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* CRUELJfURDER Yoang Woman Lnred to the Den of a Fiend Who Brutally Killed Her. HIDES THE DEAD BODY Decoyed by OlTcr of Employment. Body Discovered in Sock on Fire Kscape.?Victim Strangled, Hacked and ltumed Hejond Kecognltion.?Identified by Jewelry. New York liaB another sensational murder. The body of Ruth Wheeler, the little girl graduate, who was lured from her widowed mother on Thursday last by a decoy offer of employment, was found late Saturday afternoon, huddled In a gunny Back on a fire escape outside the apartment of Albert Wolter, the man charged with her abduction. She had been strangled with a short end of three-eights rope, hacked with a knife, burned beyond recognition and thrust carelessly out of doorB like bo much rubbiBh. Identification was only possible by shreds of clothing and fragments of jewelry, but there was abundant evidence of how the murder had been done. Around the neck were the charred fibres of Manilla burnt into the flesh. The apartment reeked with the odor of kerosene. There were oil stains In front of the newly painted fire board that hid an open grate The girl's body, fully dressed, and the clothing and hair saturated with kerosene, the fire board h^ing removed, was thrust up the chimney, standing. W/hen the match was touched to her, she burned like a torch. Saturday afternoon a neighlmr living on the same floor of an adjoining house had noticed the lumpy bundle outside his window and thinking it iciuor, ituu puivuu 11 uu I uo escape into the back yard with a broom handle. The bundle moved obstinately and fell with a crash. HiB curiosity, more than his supicions, aroused, the neighbor hurried down the stairs for the janitor to investigate. When the two men cut the strings that bound the sacking, there rolled out before them tho full horror of an atrocious murder, lloth fled for the police. Ruth Wheeler was 15 years old, the youngest of three sisters, bred by their mother, a dressmaker to sHfBupport. lloth the elder sisters were 4 stenographers, and Ruth had just graduated from a business colleire. eager for employment, and proud of her diploma. An employment agency for graduates is conducted by the college and Ruth called the*o Men t look for a situation. Thursday morning she left home on he* usual errand and never returned. The girl had been carefully brought up. She was never on the streets at. nitrht niid her fninrc tn come home for twenty-four hours meant more than a caprice. The next morning her sister. Pearl and Adelaide, in serious concern, went to the college and learned that the following post card had been turned over to her: "Dear Madam: Please call in reference to position of stenographer at residence of the secretary. Signed. A. Wolter, 224 Fast 75th street." Investigation at the address given soon showed that Wolter. whom his landlady described as a sickly, white faced youth, of about 20, with flashy clothes and elaborately curled hair, had left the appartment, where he lived with his wife, earlier in the eamre day. He received many calls from young girls, said the landlady, and she had particularly noticed that the one who called Friday was fresher of face and better dressed than the ordinary run of them. With Wolter gone, the detectives waited for his wife and when she appeared they trailed her to a corner, where she met a man answer lag Wolter's doseription. He was immediately arrested, taken back to the rooms he had vacated and there searched. At first he denied writing postcards to business schools, but when the detective turned up answers from business schools addressed to him at various house numbers, he admitted the correspondence, but could not explain it. Before a magistrate he had nothing to say, but to others he admitted that, the woman with whom he was living was not his wife. The discovery of the body immediately brought a second search of Wolter's vacated apartments, and a strick cross-examination of the tenants adjoining. Jn the ashes of the fireplaces were found the charred bones of human toes, a portion of an arm bone, a woman's garter and a bundle containing a man's nightf shirt, on which was embroidered the initial "W". The parents of Wolter when found, told in voluble, but broken English, of the difficulties their son had brought upon them "He was always crazy about wo men," said the mother. "From the time he was a little hoy it was always dancing, pleasure, women, women with htm." Katie Miller, or Catcher Mueller, the girl with whom he lived, was SAVED BY THE POLICE A MAN MADE DESPERATE Bi* BE INC EVICTED. 