MEMORANDUM 6 NORTHEASTERN (2nd) 106
VOLCKMANN, Alfred, electrocuted Sing Sing Prison {Greene County) on February ll, 1937.
"Greenville, N, Y¥., June 28, 1935-The body of Greenville!s 'perfect schoolgirl,' 9-year-old
Helen Glenn, was found today in a near-by marsh where it had been thrown after a vicious
attack, It was found by 2 of the hundreds of townspeople who had. hunted the child since’!
she disappeared Wednesday night. It was turned over to Coroner M, E, Atkinson, who con-
firmed the fears- of the child's father, the Rev, Ernest Glenn, ‘Somebody near Greenville —
is suspected of attacking and killing. my child,' he told the Associated Press. Subdued
excitement pervaded the town, Few residents ventured into the streets, and troopers in
Civilian clothes sat in tense circles in a downtown store, as if their quarry was nearbye |
But they wuldn't admit. it in face of mtterings heard among the searchers earlier in the
day. Oneman was questioned during the day and released, Coroner Atkinson's verdict given
at Catskill was that the child came to her death from a stab wound through the aorta, a
main body blood vessel, and the liver, The single thurst caused death by internal hemore
rhage. The brown=-haired child was last seen en route to commencement exercises at @ra-
mmer school: where: she had won a prize. for perfect attendance during the winter term, Noth-
ing more was seen of her until today. Under theimpression the child was staying with
friends, Mrs, ‘tkenn did not. report the absence of her daughter to police until yesterday
morning, Their search fruitless, the police called in the state'Scotland Yard’ and wel=
comed:townspeople in the hunt, Hundreds of men, including former service men and. Boy
Scouts were afoot. Just after noon two of the searchers = John Zivelli and Roy Lawyer -
on a rough road near Basic creek, found the child's body,.its clothing torn almost off,
Mrs, Glenn collapsed lated today," TIMES-PICAYUNE, New Orleans, La,y 6-29-1935 (2/he)
"Catskill, N. Y., June 29, 1935-While his victim, 9-year-old Helen Glenn, daughter of a
Methodist minister, lay gageed and bound upstairs, Alfred 'W6lckmann, 18, waited on custo=
mers in the butcher shop below for 2 hours beforecarrying the girl into the country and
stabbing her to death, he confessed tonight to District Attorney John C, Welch, His
tearful story was blurted out after the district attorney, state police of theScotland
Yard division, and two federal men had grilled him until the butcher's boy from near
Greenville finally was taken to the Green County Memorial Hospital, Fear of punishment,
the curly-haired youth admitted, led him to drive madly through the Catskills after he had
murdered the model school girl last Wednesday (7/26) night.
"He swallowed two antispetics containing poisin, but diluted them so much their lethal
mission failed, He contemplated a suicide dive from the window of his bedroom, but could
not summon up the courage. Helen came into the store ##MHMAX owned by his father at 6:15
DeMe last Wednesday, he said, She bought three lollypops, for a penny each, Her beauty
attracted him, he said, and.so: 'I asked her to come upstairs to the bedroom there, Ilo
locked the doors, There was a rope there that had been used to tie a dog, First I gagged
her, and then I tied her arms and feet to the bedposts.' At 7:15 pem. he went downstairs
again and unlocked the front door of the store. His mother came in as he did sO»
"Together they waited on customers until shortly after 9 pem, With his arm flung protece
tively over his mother's shoulder, young Volckmann took her to their home three blocks »,
away. He returned to the store, flung the girl over his shoulder and carried her downstair
to his car, parked on the side street. On the way out hepicked up a butcher knife, 'I
saw her move,' he said, 'I drove past the parsonage where her father and mother lived,
and out on the road to Freehold, Half way out I turned down the Red Mill road, I parked
the car, turned out the lights and carried her down to the water, I had a flashlight, I
turned it down low, Four or 5 cars passed, I put theknife into her chest = drove it in
with the palm of my hand, I thought I might as well finish the job, She gasped and moved
a little, I covered her eyes with her dress, When I took theknife out, she lifed her
hand so it covered the wund,!
"It was that pitifully protective gesture that concealed from authorities for several hours
the fact that the girl had been stabbed to death, After the mrder, Volckmann said, he we
home and to bed, He did not sleep well, so early in the morning he drove to Cairo, Beyond
the town, on the way to Prattsville, he mixed the two poisons he carried with water from a
roadside spring and drank them, Though they caused him pain, the effects were only serious
enough to keep him from driving back, He stopped at the home of an uncle, who returned him
to Grenville, Just how the Gemen were concerned in the case, since it was purely a one=
state matter, could not be learned, Two of them arrived in the early evening and ques=
tioned members of the Glenn family. “hey then went on to Catskill where Volckmann had been
taken. The Rev. Ernest Glenn, the grief-stricken father, raised ministerial hands over
XKAXEXHK this tiny village tonight and asked that the law, rather than the mob, avenge
the murder of Helen. The Rev,’ Mr, Glenn, pastorrof the Greenville Methodist Church, also
mingled with his grief sympathy for the fanily of the murderer, ;
"They, too, will suffer,,' he said, 'andxl am grieved that another family will be hyprt as
we have been by this dastardly deed,' Concerned over growing anger of the villagers and
mattered threats of mob violence, the minister said: "This is not our way. The law should
takeits courses! The little white Methodist church, from the pulpit of which he has
preached peace and good will to other men, will be closed tomprrow in tribute to the slain
child, Other Methodist churches. in the section also will remain closed for the day, Pastor
Glenn's church will be open Monday for the funeral of his daughter, but another clergyman
will officiate, Children from the, local school will attend the services in a body, Helen
was to have attended commencement exercises Wednesday night to receive a certificate for
perfect attendance, At the very hour that the fiend was stabbing her to death in the
lonely swamp, her white commencgment dress rested on her bed, ready for wear, She will be
-puried in theggarment." TIMES-PICAYUNE, New Orleans, La., June 30, 1988. (1/8.)
Photograph of Volckmann and Miss Glemn (with her family) TIMES PICAYUNE 7-1-1935 (3)
"Catskill, Ne Ye, Septe 26, 1935=-Alfred Votckmann, 19-year-old Greenville butcher boy, was
indicted for lst degree murder today in the slaying June 26 of Helen Glenn, 9-year-old
daughter of a Gheenville minister., Trhough his attorney, Clermont G. Tennant, the youth
pleaded guilty, ~Tennant asked the court to appoint a sanity commission to determine the
mentality of his client. Police say Volckmann confessed attacking the girl when she came
into his store and. stabbing her with a butcher knife, Her body was found in a, shallow
creek two days later." . TIMES-PICAYUNE, New Orleans, La., 9-27-1935 (6/5, )
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at a private dance or block party, but
nothing regular. Agnes began to get im-
patient.
“I can’t go on keeping you forever,” she
complained in November. “You'd better
get a job soon, because I've started seeing
Hermann again.”
“Hermann!” Oscar bellowed. “If you
start going around with any of your old
beaux again, you can just foneet about
marrying me!”
“I was only kidding, Oscar,” heses said,
hastily. She had been seeing a lot of her
old suitors on those nights when Oscar was
checking on Theresa. After all, a woman,
especially a widow, with time a-wasting,
can’t be expected to gamble on one man
who’s jobless. “But I will if you don’t
get that job in a hurry. You owe me
plenty of money as it is.”
The time had come at last, and Oscar
had to act.
ON THE evening of December 3, 1913
Patrolman Oliver Hanson called his
precinct station to report a murder, and
within 15 minutes detectives of a homicide
detail led by Capt. Daniel Kerr were gaz-
ing down on the body of a woman who
lay nude on a bloodstained bed. They
watched as Dr. Le Barre, a member of
the staff of the Polyclinic Hospital, probed,
examined, and turned the body around,
and at last looked up.
“She was killed instantly,” the doctor
said to Kerr. “She was stabbed twice in
the back and once in the breast. The
wounds are about a half-inch wide, and
thin. A paring knife could have done it.
She’s been dead two to three hours.”
Kerr gazed around the room, seeing the
trappings and equipment of the profes-
sional dress-maker. “Not a pair of scis-
sors?” he*4sked, and the doctor shook his
head.
The murdered woman was Agnes Guth.
No one was more surprised than Oscar
Vogt that Agnes had been murdered. Com-
pared to his plans to dispose of Theresa,
his killing of Agnes was practically
impetuous. Not that it was unpremediated;
it had been in his mind all one day after
a quarrel beginning over Hermann, then
degenerating into a nasty name-calling
fracas in which Agnes told Oscar he
couldn’t compare with any of her other
suitors as a lover. That was bad enough,
but to add to his humiliation, she told him
she was through with him and if he didn’t
pay her back what he owed her she was
going to the police.
