The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1925-12-17


over a strange series of slayings tina
seem TO point to maniac killer thai
is roaming the country and battling de-
lection though the crime-deteetint
mchinery of all FIVE of the states II
which these strange murders have oc.
cured has worked diligently to dis
cover the guilty one or ones.
Wisconsin, Colorado, Nebraska, Tndi.
ana and Illinois are the states in
which roadside Sayings, so similar in
details as to make them seem to be
the work Of one person, have occurred
within the past few months. Illinois
has had two such mysteries, and in
all of the cases the victims have been
lovers except in a single instance,
and that was the killing in an auto
mobile at night as they neared their
country home, Of banker at Batavia,
ILL.,, his wife and their young son. The
fact that in this case the clothing
was torn from the body Of the wife
points to the moron thought to have
done the other deeds.
All the other crimes were COM
mitted while the lovers were sitting
in automobiles parked beside country
roads. In each case the victims were
shot to death with no chance to de-
fend themselves, and the murderer IN
each case has completely vanished,
leaving no important clue behind.
Similarity In Cases Astounds.
The remarkable similarity in each
of these wanton murders, and the
fact that there was no apparent mo-
tive for the killings in any instance,
h.5 aroused the belief among detec-
tives and police that murderous
lunatic is at large--a wandering
moron of criminal instinct, who fits
from state to state sufficiently cum
ming to elude capture, but driven on
by the irresistible Impulse to take
human life.
Two details of the Kenosha chapter
IN this chain Of maniaca1 slayings is
familiar to newspaper readers. The
sort of insanity which might lead a
feeble-minded person to commit such
a crime is uncommon, but scientists
have met other cases of it in milder
form. Sometimes the wretch has the
delusion that he has been unjustly
&. treated in love affair. This weighs
on his weakened mind, and finally the
sight Of other people enjoying them
selves as lovers is likely to throw
him into frenzy.
The first of the series of murders
took place one night last May when
the murderer came across young
Howard Tucker and his fiancee,
Katherine Herbers, sitting in fuckers
car on the side of dark road on the
outskirts of Fors Wayne, Ind.
It was deserted road, but the
sounds Of the shots carried clearly
across the fields. 1t was an unusual
sound for that quiet countryside, and
several motorists on the main high
way half mile or so away heard the
fusilade. They turned back into the
little road--which was also known as
Lovers Lane"-and found Tucker and
Miss Herbers dying from bullet
wounds. Miss Herbers was already
unconscious and Tucker, with his
strength fast ebbing, was holding her
in his arms. Before he died he man
aged to say that he did not know who
had attacked him, but that the
stranger had had Every high pitched
voice." This is one of the meager
clues which may aid in running down
the murderer.
Man With ShrilI Voice.
One thing that convinces the police
that this peculiar series of killings is
the work of the same man is the fact
that, in the three cases where anyone
has survived the shots, they have
said that he had an extremely high
pitched voice.
On the next morning it was dis
covered that man who had lived in
small cabin near the scene of the
murder had disappeared. He was a
laborer who worked first in one place
and then another in railway and road
construction camps. Checking up on
few of the Jobs he had had previous
to coming to Fort Wayne, it was dis
covered that he had never had any
companions and never remained in one
place long enough to permit much to
be known about him. The fact that
the mysterious Filler seems constant
ly moving from one part of the coun-
try to another would indicate that he
probably has some such job as this.
But the police have theory that he
may be person of higher type who
adopted the role of wandering work
man as a disguise, and that after his
crimes he probably discards his
laborers's clothing and makes his
escape in his natural capacity-possi-
bly, some respectable business man
not suspected of being abnormal and
we'll known in some western city.
In less than a month after the Fort
Wayne tragedy another murder, bear
ing every evidence that it was the
work of the same man, was committed
on a lonely country road near Bloom
ingdale, Ill.
In this case the killer was not sc
thorough in his work, and one of his
intended victims, although seriously
wounded, lived to tell what hac
happened and to give a description Of
the stranger.
First Illinois Staying.
Ivan Blake was sitting in hi:
parked automobile with Miss Frances
Schuester. 1t was very dark night
and neither Blake nor Miss Schuestel
Snew that anyone was near their ca
until shot rang out immediatel!
beside them. Blake slumped off thu
seat and to the floor, shot through thu
head. He died instantly.
Miss Schuester leaped from the ca
to the road, but the stranger, whom
she had not yet seen, seized her ant
tried to draw her to the side of tn
road. She fought back at him, an
he fred his revolver again. TIL
bullet pierced her jaw and RENDERED
III. 4S..E SaOk fcfz