4 Four IJttle Innocents On the Point of Being Butchered by Insane Father on River Bank. At Hartford, Conn., an insane father was prevented from butchering his four little children on the banks of the Connecticut river Sunday by the timely arrival of the police. When located back of the hlish OR hlc f Alt P Itnvo worn -nnrlif ? dressed were lined in a row, the mauiac father standing over them with uplifted axe. A boy of four was to have been the first victim. The child was standing beneath the shining blade with a crucifix in one hand, calmly awaiting his fate. The others, under orders from the man. had partly removed their clothing and were terrified spectators. The police dashed through the undergrowth, threw the man aside and gave their immediate attention to the children. The father was then taken to the police station and locked in a padded cell. He is a Pole, Valente Chongle. He had been evicted by his landlord and the occurrence made hint desperate. Chongle was heard to tell his children to prepare for death, his original plan being to throw them into the river. Later he changed his mdnd and decided to murder them first, and then throw their t>odics into the swollen stream. Like sheep he led the quartette, whose ages range from 2 to 7 years, to the isolated spot where he was traced. The officers, who prevented the wholesale killing, said they crept up from behind and overjKJwered Chongle, who fought deperately. The maniac disputed the right of the officers to interfere, claiming that as their father, he had a right to do as he pleased with his children. BLACK HANI) IX KENTUCKY? Incendiary Fire Cuusiiig Hearvy Ijoss Credited to Italians. Fire, supposed to have been of incendiary origin, early Friday at Morgansfield, Ky., destroyed proper ty to the value of $200,000 In the business section of that place. The fire was discovered in the I Green River Department store, which was destroyed, together with the fol-1 lowing buildings: Masonic Temple, j the opera house, the new Baptist i church and parsonage; John Conway & Co.. vehicles and groceries; the Bank of Union county, the Nathan Dyer company, dry goods, and a number of offices in that building. The Green River department store claims to have received several threatening letters lately from the black hand. Ijong lint Pins Tal>ocd. A misdemeanor for any woman to wear a long hat pin In public places in Chicago. Any woman caught wearing one is liable to arrest and a fine of $r>0. After a month's discussion the city council by a vote of 68 to 2 Tuesday night passed an anti-hatpin ordinance. Crushed to Mis Death. Joseph Rhamstine, 4 6 years of age. claim agent for the Southern rail road, Sunday fell from the ninth floor of the Columbia building in Louisville, Ky., to the street below, crushing through an iron grating and dying instantly. arrested Saturday as she appeared at the house where the murder was committed. She was reading the details of a German newspaper as she walked and was smiling as she read. During1 a long questioning, she held firmly to the statement that she knew nothing about the crime, except what she had read in the papers. She said that she noticed Thursday night that the stove in front of the fireplace had been moved. When she asked Wolter why he had done this, he answered that summer was coming and they would not need the stove. She had not even known that Wol tor lia<l roceived a visitor, sho says, until Pear! Wheeler, the dead girl's older sister, called on Friday morning to ask if Ruth had been there. Wheeler had denied it. but the Miller girl says he was uneasy after the interview and that she became joalous and accused him of harboring another woman in the flat. Again he denied It. When she was shown the shirt in which part of the charred body had been wrapped, the girl positively identified the garment as Wolter's. "The letter 'W'," said the girl, indicating an initial worked on the shirt, "was embroidered by Albert's mother." She also idendlflod the gunny sack, in which the head and trunk of the victim had neen placed. as having been used by her and Wolter to hold kindling wood. / / - " GRAFT GALORE r The Grand Jnry Airs Pittsburg's Appalling Corruption. i > BRIBERY IS EXPOSED The City Government of Pittsburg, 8 PaM Seems to be in the Hands of ( as Had a Gang of Thieves and d d Hribe Takers as Ever Infested tJiis ^ Country. t