Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 33, Number 84, 9 May 1908 — Page 1

RICHMOND) PMXABIUM

JL JOLitli

AND SUN-TELEGRAM. VOL. XXXIII. NO. 8 I. RICII3IOXD, IXD., SATl HDAV EVKXIXO, MAY !. 1DOS. SSIXGI.K COPY, 2 CENTS.

IS NOT FOUL MURDERESS Successful Alibi Is Proven by Comely Mrs. Herron Who Was Taken From a New York Central Train. BODY FOUND IN RUINS NOT THAT OF MRS. GUNNESS. Both the Coroner and Physicians Performing Autopsy Do Not Think That Remains Bear Resemblance. A SENSATION FOLLOWS. MEASUREMENTS OF MRS. GUNNESS AND THOSE OF THE BURNED BODY DO NOT TALLY IN ANY RESPECT. Syracuse, N. Y., May 9. TIip wnra(in arrestpfl early this inornins: ra a "Sew York Central train, suspected of JieinK Mrs. (iunness has suceePded in proving herself Mrs. Cora Hello Hrr)on. of Franklin, I'a., widow of the former vice-president of the Sethners Chemical company of Chicago. She was on her way to Now York to visit H sister and was accompanied by her mother, .Mrs. Iucy Hurton. She is ptrikingly jiretty and is stylishly attired in widows weeds and claims that, she will proceed ncainst the police for the outrage. The arrest reHilted from the suspicions of two traveling men, who reported the same to the police on leaving the train. When firnused from their herds and taken from the train both women very reluctantly talked. They carried a large puit t-Hse and told the officers to handle It with care as it. contained maple suear. Mrs. Herron maintains that !he has made her summer home at Trankliu, Pa., since the death of her liusband. SENSATION CAUSED. Coroner Finds Body in Fire Not That of Mrs. Gunness. La port e, Ind., May i. The undertaker who prepared the fragments of the body of Andrew Helgelein for burSal, claims that he found a handful of yellow hair in one hand indicating that, the murdered man had made a fctruggle for his 1'fe. Harry W. Richter. a dealer in Jmilding materials, says that Mrs. Clunness purchased quick lime several times during the past year, and also flives evidence that she purchased a kiumber of gunnysacks. The coroner today completed his Snvestigatiou of the burning of the 1unness home and finds that the body In the morgue is not that of Mrs. dimness. The finding has caused a sensation. Drs. Long. Wilcox and Meyer conducted an autopsy on the headless body in the morgue and report, it. their npinion that it is not Mrs. Gunness. Bloody Trunk Found. Word has come from the Chicago officials that they have information that 2drs. Gunness is alive and also that an examination of the premises she formerly occupied in Austin is likely to idisclose many additional murders. The discovery of a blood-covered ax Twui a trunk containing important letlers that, will shed light on the mystery of the Gunness murders followed the exhumation of the tenth body Yrom the lime-filled murder farm that Jiow occupies the shocked attention of the nation. The trunk, the property of Ray Jamphere. accused of the murder of Mrs. Gunness and her three children, "was found in a barn at the W'heatVrook farm, near Springville. where Jie had been employed since February t, after his quarrel with Mrs. Gunness. After learning of the trunk seizure, Attorney Worden. counsel for LampJiere. was refused admission to the Jail. He thereupon announced that lie would seek his client's release on B writ of habeas corpus. Letters of Mrs. Gunness. in the trunk were letters written to the prisoner by Mrs. Gunness entreating him to return to the murder mansion. In one at the letters, which are being examined by Prosecuting Attorney Smith. Sheriff Smutzer and Chicago detectives, is the paragraph: "Come back to me. You must come back. You may bring your new sweetheart with you, provided she has money enough. Many other letters were found, which the Prosecuting Attorney promises to make public. In the trunk was found a number of women's gold lings, some of them jeweled. Whether any of them were the property of Mrs. Gunness or of possible women victims of the murder farm slaughters 1s a question for the authorities to Idetermine. A few- hours after the trunk had 5een seized at John Wheatbrook's

