The Washington times., 1922-08-22
WOMAN IS
USUAL !
IN QFF|NG
Police Learn to Find Inciting
Cause. Then Nail
Slayer.


the mysterious shooting to death
OF William r. Giberson, wealthy
taxicab owner, 'as he lay asleep
in bed in his homie at Lakehurst,
N. j., develop into one of those
rare cases in criminal annals, in
which one close to the victim is
ultimately proved to have been
his slayer instead of the burglars
or highwaymen upon whom sus-
picion was first to rest?
That is the question which to-
day agitates the minds of millions
of newspaper readers who are
students of crimes of mystery,
such as the cruel killing of Ruth
Wanderer, pretty twenty-one-
year-old bride of an ex-service
man, Lieut.. Carl Wanderer, at
khe door of their home at 4732
North Campbell avenue. Chicago,
on the night Of June Fl, 1920;
the shooting to death of Miss
Louise Owen Beattie, of Rich
mond, Va, as she rode in an
. automobile with her husband,
Henry Clay Beattie, jr., eleven
years ago; the Staying in her own
home of Mrs. Julia wilkins, while
in company with her husband,
DR.. Walter Keene Wilkins, at
Long Beach, Long Island, three
years ago, or the more recent
murder. of Honest John" Bruen,
circus and carnival man. as he
sat at a window in the kitchen
of his home at Riverside, N. j.,
the night of March 10 last.
Woman Usually Found.
In each of these cases the author
ities, guided by the famous french
maxim, "Cherchez "a femme" find
the .woman), distrusted the plausible
stories told by the surviving prin-
cipals, cast sbout for the woman
lurking in the background. silently
though none the less potently driV'
ing the slayer to his horrid crime
and found her! -
Young Beattie swore that his
wife was shot to. death by highway
men who attacked the couple at
lonely spot on the road. A mercl-
less investigation, however, brougnt
to light the fact that the youth
had become IdSClIldlu by NhS
of Beulah Binford, seventeen. who
was Younger and prettier than his
wife. Following a long and dra-
matte trial in the ancient court
house at Richmond, Va, Beattle
was convicted of murder In the
first degree and subsequently
avenged his wife's Staying on the
gallows.
Nearly Succeeded.
The case of Lieut.. Carl Wan
derer stands out above all the other
mysterious murders of this class In
two ways. First, it's unparalleled
brutality, and, second, in the close
ness with which Wanderer came
10 convincing the authorities Of the
truth of his story that midnight
marauder shot and killed his pretty
young wife.
In a confession the ex-soldier de-
clared with no show Of emotion
that he hired a homeless, penniless
(tramp to kill his wife because he
himself had decided to return to
army life and did not wish to be
hampered by a wife and an expect
ed child.
wanderer paid his terrible debt
70 the last penny. for just before
he swung into eternity from a
rope's end he became maniac,
saw his young wife's ghost fit
ting about his death cell and heard
her voice throughout. his last night
on earth.
wilkins Case Recalled.
Mrs. Julia wilkins was killed a
short time after she and her hus-
hand. DIR. Walter Keene wilkins,
reached their home in Long Beach
from their town house in Manhat-
ton late on the night Of February
27. 1919. The physician told cir
cumstantial and highly plausible
story of a struggle with burglars in
the dark vestibule of the house,
which ended, he declared, with one
OF the intruders Staying Mrs. Will
kfns and the band making its escape.
A tang of romance was Injected
into the great case of the aged physi.
clan when II was hinted that Audrey
Munson, beautiful and International
:, ly famous sculptor's model, who for.
formerly Iroomed with her mother in
the wilkins home in Manhattan,
might be called as q witness at the
trial in the courthouse at Mineola,
l.. l., IL she could be lpred from her
then home in Canada. But the case
came to its end without the eager
newspaper reading public ever learn
ing what, II anything, Miss Munson
knew about the queer marital life Of
the aged couple.
Physician Cheated Chair.
DR.. wilkins was convicted and
sentenced to die in the electric chair,
but cheated Justice by hanging him.
self with a rope In the bath room Of
tho county jail.
Tre Brunen mystery is still in
process Of unreveling by the of.
ficiais Of New Jersey. Mrs. Brunen,
VIE Of the Snowman, and her broth
er are in jail charged with COM
plicity In the murder. Each vigor-
ously protests innocence. The long
trail by detectives, which brought
about these arrests wound its lurid
way through scores of towns and
villages throughout the country in
which Brunen's performers held
street carnivals. Animal trainers,
masculine and feminine, played lead
ing roles. Whether the middIe-aged
wife, insanely Jealous at the success
OF a pretty carnival performer in
winning the affections OF the show
man away from her. stealthily shot