Republican misrule, bribery and 1 corruption is being laid bare in the ^ City of Pittsburg, Pa. The grand ? jury has ordered indictments against thirty-one present and past council- n men and making a demand upon the ^ directors of the city depositories to investigate their own bards and as- j certain the bribe-givers in connec- s tlon with the ordinance designating s their institutions as city depositories, i formed the meat of two presentments f made by the grand jury Friday. The presentments make a sensa- ^ tional story of the inside history of c corruption in the municipal bodies in 1908, and the demand made upon the banks named indicates that even ? more sensational developments than have l>ecn exposed are expected on c Monday, when the bank directors. n complying with the demand of the iI grand jury, make their report in v Court. t; A further result of the present- M ments of the Jury of City Controller i, Morrow late Friday for the with- w drawal of all city funds from the a six hunks, and the practical nulli- M fication of the ordinance designating a them as custodian of city funds. c There is about $3,(540,320 in these hanks now and this would he in- n creased many millions during next 0 week by taxes that are being paid, h According to the controller, the with- w ilrawal of funit? ?.-in i.? j--- * ..?!? uc ftlttUUUI, O however, so that the iustitutions a may not he embarrassed, or any un- ^ due alarm canned depositors. The ri extract from the presentments, call- j in>? upon the directors, reads: w "We call upon directors of th<- K six banks named as city depositories h, to investigate who paid for each of rj said hanks the bribes herein set d< forth, and report the same to this Qi grand jury, not later than Monday, tt March 28. 1910. And we further si denuand that said report be in writ- i? ing and certitled to by directors of ul said banks individually. e< "We strongly recommend and in- r< sist that the proper otiicials of tue itv of Pittsburg take immediate leg- w al action to nullify the ordinance n naming the Farmers' Deposit Na- tj tional Hank, the Second National j Hank, of Pttsburg; the German Na- jv tional Hank, of Pittsburg; the German National Hank, of Allegheny; C1 the Columbia National Hank, of n Pittsburg, and the Workingman's w Savings Hank and Trust Company of C1 Allegheny, as city depositories, in e( order that the bribe-givers inay not n benefit by reason of their own wrong ,, doing and criminal conduct." ei The presentments give the full de- t) tails of the plot on the part of the w council men to obtain bribes from the a six banks, of the means adopted for ?, paying the brills and the story of n the transfer of $45,000 by an un- V( armed man to former Councilman Charles Stewart In the Hotel Imperial, New York, is told. It is related that Max G. 1-eslie, ^ rnPTn^i* I * viiuii iiinu 01 mc Republican 1 county committee, received $25,01)0 by arrangement from E. H. Jennings and F, A. Griffin, of the Columbia National Rank, and that Leslie gave a VVm. Brand, who was then president w of common council, directly or in- s> directly $17,500 to obtain the city tl deposits for the Columbia National w Rank. An unnamed man is said to C be interested and concerned in the payment of the money by Leslie to d Brand, either as intermediary or S principal. n It is declared that Morris Einstein ri received $15,000 from the Workingman's Savings and Trust company to a have that bank named as a city de- v< posltory, but the name of the bank b official who paid him the money is inknown. pi It is further declared In the pre- H sentment that the members of the grand jury are of the opinion that the lK>oks of the Workingmen's Rank It have been mutilated, three pages re- ol ferring to this deal having been cut I It from the ledger. Einstein, it is also I s< aeciared, kept $500 for his services ? In arranging the deal. hi Further declarations In the pre- 01 sentments are that two city clerks al were given $1,000 each, and $l,7r>0 ei was ? t apart for newspaper men, h and then Henry M. llelger, the saloon vi keeper, already convicted of bribery, b was given $500 for his services in g ' ringing about the meeting between n 'he officials of the Carman National u Hank of Pittsburg and the council- d men. w Indictments were recommended o against Charles Stewart, Wm. Brand and Hugh Ferguson for conspiracy; tl against Stewart for soliciting bribes d from the six hanks; against Stewart J for distributing portions of the $ money to