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4 cruelTviurder Young Woman Lured (o (be Deo of a Fiend Who Brutally Killed Her. * HIDES THE DEAD BODY Decoyed by Oiler of Employment, Body Discovered in Sack on Fire Escape.?Victim Strangled, Hacked and Burned Beyond Recognition.?Identified by Jewelry. New York has 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 efnployment, was found late Saturday afternoon, huddled in a gunny sack 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 threo-eights rope, hacked with a knifo, burned beyond recognition and thrust carelessly out of doors like so much rubbish. 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 l>ody, fully dressed, and the clothing and hair saturated with kerosene, the fire board being removed, was thrust up tlie chimney, 1 li a mnfoll w fi q ttLilllU niucii mo .11 it-Hi i. .. touched to her, she burned like a torch. [Saturday afternoon a neighbor living on the same lloor of an adjoining house had noticed tho lumpy bundle outside his window and thinking it refuse, had poked it off the lire escape into the back yard with a broom handle. The bundle moved obstinately and fell with a crash. His 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 the full horror t of an atrocious murder. Both lied for the police. ? Ruth Wheeler was 15 years old, tho youngest of three sisters, bred by their mother, a dressmaker to selfsupport. Both the elder sisters were stenographers, and Ruth had just graduated from a business college, eager for employment, and proud of her diploma. An employment agency for graduates is conducted by the college and Ruth called thee ft en v t look for a situation. Thursday f morning she left home on he' usual errand and never returned. The girl had been carefully brought tip. She was never on the streets at night, and her faiure to 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 collego 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 East 75th street." Tnvoationtinn at the address given r ????? ? ? 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 same day. He received many calls from young girls, said the landlady, and Bho had particularly noticed that the one who called Friday was fresher of face and hotter 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 answerIn,? Wolter's description. 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 thie detective turned up answors 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 Btrlck cross-examination of the tenants adjoining. In the ashes of the , ' fireplaces were found the charred bones of human toes, a portion of an arm bone, a woman's garter and f f>nntninlnc n mnn'a niirlit. I/UUUIV ?0 ? / --O"" ^ shirt, on which was embroidered th< 1 > Initial "W". The parents of Woltei )/ I ! SUBSl y i iis : . SAVED BY THE POLICE A MAN MADE DESPEHATE BY BE ING EVICTED. _? ? ? ? Four IJttle Innocents On the Point of Being Butchered by Insane Father on Kiver 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 I>olice. When located back of the bushes his four boys were party undressed were lined in a row, the maniac [inner standing over mom 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 gavo their immediate attention to the children. The father was then taken to the police station and locked in a padded cell, lie is a Pole, Valente Chongle. He had been evicted by his landlord and the occurrence made him desperate. Chongle was heard to tell his children to prepare for death, his original plan being to thrpw them into the river. Later he changed his mind and decided to murder them first, and then throw their bodies into the swollen stream. Like sheep he led the quartette, wnose 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 overjmwered Chongle, who fought deperately. The maniac disputed the right of the oflieers to interfere, claiming that as their father, he had a right to do as lie pleased with his children. . BLACK HAN1> IN KENTUCKY? Incendiary Fire Causing Ifearvy Ijosh Cre<liU'<l to Italians. Fire, supposed to have been of incendiary origin, early Friday at Morgansfield, Ky., destroyed property to the value of $200,000 in the business section of that place. The fire was discovered in the Green River Department store, which was destroyed, together with the following buildings: Masonic Temple, the opera house, the new Baptist church and parsonage; John Conway & Co,, vehicles and groceries; the Bank of Union county, the Nathan j 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. when found, told in voluble, but broken