Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 September 1891 — FLYING FROM JUSTICE. [ARTICLE]

FLYING FROM JUSTICE.

B. R. Musgrave Frustrated in His Plan to Secure 830,000 Insurance. The Musgrave mystery at Terre Haute, Ind., has been solved. The man who would have the world believe him dead is alive and well tn Chicago. Charles M. Trout, the young real estate dealer who was strongly suspected of complicity In the conspiracy, confessed al) at the Coroner's inquest and was placed under arrest for arson, perjury, and conspiracy to defraud. Frederick F. Markle, brother-in-law to the fugitive real estate dealer, set the ball rolling. He is a citizen'of repute, and he had too much on his mind about this case. It troubled him, and when he was called before the Coroner he made up his mind to tell all he knew. After he had told his story the police took Trout into custody. When he learned that Markle had exposed the conspiracy he weakened, and then he also went before the Coroner. In a room close! to all save the police ofclals Trout was for two hours the most supreme object of interest He was dejected to a pitable degree and he was in an intense state of nervous agitation. The story of the desperate attempt to swindle the insurance companies by this fugitive forger with $30,000 on his life is sensational in the extreme. Musgrave, according to both witnesses, is now hiding in Chicago under the alias of T. G. Thornton. Markle gave the fugitive’s whereabouts as 4345 Berkeley avenue and Trout gives it as 7430 St Lawrence avenue. Just how this discrepancy occurs is not apparent Markle is married to Mu grave's sister and the latter was greatly agitated, believing her brother had realiy met a terrible fate. A few days after the log-cabin fire Trout confided to Markle that Musgrave was really alive, and that it was just a scheme of his that he was working. As Musgrave had borrowed S2OO from Markle, which the latter needed badly, he got Musgrave s address from Trout, and going tu Chicago saw him near the Oakland Hotel, at Drexel and Oakwood boulevards. Musgrave was greatly sur- . prised to see him. Markle wanted to know vzhat object he had in actin? in this manner f in becoming a fugitive on the face of the earth once more, as if one, experience was not enough for him, ana Musgrave answered that he wanted the insurance. Markle told him he could not hope to escape, as detectives were everywhere on his track, and the fugitive said if he only had SSO J he could make his way in safety to England. Musgrave paid him $lO on account. He did not seem to have much money, and his appearance was changed, according to Markle, so that he could scarcely be recognized, although he was notin any manner disguised. Musgrave wanted to see him again next morning, but Markle did not go back. Musgrave told him in the conversation that the remains found in the cabin were those of a skeleton he had bought August 12 at St Louis. He paid $lO5 for the skeleton. It was shipped August 14 to Chicago in the name of T. B. Burnham.

Trout’s story, giving the way in which the ghastly scheme was worked, was decidedly thrilling. Musgrave conceived the idea of insuiing his life heavily and then disappearing, and he effected $30,000 insurauce on his life—slo,oo) in the United States Mutual Accident, ss,oooin the JEtna, and $15,000 in two < ther companies. He made 520,000 jayable to his mother, Mrs. Sarah Musgrave, $5,000 to his unmarried sister Anna, and $5,000 to Miss Catherine McLaughlin, of Minneapolis, Minn., to whom he was engaged to be married. He and Trout had a conference at Chicago Aug. 2, and two weeks later they met at Hillsdale. The Friday night before the fire Musgrave and Trout returned to Terre Haute from Hillsdale, the former carrying the box containing the skeleton, a box about a foot square and two feet long, across the jrairie to the cabin. Musgrave took up lis abode in this lonely hut early Saturday morning It was agreed as part of the scheme that Trout should work some prominent Knights of Pythias friends of Musgrave to visit him at the cabin so as to establish conclusively that he was there. This Trout successfully accomplished. Sunday night Musgrave and Trout took the skeleton out of the box to arrange it for the cremation. Trout says that when Musgrave saw it he shivered and could not do anything. So Trout said: “Tins thing has gone too far to go back now,” and he arranged the skeleton himself in the straw on the bunk and placed the Knights of Pythias emblem bearing Musgrave’s name and address near it Then Musgrave fired the cabin- It was really his tracks that the farmers traced to the cornfield. Musgrave waited until he saw that the fire had a good start, and then he cut across the prairie and caught the north-bound train for Chicago. Trout had started for Terre Haute before the hut was fired. All that was left to burn besides the skeleton was Musgrave’s valise, spectacles and Knights of Pythias badge. He was going to leave his shoes, but Trout objected, saying that it would create suspicions to buy a new pair at Tecumseh or Terre Haute. Trout says the mistake that was made was in not leaving his thoes and the buttons of his pants. The skeleton was one such as is used in museums, s'rung together by catgut. Trout is the most dejected mortal on earth, and he takes his arrest very keenly. Detective Schumacher, of Chicago, thinks the letter from Musgrave’s sister to Trout several days after the fire, which was intercepted by the po ice and published, in which she asked about interest on money in Hudnut’s bank, was a cipher messa e There was no money in that bank or any other. Immediately after Trout’s confession, Chicago officers were notified. £.l 4345 Berkeley avenr.e lives a Mrs. Mary J. Jones, a widow, with her two daughters and son. They do not know Thornton or Musgrave, or anyone answering to his description. There is no such number as 7436 St Lawrence street. The nearest approach to it—in fact, the only house on that side of the street for three blocks—is 7414, and the gentleman who lives there says he ifevor heard of Musgrave. The addresses given by Markle and Trout are probably fictitious.

Since 1800 there have been retired in France sixty-se en Ministers of Justice, eighty-seven Ministers of the Interior, seventy-three Ministers of Foreign Affairs, fifty-four Ministers of Finance, seventy-four Ministers of War and sixtyfive Ministers of the Navy. In twenty years there has been no counterfeiting of Uncle Sam s postage stamps.