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",4 1 farm and secretly brought to Laporte, Iam phire .summoned a. friend to the jail. He knew nothing about the discovery of his property. When his friend reached the jail Lampliere said to him: Sends for His Lawyer. "I think I have .someihing that I can say to the public without hurting my case. I want you to no to my attorney. Mr. Worden. Tell him I want to see him and thai I want some clean clothes, and also tell him, for God's sake, to send to the barn at Wheatbrook's farm and get my trunk. Wheat brook will show any one he sends foiit where it is. I want it taken away from there." Hours before this message was delivered to Lamphere's attorney, detectives had found the trunk and had brought it here. More important revelations are cxpeded after the contents of the trunk have been examined. The telltale ax. reddened with blood believed, to have coursed through human veins, was found on the Gunness farm in a wood shed, burieu under a pile of rubbish. Sheriff Sniutzer and his aids uncovered it when searching the shed for traces of more murdered victims' graves. Officials both here and from Chicago express the firm belief that there are still 2.") bodies in the ground about the farm or In the sealed basement of the house. To Laports in 1900. Mrs Gunness came here about 1900. She repaired and renovated the man-1 sinn drnined ihe niarsh that had form-

ed. tore down a crumbling stone wall, presented to him resolutions that had planted new tree. Neighbors avoid- been adopted by the conference, asked the newcomer, and Mrs. Gunness ing that the IJttlefield interstate liqwas not popular. j nor shipment bill, now pending before No one knows w hen and how she I the judiciary committee of the house, began her systematic series of murd-jbe reported with favorable recomers. Certain it. is. however, that in I mendation : that the house pass the the first, two years of her residence bill and send it to the senate for conthere she sought the society of her ! sideration and that action be had heacquaintances and after that avoided fore the adjournment of the present it. congress. She barred and chained all the out- Among the committee were Coverer doors and would drive visitors nor Hanly, of Indiana; Governor Hoch away with threats of violence. There ! of Kansas; Judge ('has. A. Pollock, of are 17 heavy oaken doors In the house i Fargo. X. D. ; Dr. A. H. Leonhard, of and on each of these she caused to be j New York City and L. C. Murdock, of placed three heavy bolts so that all Kingston. Pa. three could be thrown by a single The preamble to the resolution lever. stated there is a doubt among the Unbelievable, though it may seem, members of the house judiciary cointhat human slaughter house actual" j mltee as well as among some of the was provided with troughs for draiif ; ablest lawyers of the country as to ing off the lotI of the slain victims, (the constitutionality of the bill, and There it was that Mrs. Gunness kill-j pointed out tlie advisability of having

ed them, dismembered them with the skill of a surgeon and prepared to bury them with quicklime in the "post holes" that a hired man had dug innocently. Body Examined. There are several reasons for believing that Mrs. Gunness is alive. An examination of the body of the womaii found in the ruins of the burned house seems to prove that it was the body of a woman much smaller than Mrs. Gunness. The body is that of a woman who weighed about U10 pounds. Mrs. Gunness weighed 200 pounds. Here Are the Comparisons. Following are the comparisons, as estimated by Mrs. Gunness's weight, and the actual measurements of the body found: Dead Woman 9 inches liiceps lit! inches I'.usi 2ti inches Waist. 2." inches Thisu 40 inches Hips 10 inches Calf 6 inches Wrist Mrs. Gunness 17 inches 4(1 inches "7 inches inches 5 t inches . . ..12i2 inches 9 inches County Prosecutor Smith hold against a", those "indications" i out that Mrs. Gunness is alive. He is firmly convinced she perished with her children in the ruins of her own home, or that she was murdered by Ray Laraphere. Three Farmhands Gone. Efforts will be made to clear up the' disappearance of three farmhands j who had been employed by Mrs. Gun- i ness. They, too, vanished as though j tae earth had opened up and swallowed them. These men are also beiiev(Continued on Page Seven.) THE WEATJHER PRCPHET. INDIANA Part cloudy Sunday, with slowly rising temperature; fresh northwest wine's. OHIO Slowly rising temperature; Sunday fair and warmer; fresh west to northwest winds.

