The Horry herald. (Conway, S.C.) 1886-1923, March 31, 1910, Image 5
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