several councllmen; against a Brand for soliciting a bribe from the n Columbia National Bank, and for g THREE IN ONE NIGHT THREE NEGROES ARE MURDERED UY ANOTHER NEGRO. >hot Down in Their Cabins by the Murderer, Who Was Accompanied by Another Man. A special dispatch to The State j lays in the vicinity of Parks Station, hree mile* east of Laurens, Saturlay night Toney Anderson was shot lead in the cabin home of Ida Mc'oy Nelson, the negress herself morally wounded, dying a few hours ater, and Alex Ray, llvlug a milo listant, was called to his door and r 1h,? through the heart, expiring alnost Instantly. Anderson and the woman wore ^ tiurdered by Claude Ferguson, who F ras accompanied by another negro, ^ 1m Davis, on his death dealing tour. ^ Ferguson was armed with a shotgun, >avis wlth^ a pistol, according to a ? tatement made by the woman before e he died, and that of her daughter, tosa, an eye-witness to the tragedy ? n their house. It is believed that Ray was killed iy the same murderers, though the oroner's jury Sunday returned a ver- n lict to the efTect that he came to ds death at the hands of parties inknown. "Ferguson and Davis made their es- J ape, although every effort has been lade to apprehend them, both lived 1 the community in whloh the crimes ( . ere committed, and it is known , hat trouble, Involving all parties, 1 rith the i>ossll>le exception of Davis, ad existed for some time. Ferguson 11 'as only recently liberated from jail 11 fter the settlement of some misdey leanor with which he was charged * nd preferred by one of his'brothrs. ^he ante mortem statement of tho ^ lurdered woman and the testimony f her daughter, who was in the ouse when the shooting occurred, ere to the efTect that Ida and two ,, f he- small children had retired ^ tjri that Andersn was h caller. Re .Veen 9 and 10 o'clock some one ^ ipped on the door, saying it was Im Davis. The door was opened. hereupon two men rushed in. Feruson leading with a shotgun in his ^ and. Without a word Ferguson Used the gun and shot Anderson end in his chair ^pver against the ther side of the room, and then lrned and tired into the woman as ) le attempted to raise herself in ^ ed. Roth her hands were mangled r riddled with shot, but she manag- ^ 1 to escape from the room and had ;nched tho road, some 50 yards ^ way. when the murderers came up n, ith her and shot her down. Roth ed. The woman was carried to ^ le house of h??r lipntlin' w.v/vuci) n licit* sue led two hours later. She was literal' shot to pieces. About an hour after the double -inie at Ida Nelson's, Alex Hay. was ^ nised by some one in the yard who ished to see him on business. Ray line to the door and his callers ask- ^ i if he could change a dollar. Ray iplied that he probably could, and I>on getting his pockethook returni to the door when he was felled to le floor with a ghastly gunshot ound in the chest. He never spoke word. His wife heard the talking ? efore the shot was fired, but did ^ ot recognize any of the visitors oloes. | ? , ? RAFT TEHUS OF DISASTER. S' t< lie Mute Evidence of Hiss of Hum- g{ ber Schooner. e A raft 30 feet long, wave-swept, C( nd with only a broken mast from h hich fluttered a torn fragment of a e illor's shirt, was passed at sea by t< le German steamer Soharzfels, b hich arrived at Philadelphia from alcutiu Friday. rru A _ i us mine evidence or a possible ? isaster was encountered l>y the c charzfels March 17 in latitude 37.4 4 J1 orth, longitude 4 5.37 west. The ift hail been substantially construct- P :1, presumably by the crew of an ft ban-doned lumber schooner; but the * ' essel on which the raft had been ullt was nowhere to be seen. h The following day the Schorzfels as?c<l a brown painted wooden dere- e< ct with keel above water. ? ? ? o More rioting in Bogota. Up here w would be called a demonstration K f Labor's sacred rights; down there w is South American Incapacity for l) >lf government. ' tl living received bribe money directly 81 r indirectly from Max G. Leslie, and n Isvo receiving bribe money from othr banks and against Brand charging w lm with distributing bribe money in * ariotis sums to various other memera of councils; against Hugh Fer- a uson for soliciting, dcmaiuyng and fl eceiving money from banks to be ' sed to obtain votes to got the city a eposits for those institutions and P 1th distributing bribe money to c ther councilmen. A paragraph of the presentments P hat was added at the last moment, eclared that former councilman, c acob