So Oscar had figured out a way to pay
her. When hé‘left his apartment on the
afternoon of December 3, he had the pay-
off in his pocket:~a paring knife he had
swiped from the Casino when he worked
there, a weapon which could certainly not
involve a man who hadn't even been in-
side the place for the last five months.
Capt. Kerr’s men found the knife in the
backyard of the Guth residence not an
hour after they had started their investiga-
tion. There was dried blood on the blade,
and to the detectives the letter P on the
handle looked like an important clue. It
was the only one, at first, though the
motive was clear to Kerr; the victim’s
purse had been turned inside out, and the
lower drawer of her bureau had been ran-
sacked. At least the knife might hold the
fingerprints of whomever had killed her.
“It was robbery, that’s sure,” Kerr sur-
mised. “And since this woman’s home
was a place of business as well as a
residence I don’t imagine the killer had
any trouble getting in.”
Inquiries made among neighbors proved
he was right. A procession of women
and messenger boys went in and out of the
dress-making establishment, and no one
had noticed any of the visitors in particu-
lar, especially since it had been a dismal
sleeting day.
When August Guth, Agnes’s 21 year-old
son, arrived home from work, the youth
was asked to go over his mother’s posses-
sions to see what might have been stolen.
“Nothing else besides money,” August said
when he was through. “She had almost
$200 in her bureau drawer and some
change and a check for $45 in her. purse.
I know, because I was going to the bank
at noon today and asked her if she wanted
to make a deposit. She went over what
she had and said she had some bills to
pay.”
When August mentioned the bureau
drawer, Kerr quickly noted that the robber
certainly knew where to look for the
money. Only the lowest drawer of the
bureau was open—not the desk, nor the
filing cabinet in the corner. “She always
kept her money in that drawer?” he asked,
and August nodded. “Never anywhere
else.”
“How about this knife? Where did your
mother get that?”
August looked puzzled. “It’s ours, all
right. No—it seems to be a little different.
Let’s look in. the kitchen.” Kerr followed
Guth to the kitchen and he opened a
drawer. He picked up’a paring knife with
the letter P on the handle. “No, ours is
here.” .
“Where'd it come from?”
August looked embarrassed. “It’s a—a
souvenir.” He paused. “Frankly, mother
swiped it. Lots of people swipe things
from restaurants. This came from Pabst’s
Casino—when they serve spareribs they
hand you a knife like this—and mother
took it home with her.”
Soon Kerr was getting a list of Agnes’s
suitors and acquaintances from Guth, and
the homicide captain double-checked the
names of the people August knew had
taken his mother to the Casino.
The name of Oscar Vogt soon pushed
its way to the top of Kerr’s list of sus-
pects. He was her most persistent suitor,
Kerr found,-and he had until recently been
the person most closely associated with the
Casino. Besides, of all the suspects, Vogt
was the hardest to find. Long after every-
one had been interviewed, Vogt still hadn’t
been heard from.
The management of the Casino didn’t
know his address, and among his friends >
there was only the knowledge that he —
lived “somewhere uptown.”
Two days after the crime, when Vogts. =
name appeared in the papers as being
sought for questioning, a bartender in the _
neighborhood of Mrs. Guth’s residence re- _ 3
ported that a man whom he only knew as.
“the maestro” and “the professor” had
cashed a check of Mrs. Guth’s on Decem-
ber 4.
he told police.
“I deposited it in the hank yesterday,” —
“I'd cashed plenty of her
checks
anythin
$45, he
At {
showed
said it
could
day,”
check j
Kerr
fingerpy
of prin
on the
table i
the sha
no me
mate \
found
absolut
musicia
HEL
On
attractiy
the 68
see Ca
explain:
from |
could h
“Vog
ished cd
tioned.
“Not
But he’
trouble.
to me
There
he had
from he
typical
under a
a police
followec
;
ES i tie tar sie. So a se oP rte Shae} pa eae eS
PRS 3; Oe ete ag ca a :
et
NR Pe
Sei Fo Ce 3
descend:
tive sor
slowly
hunted :
to see I
At la:
Theresa
toward
descendi
out of
“Ther
had killed her.
‘ sure,” Kerr sur-
woman’s home
vell as a
killer had
ieighbors proved
sion of women
n and out of the
it, and no one
sitors in particu-
i been a dismal
1e8’s 21 year-old
york, the youth
mother’s posses-
ave been stolen.
ey,” August said
She had almost
wer and some
45 in her purse.
ing to the bank
qr if she wanted
went over what
i some bills to
&d the bureau
that the robber
look for the
drawer of the
> desk, nor the
r. “She always
wer?” he asked,
‘ever anywhere
Where did your
ours, all
different.
neu followed
he opened a
tring knife with
“No, ours is
299
sed. “It’s a—a
‘rankly, mother
¢ swipe things
1e from Pabst’s
spareribs they
s—and mother
list of Agnes’s
rom Guth, and
nle-checked the
tust knew had
sino.
:t soon pushed
fr’s list of sus-
‘srsistent suitor,
a recently been
{ciated with the
suspects, Vogt
ng after every-
‘ogt still hadn’t
Casino didn’t
ng his friends
ledge that he
+, when Vogt’s
as being
er in the
's residence re-
: only knew as
irofessor” had
h’s on Decem-
nk yesterday,”
plenty of her
checks for him before, so I didn’t think
anything about it.” It was a check for
$45, he remembered.
At the bank.Kerr found the check. He
showed it to August Guth and the youth
said it was an obvious forgery. “But he
could only have gotten hold of it that
- day,” Guth insisted, “because I saw the
check in the morning.”
Kerr knew now he had his man. The
fingerprints on the knife matched hundreds
of prints around the apartment, on books,
on the desk, on the well-polished night
table in the bedroom. Kerr knew beyond
the shadow of a doubt that the killer was
no mere robber, but a frequent and inti-
mate visitor, but until he had Vogt, or
found out where Vogt lived, he had no
absolute proof that the prints matched the
musician’s.
HELP came from an unexpected source.
On the morning of December 6 an
attractive, sleepy-eyed blonde walked into
the 68th Street station house and asked to
see Capt. Kerr. “I’m Theresa Vogt,” she
explained when she sat across the desk
from the detective. “I came to see if I
could help. .. .”
“Vogt was married?” asked the aston-
ished captain. “Why no one yet has men-
tioned. . . .”
“Not many knew. He didn’t work at it.
But he’ll remember it now that he’s in
trouble. He always comes running back
to me when there’s trouble.”
Theresa didn’t know where Vogt was—
he had even kept his residence a secret
from her—and she believed it would be
typical of him to live wherever he did
under an assumed name. “But if you keep
a police watch on my place—and have me
followed when I go to and from work—
sooner or later you'll find him.”
Accordingly, Kerr organized a detail to
keep Theresa under surveillance. She was
now working, ironically, at Pabst’s Casino,
and each night she took the East Side El
downtown to the stop at 23rd Street, and
descended. And always there was a detec-
tive somewhere behind her. She walked
slowly to her lodging house, giving a
hunted man plenty of chance if he wanted
to see her.
At last, on the night of December 17,
Theresa got results. As she turned down
toward 22nd St. and Third Ave. after
descending from the El, a man stepped
out of the shadows of a doorway.
“Theresa!” he called softly, and fell into
step alongside of her. She dropped her
handbag to indicate to the detective some-
where on the street behind that this was
Oscar Vogt, not just a masher. Oscar
picked up the bag and handed it to her.
They continued on, and wildly Theresa
looked around. The detective should have
come up immediately.
“What's this?” shouted Vogt as he saw
her look of fright. “Is this a trap?”
They had rounded the corner into the
darkness of 22nd Street, and Vogt reached
out and struck her. Out of his pocket came
a long-bladed knife. Just then Plain-
clothes man Norman Connelly, on the
shadowing duty this night, rounded the
corner. He saw the knife, and he sped on
and threw himself at the killer. The knife
fell—and sank into the policeman’s shoul-
der. As he felt, Connelly groped for his
gun. The knife fell free and clattered to
the sidewalk. Vogt grabbed for it, seized
it, and raised his arm once again.
But Connelly’s gun was out, and he
pulled the trigger.
Vogt was rushed to Bellevue Hospital
with a bullet in his shoulder, but he soon
recovered. “Everything backfired,” he told
Kerr as he lay in the hospital. “It was
Theresa I meant to kill, not Agnes. And
now she’s going to be responsible for me
getting the chair.”
Later, when his shoulder wound had
healed, Oscar was transferred to a nearby
jail. One afternoon, Kerr made a visit to
Oscar’s cell. He spent only a few minutes
with the prisoner and then signaled the
guard that he wanted to leave. As the door
of the cell swung shut on Oscar, Kerr
turned to him and asked, “Why did you
kill Agnes Guth?” ,
Vogt looked surprised. “Because of all
the other men in her life,” Vogt said. “She
was playing me for a sucker. And if there
is anything I hate it’s a two-timer!”