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VI J X 3 "i APPEAL SENT 10 CONGRESS TO PASS L1TTLEFIELD BILL Methodists Desire the Law Because It Provides Against Interstate Shipment of Liquor Into Dry States. GOVERNOR HANLY LEADS DELEGATION ON CAPITAL. He States That Indiana and Kansas Are Having Hard j Time Enforcing Prohibition! Measures at Present. I Washington. May from th board of ft. A committee bis! ops of the Methodist church, whose general con ference is now being held in Haiti more, called on Sneaker Cannon and tne measure interpreted by the Supreme court of the United States. "The failure of the federal government." continued the resolution, "to act in this behalf, largely nullifies the action of the several states in a matter of grave i nit tort affecting the peace, happiness ;iid welfare of society throughout every state which has sought to limit the evil of such traffic by excluding it from a part or all of its boundaries." Speaker Cannon, after reading the (Continued on Page Seven.)

Searching for False Walls in Gunness Cellar

for Bodies

CANNON BID EVANS A NOISY FAREWELL Famous Seaman Is No Longer In Charge of the Atlantic Fleet. THOMAS IN COMMAND. HE TOO, HOWEVER, WILL RETIRE MAY 15, AND RETURN TO WASHINGTON AWAITING HIS RETIREMENT FROM SERVICE. San Francisco, May 0. The combined Atlantic, and Pacific fleets of battle ships, armored cruisers, torpedo boat destroyers and auxiliaries, aggregating in weight of displacement the enormous total of more than -too,-' Vnf tons, were reviewed in picturesque San Fram isco haibor by Secretary of j the Navy Men alf. Following the rej view Rear Admiral F.vans announced 'that he was ill. Today he departed J for Washington. ! The H vessels of the two fleets lay ' at anchor in four long columns and ! proceeding from the 'Oakland short, the secretary on board the little gunI boat Yorktown, passed southward I through the line formed by the armi ored cruisers of the Pacific fleet, near- ! est the Oakland shore and the second squadron of the Atlantic fleet, headed ! by the Minnesota. Turning back to the north at the end j of these two lines, the Yorktown trav- ! ersed the lane formed on the starboard by the battleships of the first Atlantic squadron and on the port by the grim j little, destroyers. The day was brilliant, with sunshine and a sighing breeze from the West set the wafers : of the hill-protected bay dancing intoi j whiteeapped waves. Excursion craft ! crowded about the anchorage area. I Rear Admiral Evans, who had ' j hoped to end his active naval career! ; by participating in official ceremo-' pies, was not permitted by his attending physician to go aboard the Connecticut. Rear Admiral Chas. M. Thomas again was the senior officer This i forenoon Admiral Evans relinquished command. Although he was not i aboard ship his flag officially was lowered from the truck of the Connecticut j to the parting salute of 1.", guns. Ari- ; niiral Evans' leave-taking of the fleet j was from the journey through the I Golden Gate. Admiral Evans will stay in Washington awaiting orders until the date

RICHMOND WILL GET PROTECTION' PROM FIRE DANGER

Probable That City Council Will Pass Ordinance for the Proper Inspection of Local Buildings. OLD CITY LAW IS NOW OF NO USE TO THE CITY. Its Provisions Do Not Cover Present Day Conditions Not Probable That Building Inspector Will Be Named. Next Wednesday ocnin ance committee of council meeting for the purpose the ordinwill hold a f tormulating an ordinance providing for the proper inspection of buildings regarded as unsafe. It is expected that the new ordinance will s;ive the board of public works authority to condemn unsafe buildings. The ordinance will not create a new public office that of building inspector, because members of council are of the opinion that the city's expenses are already too high. It is probable that the fire chief will b- named as building Inspector. The old building inspection ordinance is a very weak one. It delegates to the board of public improvements" and the city council the authority to condemn unsafe buildings. Since the enactment of the towns and cities code the "board of public improvements" has been eliminated. The old ordinance also fails to cloth the proper officials with complete authority in this respect. The new ordinance will probably be drawn up, in compliance with the acts of Hto.", so that the fire chief shall be required to inspect all building If he finds any which he regards as unsafe for the reason that they are improperly constructed and in danger of collapsing, or because they are dangerous for fire reasons, he shall report his findings to the board of public works. It will then be up to the board to serve notice on the owners of the condemned buildings to immediately put them in proper repair, tinder the supervision of the fire chief, or to tear them down. There are many ancient piles in this city which will be effected by this new ordinance, should it be enacted by council, and its enforcement will be a great benefit to the citizens of i this city. It will not only lessen the j dangers they are constantly exposed) tf hut it will also serve to beautify the city. There appears to be no chance of the ordinance being defeated as council has been thoroughly aroused by the colonial fire, the and the burning school building. Ft. Wayne holocaust of the Collin wood of his retirement on his sixty-second birthday, August 1. Admiral Thomas will be in command of the Atlantic fleet only unitl May when he, too, hauls down his flag for all time, to return home on waiting orders, until his retirement in the fall. FOUGHT WATSON ONCE. Dave McKee, the well known n . nersville attorney, was in the citv toI day on legal business. He spent a portion of the time in renewing acquaintance with local politicians and : attorneys. McKee was an opponent of James Watson in the Sixth District at one time and the two indulged in a campaign which redounded in a displav of personal disfavor. i

