The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1936-12-10
Wild" Murder Ride"
Sounded Like Dream
Bill Fraser Kept death Date"
With Sweetheart-Search
Ending in Raleigh
BY DALE HARRISON

RAILWAY, N. j., Dec. 5.-Bill
Fraser, a bit dishevelled, braked the
car in front his mothers home one
February night in 1881, and called
his cousin to come out.
'Meet the girl friend" said Bill
Fraser.
The cousin held out his hand. The
girl friend" made no move to ac-
knowledge it.
meet the girl friend" Bill Fraser
kept saying.
The cousin snapped on his flash
light and its rays swept the front
seat of the sedan.
Corpse With Him
Fraser Slouched behind the wheel,
babbling his introduction. Slumped
beside him was woman.Her clothes
had been stripped from her. She was
dead.
81 killed her." Fraser said "You
put her in the back seat and cover
her up" The other man declined.
Fraser got out and did it himself.
81 was just over to my house" he
said. 81 told my wife I'd killed
Phoebe Stader, and she wouldn't be-
lieve me. She said I'm such liar
she can't believe me; but you believe
me because you san see. Phoebe's
dead"
There was a rifle bullet hole
through the forehead. A rifle lay in
the back seat.
Get me some money" Fraser told
his cousin. Send it to me at Raleigh,
N. G. I'm going South-Phoebe and
l."
The next morning William Fraser
and Phoebe Stader were missing.
Some people said they'd run away
together. The cousin told police his
story; but it was bizarre almost
like some that he might have dream
ed. Bill Fraser couldn't orally have
killer her.
Fraser, father of two children, had
been a restaurant operator in New
York City until he received a $685.
900 inheritance from his father. He
quit his job and he quit the role of
husband and father. Phoebe Stader
became ''the other woman" The
$4,000 flew. When it was gone
Phoebe Stader decided that she had
not really loved Bill Fraser at all.
Over a quart of whiskey she told
him. On the ride home he killed her.
A few weeks later,a negro beat the
brush in a woods near Bowling
Green, Virginia, hunting lst dog.
Overhead, buZZards circled. Maybe
his dog was dead. He pushed on to
the spot around which the buzzardS
lowered.
Negro Finds Body
But it was not his dog that was
dead. It was a woman. The nude
body was almost unacceptable. The
Virginia police came. They had no
record of any missing woman. Up in
New Jersey the police never dream
ed that the body found in Virginia
held any interest to them.
In Raleigh, N. c., rooming house
a roomer snored. Most men snore,
but this one snored out of all reason
like very tired man with
nothing to worry about. 1t was the
snoring that attracted the rooming
house keepers attention. Who was
this fellow-this William Devlin?
The rooming house keeper read
in the papers about Bill Fraser's and
Phoebe Stader's disappearance. She
read about the body found in the
woods near Bowling Green. And she
read that Fraser often used another
name: William Devline.
killer Arrested
They arrested him. Phoebe Sta
der's husband identified the body
found in the woods as that OF his
wife. There was a mark on her hip
the max of reducing belt she had
worn for years; scar on the knee;
dental work.
cit was an accident" said Fraser,
back in New Jersey. "She wanted to
look at the rifle that was in the back
seat. She reached for it. The trigger
must have caught on something. ="
On somthing; on the finger of Bill
Fraser's right hand.
From Railway he had driven
South-through New Jersey, Penn
sylvania, Maryland, the District of
Columbia, Virginia, with his inamo-
rata's corpse for companion: muir
der parade.
In the woods near Bowling Green,
Va, they parted company.
On the first of April, 1932-on the
day of all fools-William Fraser was
executed in the same electric chair
in which four years later Bruno
Richard Hauptmann died.