SofTel, refused the tender of s r.,000, which was then set apart as I defence fund in case any of the c members of the clique got within tbo r ;rasp of the law. t DIED IN FIRE 7ooj1een Persons Probably Perished in the Chicago Born. DEATH TOLL FEARFUL ^ailing Walls Halt the Search for Bodies.?tJraplc Description of Horrible Burning of Men and Women in Fire Caused by Accidental Kxplosion of Benzine. Search of the wreckage for the emainirg bodies of those who lost heir lives in the Fish Furniture Company tire horror at Chicago on Friday was discontinued Friday afernoon owing to the danger from he falling' walls but not until twelve f the dead had been recovered and leven of those Identified. While earlier estimates placed the lumber of victims trapped on the ourth and fifth floors of the Fish uilding as high as twenty, later and lore thorough investigation indicates rith. considerable certainty that here were but sixteen. Two of these scaped with their lives, which Leaves iut two more to be accounted for. Leo Steckel, a clerk of the Fish lonpany, who by accident is said to iave started the fire, told his story o Fire Attorney Frank Hogan Friay afternoon. Although Stoeckel, /ho is but 20 years of age, is adlitted more unfortunate than culanle, Attorney Hogan says that he rill bring some charge against the oung man to insure his attendance t the inquest. Stoeckel was brought before the re attorney with his hand, which ad been burned, swarthed in banages. Ho appeared heart-broken, nd told his story with difficulty. "About 4.4.r> p. in..," Stoekel said, Mr. Mitchell, who is a member of le firm, gave me three piece cigar ghters, and told me to go to the nishtng room on the fourth floor nd fill them with benzine. I had lied two of the lighters, consisting f a gallon can and was working on le third, when there was an exlosion. "A sheet of flame almost blinded ic, and I did not fully regain my , nses until 1 had reached the street. , he lighters contained a contrivance ( > make a spark, but whether 1 igighted one of them or not, 1 don't now. 1 either dropped the can of ] iMizine when the flame shot up in out of m>e, or it was blown out of ly hands." Alexander Hush, a sireet car conuctor, identified one of the bodies 3 that of Kosie Bruncke, whom he < sis to have married on Faster Sunay. He recognized her through the tedium of a number of trinkets, inluding an engagement ring he had ( iven her. One of the victims lost his life in a esperate endeavor to rush mvstairs > the aid of the women and girls n prisoned above. T?.'n women and girls it is said rere at work on the sixth floor when he explosion occurred. The spread f the flames was almost instantanous, and when the girls rushed to tie stairways they found escape cut ft. They next turned to the front f the building, smashing the willow. Horrified spectators in the treet saw Kmnia Ltchenstein step o the window ledge and heard her cream for help. Then she jumped, 'ailing on the awning over the front ntrance to the store, she lay unonseious until I)r. Wan. L. Kings?y, crawling out on the canopy, liftd h? r up. She was ,taken at once o 6t. Luke's Hospital, only a few locks away, but died soon afterward. >r. Kingley suffered slight burns. Emma Lichtenstein was 20 years Id, and was employed as a filing ( lerk. Death was due to internal inurles received in her fall. Soon after Miss Lichtenstein's deserate leap, a crash as if of floors tiling was heard, and the faces at ' tie window disappeared. I)r. Kins?y graphically describbed his expermee a* follows: "I was nearby when the fire startd, and when I reached the scene the !ght fairly made my hair stand n end. Tho floors of the building rere a mass of flames. Smoke in reat clouds was rolling out of a 1 indows. I noticed 'something must ' ~ uvup, uul ikl' many ot tiers there, 1 was so stricken by the sight of tie faces half revealed in the sixth ? tory windows that I could scarcely > love. The girls were shouting 'for 1 od's sake send us help,' and others 1 rere crying for the firemen to raise 1 he ladders. I tried to get up the ront stairway, but at the third floor Mint ui name nurnt me ;il>ont the we and hands and the next thing i knew I whb back In tlie street i gain. Then came the cries of th/* 1 oor girls trapped in the upper story I t ante to my ears and I saw one of the I < girls throw up her hands and lunge out of the window. "Her body crashed against the anopy over the front end of the tore. Scarcely knowing what I did ran up-stairs to