CITY GETS $24,000

Richmond's Share of Taxes Collected by County Forwarded to Treasurer. LARGEST SUM THIS YEAR. Count? treasurer Mrick has paid to cit iithmiic: .lo.itisoa $24.""" as the cit's share of the taxes paid into the county treasury dnriut; April. This sum does not lepresent the entire amount as tiu- county withholds a small amount to coy t the possibility of error The amount is the largest that will be paid to the m tins year. It does not include the share cf taxes paid during the first four days of May which was iptite lati;e as these were the last days for paying the sprini; installment. The fall installment will not p.. hire. owing to the fact many tax pavers pay the entire amount in the st.rint;. TRAINMEN STRIKE. Chicago. III.. May 9 A strike of three hundred motormen. trainmen and switchmen of the Illinois Tunnel company was called today. It will effect transportation of mail from the postofiieo to the depots by the underground route. E COME NEARER GOAL THAN ALL OTHERS Wright Brothers Seem to Have Mastered the Question of Aerial Flight as They Make Successful Trip. THEY SAILED FAR OUT OVER THE OCEAN. Eight Miles Were Traveled and Young Men Could Have Gone Further Had They Cared Another Flight Soon It has remained for two former Wayne county young men to come the nearest, to the solution of the problem of aerial flight by other means than a balloon. Orville and Wilbur Wright, who have been acquiring fame in recent years as navigators of the atmosphere, made a flight in their aeroplane near Manteo N. C. yesterday, that proved superior to all previous attempts. Their machine was operated I with as much ease and grace as a sea i gull sails over the water in search of a : fish for dinner. The flight was eight miles out to sea and return to the place of the Wright Brothers' rendezvous in Kill Deil Hill Nags Head. North Carolina. The brothers will endeavor to make their next . flight from Nag's Head to Cape Henry, a distance of 7 miles. Not only did the aeroplane make a successful flight over the sea. but all up and down Nag's head, which is nothing metre than an island, for a distance of about miles. The machine sailed with perfect ease, at all times under perfect control of both the Wright brothers, who were in the tnat hine. The machine was at least :'..o feet in the air at one time, and If was apparent from the maneuvers that the two inventors wre particularly interested in proving the aeroplane capable of making sharp and decisive turns in all directions under all conditions. For some time the machine was sailing about almost in a circle: then it would glide away on a straight course and mak a sharp turn hack to the direction from which it started. Eight Miles Over the Sea. It is estimated that the machine was eight miles away on the sea at its greatest distance, and could have gone farther, perhaps, had the inventors cared to make the trip. The brothers will endeavor either today or Sunday to sail in their aeroplane from Nag's Head to Cape H'-nry, a distance of about 75 miles. While the two inventors are averse to discussing their invention in any maniter. they are confident, that they have solved aerial navigation, and are anxious to prove it to the United States government. Fiance is said to have made them an offer of iVM' for thir invention. bu they are not eager to sell to any foreign country. "We are confident of success." said Orville Wright. "We believe we have solved aerial navigation, and are going to prove it. Our past experiments have been all that we could have desired, and anything we attempt In the future will speak for itself. Our aeroplane will sail under any weather conditions. The direction or velocity of the wind will not materially affect its progress." The county commissioners were engaged this morning In reviewing the reports of road overseers and allowing their rlaims. The board considered only a few other matters of importance. '