The calm, enigmatic Oscar was noticably
incensed. He shouted after Kerr as the
detective shrugged and walked away from.
the musician’s cell: “She was a_ two-
timer—a dirty two-timer—and I'd do it
again.” ,
Kerr could still hear Oscar shouting to
him long after the guard had closed the
sturdy steel door to the cell block.
On February 8, 1914, Oscar Vogt was
found guilty of murder in the first degree
in a trial before Judge Malone in New
York General
September he died in the electric chair at
Sing Sing. ,
~—
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found who told of seeing the troopers pass on
their motorcycles that morning. At last the:
investigating officers arrived at the Apple Tree
Inn, on the Rushford Road. The proprietor,
Mrs. Thomas, told the police that at about
noon of that day, September 9th, 1927, Wil-
mont Leroy Wagner stopped at her establish-
ment!
Mrs. Thomas told the officers that Wagner
made several small purchases, payment for
which amounted to about five dollars. When he
had received the articles he had left, refusing
to pay for them. A short time after his depar-
ture Troopers Roy and Rasmussen rode up on
their regular daily patrol. Mrs. Thomas pro-
ceeded to make a complaint.
“Which way did Wagner go?” Roy inquired.
Mrs. Thomas indicated the direction and the
Trooper nodded. “He probably went on home.
| know the fellow; he has been arrested several
times before on various charges, but has never
been caught with the goods clearly enough for
us to get a conviction.” -
OY swung back astride the police machine
and remarked to Rasmussen, “All right, Al,
let’s bring Wilmont back here, so that Mrs.
Thomas can file a proper complaint.”
The two officers then drove off, asserted Mrs.
Thomas, and the next news of them was the
telephone call summoning Deputy Ray. But
meanwhile, at Belmont jail members of Wag-
ner’s family were becoming a little less reticent.
Under the shrewd questions of Sheriff Brighara
and Deputy Sheriff Ray, as well as State Police
officers, explanations began to leak out.
Yes, the two officers had come to the farm-
house and asked for Wilmont Wagner. Wil-
mont, 23 years old, was sitting in the kitchen eating lunch
when the officers came in.
Trooper Roy, in charge of the patrol, told Rasmussen to
wait in the back yard.
“Get your coat and hat,” said Roy, “I want you to come
with us.”
Wilmont looked up, startled. “What you want me for?”
“You'll know shortly,” said Roy, “when we get back to
Fillmore!”
That answer was to bear a direct and terrible significance
on the events that followed.
Wagner regarded the Trooper silently for a moment, then
said: “I want to go upstairs.” ,
“What for?”
“1 want to change my clothes; | can’t go to Fillmore
lookin’ like this.”
“All right,” said Roy impatiently, “but make it snappy;
we haven’t got all day.”
Right there Rob Roy, veteran Northern manhunter, made
the mistake that cost him his life. Wagner was habitually
unkempt and dirty, why should he now evince such con-
cern over his appearance? He had appeared in town many
times before dressed as badly or worse than he then was.
There has never been a doubt in my mind that murder
was in Wagner's heart as he slowly climbed the rickety
stairs to his room.
The two men who witnessed what followed are dead,
their lips forever sealed. No one will ever know exactly
what transpired in the horrible minutes that followed.
However, we feel that we have made an accurate recon-
struction of the crime. The peaceful farmhouse was to be-
come a shambles.
Wagner entered his room and picked a double-barreled
shotgun from the corner, The gun was ‘probably kept
loaded. Stepping cautiously to the window that over-
34
New. York State troopers on the farm in the Pennsylvania hills .
to which they tracked the fleeing killer.
Horton, Corporal P, K. Leitner, Farmer John Allyn, Corporal
Left to right—Trooper
A. E. Nelson, and a neighboring mountaineer
looked the back yard, Wagner peered down. On the ground
below, a grey and black uniformed figure paced carelessly
back and forth. Rasmussen was perhaps thirty feet from
the window as the shotgun was thrust over the sill and the
trigger pulled. °
Perhaps Rasrfussen looked up in time to see the gun
blaze down at him. More likely he never knew what hap-
pened. The next instant he fell to the ground with his
head shattered by the heavy charge, dead before he struck
the earth. Wagner wheeled, took about three steps to the
head of the stairway and waited.
IN the kitchen below, Roy heard the bellow of the shot
that killed his partner, He probably realized instantly
what had occurred. He rushed for the stairs, drawing his
45 Colt as he ran. He must have known what waited for
him, but he did not hesitate. As he bounded up the stairs
the crashing bellow of the shotgun blotted out the roar of
the one shot he had time to fire. His Colt dropped on its
lanyard; Rob Roy slid to the floor, his head nearly blown
from his body.
According to his family’s testimony, Wagner then ran
down the stairs, stepped over his victim’s prostrate body
and darted through the kitchen. As he passed through the
door his sister cried out, “What did you do that for?” The
last seen of Wagner, he had vanished in the woods back of
the house. From that point on his whereabouts remained a
mystery.
It was at this stage in the case that I was called in. |
was on a pass outside the state when the crime: occurred.
and my first knowledge of it came when | was summoned
back to Batavia by a peremptory phone call from the First
Sergeant.
“Report at once to the Batavia barracks,” he said.
I packed up and hurried at once to Batavia. At the bar-
hills .
per
ral
ve ground
carelessly
feet from
i! and the
the gun
what hap-
with his
he struck
eps to the
f the shot
{ instantly
rawing his
waited for
» the stairs
the roar of
ped on its
arly blown
r then ran
trate body
hrough the
for?” The
ids back of
remained a
-alled in. I
ye occurred,
; summoned
ym the First
said.
At the bar-
ee
racks | was ordered to report immediately to Lieutenant
George, second in command of Troop A.
Lieutenant George’s instructions were terse and to the
point.
“Take the trail after Wagner! I'm not going to give you
any definite orders; use your own methods and work on
your own theories. The rest of the men.on the case have
instructions to cooperate with you in every way possible "
I accumulated my outfit and set out. My first visit was
to the scene of the crime. Here | got in touch with other
Troopers and picked up every detail relative to the shoot-
ing that I could find.
Captain Winfield Robinson, Troop Commander, had
called in from passes and furloughs every available man
and placed them to work on the case. Troopers were taken
from outpost duty to assist in the hunt. Lieutenant George
took charge of the organization of the hunt.
At first we thought that the locating of Wilmont Wagner
should be a simple job, but as day after day passed
without any tangible clues or developments, more and
more facilities were called to the Law’s assistance.
An army of deputy sheriffs was sworn in-and dispatched
on the hunt. Troopers in cars patrolled the highways and
villages. Mounted Troopers patrolled lonely country roads
and woods. At strategic crossroads grim men in black and
grey uniforms sat on motorcycles day and night, with Win-
chesters close at hand. A unique situation existed. A reign
of terror held Allegany County in its grip. Farmers car-
ried loaded shotguns into their fields to their work, while
their women folk in the absence of the men locked then
The bedroom on the second
floor of the Wagner farmhouse.
On the left is the window
through which the murderer
shot one trooper and on the
right is the stairway landing
from which he shot the other
3% Y
SPE TAVARES OE AN
36 The Master
doors and cautiously pulled down the window shades.
Though news of Wagner’s capture was expected almost
hourly, patrols continued to return empty-handed. Air-
planes soaring over the countryside could locate nothing
that appeared suspicious.
We were handicapped greatly by the fact that there were
no recognizable photographs of Wagner available. He had
never been convicted of any crime previously, and conse-
quently the Sheriff’s office was unable to produce any but
the most -vague description of the fugitive. Inevitably, this
angle of the case began to hinder us. Time after time sus-
pected men were held and our barracks and outposts were
notified. We dared not disregard any of these tips and
rumors, for fear of passing up a chance to make a capture.
HENEVER a crime of this sort occurs in a rural com-
munity, people as a whole take far more interest in
the case than would city dwellers. In the country people
living in isolated farms feared a visit from the murderer,
whom they knew to be a desperate man, and consequently
did everything in their power to aid in his capture. In
spite of this, no trace of the fugitive could be found.
The murders had occurred Thursday afternoon at about
1:00 P. M. At 3:00 A. M. the following morning a double-
barreled shotgun was flung on the veranda of the house
belonging to Wilmont’s uncle, Daniel Wagner. This inci-
dent fitted in well with a theory | held regarding the mo-
tive for the killing. It was inconceivable to me that
District Attorney Walter Renwick of Alle-
gany County, N. Y., who prosecuted the
case against the killer of the troopers
Detective
young Wagner, who was far from being unintelligent, should
shoot down two officers and place himself in the shadow
of the chair because he feared arrest for a petty offense the
penalty for which could not have exceeded a light fine. Ac-
cordingly, | delved a bit into past history.
