugar barrel, partly
filed with blood-stained sawdust. The
date of the murder, coupled with the
use of sugar barrel, recalled TO the
operatives mind the fact that he had
been watching an Italian grocery at
or about the time that the foreigner
had been killed. Merely to satisfy
himself that there was no connection
between the counterfeiters and the
murdered man, Flynn went to the
morgue and examined the body. The
peculiar shape of the forehead, the
manner in which the hair splayed out
above the prominent ears and the
blood-stained green hat which had
been found In the barrel, told the story
beyond the shadow Of a doubt. 1t
was the stranger whom Flynn had
seen entering the store which he had
been watching!
Feeling certain that here was sign
which pointed toward the operations
Of the gang which he was after, Flynn
had the body photographed from a
number of angles, while experts in
physiognomy reconstructed the fea-
lures to something approaching life
like appearance. Then, armed with
these post-mortem pictures, Flynn
took a trip to Ossining to see If any
of the members of the Italian colony
In Sing Sing could identify the dead
man.
The idea proved to be a good one,
for a convict whom Flynn knew-an
Italian serving time for another coun-
terfeiting case-identlt1ed the photo
graphs as being those of his brother
in-law, Maruena BenedettO, whom he
described as being a peaceful hard
working citizen who had never been
implicated In any of the crimes of the
italian settlement.
Working backward from this clue,
Flynn and the other secret service
operatives trailed the Italians whom
the chief had seen In the grocery
store on the night Of the murder, and
1t was not long before they had made
a complete roundup Of the gang. AS
was to be expected in a crime of this
nature, alibls were plentiful, but, as
was usual, these were none too well
supported by fact, and 1t was com
paratively simple matter for the po-
lice to get at the bottom of the case,
once the identity of the victim had
been established.
A tudIcious application of the third
degree" brought to light the fact that
Benedetto had been killed because he
had gotten wind Of the counterfeiting
plot, and because he was the brother
in-law Of the man who later identified
the body-a man who had incurred
the undying enmity of his compa-
triots by turning states evidence. The
infiexible laws Of the society to which
they both belonged-one of the So
cieties which rules Little Italy with a
rule of iron and hand Of blood-de
manded the sacrifice Of the next of
i,t, In tho ovapt Of iDforO,a fio0 hoinC