The Ordway new era., 1922-05-19

and other master SleuthS OF fiction
have arrived at their infallibly correct
conclusions by deductive reasoning or
by mechanical apparatus which regis
ters every fraction of a heartbeat or
every minute change in the suspects
respiration.
But every now and then these same
methods are used by detectives in real
life, frequently with great degree
of success.
For example. there was the Hotel
IroQuois murder case in which Police
Commissioner Dougherty of New York
applied mixture of the Holmes and
Kennedy rules in such manner as to
make the guilty man practically con-
vict himself. although at the time he
was ignorant of the fact that he was
doing it.
William H. Jackson, wealthy guest
of the hotel, was found dead in his
room one morning, stabbed through
the heart. His gold watch and sew
eral other pieces of jewelry had not
been touched. but the only money in
his clothes were three twenty-five
As Jackson was known to have car
ried a good deal of money. the sup
position was that he had been muir
dered by someone who had either lost
his nerve or who feared to take the
watch and jewelry because they could
be too easily traced.
Even Commissioner Dougherty's
knowledge of the working of the
criminal mind could find little that
could be dignified by the term ''clue."
Jackson had evidently returned to
his room rather late the night before
in fact one of the clerks recalled
seeing him enter shortly after mid
night-but the elevator boy said that
he had come up alone, and that DO
one had gone up or come down from
the same floor for several hours after
wards
THAT means nothing" Dougherty
pointed out
After a careful examination Of the
room and the body of the murdered
man. Dougherty returned to his Office
and contented himself with seeing
that the machinery of the police was
kept carefully oiled. But to no effect.
AS days passed without further de-
velopments, the public began to criti-
cize and find fault
Finally, when the wave of criticism
had reached a height that he could
no longer afford to overlook it, Com
missioner Dougherty decided to try
method which, as he phrased it, was
shot in the dark-and a hundred-to-
one shot at that"
"All we've been able to find out,
he said to one of his lieutenants, sis
that Jackson was stabbed by a left
handed man, standing behind him and
slightly to one side of him. Jackson
dropped without a sound and the muir
derer was able to lift his roll with
out disturbing the body in the slight
est. The whole thing probably didn't
take more than sixty seconds. Now,
excluding the guests in the hotel at
the time-most of whom its manifest
ly impossible to reach-I want you TO
round up every person who was in the
Iroquois that night. Find out which
ones are left-handed, and bring 'ern
Third degree, chief?'
NO" snorted the commissioner
THAT wouldn't do in this case. At
least the old-fashioned kind wouldn't
I'm going to try something new It's
gamble, but We've got to take a
chance"
One by one the left-handed brigade
was marched into Dougherty's office |
One by one he put to them a set of
questions. one of the first of which |
regarded their health and the state of
their pulse. once he had his finger
on the suspects wrist, he never lifted
1t until the final question had been
asked and answered.
1t was not until the commissioner
commenced to question Paul Geidel,
the elevator boy who had taken Jack
son up to his floor the night that he
had been murdered, that he noted any
material change in the pulse beats of
the persons he was examining. When
he asked Geidel what he had done i'm
mediately after Jackson had stepped
out of his car, the boys pulse hesi-
tated and then commenced to race.
But his voice was quiet enough as he
replied that Jackson had asked him
for some ice water, that he had
brought 1t, placed it outside his door,
and gone on with his work.
Instantly a thought flashed into
DOugherty's mind-"Jackson opened
the door, produced roll of bills,
asked for change for a dollar, and
tipped Geidel quarter, slipping the
other three into his vest packet.
Geidel, seeing the money. murdered
Jackson either then or later At
least he knows something about the
crime. His pulse is proof of that"
PM aloud tho nrlais or,I,