English, of the difllcultles their son had brought upon them "He was always crazy about women," said tbe mother. "From the time ho was a little boy it was always dancing, pleasure, women, women with him." Katie Miller, or Gateher Mueller, the girl with whom he lived, was arrested Saturday as she appeared at the house where the murder was committed. She was reading tho details of a German newspaper as she walked and was smiling as she read. During a long questioning, she held firmly to the statement that she knew nothing about the crime, ev cept what she had read in th-e papers. ' She said that she noticed Thursday night that the stove in front oi the fireplace had been moved. Wher she asked Wolter why he had done this, he answered that summer was coming and they would not need the stove. $he had not even known that Wol ter had received a visitor, she says until Pearl Wheeler, the dead girl'i elder sister, called on Friday morn lng to ask if Ruth had been there Wheeler had denied it, but the Mil ler girl says he was uneasy after tin interview and that she became joal ous and .accused him of harborinj another woman in the flat. Agaii he denied it. When she was shown the shir in which part of the charred bod had been wrapped, the girl positive ' ly identified the garment as Wol . ter's. "The letter ?W\" said the gir ! indicating an initial worked on th 1 shirt, "was embroidered by Albert' i I mothor." She also idondifled the gin i ny sack, in which the head an - trunk of the victim had been pla< >|ed, as having been used by her an r Wolter to hold kindling wood. CRIBE N GRAFT GALORE The Grand Jury Airs Pittsburg's Appalling Corruption. BRIBERY IS EXPOSED The City tJovernment of Pittsburg, Pa., Seems to be in the Hands of as Had a Gang of Thieves and Hl'ilx* Takers as Kvi>r Inftsiiiul tliin Country. Republican misrule, bribery and corruption is being laid bare in the City of Pittsburg, Pa. The grand Jury has ordered indictments against thirty-one present and past councilmen and making a demand upon the directors of the oity depositories to Investigate their own bards and ascertain the bribe-givers in connection with the ordinance designating their institutions as oity depositories, formed the meat of two presentments made by the grand jury Friday. Tho presentments make a sensational story of the inside history of corruption in the municipal bodies in 1908, and the demand made upon the banks named indicates that even more sensational developments than I have been exposed are expected 011 Monday, when the bank directors, complying with the demand of the grand jury, nuake their report in Court. A further result of the presentments of the jury of City Controller Morrow late Friday for the withdrawal of all city funds from the six banks, and the practical nullification of the ordinance designating them as custodian of city funds. There is about $8,(140,820 in these tKiiiKs now and this would be increased many millions during next week by taxes that are being paid. According to the controller, the withdrawal of funds will be gradual, however, so that the institutions may not be embarrassed, or any undue alarm caused depositors. The extract from the presentments, calling upon the directors, reader. "We call upon directors of tiesix banks named as city depositories to investigate who paid for each of said banks the bribes herein set forth, and report the same to this grand jury, not later than Monday, March 2S, 15)10. And we further denuand that said report l>e in writing and certified to by directors of said banks individually. "We strongly recommend and insist that the proper officials of tne city of Pittsburg take immediate legal action to nullify the ordinanco naiming the Farmers' Deposit National llank, the Second National Hank, of Pttsburg; the German National Hank, of Pittsburg; the German National Dank, of Allegheny; tlio Columbia National Hank, of Pittsburg, and tho Workingman's Savings Hank and T**ust Company of Allegheny, as city depositories, in order that the bribe-givers may not benefit by reason of their own wrong doing and criminal conduct." The presentments give tho full det tails of the plot on the part of the . v^miuiiiirtMi to omain onoes from the six banks, of the means adopted for paying the bribes and the story of the transfer of $45,000 by an 1111i armed man to former Councilman Charles Stewart In the Hotel Imperi ial, New York, is told. It is related that Max 0. Leslie, ? former chairman of the Republican 1 county committee, received $25,000 by arrangement from