The Daily Alaska empire., 1938-09-26

in slaughter house, watching em- ployeeS at their work. This con- vinced him the killer is not butch CT. He does not believe the man Is a demented surgeon as some have advanced Merylo, in fact, dlsagreeS with the contention of Coroner 5. R. Gerber that the dissections were skilfully executed.
 The detective said cuts on some of the bodies show the killer some times found difficulty in accom- plishing the beheadings. Fles n marks indicate, he added, that a natural skilful cut was not made,
 Merylo has dipped into books on all sorts of mental alteration and depravities. Psychiatrists and psy- chologists advise him A physician in London sent a 13-page. letter. After the last two bodies were found, he made a study of nec- rophilism fondness for bodies.)
 He saw a possibility the last two bodies may have been taken from graves and dissected before being placed on a city dump only few blocks from the downtown district.
 Seven men and five women arc listed by Coroner Gerber as vic tims of the killer The first two bodies, decapitated, were found in September, 1885, near Kingsbury Run, a small stream which wan ders through an industrial district.
 A Woman Was First
 The body of Mrs. Florence Po- lila, 42, once arrested in vice raid, was found four months later. The torso had been cut into two pieces. the limbs were disarticu- lated. The head never was found.
 At intervals during the next two and half years, the dissected bodies of four more women and five men were found-some near Kingsbury Run, some in Cuyahoga River, others in Lake Erie and like the last two, in a city dump.
 The torso of the last woman vic- tim had a quilt for it's Shroud. The quilt, Merylo said 'is the best clue we've got" It was traced to rag shop near the vacant lot where Mrs. Polillas body was found-but the trail vanished there.
 Six detectives and six fire war dens went through four-Square mile area in that district looking for the grisly workshop of the killer, but found nothing.
 Merylo advertised in A different languages asking readers to report the discovery of any large quantity of blood. There were responses, none worthwhile.
 Among the strange characters Merylo encountered was man who paid from three to five dollars to watch some one else cut off chickens head He tainted, how ever, whenever he saw a human being in pain. Another inyestiga- tion turned up a man who visited pastures, cut small strips of beef from grazing cattle and roasted them over a fire in the field Both were eliminated as suspects.
 Hunts In The Jungles'
 The detective disguised himself to visit the "jungles' of transients. Most of the victims of the torso killer are believed to be travellers, since only three have been identi- fled. The jungle hunt was fruit less.
 Merylo and his fellow officer, Zalewski, has arrested probably 300" persons along this amending search. They have taken 54 per sons of questionable mental fitness to probate court.
 Now starting his third year on the case, Merylo says the killings are "the last thing I think about when I go to sleep and the first when I awake" He can call off the dates the various bodies were found from memory and can re-