Buys

ROOSEVELT AGAIN

SHOWS THAT HE IS UNDISPUTED LEADER Says in Letters to Senators That He Will Brook No Interference With His Plans Already Laid. REPUBLICAN SENATORS ARE MUCH PERTURBED. Threaten to Publicly Censure The President for His Daring to Tell Them How to Act in the Future. Washington. D. C. May 0. - After having been charged repeatedly during his administration with usurpation of congressional powers, the president now in turn is alleging that congress seems to be seeking to usurp some of the authority with which he Is invested by the constitution. He has written a letter to Senator Stewait, of Vermont, in which this w:nt was raised, and it has stirred up considerable feeling among republican senators who are not on friendly terms with the administration. This letter is so vigorous In its tone that fuue of the republican leaders are discussing the question of administering a refuke to Mr. Roosevelt for the position he has taken with respect to the reinstatement of the negro soldiers who were dismissed on account of the shooting up of Rrownsville. Texas, and Colonel Win. F. Stewart, the exiled coast artillery officer In whom Senator Kavner of Maryland, has become interested. On Wednesday during the final chapter of Senator Warner's speech on the Brownsville affray. Senator Stewart made his maiden entry as a debater by asking Warner a number of questions which indicated that he nympathized with the attitude assumed by Senator Foraker. At the conclusion of Mr. Warner's remarks. Mr. Korakr read a clipping from the Cincinnati TimesStar, owned by Charles V. Taft. which declared that the president had written a letter to Senator Smith, of Michigan, saying that if congress enacted a law- similar to that proposed by Foraker, he would promptly veto it. and if congress passed It over his veto, he would absolutely refuse to recopni.e or obey it. He said such legislation would conflict with his constitutional right of making appointments. He alone couid arrange for enlistments in the army, and congrc ss had no right to give him mandatory instructions. Wouldn't Give Up. Senator Smith acknowledged recriv ing a letter from the president, but refused to divulge Its contents. He regarded it as a private communication. Senator Foraker insisted that if Mr.

Smith had not made its contents known they were given publicity at the while house. Afer learning that Senator Stewart was suspected of syniiathizing with Mr. Foraker' policy of compelling th President to reinstate the negro soldiers, the president prepare! a letter covering .'! type-written pages and sent It to Senator Stewart. He went into details concerning his inisition on tlie Hrownsville affair and defended his course from start to finish. He also inclosed a copy of the letter previously sent to Senator Smith, of Michigan, saying it still represented his opinion regarding any legislation on the subject which congress might enact. He then took up the case of Colonel William F. Stewart, now being punished by exile to Ft. Grant, Aril., and followed with a copy of the letter received yesterday by Senator Kayner of Maryland. Thi3 letter is a worchlng communication and declared that he would not permit any interference from congress in the matter of Colonel Stewart. In conclusion the president informed Senator Stewart that he would not tolerate the lessening of hfs constitutional rights by any action of congress, and he should ignore any attempted interference either In the Brownsville affair or the case of Colonel S'ewart. This letter did not particularly appeal to Senator Stewart and he proceeded to acquaint all the republican leaders with its contents. They considered the matter of grave and serious matter - possibly without a precedent. They declared that no previous instance could be found where a president of the United States openly announced over his own signature that he would refuse to obey and execute a law of congress if enacted according to constitutional requirements. The question was not viewed in the light of a joke, based upon mere idle words, but a subject demanding some appropriate action to protect the legislative branch of the government from the encroachments of the executive branch. As the preposition now stands ft Is not proposed to offer any resolutions in the open senate censuring the president, but simply make it a family affair among the republican majority. If anything Is attempted it will be In a regularly called conference of republican senators. Af such a meeting the entire matter of alleged executive (Continued on Page Seven.)