E. H. Jennings i and F. A. Griffin, of the Columbia . National Rank, and that Leslie gave Wm. brand, who was then president of common council, directly or indirectly $17,500 to obtain t.ho city . deposits for the Columbia National I Rank. An unnamed man is said to i be interested and concerned in the j payment of the money by Leslio to } brand, either as intermediary or j principal. It is declared that Morris Einstein . received $15,000 from the Worldng, man's Savings and Trust company to j have that bank named as a city de |)osltory, but the name of the bank . official who paid him the money is - tnknown. b It is further declared in the pre sentmont that the members of the X grand jury are of the opinion thai i the books of the Workingmen's bank have been mutilated, three pages ret ferring to this deal having heen cul y from the ledger. Einstein, it is alsc !- declared, kept $500 for his service! - in arranging the deal. Further declarations in the pre I, sentmonts are that two city clerk! tj wore given ^ i.uuu eacn, and ^ 1,7r>< s was set apart for newspaper men i- and then Henry M. Iielger, the aalooi d keeper, already convicted of bribery 3- waa given $500 for his services ii d bringing about the meeting betweei | the officials of the Gorman Nationa !0W TO THREE IN ONE NIGHT THREE NEGROES ARE MURDEREl> 11Y ANOTHER NEGRO. Shot lK?wn in Their ('ahins by the Murdcn'r, Who Was Accompanied by Another Man. A special dispatch to The State says In the vicinity of Parka Station, three miles east of Laurens, Saturday night Toney Andorsou was shot dead in the cabin home of Ida Mc Coy Nelson, the uegress herself mortally wounded, dying a few hours later, and Alex Ray, living a inilo distant, was called to his door and shot through the heart, expiring almost instantly. Anderson and the woman were murdered by Claude Ferguson, who was accompanied by another negro, Jim Davis, 011 his death dealing tour. Ferguson was armed with a shotgun, Davis with a pistol, according to a statement made by the woman before | she died, and that of her daughter, Rosa, an eye-witness to the tragedy in their house. It is believed that Ray was killed by the same murderers, though the coroner's jury Sunday returned a verdict to the effect that he came to his death at the hands of parties unknown. Ferguson and Davis made their escape. although every effort has been made to apprehend them. Both lived in the community in which the crimes were committed, and it is known that trouble, involving all parties, with the possible exception of Davis, had existed for some time. Ferguson was only recently liberated from jail after the settlement of some misdemeanor with which he was charged and preferred by 01m of his brothers. The ante mortem statement of the murdered woman and the testimony of her daughter, who was in the house when the shooting occurred, were to the effect that Ida and two of her small children had retired and that Andersn was u caller, lie tween 9 and 10 o'clock some one rappeu on the door, saying It was Jim Davis. The door was opened, whereupon two men rushed in, Ferguson leading with a shotgun in his hand. Without a word Ferguson raised the gun and shot Anderson dead in his chair over against tin/ other side of the room, and then turned and 11 rod into the woman as sho attempted to raise herself in bed. Both her hands were mangled or riddled with shot, hut she managed to escape from the room and had reached the road, some 50 yards away, when the murderers came up with her and shot her down. Both lied. The woman was carried to the house of her brother, where she died two hours later. She was literally shot to pieces. About an hour after the double crime at Ida Nelson's, Alex Hay was roused by some one in the yard who wished to see him on business. Ray came to the door and his callers asked if he could change a dollar. Ray replied that he probably could, and upon getting his pocketbook return ed to the door when he was felled to tho floor with a ghastly gunshot wound in the chest. Mo never spoke a word. His wife heard the talking '?ofore the shot was fired, but did not recognize any of the visitors volwua. | Ivong Hat 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 tine of $50. After a month's discussion the city council by a vote of 68 to 2 Tuesday night passed an anti-hatpin ordinance. Hank of Pittsburg and tho councilmen. Indictments wore recommended against Charles Stewart, Win. Ilrand and Hugh Ferguson for conspiracy; ' against Stewart for soliciting bribes from tho six banks; against Stewart for