Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 June 1888 — MURDERED HIMSELF. [ARTICLE]

MURDERED HIMSELF.

About Haifa mile from' Uievillage of Oposura, Mexico, facing; the. Jiigh road, and separated frontin' riVer 5 agua by a bolt of trees, there stood some years ago a long, low cottage known /is. I,a Bolsa. S«‘nor Rodriquez. who was a squarely Built, clean-shaven mall of aliont 40. w ith grav hair, mustache and goatee, and with nothing remarkable about him except a deep out over, his right eyebrow, had now been occupying the cottage for a little over a year. Considerable tion was indulged in as to whom ltedriqucz was and what lie did for a living, lie never volunteered any information on that seore. but on one occasion lie was heard to say something which led to the inference that he,had been a sea captain. and on the strength of it the residents of the village called him the captain. . '

About this time the captain had got into trouble, lie owed his landlord and the village tradesmen in the neighborhood of SSOO, and the patience of his creditors' was nearly exhausted, when ? one day they received a letter from the captain in which lie wrote that lie would satisfy their claims on the following Monday.as a legacy left by a distant relative had been paid-in to his account at the village bank. '* On Saturday the captain came into town, met his landlord s son, chatted pleasantly with the young man and invited him to accompany him to the hank, lie remained at the bank about ten minutes, and came out at the end of that time, buttoning into the breast-pocket of his coat a fat-looking pocket book. He then went straight home, after making a few purchases and bidding the young man good-day. On Sunday morning the villagers were startled by the announcement made by the captain’s servant at the police station that her master had been murdered the night before ana robbed. The inspector and the whole available police force of the village, consisting of two policemen, set off for I-a Bolsa to unearth the mystery.

On reaching the building the windows and doors in front were closed and locked. Ongoing round to the back the door leading from the sitting-room to the garden, which sipped clown to the river, was found to be open, and on entering the sitting-room drops of blood were seen along the carpet between the.staircase and the garden door. On the staircase itself, the drops of blood were more frequent. The bedroom, however, was dearly the place where the murder had been committed. The table by the window had been pushed out of its place: the only two chairs in the room were lying on the floor. The bed,' which had not l>een slept in. was deluged in blood, and in the middle of it was a deep indentation, as if a heavy body had been pressed down upon it. A large clasped-knife, stained with blood, was laying upon the pillow' and by the door on the flour was an open pocket So much the inspector saw at a glance as he entered. lie took the pocket-book and hKtkcd-carefulhv^ through it: it was errfpriT - Imt lying near- it, aud. behind the 1 door, was a neatly folded paper. It had'ovidentlv fallen from the }K>eket-boek while the murderer was emptying the contents. It was a half-sheet of note paper folded in three, and written on it were the numbers and . value of forty-two hank notes, the total of which amounted to $3,750. Here was a dew at once. An officer was immediately dispatched to the village with the paper to enquire of the blank authorities whether those were the numbers of the notes which had been paid to the captain the day before. He also received orders to await the arrival of Capt. Salegria, a wellknown, and daring Mexican® detective, who was to arrive in the village at noon That day to visit an old friend. The bank identified the numbers of the paper as those of the bank notes paid the day before to the- captain. Tile money had been paid him by the bank in pursuance of an order contained in a letter on Saturday morning from one of its correspondents. Golez,Garacia& Co., a large firm doing an immense business wjjth the Cnited States. Further inquiry being made by the officer, it was ascertained that a man, who seemed to avoid observation, was seen driving along the road early on the morning of the' 1 murder in a vehicle very much of the style ... used in the country. The man who drove the mysterious man to where he , could obtain a stage which ran on the old Oposura road, showed the bugle.lull the stranger had giVyil him to chance. —and it was found to lie one - TiCTH< >??■ st olen from the captain. From the indications outside, there was no doubt t hat t hGfnurderer had gone out of the sitting-rogfn' back wurd,ulru>y ging the body of -Ms victim after -him,Across the smaH<CTassplot. and half waythrough the belt of trees, the footsteps continued; there they ceased, -On the soft mud and leaves was an impression - ap if aflon& 'ln)^ there; near this impression,-lying on the