I found that two years previous to the Caneadea slaying,
a man had been found dead in a gambling house in Green-
wood, N. Y. He held a .38 caliber revolver in his hand, and
had been shot by a .45. Murder was never actually estab-
lished. However, Wilmont was said to have been present
in that house that mght! Participation in the crime was
never fixed upon him, but to this day we would give much
to know the circumstances of that man’s death. Did Wil-
mont Wagner, on the day of the double slaying, fear that
Trooper Roy’s real reason for his arrest was something far
different than that little episode of the unpaid purchases?
Friday morning a Ford roadster belonging to Darrance
Chamberlain was reported stolen. At last a clue! We se-
cured the license number of the car and police throughout
New York and Pennsylvania were requested to be on the
lookout.
Tuesday morning we received a phone call from Sullivan-
ville, N. Y. George Miller, brother-in-law of Wagner was
found dead, killed by a shotgun! For a time it looked as
though another killing had been added to the two already
chalked against the name of Wilmont Wagner. However,
Mrs. Miller convinced us at last that her husband’s death
was suicide. She asserted that he feared Wagner. He had
become obsessed with the thought that Wagner was going
to visit him, and consequently had ended his own life.
This episode had the effect of bringing to the public’s
notice the fear in which Wagner held many of his rela-
tives. It added, if anything could, to the apprehension felt
everywhere in regard ‘to the fugitive.
Meanwhile, as the days rolled by and we seemed no
nearer a capture than ever, rewards began to accumulate
upon the slayer’s head, Alfred E. Smith, then Governor of
New York, offered $2,000 and the supervisors of Allegany
County raised the reward to $3,000. The men of Troop A,
New York State Troopers, contributed another thousand,
and $250 was added to this amount by the Blue Bus Lines
of Batavia. A total reward of $4250.00 for the apprehension
of Wilmont Wagner, dead or alive!
4
G PURRED by hopes of winning this small fortune in cash,
scores of volunteér hunters scoured every patch of wood-
land in half a dozen counties. Three different cranks shot
themselves and then told bloodcurdling stories of gun fights
with Wagner. We dared not overlook any of these leads,
and therefore were obliged to sift every rumor and wild
tale to the bottom. But none of them produced even a
promising lead. The Grand Jury of Allegany County had
held a special session and returned an indictment for mur-
der against Wagner, in order that no time need be lost
after his capture. Meanwhile William Wagner, the father,
was held without bail as a material witness.
Two weeks had nearly elapsed since the killings and
county authorities partially abandoned their efforts. Rou-
tine duties were piling up, and finally most of the dogged
efforts to locate the fugitive devolved on the State Police.
The State Troopers have a reputation, like the Royal
Canadian Mounted, of always getting their man. We are
proud of that reputation, and in addition, the victims of
these murders were Troop A men. Hence.it was a personal
matter with us to avenge our slain comrades.
For the past week I had been working more or less alone.
Contrary to the theory that many had, that Wagner had
slipped out of the country altogether, | believed that he
could not have gotten a great ways from the scene of the
crime. The police alarm had been spread too quickly, |
thought, to allow the fugitive enough time to slip through.
I] decided that Wagner moved only in the small hours of
the morning, after the daily patrols had come in, and
\ MASSACRE
WAGNER FARM
pe NL RII
Y
\y
‘aw
_
i. |
1
\\\S
WL
rhouse
York
e¢ mur-
es the
which
and 2
re one
fell
Nelson
nt de-
trailing
urderer
In this
als the
all its
stails
ee 7
7a
ee
"
:
2
oe
hl.
:
\
family were standing, seemingly horror-stricken, in the
hallway. Dumbly they pointed to the stairs. The Deputy
hastened to the end of the hall, then recoiled at the terrible
sight that met his gaze.
Sprawled in a ghastly heap at the foot of the stairs lay
another man, dressed in the uniform of the State Police.
The top of his head had been torn off by the charge from
a shotgun, leaving his features almost unrecognizable
AY lost no time in summoning State” Troopers and
Sheriff Brigham. Several State Police officers and mem-
bers of the Sheriff's department responded to his call. Wil-
liam Wagner and family were put through an intensive
grilling. The information obtained from them was meagre,
but it at least gave officers something on which to base
further investigation
Brother Troopers of the slain officers identified them.
The man who had fallen in the yard outside the house was
declared to be Trooper Arnold T. Rasmussen. The victim
of the murderer’s fire who lay at the bottom of the stairs
was Trooper Rob Roy
By Corporal
A. E. NELSON
New York
State Troopers
As told to
DARRELL JORDAN
Rob Roy, whose real name was Ted Stein
boch, was one of the most colorful member:
of the New York State Troopers. He had thi
distinction of being one of the youngest so!
diers in the Canadian Army during the World
War, enlisting at the age of fourteen. Afte:
the war he had served with distinction a‘
the Lethbridge Inlet detachment of th
Royal Northwest Mounted Police. Throug!
it all he had come unscathed, and now he
lay dead, murdered at a peaceful little Nev
York farm! Rob Roy was unmarried; Ray-
mussen left a wife at Garry. N. Y. Both
Troopers were members of ‘Troop A, Bata-
via, and were doing outpost duty at Rush
ford.
While Sheriff Brigham and deputies wer
questioning the Wagner family, troopers ex
amined the scene of the crime. In Rob Rov s
outstretched hand as he lay on the stairway
was his service revolver Examination
showed that one shot had been fired. ‘lhe
barrel of the gun was still warm. Caretu:
search revealed that a bullet had entered the
wall at the top of the stairs. It was dug
out and proved to be from a .45 caliber re
volver, such as the slain man held in his hand
Trooper Rasmussen had evidently been killed instantl,
and his body faced the rear window of the house, Officer:
noted that the second story window was half open. The
room which contained the window was found to be a bed
room. !t was but two or three steps from the bedroom
the stairs
“Whose room is this?” the elder Wagner was asked
“It belongs to my son Wilmont.” William Wagner ad
mitted readily enough
“And where is Wilmont now:
Wagner replied that Wilmont was not at home and hac
not been for some tim
A thorough search of the house and premises tailed
disclose any trace of the murder weapon. A guard was le!
at the house and the Wagner family was taken to the be!
mont jail for further questioning
The next step before the police was to ascertain the rea
son for the slain troopers’ presence at the Wagner tarm
They began a painstaking retracing of the murdered men +
movements prior to the shooting Various persons wer
2
should
shadow
tense the
ine. Ac-
slaying,
) Green-
and, and
y estab-
present
ime was
ve much
id Wil-
fear that
thing far
irchases?
Darrance i
We se- t
iroughout
ve on the
—
Sullivan-
2ner was
ooked as
) already
However,
d’s death
He had
vas going ;
life.
public’s
his rela-
nsion felt
semed no
-cumulate
vernor of
Allegany
Troop A,
thousand,
Bus Lines
»rehension
re in cash,
of wood-
ranks shot
gun fights
hese leads,
and wild
ed even a
ounty had
t for mur-
ed be lost
the father,
llings and }
orts. Rou- i
the dogged
e Police.
the Royal
n. We are
victims of
a personal
- less alone.
Jagner had
ed that he
cene of the
quickly, I
ip through.
ll hours of
ne in, and
before new ones began their sentry duty for
the day. In this way he could move pos-
sibly from 2:00 until 3:30. With this theory
in mind, I chose to work nights, I snatched
a little rest daytimes, wherever | happened
to be, and at night prowled over the
countryside. [| explored deserted farm-
houses and lonely barns, never knowing
when | might suddenly come to grips with
my man. I found later that J had twice
been within a few feet of the killer, and
had passed him by in the darkness.
| determined to leave no stone unturned.
I visited lonely station watchmen, caution-
ing them to be on the alert for any
skulkers. | haunted railroad watering tanks,
where trains pause to take on water. |
knew that if Wagner intended to board a
train and “ride the rods,” here was his
chance to do it. I lay in wait on lonely
country roads where travel by auto was al-
most impossible, on the theory that such
roads would be the very ones Wagner
would use. As I worked | kept to a care-
fully planned direction. We had been
slower in establishing our patrol in the
southeast after the crime. Therefore, I de-
cided that this was the most likely direc-
tion for the hunted man to take. Such a
course would eventually lead to the, Penn-
sylvania border, and though the Pennsyl-
vania State Police were cooperating with
us on the case, they naturally wére not de-
voting quite so many men to the hunt, and
consequently Wagner had a better chance
to slip through.
AS | reached Cameron. N. Y., a little town
down near the border, I struck a hot
clue. A group of boys who had been camp-
ing in the woods near the town had been
accosted by a stranger who had asked to
spend the night in their camp. The descrip-
tion the boys gave me tallied fairly accu-
rately with the mental picture I had of
Wagner, and I was encouraged.
A few minutes later I was accosted by a
citizen of Cameron.