distributing portions of the money to several councilmen; against Brand for soliciting a bribe from tho Columbia National Hank, and for having received bribe money directly i or indirectly from Max O. Leslie, and also receiving l>ril>o money from otli er banks and against Brand charging s him with distributing bribe money in ; various sums to various other mem: bers of councils; against Hugh Fer guson for soliciting, demanding and t receiving money from banks to be > used to obtain votes to get the city a deposits for those institutions and Iwith distributing bribe money tc other councilmen. * A paragraph of the presentments ) that was added at the last moment , declared that former councilman i Jacob Soffel, refused the tender o $5,000, which was then set apart ai a a defence fund in case any of th< a members of the clique got within th< il grasp of the law. * THE H DIED IN FIRE Fourteen Persoos Probably Perished io the Chicago Born. DEATH TOLL FEARFUL Fulling Walls Halt the Search for 1 todies.?(irapic Description of llorritdc Hurning of .Men and Women in Fire Caused by Accidental explosion of Hon/.Ine. Search of the wreckage for the remaining bodies of those who lost their lives in the Fish Furniture Company tiro horror at Chicago on Friday was discontinued Friday afternoon owing to the danger from the falling walls hut not until twelve of the dead had l>een recovered and eleven of these identified. While earlier estimates placed the number of victims trapped on the fourth and fifth floors of the Fish building as high as twenty, later and more thorough investigation indicates with considerable certainty that there were but sixteen. Two of those i escaped with their lives, which Leaves but two mo.ro to be accounted for. Leo Stcckel, a clerk of the Fish Company, who by accident is said to have started the lire, told his story to Fire Attorney Frank Ilogan Friday afternoon. Although Stoeckel, who is but 20 years of age, is ad- I mitted more unfortunate than culpable, Attorney Ilogan says that he will bring some charge against the young man to insure his attendance at the inquest. Stoeckel was brought before the lire attorney with his hand, which had been burned, swart bed in bandages. He appeared heart-broken, and told his story with difficulty. "About 4.4 5 p. in.," Stoekol said, "Mr. Mitchell, who is a member of the 11 rm, gave me three pb-ee cigar lighters, and told mo to go to the finishing room on tho fourth floor an<l fill them with benzine. I had filled two of tho lighters, consisting of a gallon can and was working on the third, when there was an oxplosion. "A sheet of flame almost blinded me, and I did not fully regain my senses until I had reached the street. The lighters contained a contrivance to make a spark, but whether 1 ignlghted one of them or not, 1 don't know. I either dropped the can of benzine when the flame shot up in front of lire, or it was blown out of iny 'hands." Alexander Hush, a street car conductor, identified one of the bodies as that of Kosle Hruncko, whom he was to have married on Master Sunday. lie recognized her through the medium of a number of trinkets, ineluding an engagement ring he had given her. One of the victims lost his life in a desperate endeavor to rush upstairs t<,> the aid or the women and girls imprisoned above. Ten women and girls It Is said were at work on the sixth floor when the explosion occurred. The spread of the flames was almost Instantaneous, and when the girls rushed to the stairways they found escape cut off. They next turned to tho front of the building, smashing the window. Horrified spectators in the street saw ICmma Ltchcnstein step to the window ledge and heard her scream for help. Then she jumped. Mailing on the awning over the front entrance to the store, she lay unconscious until I)r. W;in. L. Kingsley, crawling out on the canopy, lift od her up. She was taken at once to Kt. Duke's Hospital, only a few blocks away, but died soon afterward. Dr. Kingley suffered slight burns. Emma Lichtenstein was 20 years old, and was employed as a tiling clerk. Death was duo to internal injuries received in her fall. Soon after iVIiss Dichtenstein's desperate leap, a crash as if of floors falling was heard, and the faces at the window disappeared. Dr. Kinsley graphically describbed his experience as follows: "I was nearby when the fire started, and when I reached the scene the sight fairly made my hair stand on end. The floors of the building were a mass of flames. Smoke in great clouds was rolling out of e windows. I noticed 'something