ground, was a spade, and_at the distance of a few feet the pound had been dug up as if it had been intended to bury the body there. The project, however, hail been given up as the murderer had thought of a better plan for disposing of the body. But where? In the river, of course! Sure enough, in the river hank

the footprints were again found. The river had been dragged up and down and at sideways and across, and at every conceivable angle, but no body had been found. The inspector was getting impatient when a road wagon drove up and a dapper little man, swarthy complexion and. a heavy black mustache, jumped out. The stranger was none other than ('apt. Salegria, the famous detective. In a few minutes the detective had heardall uiai inspector had to tel). _ - “bet me see,” said the detective. “All the village, you say, knew tire captain would have money to pay his debts?” The inspector nodded. “Which amounted in all to about SSOO, more er less? 11- " The inspector nodded again. “And lie drew out of the bank $.”,750. Was that the whole legacy?” “It was,” --.--7-- . 1 r-‘" “He didn’t want $0,750 to pav $.500, did he?" This was a new light to the inspector, who shook his head cautiously. “From whom did the order to pay the

money come?” ! “Colcz, (iarcia & Co.” “Colez, (iarcia & C 0.,” repeated salegria, referring to his note hook; “the great American traders.” “And you suspect no one?” “No one except the man who passed the note.” The detective and the inspector entered the house. After looking over the kitchen and buxom widow’s bedroom without making any discovery, the two went to the captain’s bedroom. Everything of moment was carefully examined. A pair of boots lying in the corner of the room finally attracted the detective’s attention. Something in the lining of one of them seemed to interest him, for lie again referred to his pocket-book. Having finished his examination of the bedroom the detective went down-stairs, faking one of the hoots with him and inspecting each stair as he descended. These were apparently more satisfactory, for his smile brightened considerably, and after he had been shown the traces of blood along the floor of the sittingroom it. had expanded into a broad grin. He walked to the table, and turned over the books and papers till he found some sheets of blotting-paper. These lie examined attentively, holding them up to the light and turning them in evenpossible direction. The result seemed to. be satisfactory, for he pocketed tltem. “And now about this captain,” said the detect!vo, choosing the dearest footprint lie could find in the soft mud, and pulling the boot out of his pocket. “His name is Rodriquez, von say. What is he eajdainof? 1 ’ —=—• ;/■• - - “Nothing that I know of, hut they do say that he has been a captain in the China trade.” “What sort of a man is lie?” “Tall, spare-built, about 40, gray hair, and no whiskers.’’

“Deep cut over the right eyebrow,” added the detective,, quietly, as lie stopped and fitted the boot which he had taken from the captain’s room into the impression in tl\e mud. “Yes,” said the Inspector, puzzled at the detective’s knowledge. “lie never wciiLbvthat name Imre-slid he?” asked the detective handing thn boot to the detective, on the lining of wjiieh was written “A. Perez,” “Never?’ „— >—-—■ He was getting more and more puzMed. - • v “Perez, alias Cavy, alias Delgardo, and now alias Rodriquez; I’ve wanted hiin these three years,” said the detective; cheerfully. “I’ve got him now.” "Yes,” said the inspector, grimly, “he's safe enough over there." “An he jerketThis hand toward the river.

“Bless you? ’ said the detective, "he’s n core f- America by this time. He’ll die in his boots or with the rope around his mvk yet. Don't you see the fellow has murdered himself and bolted with the swag? When 1 found that boot I thought how it was, and this settled it,” said the detective? pulling the sheets of blotting paper out of, his pocket and holding them to the Inspector. There, all Over them, were the words Golez, Garcia & Go., in a neat, clerk-like hand, with that peculiar flourish at the end which these who-had dealings with that eminent house knew so well. “That letter to the village bank, is a forgery; it’s not the first time he has served Golez, Garcia A Co., this trick. He was in their American house five years: came to them with a forged character, to the tune of $22,000 and bolted. He's been smuggling and thieving all over the world since then. But T -must bel wouldn’t miss him for anything.” ~ bank found, to its astonishment, that Golez, Garcia A Co. repudiated the letter which-purported to hear their signature.. It was a forgery. Some days later the captain was arrest odjustaS he” was In the actTif bookntgffits~pagSgge tor" “New York. Subsequently lie was tried in the Village court in Oposura, and. under the name of Rodriquez, was sentenced to penal servitude for the term of his natural life. G. *-