Evening star., 1935-05-14
LIMERICK MURDER
PROBE REVIVED BY
DISCOVERY OF GUN
BaIIistiCs Expert Checks
Markings in Effort to Solve
1880 Mystery.
ATTEMPT BEING MADE
TO TRACE OWNERSHIP
Rusty Automatic Found by Boy
in Ashes of Home Where
Girl Then Lived.

Working on the theory they at last
have found the gun used to slay Beu-
lah Limerick-a murder which stir
red Washington for months more than
four years ago-poGce today launched
an intensive search for the weapons s
owner.
When that person is found, they
believe, the crime, one OF the most
battling in recent police annals, will be
at least near solution.
Meanwhile, the police department
mustered its scientific resources to
make doubly sure this is no false clue.
Lieut.. John H. Fowler, police ballis-
tics expert, was hard at work today
checking and re-checking his find
ings. Within a few days he expects
to be able to say definitely that the
gun which was found under an ash
pile in the yard of the slain girls
former home at 18 Nineteenth street
southeast, was or was not the weapon
which caused her death.
Shell Is Similar.
The exploded shell in its chamber
Is the same type as that found in the
19-year-old girls room and the
grooves and lans of the gun barrel,
though badly corroded by long expo
sure, are such as might have caused
the marks on the bullet lodged in the
floor beneath Beulah's bed
If tests show that the automatic S
firing pin always makes the same
mark on the rim o. a cartridge as
those on the two exploded shells
found in the Limerick home just after
the murder this angle of the police
case will be near complete.
The gun was found April 29 by s.
year-old Albert J. Pearson, grandson
of Lee A. Pearson, present tenant OF
the Nineteenth street house and
turned over to police last night. Rain
and lye from the ashes under which
police presume it has lain since De-
cember 81, 1880, the morning of the
murder, have caused the composition
stock to diSintegrate; the magazine
is gone and softer portions of metal
have been eaten away. An exploded
shell was jammed in the chamber.
Number Filed OFF.
The serial number apparently had
been filed off, but Lieut.. Fowler was
able to make out another number,
which he hopes will lead to the owner.
Finding the last person whose hand
graSped the stock may be an i'm
possible task. From the time it was
sold and a record made of the pur-
chase the gun may have changed
hands many times, police point out.
A long chain of transfers may have
to be tediously followed before the
last owner is found.
The little boy came upon the weapon
as he played in the yard. 1t was al
most buried in the hard ground, cov-
cred by ashes. Pearson found Albert
chasing a playmate, pointing the gun
In mock threat.
When the Pearsons moved into the
house in November of last year there
was a huge pile of ashes in the yard.
From time to time Pearson moved por-
tions of it away until the gun appar-
emily lay just below the surface, where
the boy found it. How it came there
Is not known.
Beulah died from bullet wound
Just behind the right ear, which was
30 cleverly covered with hair that it
was not discovered until her body
reached an undertaking establishment.
At $50 am. Vernon Limerick,
brother of the girl, now % years old,
discovered her body lying on the
sroooth InStaiOad shnetS of her he'd
looking as If death had come peace
fully. She had spent the night before
dancing.
It was not until later that two blood
soaked sofa pillows were found, def
nitely designating the place at which
she was shot.
Held as suspects during the original
investigation we're the brother; Rich
ard Reed, a youth who lived at the
Limerick home; William Paddy, 26,
and Robert F. Langdon, the police
man on the beat. All were released.