“I heard a noise in my front yard, last
night,” one of them told me, “and looked
out just in time to see a man climb into
my car which I had left in the yard. I
yelled at him, and rushed down as quickly
as I could, but he had driven away.”
The owner of the car could give me no
description of the thief, but ] was suddenly
convinced that I was on the trail. It
looked at last as if Wagner were leaving tangible traces. In
accordance with my determination to overlook no bets, I
began a canvass of the merchants in and near Cameron.
Wagner had fled without coat or hat, and I figured that he
would secure these garments as soon as possible in order
to avoid suspicion.
I finally came to the store of a Mr. White, near Cameron.
| put my question to him. Had anyone acting in a suspi-
cious manner made any purchases of clothes from him
lately ?
“Why, yes,” said Mr. White, after a few moments
thought. “A young fellow was in here yesterday and bought
a gray cap. It was one of my own caps, and was too large
for him. | took a tuck in the back of it with a safety pin.”
The purchaser of the cap was described as:a rather tall
man, about twenty-three years old. It fitted in nicely with
ee
fo,
Wilmont Le Roy Wagner, son of the owner of the Wagner
farm, in the Allegany County jail at Belmont, New York
my own theory, and I thanked White and left. Now, if
Wagner had secured a better, faster car, as had been re-
ported to me that day, it was simple reasoning to suppose
that the Ford roadster originally stolen the morning after
the murders must be abandoned somewhere nearby. |
set out to locate it.
Luck was with me. The Ford came to light in a lonely
patch of woods. It had been driven in there and wrecked.
1 decided that Cameron had about exhausted its possibili-
ties and I passed on the next town. Here | walked into a
store and noticed two traveling men.
“What direction did you come from?” | queried.
“Why, we've just come up from Morris Run, just across
the Pennsylvania border,” they replied.
“Did you notice anyone along the highway acting in a
furtive manner?” was my next (Continued on page 61)
37
April, 1933
job. He himself fired the fatal shot
that killed Anderson.
An hour passed as Madison, before
his two pals, told his story. Deasy had
driven the stolen car and waited out-
side the drug store. He and Casey had
entered. He had rushed into the back
room and commanded Anderson to
stick up his hands. Anderson had
started to rise to his feet and in so
doing, leaned toward him. He had
thought Anderson intended to resist,
and fired.
From the scene they had driven
Straight to town, leaving Casey out in
front of his home on the way. Then
they had abandoned the car and gone
to a hotel for the night. With morn-
ing they knew they must lay low. The
Hanker girl took care of that. She
rented the house out on the north side
of town. For the next few weeks the
entire gang never left it, spending their
nights and days there drinking and
playing cards. A few weeks, and. with
February, their funds were low. Again
they started out. Aikison was their
outside contact and tool. Under the
guise of living at the widow’s home, he
kept them posted. They stole the Olds-
mobile, brought it back to the house to
wait until dark, and then started out
on their stickup racket again.
Next day they learned from Aiki-
son’s arrest that the police were hot
on their trail. They stole another cai
and left town, only to double back,
steal another car, and splitting up, Rus-
sell and Madison made it for Seattle
while the rest scattered. The result has
already been told. They had woven
their own knot about themselves, While
remaining true to the code of crook-
dom, never squawking, still by very
reason of their number, they had spelt
their own doom. The confession of the
The Master Detective
Christmas killers was filed under date
of February 27. With the court rested
their fate.
Seven men of the Christmas killer
gang faced justice on the next convening
of court. The judge took each man’s
plea of guilty in its turn. On March
21 sentence was pronounced. Larson,
the man in the county jail at the time
of the murder, drew hua years for rob-
bery previous to the Anderson killing.
Westberg, because of the fact that he
participated in only the stealing of the
cars to be used on jobs, drew a year.
Claude Aikison drew six months to a
year. Jimmy Russell drew eight to
twenty years. Deasy, Casey and Madi-
son, the men participating in the drug
store holdup and murder, each drew
life. They beat the rope.
IN the case of the girls, the judge was
more lenient. Ruth Gardner and
Jodie Hanker both drew sentences of
six months. The lightness of their sen-
tence they owe to their gang. In no
case did any part of the men’s confes-
sion implicate them. They served the
limit on a vagrance charge.
So was cleared the mystery of the
murder of a pioneer citizen and busi-
ness man.
, Queer as it may seem, while busi-
ness men grumbled at the mercy of
the sentencing judge in not giving
the death penalty, happiest of all at
the mercy shown was the widow of
Henry Anderson. Willingly she ad-
mitted that while the men Casey and
Madison were paraded before her for
identification, the fear that she might
be sending an innocent man to the
gallows by her word, had groped with
the very positiveness of her judgement.
She, above all, was satisfied with the
punishment allotted.
The Crimson Massacre at Lonely
Wagner Farm
(Continued from page 37)
question.
The salesmen considered for a mo-
ment, then one of them spoke up
eagerly.
“Just outside Morris Run,” he said,
“a man came to the edge of the woods
near the road. As soon as he noticed
my car, he ducked back under cover.
He evidently didn’t want to be seen!”
THE traveling man described the per-
son he had seen as wearing a dark
coat and a gray cap! | instantly re-
called the cap mentioned by Mr. White,
back in Cameron. There was little
doubt in my mind that I was at last on
the trail of the quarry.
| next talked with a workman who
had had his dinner pail stolen. The
trail grew warmer and warmer and
wound at last across the border and
into. the Pennsylvania mountains. [|
marshalled my facts and knew that at
last I could lay my finger very close
to the murderer. I called Lieutenant
George on the telephone.
“[T think I’ve located Wagner!” |
said, “I want permission to cross the
border and get him.”
Lieutenant George deliberated a mo-
ment. “We have a large detail of men
working on the case below the line now.
I'd rather you stayed on this side, in
case Wagner gives them the slip down
there. Suppose I get in touch with
Lieutenant Nelson, who has charge in
i la and give your data to
im.
This was the reason I was not in at
the death, but the warm commenda-
tions of my superiors made up for
that. I at once established communica-
tion with Lieutenant Nelson and told
him my stery. From this point on the
story came to me from the officers who
wound up the case in Pennsylvania.
Nelson called up his First Sergeant and
gave him terse instructions. Corporal
Southworth and Trooper Jacob Topol-
ski reported in a short time to the First
Sergeant.
“Go into the Armenia Mountain
country and don’t come out without
Wagner! This is a hot tip from Head-
quarters.”
“Probably just another wild goose
chase,” commented Southworth.
“It is not,” retorted the Sergeant,
61
This is real money
“Today I received a check
for $20.00 for a_ story.
Another I sold for $34.00.
Not bad for a beginner, is
it? The other day I
counted up just how much
I have won on advertise-
ment contests. It amounted
to $1,620.00.""—Mrs. L. L.
Gray, 579 E.. McHarg
Ave., Stamford, Texas.
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Whey dont you write?
62
“Sterling has located Wagner and it’s
up to you to get him. I mean what |
said about not coming back without
him!”
Meanwhile one “Frank Harte,” as
he called himself, a young man of 22,
was making his way through the moun-
tains west of Fall Brook. Over rutted
mountain roads and through dark val-
leys he trudged, toot free but hungry.
At last he reached a habitation. He
knocked at the door of John Pierce’s
home Sunday afternoon. Pierce inter-
cepted a warning look from his wife.
“No, we don’t need any help,” he
said.
So back down the hill walked Harte,
across a bridge and up a sharp rise.
Darkness was approaching and he
knocked at the first house that dis-
played a light. The Scotchman who
came to the door looked Harte over
and decided he looked honest.
“Yes, you can stay all night,” he
agreed.
The next day broke hot and Harte
left his coat with the Scotchman. Up
hill and dale, wilderness everywhere.
What a place for a fugitive to hide out!
A horse and wagon emerged from the
dusk behind him.
“HELLO, there, young fella,” called
John Allyn, “want a ride?”
Harte did, and he climbed aboard
the wagon. Soon they reached the
mountaineer’s home, a shack on the
face of a cliff, miles of wilderness in
every direction. Harte needed a job
and Allyn needed a man. A bargain
Was soon struck.
Harte told his new employer that he
had been out of work and had finally
come north from southern Pennsylvania
in search of a job. A week soon passed
and Allyn learned much about his new
hand. One thing, Harte was a pacifist.
“Tm glad I didn’t have to go to
war,’ he confided one day, “I’d hate to
have to kill anybody!”
Allyn’s new helper soon made the
acquaintance of the young men on the
neighboring mountain farms. There
was just one thing that puzzled them;
he refused to accompany them to the
village on Saturday nights, saying that
he preferred to stay at the shack and
read, One night Harte left the house
to visit some friends a short distance
across the mountain. After he left
Allyn noticed that a .22 caliber auto-
matic was missing from his desk in the
house. He asked Harte about it when
the latter returned and Harte pulled
the gun from his pocket and handed it
over.
