Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 68, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 March 1912 — WORLD’S FAMOUS POLICE MYSTERIES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WORLD’S FAMOUS POLICE MYSTERIES

TRUE RECORDS OF EXTRAORDINARY CASES IN ANNALS OF CRIME

The Murder of Benjamin Nathan

By H. M. EGBERT

(Copyright by W. G. Chapman)

’ AMW murder of Benjamin Nathan, at his home in New York city, during the last days of July, 1870, rnrnnßrrnmn was one of the most senvl/BI nII sational crimes of the AM I I dajr ’ by reason both [j(w U the mysterious circumMlll , 11 stances attending on it «-. <r-i and of the status of the '’ • dead man. Benjamin Nathan was a broker and private banker in Wall street, possessed great fortune and had a reputation second to none among his fellows. A few days before Independence day in 1870 he moved into his country house in Morristown, New Jersey, while his luxuriously furnished town house kt No. 12 West Twenty-third street he gave over to the decorators and upholsterers, to be made ready for the autumn. Once or twice a week it was er’s habit to visit his office to consult with his confidential clerk, and then, after a short trip home, to see how the workmen were progressing, to return to Morristown. On July 29, making one of these periodical trips to the city, he was detained later than usual and planned to spend the night at his house in town. One of the motives that inspired this determination was his desire to spend the following morning, which was the anniversary of his mother’s death, in the synagogue to which he belonged. His visit proved a surprise to the housekeeper, a Mrs. Kelly, whose son, William Kelly, did occasional jobs about the place. But his sons, Frederick and Washington, the former of whom was his favorite,’ while the latter was somewhat wild, were in town and expecting him.’ Washington Nathan, unlike his brother, refused to settle down to steady Work, and lived the life of a man about town. He had already severely tried his father’s patience, but their relations were not yet at the breaking pointThe feeat of the past few days had given way to a cool wind, presaging a thunder storm. Mr. Nathan resolved to retire early, and directed Mrs. Kelly to arrange a bed of mattresses upon the floor of the reception room, upon the second story, immediately adjoining which was a little hall room in which he kept his private papers. It was the banker’s intention to spend part of the evening in looking over .hese and, incidentally, the housekeeping bills. He passed several hoars in the little office, arranging his affairs, while outside a violent thunderstorm broke over the city and peals of thunder deadened all other noises. A little safe stood in one corner of Mr. Nathan’s office. At length he rose, locked his papers away in this, placed the keys in his pocket and prepared for rest. Soon after he had re- - tired his son Frederick, who had been paying some calls that evening, returned, paused at the door of the Impromptu bedroom, and finding his father not yet asleep, stopped to wish him goodnight. A little while afterward Washington Nathan entered the house, and as he afterward declared, looked into the reception room, but finding his father asleep, passed up to his own room on an upper story without awakening him. Patrolman John. Mangam of the Twenty-ninth precinct was that night on duty in the district in which the Nathan mansion was situated. It was one of the worst nights that he had known. The rain fell in sheets which flooded the roadway; the lightning flashed continuously and the thunderclaps came almost unintermittently. For a moment, as Mangam afterward declared, he saw a light flash in the house of the banker, but it disappeared again and all was dark. At six o’clock Mapgam passed along Twenty-third street toward Sixth avenue, on his way to meet the relief. As he turned upon the last round of his beat a voice from the Nathan mansion called to him in agonized tones: “Officer! Hurry, for God’s sake!” Mangam spun round upon his heel. On the steps of the Nathan home he saw Frederick and Washington, in their night gear, gesticulating at him wildly and shouting. Mangam began to run, and dashed up the steps. "What’s wrong?” he asked. “My father has been murdered!” exclaimed Frederick, while Washington, who appeared much leas excited, chimed in: "Father is lying murdered upstairs." Mangam tossed down his waterproof overcoat,went to the street and began rapping vigorously upon the sidewalk for assistance. Thon, without waiting for the arrival of a brother officer, he rushed upstairs, first inquiring of the sons whether there was anyone in the house whom they suspected. He was told where the murdered man was lying, and going into the reception room he saw the dead man upon the threshold of the little hall bedroom, covered with blood. Mangam rushed to Nathan’s side and, placing his hand to his heart, exclaimed: “He’s still living. There’s life here yet Send for a doctor." •' _ By this time Patrolman Theodore Rowland bad arrived in response to