musl bo done,' but Ike many others there I was so stricken by the sight o th>o faces half revealed in the sixtl i story windows that I could scarcel: move. Tho girls were shouting 'fo [ God's sake send us helm' nmi nthor i were crying for the firemen to rais< the ladders. I tried to get up th* i front stairway, but at the third floo , a gust of flame burnt me about th , face and hands and the next thin f I knew I was back in the stree a again. Then came the cries of th 3 IK)or girls trapped in the upper stor 3 came to iny ears and T saw one of th girls throw up her hands an ORRY HI BRIBERY SCANDAL J MONKY USEl) TO SHAPE INSURANCK LEO I SI jATION. ; InvostiKation Shows ttiat (icrmaa Comimnios aiul National Fire YndorwrltPrs Worked Together. The ftr? insurance inquiry started in Now York City last week, bids fair to assume national lnii>ortance. ,4 The testimony adduced shows that foreign companies made their boasts that they were spending money froely in Albany, N. Y., to assure passage of the Orady reinsurance bill. Witnesses also told that ov*n $19,000 was expended In the West to secure the passage of favorab4e and to block unfavorable legislation. The most far reaching piece of evidence yet produced was the fact that Emmet Rhodos received $10,000 in 1903 to be used in securing the repeal of the stamp tax act, passed by Congress during the SpanUhAmeriean war. It is declared an investigation will be asked to show when and upon whom this cash was used. Concerning the Grady bill passed by the New York legislature, E. II. A. Correa, vice president of the Home Insurance company, told that two German re-lnsuranoe companies made open statements to the effect that t hey were seeking to dominate things at Albany. They were the Munich Reinsurance company and the Prussia Reinsurance company. The Munich company made no Immios about siKMiding its money for the passage anion jo hjsojo.m! ojplsop '.v\u[ u IIHH s! ll!(l ouj, '*Hiu i in in.wi n cm. luo.uud o) pun ' VoGI "J lll'l *>U) coni|Kini08. The largest casn payment yet mentioned In the Inquiry was quoted by Col. A. 11. Wray, manager of tiie Commercial Union Assuiarco company. limited, of l/ondon. Cel. Wray is a number of the National Hoard of Fire Underwriters, lie suited that $19,000 had been paid in tne West \o establish and keep up a system for controllng legislation that It might bo favorable to insurance coiupanb'B. The National Board of Fire UnderI writers was touched to" J i ?\000 in I 1903, according to the testimony by Mr! Correa, a member ol Liu board. I 10mmet Rhoades secured thi* money, I "for service rendered in connection I with tiie repeal of the stamp tax." 1 The law in question w i * passed by 1 Congress at the time of the SpanishI American war, requiring a tax, I among other things, upon lire nI suranco policies. How the money I was used is not known. INSAN101 jV JEALOl'S. I Carpenter Trios to Wipe Out His I W hole Family. 1 Enraged because his wife had gone I to the theatre Friday night with her brother, taking the children of t.he family with her, Alfred Mitchell, a I carpenter, Saturday shot and probI ably fatally wounded her, seriously I wounded their 12-year-old son, and I sevn-year-old daughter then shot 1 himself in the head dying instantly 1 at New Orleans, La. Mitchell lived on tho Gentilly I road, several miles from New OrI 1 f?:i iia v\r? i - ? " ,. ?? Him in; returned home on Frday night and found that his brother-in-law, Conrad Falk, 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 abuse upon his wife and children ho went to bod but was in a bad humor. When ho arose Saturday morning h-o commenced a quarrel with his wife which culminated in the shooting. The wounded woman and children wore 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 shoulder# and breast and may not live. The boy will probably recoer. Mitchell reloaded the gun after shooting his | wife and children, and placing the muzzle against his forehead blew oft ' \he top of his head. | Crashed to Ills Death. Joseph Rhanistlne, 4 6 years of age, f claim agent for the Southern rall^ road, Sunday fell from the ninth y floor of the Columbia building in r Louisville, Ky., to the street below, 3 crushing through an Iron grating 0 and dying instantly. e r I plunge out of the window. e| "Her body crashed against the g|canopy over the front end of the >t store. Scarcely knowing what I did,. 01 I ran up-stairs to the first floor, y | crawled out on th? ? -..V .. muu n cl 11 <1 III eo e 1 carried her down a ladder whdeh % d fireman had raised." ERALD ft