“| just borrowed it,” he explained, “I
thought | might need a gun to defend
myself from wild animals in the
woods.” “ :
Allyn had a loaded shotgun in the
house, and as Harte had never offered
to touch this, he accepted his explana-
tion and thought nothing more of the
matter.
Monday morning, September 26,
came and with the dawn Corporal
Southworth and Trooper Topolski
came over the mountain. Foot by foot
down the Canisteo Valley they trailed
their man. To Erwin, then down the
Susquehanna Trail to Mansfield and
The Master Detective
Blossburg. From there through Morris
Run, and into the blank wall of the
Pennsylvania mountains. A clue here
and a clue there. Yes, a stranger
named Frank Harte had passed through
a few days previous. He was working
for John Allyn now. On to John
Allyn’s shack.
“Have you hired a new man _ re-
cently?” asked Corporal Southworth
when Allyn came to the door.
“Why, yes,” said Allyn, “Harte’s
over On the mountain side cuttin’ brush.
What’s the matter?”
Southworth stepped inside the
shack. “We'll take a look around,” he
said quietly. Almost the first object
that he noticed was a cap hanging on
a nail,
“Whose cap?” asked Southworth.
“It belongs to Harte,” returned the
mountaineer.
_ The trooper walked over and picked
it up. The cap was gray, and was
doubled over in back and pinned with
a safety pin!
“Here’s our man,” said the Corporal
jubilantly, “come on, Jake!”
Up the mountain side went the two
troopers. Both were former Marines
and seasoned fighting men, but they
?
-intended to take no chances this: time.
Topolski deployed and crept up on
“Harte” from the rear. Southworth ap-
proached from the front, taking ad-
vantage of every bit of cover. He knew
that Wagner was a dangerous man and
wanted to be sure there would be no
repetition of the brutal double murder
that had taken place before.
_ The fugitive was industriously swing-
ing a double-bitted ax when he was
suddenly confronted by a gray and
black uniformed figure.” The approach
had been perfect; and young Wagner
Was now in the hands of the Law.
“Throw up your hands, Wagner!”
rasped Southworth, gun held at his hip.
The quarry swung the keen ax aloft,
tensed. Just at that instant a Colt .45
in the steady hand of Trooper Jacob
Topolski nudged the cornered’ man
sharply. “Harte” glanced back, into
the yawning muzzle of the service re-
volver. The ax dropped from _ his
hands.
“| AIN’T Wagner,” he said coolly,
“you've got me wrong. My name's
Harte.”
“We'll find out about that later,” re-
turned Southworth grimly, “but I'll
give you a chance to prove it now. You
say that you came up here from Penn-
sylvania; all right, name some of the
towns you passed through.”
The suspect’s replies were vague and
stumbling, and the Troopers smiled
mockingly.
“Your alibi’s a little thin, Wagner.
You'll have to come with us.”
The officers placed manacles upon
their prisoner’s wrists and thrust him
into the motorcycle’s sidecar.
“Where tor” asked Topolski, as he
swung into the saddle.
“Wagner has a married sister in
Tioga,” said the Corporal. “We'll run
down there and have her look at him.
If she says he’s her brother, we'll take
him back to Belmont.”
At Tioga Wagner's sister gave one
look at the prisoner and_ sighed.
“You've got the right man,” she said.
“How about extradition papers?”
asked Topolski, “This is Pennsylvania,
you know,”
“They can wait,” retorted his part-
ner, “right now I’m interested in taking
this fellow to Belmont!”
It was a Jong trail from Caneadea to
Morris Run for Wagner when he was
escaping, a hunted fugitive, but by dint
of hard driving Topolski and South-
worth made the return trip before mid-
night.
At ten-thirty Monday evening. just
seventeen days after the murders, Wag-
ner was lodged in the county jail at
Belmont.
In jail Wagner’s demeanor was sul-
Jen and unconcerned. He refused to
talk, and we were immediately con-
vinced that he was already building up
a case to back an insanity plea. \Wil-
liam Wagner, still held as a material
witness stated that his son had been
acting in an abnormal manner for
some time before the shooting.
Wagner secured brilliant attorney.
Thomas Rogers of Corning, N. Y., to
defend him. Rogers, after a_ bitter
fight secured a change of venue on the
grounds that a fair trial for his client
could not be secured in Allegany
County. The case was finally set to
take place November 1|4th, in Buffalo.
Judge Charles H. Brown presiding.
WAGNER was placed on trial for the
killing of Rob Roy. He admitted.
finally, that he killed Roy. Under the
hammering of District Attorney Walter
Renwick his story proved to sound ex-
tremely Unconvincing. Wilmont Wag-
ner’s version of the shooting was as
follows: He declared that he had gone
upstairs to change his clothes. While
looking out of the window he had seen
a burst of flame from the henhouse and
the State Trooper fall dead. He de-
clared he did not know who shot Ras-
mussen. Panic-stricken, he grabbed the
loaded shotgun from the corner and
dashed for the stairs. There he met
Rob Roy charging up, shooting as he
came. He sprang back, striking his gun
against the wall and discharging it,
killing Roy.
Albert H. Hamilton firearms expert.
testified for the defense that the two
shells could not have been fired from
the same gun. Prosecution experts
contradicted his testimony. The trial
dragged along for a week. At the end
of that time the jury brought in a ver-
dict of murder in the first degree.
Judge Brown sentenced Wagner to die
in the electric chair at Sing Sing.
For weeks Wagner waited in the
death house at Sing Sing while every
effort was made to secure a new trial.
Petitions were circulated and hundreds
of people, moved by their own reasons,
signed them. All in vain. Governor
Smith refused to act, and a motion for
a new trial failed.
Protesting his innocence to the end,
Wilmont LeRoy Wagner died in the
electric chair at Sing Sing on June 21st,
1928, thus bringing to a close one of
the most spectacular murder cases in
the history of New York State.
April, 193:
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&
UMBLINGS like distant thunder in the Cats-
kill Mountains have drawn attention to
the area for generations. When Rip Van
Winkle heard the fabled men of Hendrick Hudson bowling
in a leafy defile and sipped of their strange Dutch brew,
- he ptomptly fell asleep for twenty years. Two hundred
years later, when I heard much the same sdynd, it was
not the peaceful sport of the crew of the Half Moon, but
an ominous and angry roar that went up over the coming
of the New York State Police.
Unlike old Rip, when I discovered what the noise was.
I not only could not sleep, but also
I found myself embarking on one
of the most wide-awake and ex-
citing periods of my whole life.
Almost immediately after we
finished our training period of
KEE
KK
SRERK
KKK@
Bloodhounds tracked the
killer far into the mountain
wilderness before losing the .
/
was about to turn away when Corporal
Fox ordered: ,
“Halt, Pasco, you are under arrest!”
He never hesitated as he moved like a
panther for the shelter of the woods at
the edge of the clearing, his rifle barking
his defiance of the law.
But it was no use this time. Police
rifles and pistols cracked in unison and
Pasco fell. When we reached him, it was
plain he was dying. Captain Dutton knelt
beside him. “Anything we can do for you,
Sam?” he asked. :
Pasco opened his eyes momentarily.
Bitter, defiant to the end, he whispered:
“Sure, Cossack, you can all go to hell!”
The Pasco case established in the minds
of those mountain people that we meant
business. I always regretted that Sam
Pasco had to be shot, but it was our job .
to bring law and order to a lawless ter-
ritory. It also was important for the de-
partment to bring home to the people
everywhere in the state that we intended
to enforce the law with kindness and un-
derstanding if that would work, before
we applied sterner tactics.
Governor Whitman wanted the state
police to be hard-boiled. I had other ideas.
I insisted the troopers use every means
of friendly persuasion to prevent trouble
before they turned to rough tactics. —
I always have believed a doctor (which
I am) and a policeman are very much
alike in their work. When a law of health
is broken a doctor is needed, and if a law
of civilization is broken, a policeman is
needed. They both are subject to call.at
all times of the day or night, and they,
alike, have to meet the young and the
old, the drunk and the sober, the rich and
the poor, the sane and the insane.
The doctor has to determine if the
patient is really sick, or a faker. Does he
need advice or medicine or is a more
rugged treatment, such as an operation,
required? Does he need attention where
he is, or should he be removed to his
home (if away) or toa hospital?
The policeman must determine if a
crime has been committed and if so what
kind of a crime? Will a warning be
sufficient or should an arrest be made
followed by removal to jail? Should wit-
nesses be obtained and evidence pre-
served?
I tried applying this formula to the
state police department. How well it
worked is evidenced by the fine record
the organization has made for thirty
years.
‘
ie: WAS a short time after we were or-
ganized before the labor people started
to really go to work on us, We were
slandered, called names and subjected to
all the political abuse and hatred these
people are capable of applying to anyone.