ance. A doctor came from the Fifth Avenue hotel in a few moments, but found that the patrolman had made a mistake in the first excitement of his discovery. The banker had been dead for at least three hours; in fact his body was already quite cold. . Mangam then told the Nathan boys that much as he regretted it, it was his duty to take complete charge of the household and permit nobody to leave. Captain Burden was summoned from the Twenty-ninth precinct and arrived within half an hour. He at once placed his detectives on the case and notified Superintendent John Jourdan and Chief Detective Kelso. When the detectives arrived they that they had never witnessed a bloodier murder or one in which the victim had evidently made so determined a struggle for life. On the dead man’s body were the marks of numerous blows, evidently inflicted with a heavy, blunt instrument There were four wounds on the head, any one of which would have been sufflcfent to cause immediate death. Several of the fingers had been broken. A desperate struggle had evidently occurred in the doorway between the two rooms, and upon the walls were the Imprints of two hands; one that of Nathan himself, as was evident from the shape of the fingers, the other that of a hand with long, tapering, well-kept fingers.! Had the system of finger records now so universally used been in use then, the murderer would undoubtedly have been discovered. For never have two finger-prints yet been found that are alike. But in those days this fact was wholly unknown outside of China, where the finger-print system of identification seems to have had its origin. That the motive of the crime was robbery could easily be determined. The murdered man’s keys had been taken from his pocket, but whether before or after his death could not be determined. The safe in the private office had been unlocked, a circumstance somewhat peculiar, for it Was so concealed that a burglar, coming into the house by chance, could not have discovered it From within had been taken a wooden case containing a number of rare coins; the housekeeping money, amounting to several hundred dollars, was also missing from a drawer, together with some family trinkets. From the murdered man’s clothes the robber had removed a valuable watch and chain, valued at six hundred dollars, and three gold studs had been removed from the shirt front —after death, as the bloody finger prints upon the linen disclosed. Having committed the deed, the murderer had coolly gone into the bathroom and washed his hands. These circumstances made it clear .that it was an “inside” job—that is to say it had evidently been done by some one familiar with the interior of the house. While Patrolman Mangam was awaiting the arrival Buj^ l den, Frederick Nathan, who was standing beside him at the street dor, suddenly exclaimed: “Here’s something!” He stooped/ and picked up sin iron bar, about twenty inches in length, smeared with blood and having a few gray hairs adhering. That this was the instrument with which the murderer had accomplished his crime there could be no doubt. It was what is known among ship carpenters as a “dog,” a bar of one-inch wrought iron with the ends turned up. The news of this tragedy shocked the entire city. The press denounced the police for their failure to apprehend the murderer immediately. The Hebrew community and the Stock Exchange offered rewards aggregating no less than $45,000 for information leading to the discovery of the murderer. As is usual in such cases, the police were haiiipered by cranks who began writing them letters, offering clues, with the sole object of leading the detectives astray. Superintendent Jourdan received at least five hundred of these missives from all parts of the country. Numerous criminals were arrested upon suspicion, among them being George Ellis, a burglar who was brought down from Sing Sing on the supposition that he was In possession ot valuable information in regard to the murderer, a man who bad been named by the police but had evaded their search. Ellis was kept under guard in New York for more than three months, a watcher being detailed to guard him day and night One of these watchers was Detective Patrick Dolan, and to him Ellis casually remarked one day: "Isn’t It too bad? Superintendent Pat Jourdan’s going to die, and. I’ll bp sent back to state’s prison again.” “How do you know that?” Dolan asked. “His clothes don’t fit him,” replied Ellis, and that was all they could get out of him. Jourdan did. die shortly afterward. Three other persons were at one time suspected of being in close touch with the murderer. One of these was John T. Ireland, who confessed to the crime in order to secure‘free transportation from San Francisco. But all these clues preyed false. 7 ’ T Besides the crank letters, another

thing seriously hampered the police, and that was the interest manifested in the case by the deceased man’s friends. It had been whispered, almost from the date of the tragedy, that Washington Nathan was the guilty perspn. There is little to substantiate this theory. Estranged though the father and son had been — and this was shown by the terms of Nathan’s will, which practically disinherited Washington—there is no reason to believe that the latter was a parricide. The very violence of the blows delivered makes such a supposition improbable, for the murder had evidently been accomplished by a resolute and determined man. But.it is unfortunate in the interests of Washington that the crime was never cleared up. The friends of the murdered man were anxious that no .breath of suspicion should fall upon the son, and in placing obstacles in the way of a free investigation by the authorities they unintentianally perpetuated the belief that Washington was the guilty party.

