Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-05-02
RECONSTRUCTION OF SKULL
OF SLAIN WOMAN FINISHED
Investigation of New York
Police Department Sue
cessfuI in Delicate Task
Seldom Performed
BY JANE COMPTON

NEW YORK, April 29.-An inves-
tigator for the New York police de-
partment completed today the ire
construction" Of the skull Of an un'
identified murdered woman found
fortnight ago on a mountain near
Haverstraw, thirty miles from New
York City. This is the second occa-
sion in the history of crime when an
Understandable skull has been recon-
structed into the semblance of what
it was in life.
| In each instance the work has
been done by Captain Grant Will
lians. now retired from the police
department, who devised the method
six years ago to effect the solution
of a puzzling crime. Usually the
task of an Investigator is to recon-
struct the circumstances and motive
of the murder. Captain Williams
has gone further back than this.
He has reconstructed the murder
victim. Without such action no
| l0onIlIlCdIlOU ILLS OeloO "SS@ HO-
BILE. Without it there could be no
solution of the mystery. There was
little of anything human about the
| remnants of the murdered woman
when BOYS stumbled on the BODY
unon a. lonely mountain side Where
If must have lain unclad since some
time last fall.
Cantain Williams has covered the
sl,,1l with a. thin coating of plaster
composition. my aim was mercy
to follow the contour OF the pones
If the head and face" he explained
1T did not wish to give the race
anv EXPRESSION other than that
which the contours afford, because
If gave the wrong expression II
would hinder Identification.
cone skull differs from announcer
as one face differs from anotner,
fact which I learned during twenty
five wears of police experience:
Merely to cover the face bones VIII
a plaster compound is to reconstruct
the face so accurately that the VIC
TINS friends Immediately recognize
her, even though, because OF tne
thin coating Of plaster nesn, sue sue
may look IS II she nau oeeh Al A
some time" -4.,,o
tion the skull had shown a decidedly
italian cast of countenance, as Cap
tain Williams spread on the plaster
mixture. It later was identlfled as
that of Dominick Larosa, one OF the
'hlack hand" victims of a famous
murder farm" in Brooklyn. The
identification was made by friend
of the dead man, who tainted from
81,
| blance.
AS Captain Williams worked upon
the battered and weather. beaten
skull of the HaverstraW victim, the
features surprisingly assumed those
of distinctly sub-normal woman
The lack Of width between the eyes
came out; the narrowness OF the
| forehead; the peculiar blank nne
! from ears to mouth and the receolng
chin.
at had at first been supposed that
the woman was a girl OF nineteen
with bobbed hair" Captain Williams
| explained, "but in examining the
| skull I found that she was a woman
of between twenty-five and thirty
the wisdom teeth proved this; with
| a mass of very dark brown hair. "
After very careful study OF the
hair, glass eyes of dark gray
f1ecked with brown were inserted IN
| the skull. Those eyec were select
ed for their color and shape from
among hundreds Of specimens. Thsl
color combination was chosen as a
| likely one, considering the shade OF
the hair and as one neutral enough
not to change the appearance OF the
face if the shading happened to be
wrong. The hair was placed on the
skull and dressed in the fashion in
Dictated by the hair pins still re-
naming in it. A blouse of tan Jer'
sey, embroidered in three shades OF
brown, was draped over improvised
| shouIders-the same blouse WHICH
was found a little ways from the
victim.
| "The woman was not over five feet
TALL" said Captain Williams today.
"She did not weigh more than Ito
pounds and was very narrow across
the shoulders, not over twelve inches.
I believe from study Of the skull
that she was killed with a hammer
or some similar instrument from
| which one side was Clipped off
Whoever she was, you can depend
upon it that the reconstructed skull
resembles her sufficiently so that
anyone who knew her we'll in life
would recognize her at glance. 1t
cannot be otherwise because the
face contours have accurately been
followed"
The reconstructed head will be
compared with photographs Of New
Workers listed as missing. If no
identification is made here the skull
will be returned to Haverstraw for
further investigation among the
woman's supposed acquaintance.