The climax came when we were called
upon to maintain order during the
explosive Lackawanna Steel Company
strike in Lackawanna, N. Y., a suburb
of Buffalo, two years after we were or-
ganized. Alfred E. Smith had been elected |
governor of New York and it was no
secret that he was in favor of abolishing
the state police. We faced a tough job.
Much against Governor Smith’s
wishes, we went into Lackawanna. I took
one hundred men there. At first we were
jeered by the strikers and we were called
strike breakers of the employers.
I soon corrected the impression that
we were either strike breakers or friends
of the strikers. We were neither, simply
representatives of the people of the state
to see that order was preserved. .
I went to the steel company officials
and told them not to try any funny busi-
42
ness; that I was the boss and we would
arrest anyone who sought to -make
trouble. I told the union leaders the same
thing. Of course they were both out-
raged and said all manner, of things
against the state police, and me, per-
sonally. ;
At first the company, that had em-
ployed strike breakers, attempted to defy
us. I told them to keep their men on their
own property or. they would find them-
selves in trouble. My men were in-
structed not to hesitate to use their night
sticks on anyone who defied my orders.
L.also told the union leaders to avoid
making public disturbances. They sought
to defy the state police by holding public
meetings in a couple of halls. We
watched them, but did not interfere as
long as they confined themselveg-to talk.
Talk never hurt anyone and I learned
early in my career as a policeman that it
is safer to let people talk themselves out
than to try and stop them. The result
was as I had expected. It was but a short
time before the meetings stopped. Actu-
ally there was very little trouble all
through the 101 days of that: strike.
When it was over, both unions and
employers had learned we were not in-
terested in either cause, but only in pro-
tecting the citizens of the state which
we were sworn to do.
With the advent of prohibition the
duties of the state police increased.
Gradually; we were proving our eff-
ciency in cleaning up crime throughout
the state. The rural people came to know
us better and to trust us. Even Governor
Smith, who when elected had wanted to
abandon the department, came to realize
the importance e state police. He
i ce, and his support of us
years there were many martyrs among
our ranks. Injuries received in line of
duty, a few men who died from wounds,
illnesses, accidents, all took their toll.
But I always will feel that the most wan-
ton, senseless and cowardly murder of
two law officers occurred when Troopers
Rob Roy and:Arnold Rasmussen were
shot down from ambush, in Livingston
County, by a backwoods ne’er-do-well.
Wilmot Wagner, son of a poor tenant
farmer near Caneadea, N. Y., had given
us trouble many times. The charges
against him never were serious, always
for: petty crimes. Our men had brought
him in time and again, he had served his
short terms in the county jail and even-
tually been released and sent home.
This time he was wanted for petty
larceny and Roy and Rasmussen, who
worked as a team, were sent to the farm
to bring him in.
Roy was an experienced policeman and
soldier. He had served with the Canadian
Northwest Mounted Police, in the
French Foreign Legion and as a Ca-
nadian solder. His adventures had taken
him all over the world. Rasmussen was
younger and less experienced, but none
the less an excellent trooper.
Upon reaching the Wagner farm, they
found Wilmot, with: other members of
the family in the house. They told him
they had a warrant for his arrest and to
come along.
Naturally he denied any guilt, but the
troopers had heard the same story before
and suggested he tell it to the judge.
At last indicating that he would go
with the ‘troopers, he asked permission
to get his hat and coat. Rob Roy, who
thought he knew men and had dealt with
the hardest. criminals many _ times,
nodded for him to go ahead. Wagner
moved toward the stairway saying his
things were in his bedroom.
As he started up the flight, Roy told
Rasmussen to go to the back door, and
he, Roy, would watch the front door just
in case ‘the fellow attempted to escape.
But they expected no trouble from him.
Roy was .waiting on the front porch
when. he heard the blast of a gun. He
was in the house instantly. There at the
kitchen door lay Rasmussen and beside
him stood Wagner, a shotgun in his
hands. Before Roy could draw his own
revolver, Wagner fired again, this time
dropping Roy. Both troopers were killed
instantly. Wagner fled to the woods.
The alarm was flashed to Troop Head-
quarters in Batavia, N. Y., and within a
few hours all six of the Troops in the
state were on the alert to arrest Wag-
ner. Captain Winfield Robinson, at Ba-
tavia, assigned his entire troop to
surround the area at Caneadea. Other
troops, including Captain Dan Fox’s out-
fit at Sidney, N. Y., joined in the man-
hunt. Even Oneida Barracks sent men.
It seemed impossible that Wagner could
be at liberty for long.
But two weeks passed and he had not
been apprehended. Rumors of his ap-
pearance here and there were traced
down, but if he actually had been at any
of these places, he got away again.
Again, as in the case of Sam Pasco,
I gave the word to get Wagner dead or
alive.
At last we got a tip that Wagner had
been seen in the rugged, hilly country
of Northwestern Pennsylvania. The
Keystone state police had been on the
lookout for him for days. Several of our ,
own men had been riding with them,
scouring the countryside for this wanton
killer.
_ One day, as the search continued with
increasing fervor, Corporal Herbert
Southworth and Trooper Jack Topolski
chanced to stop at a-Pennsylvania farm-
house near the New York border, to ask
for a drink of water. The old man who
greeted them inquired what New York
state police were doing in Pennsylvania.
Southworth told him. “We think may-
be Wagner, the punk who shot two of
our troopers, may be hiding in this vi-
cinity,” he said.
The old fellow stroked his bearded
chin and grunted: “Might be I could help
you. A feller stopped here the other day
and asked for work, but I didn’t need
anyone so I sent him over to Pete
Dwyer’s farm thinking maybe he could
use him. I don’t know if he’s there but
you might take a look.”
The troopers thanked him and hurried
away in the direction of Dwyer’s place.
They found Pete who told them he had
hired the fellow and that he was down
in the wood-lot working. After hearing
a description of this man from Dwyer,
the troopers were sure they were on the
right track.
They made their way to the lot and
approached it from two sides. As they
neared, the fellow saw them and moved
quickly toward a nearby pile of wood,
where he had placed his shotgun. But
the troopers were swifter and had him
covered with their service revolvers.
“Stand still, Wagner, and get those
hands up over your head,” Southworth
ordered.
Knowing he was trapped, Wagner sub-
mitted to arrest, but denied his identity.
The troopers handcuffed him and within
a short time had him back in New York
lany times,
ad. Wagner
saying his
ht, Roy told
-k door, and‘
ont door just
d to escape.
le from him.
front porch
i a gun. He
There at the
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itgun in his
caw his own
in, this time
s were killed
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[Troop Head-
and within a
roops in the
arrest Wag-
nson, at Ba-
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idea. Other
in Fox’s out-
in the man-
ss sent men.
Vagner could
d he had not
ors of his ap-
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been at any
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Sam Pasco,
zner dead or
Wagner had
ully country
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with them,
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e think may-
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shotgun. But
and had him
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’ Southworth
Wagner sub-
| his identity.
m and within
in New York
State and on his way to the scene of his
crime.
Sometime later Wilmot Wagner was
tried, convicted and after the usual ap-
peal was executed in the electric chair
at Sing Sing prison.
st before I retired as superintendent
of the department, I had an unusual and,
as it turned out, amusing experience with
some of the women convicts at Bedford
Hills prison for women.
I always had steered clear of women
that I did not know, because I realized
all kinds of plots and schemes were con-
tinually being hatched to get me com-
promised and so discredit me and the
department. I recall one time in Troy
I was staying in a hotel there and upon
retiring, the door of the room next to
mine was open and a lovely appearing
woman was .apparently struggling to
open her trunk. As I passed she spoke,
asking me to come in and help her. My
first reaction was to do it, but suddenly
[ became suspicious, said I was ill, hur-
ried pasty and went into my own room
and locked the door.
tke I learned she had been hired for
LY $2,500, by men anxious to see the state
police discredited, to lure me into that
room and if I had entered she would im-
mediately have slammed the door shut,
screamed and torn her clothes and then
what a fine kettle of fish I would have
been in.
‘Well, there had been a wholesale de-
livery of the women prisoners at Bed-
ford Hills and our department had been
called out to round up the women and
bring them back. It was a ticklish job at
best and Governor Smith had called me
to his office to caution me to have the
troopers use every means to arrest those
women without being rough. Finally we
rounded up all of them without an
trouble and we breathed a sigh of relief.
A day or two after I was again in
Smith's office where he had been compli-
menting me on the fine job. He said:
“You know, Colonel, I think I'll go
down to Bedford Hills and inspect the
_ place. Maybe it might help to keep the
inmates quiet if they thought the gov-
ernor was interested in them.”
I thought it was a fine idea and told
him so,
Some time later, the Governor, Mrs.
Smith and a party of his friends rolled up
in front of the institution in two large
official state cars. They got out and
started walking up the gravel path to the
front gate. The governor and two male
companiéns were dressed in striped
trousers, cutaway coats and top hats, The
women including Mrs. Smith, were
gowned for the occasion.