The first care of the police was to inform themselves as to the movements, habits and character of all the inmates of the Nathan mansion. When Patrolman Mangam first saw the two brothers upon the steps he noticed that there was blood upon Frederick’s socks and shirt front. This was easily explained, however, by Frederick’s statement that when he saw his father dead, in an access of grief he had flung himself upon his body, Washington Nathan had exhibited no such emotion, however. His demeanor was not that of a dutiful son suddenly bereaved of a father. For a whole week after the murder he wore a handkerchief so arranged as to conceal his throat. The stories concerning his life and associates that leaked out were such as to impel the authorities to place him under the surveillance of friends, who pledged themselves to produce him at a moment’s notice. But the inquest held by Coroner Rollins released Washington, and for the time the suspicion that had been directed agafnst him was removed. After the inquest the actions of the police and their dilatory proceedings were strongly commented upon in the press. They appear to have failed altogether to light upon a single clue. That the murder was an “inside job” should have made the detection of the criminal a practically easy one. When investigation failed the detectives fell back upon the theory that the murder had been committed by a novice in crime, for no professional burglar, they argued, would have brought such a tool as the “dog” into the house. Besides, such a tool would have been useless for breaking open the mahogany drawer which had been rifled. What is probably the true explanation es this mysterious case? The man upon whom suspicion fell most justly appears to have been William Kelly, the son of Nathan’s housekeeper. The probabilities are that he admitted some confederates into the house with a view to robbing the safe, and that they succeeded in obtaining the key and in opening it, but in doing so aroused Mr. Nathan, who engaged In the struggle which brought about his death. He must have recognized young Kelly, and this circumstance made it essential in order to insure the safety of the party that the old banker’s mouth should be closed forever. This would explain the many unnecessary blows that were delivered and the ferocity of the attack, which did not cease until all life had been battered out of the body of the victim. It was afterward shown that Kelly had been' the" associate of .thieves, and he Was never able to explain in a satisfactory manner his whereabouts on that night The suspicion attaching to Washington Nathan —in all probability unjustly—may be explained by his vicious life and character, and by the fact that he was estranged from his father and had been disinherited. Friends of the family, fearful of increasing this feeling, acted unwisely in endeavoring to thwart the detectives instead of aiding them to clear the young man’s character. One of the stories toll with a view of demonstrating Washington Nathan’s complicity wag to the effect that a mysterious bundle of bloody garments was smuggled out of the house upon the morning after the murder. Yet it is significant that, with more than |45,000 at their disposal to be paid for the detection of the murderer, the detectives were unable to inveigle the washerwoman who received the family laundry Into acknowledging this highly significant fact Little stress need, therefore, be placed upon it But one unwise action which tended to confirm the suspicion of the people of New York was the removal of the carpet to the reception room to a cleaner’s almost immediately after Benjamin Nathan’s body had been laid out, so that every blood stain on it might be removed. At the same time the walls were repapered. Why did Superintendent Jourdan permit these occurrences? The entire story of the Benjamin Nathan murder remains shrouded, in mystery. The supineness of the police, the laxness of those charged with the guarding Of

the house, the failure to present plausible evidence against anyone, all point to the fact that some secret influetice was at work with the purpose of thwarting investigation. From the day after the Nathan murder Superintendent Jourdan went into a decline and never regained his former joviality of spirits. It was openly said that his death, soon afterward, was brought about by the burden of a .dreadful secret, which passed with him, and that all chance of discovering the murderer would have to be abandoned. Thus the Nathan murder remains at once one of the greatest and most inexplicable mysteries of the last generation. For a long while afterward it was hinted that at some future date a clue would come to light, the secret would be unexpectedly disclosed from some unexpected quarter; and there are men living today who have not yet abandoned this expectation. More than once, it has been reported, the police were about to “revive’’ the murder. But as the years roll on this becomes Increasingly improbable, and it may now be set down as one of those gruesome secrets that will never be revealed. ' Washington Nathan was not shocked into reformation by his father’s fate. His associations became worse instead of better; he associated with gamblers, and was on one occasion shot at in the Coleman house by a woman who had threatened his life in a fit of jealousy. In connection with this incident a curious story may be told. Washington Nathan was struck by more than one of the bullets, and his injuries were such that It was believed an operation would become Imperative. Had this operation been performed recourse would have been had to a well-known surgeon of New York city, who would, perforce, have been compelled to make use of an anaesthetic. The action of ether is known to be of an invariable nature. First it induces sleep; then a sort of inebriety, in which, the patient becomes restless, throws his limbs about and talks incoherently; finally it induces the coma in which all sensibility is blunted.

It was the Intention of this surgeon, at the suggestion of certain persons who were interested In the case, to prolong the stage of inebriety over a rather greater duration of time than is commonly permitted. It ic well known that when in this condition a patient is incapable of retaining a secret, The physician who expected to be called in had determined either to clear the name of Washington Nathan from suspicion on account of his family, for whom he had a great regard, or to satisfy himself as to his guilt by questioning him when he was in this mental condition. He framed a series of leading questions by means of which he would be able, to ascertain beyond all doubt whether he had actually .slain his father or was Innocent of, the crime. ~ . ~ Unfortunately—or fortunately—-the operation was never performed, and thus the physician had no opportunity of making the test that he so much desired. . .

"Send for a doctor."