Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 172, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 July 1920 — Marks on Throat Where Murderer Had Choked Her [ARTICLE]

Marks on Throat Where Murderer Had Choked Her

Police Arrest John S. Nelson, a Clefk, Out of Work, in Whose Rooms They Found a Revolver. 3 Daisy Lutan, an actress, whose matrimonial affairs recently brought her much notoriety, was found last night murdered in her apartment in the Granddeck. She had been Instantly killed by a bullet wound through the heart, and there were marks on her throat where her assailant had tried to choke her. John S. Nelson, a clerk out of work, who had been acting as caretaker for one of the tenants tn the building, was arrested. There was blood on his coat when Detectives Cullen and Edwards took him prisoner, and they found in his room a revolver with one chamber empty hidden under a pile of shirts in the dresser. The apartment Nelson is occupying is directly above that of Miss Lutan. The police theory is that Nelson let himself into the apartment by swinging down from his window, and that Miss Lutan, returning unexpectedly, found him ransacking her rooms. The crime was discovered by James Wick, superintendent of the apartment house, who was in the elevator when he heard screams followed by a shot. Getting out of the elevator to investigate he found Nelson at the door of the Lutan apartment.

Nelson glibly explained that he had heard a shot and was trying to see where it had come from. Mr. Wick’s suspicions were aroused by his manner, and he made Nelson come with him into the apartment and kept him there until the arrival of the police. Little is known at the Granddeck about young Nelson, and he stubbornly refuses to make any statement about himself. He was employed only a few days ago by Rufus Gaston as caretaker for his apartment. As Mr. Gaston is absent from the city it cannot be learned how he happened to give Nelson employment. The police believe he may have obtained the position through false references in order to gain an opportunity to toot the apartments in the building. Superintendent Wick had ascertained that Nelson was once employed by a shipping firm in the Wall street district but had been discreditably discharged. His former employer confirmedthis, butwould say nothing about Nelson beyond stating that he had been discharged for cause. Although Nelson was not over well supplied with money he had been seen recently ordering elaborate meals in some of the most expensive restaurants. Miss Nellie Kelly, the telephone girl at the Granddeck, reported that only the night before Nelson had taken her to dinner, ordering champagne and hiring taxicabs, and had tried to pump her about the tenants in the building. The one fact that stuck out in the whole article that seemed of vast importance to me was the fact that Wick had informed the police that I had been discreditably discharged from my last place* of employment. How did he know that? Certainly I had not told him. I had told no one of the occurrence except Barbara Bradford, and I was sure she had not revealed it to anyone. It was indubitable proof to me that Wick, or someone with whom he was conniving, had been having me shadowed. Even my great-uncle Rufus did not know where my place of employment was. Evidently the plot to discredit me had begun the day I arrived at the Granddeck. I had been discharged on account of some mysterious note my employer had received. I began now to believe that Wick must have had me followed to my place of business and to have sent that note for the express purpose of bringing about iny discharge. But why? That was the puzzle. / (TO BE CONTINUED.)