the first floor, rawled out on the window and then arried her down a ladder which a 1 ireraan had raised." BRIBERY SCANDAL MONEY U8KI> TO SHAPE INSURANCE LEGISLATION. Investigation Shows that German Companies and National Fire Underwriters Worked Together. The fire insurance inquiry started in New York City last week, bld? fair to assume national importance. The testimony adduced shows that foreign companies niaue their boasts that they were spending money freely in Albany, N. Y., to assure passage of the Grady reinsurance bill. Witnesses also told that oven $19,000 was expended in the West to securo the passage of favorable and to block unfavorable legislation. The most far reaching piece of evidence yet produced was the fact that Emmet Rhodes received $10,000 in 1903 to be used in securing the repeal of the stamp tax act, passed by Cougress during the SpanishAmericau war. It is declared an investigation will be asked to showwhen and ui>ou whom this cash was used. Concerning the Grady bill passed by the New York legislature, E. H. A. Correa, vice president of the Homo Insurance company, told that two German re-insurance companies made open statements to the effect that they were seeking to dominate things at Albany. They were the Munich Reinsurance company and the Prussia Reinsurance company. The Munich company made no bones about spending its money for the passage OTtioq jo sjso jojtl oyj ojplsop '.w?i ^tllis sj m?i OIUL *9061 "I luodoj sif piOAOjd oj puu '*061 ?1 lliq oin jo coni|>anies. The largest casa payment yet mentioned in the inquiry w>s quoted by Col. A. H. Wray, manager of the Commercial Union Assuiance company, limited, of London. Cel. Wray is a member of the National Hoard of Eire Underwriters, lies' itel that $19,000 had been paid ir !no West o establish and keep up a syitem for controllng legislaMo* that it might be favorabie to insurance companies. The National Hoard of Fire Underwriters was touched to" Ji?\000 in 1903, according to the testimony by Mr Correa, a member ol Lis board. Emmet Rhoades secured this money, 'for service rendered ir connection with the repeal of the stamp tax." The law in question w t passed by Congress at the time of the SpanishAmerican war, requiring a tax, nmong other things, uj'in !ire iterance policies. How the money was used is not known. INSANELY JEALOUS. Carpenter Tries to Wipe Out Ills Whole Family. Enraged because his wife had gone to the theatre Friday night with her brother, taking the children of the family with her, Alfred Mitchell, a carpenter, Saturday shot and probably fatally wounded h<-r, seriously wounded their 12-year-old son, and Bevn-year-old daughter then shot himself in the head dying instantly at New Orleans, La. Mitchell lived on the Gentilly road, several miles from New Orleans. When he returned home on Frday night and found that his brother-in-law, Conrad Palk, had taken his family to the theatre, he leoaded a double barreled shot-gun and waited for them. When they returned, he fired two shots at Falk, who ran down the road and escaped. After heaping abu9e upon his wife and children he went to bed hut was in a had humor. When ho arose Saturday morning he commenced a quarrel with his wife which culminated in the shooting. The wounded woman and children were brought to a hospital in New Orleans. Mrs. Mitchell received a load of shot in the abdomen and her condition is critical. The daughter is badly wounded In the shoulders md breast and may not live. The boy will probably reooer. Mitchell reloaded the gun after shooting his n'lfn A -V- " " auu uunuren, and placing tho muzzle against his forehead blew off he top of his head. ( rave Is Itohhfd. A dispatch from Forest Hill, La., lays the most unusual robbery in the listorv of that section of Ixiuisiana ivas perpetrated Friday night, when he remains of R. I). (Jainer were ;xhumed and gold teeth, ,a diamond ing, a gold watch and cuff buttons ivere taken from the body. The body ivas sealed in a tomb more than :i<> /ears ago. After White Slaves. The American consulate in Antwerp is engaged in an attempt to trace two New York white slave Importers, who are believed to have shipped 90 women from Paris on outgoing steamers. British and continental ports are being watched, and the American and Canadian authorities hc -e been notified to scrutinize closely all incoming passengers. The country will not go to war over Manchurian trade. A single warship scuUled would take the profits out of the business for years. i