Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-05-06
PAR|(ERHASSULVED'
NEARLY 90 DEATHS.
Mount HoIIy's Famous Detec-
tive spurns Offers to Go Else
where at Fancy Salary
BEGAN WITH, HORSE THIEF

Ellis Howard Parker, Burlington
County's solver OF murder mysteries,
became a detective by catching horse
thieves.
Ellis--nobody calls him anything else
In Burlington County and the neigh
boring parts Of South Jersey---was the
son Of n hotelkeeper at Wrightstown.
That was before the day of the auto
mobile and the automobile thief-Ellis
was born in 1S71---and horse thieves
were the pest of the countryside.
They had what they called a "Pur-
suing Society" in Wrightstown, and
Ellis became it's secretary. The society
was. formed to catch horse thieves. and
so successful was Ellis that when he
was twenty two years old Prosecutor
Budd, Of Burlington County, asked him
to be county detective. He's been that
ever since.
Caught Many Murderers
In his years of service, Ellis has
made thousands Of arrests for all kinds
of crimes. He has arrested ninety six
persons for murder. and Of this number
has obtained eighty eight convictions.
He has three men in jail at present &C.
cused Of murder, Harry G. Mohr and
Charles NJ. Powell, for the Brunen
murder. and Sergeant Grover Lands
Duncan. for the murder Of Sergeant
Michael Gregor, at Camp Dix. Powell
and Duncan confessed on successive
days.
Ellis has taken part in scores Of cele-
brated murder investigations, one of the
most noted having been the murder of
Washington Hunter, O wealthy farmer,
years ago. Parker convicted John
Young and Charles Brown of the mur-
der.
He sent Giuseppe Iraca to the chair
for the murder of Henry D. Rider, a
rich cranberry bog owner. and sew
eral others to long terms in prison for
the same crime. One of the men con
victed was sentenced and served his
term in Italy.
BY means Of the number in an Eng
lish- made watch, for which he sent all
the way to Liverpool. Parker convicted
two negroes, Rufus johnson and Georg.
Small, of the murder of Anna Allison
servant on the Strawbridge estat
near Moorestown. He had the men un.
der arrest few hours after he had re-
ceived the watch number.
Solved Brutal Staying
The most recent case which brough
him country wide reputation was tn
brutal murder Of Dave" Paul, Cam.
den bank runner, for which Raymond
Schuck and Frank J. James paid the
death penalty. Both confessed.
1t Is characteristic of Parker that
he somehow manages to get confessions
from most Of his murder suspects. Yet
1t is his boast that he never has re-
sorted to violence or the brutailties Of
the third degree" He uses psychol-
ogy instead.
His way is to leave muir.
der suspect alone with his own
thoughts, working busily on the case
meanwhile and getting together all the
information he can on it. Then, from
time to time, he will pay his prisoner
brief visit and in casual converse
ton drop some hint of what he knows.
In the. end the puzzled and curious
criminal. not knowing just how much
Parker has learned, will unburden him
self Of the whole guilty secret.
Parker's uncanny power of getting
at the root of mysteries has made him
greatly feared. especially among the
Negroes Of Burlington County. They
call him the imam who can catch any.
body"