The Meeker herald., 1922-10-07
True
Detective Stories
THE DOUBLE CRIME

'eho sA AhV AekC hAut4tI OI 1SJ
that the New York police discovered
the body Of q man. evidently al
Italian. concealed In q barrel on tbs
East side. Every mark that could
possibly supply q clue to his identif,
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 n the case was about ia
be entered upon the book Of New
FORKS unsolved mysteries. II was
cleared up through a coincidence 20
startling that no writer Of detective
fiction would have dared make use
of II.
On the night Of the murder. william
J. Flynn. then chief Of the Easter.
division of the United States secret
service. with headquarters In New
York. was working on one Of tha
numerous counterfeiting cases which
occur so frequently In the Italian see.
ton Of the metropolis.
Flynn himself was elected to trail q
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 4 doorway across the
street, the government detective could
see into 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 4
new addition TO the gang, for he was
certainly no one that he had seen he
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 .
mile from the place where Flynn had
hidden himself the night before. II
WAS several days later that the opera.
tive read the ofIicial account OF the
crime and noted that the body had
been found In 4 sugar barrel. partly
filled 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 bndy. 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
beeo found In the barrel. told the story
beyond the shadow Of q doubt. It
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 q
number Of angles. while experts In
physiognomy reconstructed the fea-
lures to something approa ching q life
like appearance. Then. armed with
these post.mortem pictures, Flynn
took 4 trip to OssininE to see II any
Of the members Of the italian colony
In Sing Sing could Identify the dead
man.
The Idea proved to be 4 good one.
for a convict whom Flynn knew-an
Italian serving time for another coun-
terfeiting case-identihed the photo
graphs as being those Of his brother
in.law. Maruena -Benedetto. whom he
described as being 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 traiied 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 " the gang. As
was to be expected In q crime Of this
nature. alibis were plentiful. but. as
was usual, tl,ess were mono too well
supported BY fact. and 1t was a com.
paraJvely simple matter for the po-
lice to get at the bottom Of the case.
once the identity Of the victim had
been established.
A judicious application Of the "thlrd
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.Iaw 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
lnfexible laws Of the society to which
they both belonEed-one Of the So
cIeties which rules Little Italy with Z
rule Of Iron and 4 hand Of blood-de-
manded the sacrifice Of the next Of