As the party got about half way up the
path, bedlam broke loose in the institu-
tion. The women prisoners, lined up at
the barred windows, started booing and
yelling cat-calls at the Governor and his
party.
Someone shouted: “Look at the old
guy with the funny looking pants and
at.”
After more uncomplimentary remarks
aimed at the other members of the party,
Governor Smith stopped, turned and fal-
lowed by the others went back to the
automobiles and drove away.
The next day I again was’ summoned
to the executive mansion. The governor
greeted me with a hand-shake and a grim
look. After the usual pleasantries, and
without knowing what had happened the
previous day, I asked him:
“How’was the inspection at Bedford
yesterday, Governor?” ;
He just looked at me without a change
of expression.
“Say, Colonel,” he started, “remem-
ber me complimenting you on how well
you handled those dames up at Bedford
without treating them roughly?”
I nodded.
Well,” he drawled, “I’m damned if
I know how you did it.”
SHE WAS A
HUMAN
TORCH
[Continued from page 31]
heartbroken man, Stackhouse was so
completely shaken by the tragedy that
he found it hard to talk about it at first.
Told how important it was, he finally
managed to provide some additional in-
formation.
His wife, he said, might easily have
been asleep when the fire was set. She
got up very early in the morning as di
most farmers’ wives. By nine she was
frequently tired and snatched a half hour
or so of rest. Yes, he did think it was
strange, though, that she hadn’t locked
the doors. There were a good many
tramps and itinerant workers roaming
the countryside during the summer. And
being nervous, she was generally careful
to lock up when she wanted to take a
nap, particularly’ in the morning when the
hired man would probably be attending
to duties at some distance from the house.
“So if she didn’t lock the door there
was probably someone there whom she
knew,” Lowther said.
“I'd think Delores would have men-
tioned it in that case,” Stackhouse said.
“Anyway if she had been having com-
pany, it wouldn't be likely that Violet
would lie down for a rest. I tell you, I just
can’t figure it out at all.”
“Don’t try,’ Lowther said. “That's
what we're here for.”
Sending Stackhouse back to his little
daughter, Lowther and Hatfield next
aid a visit to Clayton who was recuperat-
ing in the hospital sun-parlor. He looked
white and drawn and was suffering from
u bad headache, he told the officers, but
aside from, that he was practically him-
‘self again and was more than ready to
answer Lowther’s questions.
“The fire just seemed to shoot up all
at once,” the hired man said. “It was more
like an explosion than a hres
“You didn’t see any stranger around
before it happened?” Lowther asked.
“Tt saw a car parked.up on the, road,”
Clayton said slowly, “just a little before
the fire started. It was still there when
I ran for the water.”
“So the man who slugged you might
have come in that car?” Lowther sug-
gested.
“I suppose he might have,” Clayton
agreed doubtfully. “I wish I’d paid more
heed to the car now. I don’t even know
what make it was. I had an idea it might
have been the young doc who works at
Tobey’s. He was pretty well stuck on
Mrs. Stackhouse. Of course I'd hate to
think he’d do such a thing. .. .”
“He didn’t,” Lowther interrupted. “He
never left Tobey’s place.”
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43
ISEEK POISON PLOT IN DEA TH
OF MICHIGA Ng |
Autopsy in Grand Rapids on»
Body of Mr. Peck, Who Died in.
Riverside Drive Home of Son-'
in-Law Shows Arsenic Was
Administered Before Death. ,
AW OF PECKS
eee naetnmamme
WIFE TOO SEEMED WELL THE
DAY BEFORE SHE EXPIRED. !
ee a ae
Swann’s Theory Is Slayer In-|
tended by Third Crime to Gain.
Half of $1.500.000 Esta!
Suspect Una. |
Watck
ae the
é
Everybody liked the aarbane: Dr. Waite) Even. the jurors giggled and
smiled as he told his’ blood- -curdling | tale of calculated murder. eels
Culver
A MAN being tried for double murder might
be expected to show a certain degree of
strain and anxiety, particularly after hav-
ing pleaded not guilty. Dr. Arthur Warren
Waite, 28-year-old dentist, was exactly
the opposite. Throughout the hearing he
remained relaxed, urbane and amused. At
times during the prosecution case he
laughed heartily, and when his own turn
came to give evidence he admitted cheer-
fully—despite his not guilty pleas—that
everything the prosecution had said about
him was true. Not to put too fine a point
on it, he added, he was really even more
outrageous and contradictory a character
than they had made out.
Yes, he had indeed murdered his
mother-in-law, Mrs. John E. Peck, wife
of a drug millionaire, when she came to
visit her daughter, Clara. Waite had
married Clara in September, 1915. Mrs.
Peck arrived at their home-on fashionable
Riverside Drive, New York, just before
Christmas of that year. By January 30,
1916, this apparently healthy woman was
dead. A doctor certified kidney disease.
But now. Waite, with the air of a man re-
lating a diverting story at a cocktail party,
was confessing: “I started poisoning her
from the very first meal after she arrived.
I gave her six assorted tubes of pneumonia,
diphtheria and influenza germs in her
food. When she finally became ill and took
to her bed I ground up 12 five-grain
veronal tablets and gave her that, too, last
thing at night.”” And then? ‘““Why, I guess
I went back to sleep,” he shrugged. “I
woke up in the small hours. My mother-
in-law was dead. | went back to bed again
so that it would be my wife who would
discover the body.”
Tubes of typhoid
He then went on, in the same bantering
manner, to outline his six-week struggle
to kill his father-in-law. Mr. Peck came
for a visit early in February to cheer him-
self up after his wife’s funeral. By March
12 this sturdy old man of 71 was dead
as well.
“IT used to insert tubes of typhoid,
pneumonia, influenza and diphtheria in
his soups and rice puddings,” Waite con-
tinued gaily. ““Once 1 gave him a nasal
spray filled with tuberculosis bacteria.
Nothing seemed to affect him, so I used
to let off the occasional tube or two of
chlorine gas in his bedroom, hoping the
gas would weaken his resistance like it
did with the soldiers at the front. I used
to put some stuff on the electric heater so
that if he noticed a funny smell I could
say it was something burning.
‘Still nothing happened. I tried to give
“FOR THEIR MONEY,” said Waite,
when asked why he’d killed his in-laws
(left), Mr. and Mrs. Peck. Detectives found
germ cultures in the suspect’s apartment.
him pneumonia by putting water in his
Wellingtons [rubbers], damping _ his
sheets, opening his bedroom window and
wetting the seat of the automobile before
taking him out for a drive. That didn’t
work either.”
Becoming desperate, he had toyed with
the idea of faking a car accident. Finally,
unable to bring himself to resort to such
violence, he had settled for arsenic. How-
ever, even after a full 18 grains—far more
than the fatal dose—the tough old man
was still alive although in a bad way.
“On the night of March 12 he was in
great pain,” Waite explained, “and he
wanted some ammonia and ether. |
couldn’t find any, but in Clara’s medicine
chest there was some chloroform, so I
gave him that. It did him guod, so I gave
him a second dose to make sure, and then
I held the pillow over his nose and mouth
until he was finished.”
The jurors, who had regarded Waite
with some horror at the start of his recital,
had by now become infected with his
bonhomie. They swopped smiles with him,
and some even gave vent to hysterical
giggles as Waite went on to reveal that the
two murders were only part of the story.
He had also tried to kill his wife’s aunt,
the rich Miss Catherine Peck—despite
the fact that he was something of a
favourite of hers.
Germs and arsenic
“I gave her repeated doses of germs,
then some arsenic, and after that some
ground glass,” he related. “I also injected
live germs into a can of fish before pre-
senting it to her.” He had abandoned this
attempt at murder, he explained, because
Mrs. Peck had come to stay for Christ-
mas, and he couldn’t see the point of
murdering the aunt when there were much
richer pickings to be obtained by murder-
ing his mother-in-law.
Given time, he also confessed, he would
almost certainly have murdered his wife,
Clara. ‘‘She was not my equal in any-
thing,” he said. ‘‘When I had got rid of
her I meant to find a more beautiful wife.”
Earlier, the prosecution had filled in the
background to Waite’s life and the circum-
stances which led to his arrest. In the fall
of 1914 he had returned to his birthplace,
Grand Rapids, Michigan, after an absence
of several years, during which he had
worked as a dentist in South Africa. He
had a dental surgeon’s degree from Glas-
gow University in Scotland, a British
accent, and a ferocious talent for tennis
which soon made him the local champion.
In the bank he also had $20,000, a useful
sum in those days.
“Waite met and began his courtship of
his wife almost immediately,” said the
prosecution, ‘and they were married the
following September.” Waite’s charm and
slender good looks made an immediate
JEKYLL AND HYDE: TRIAL
hit in the New York social circles to which
his new wife introduced him. Two people
with whom he quickly became intimate
friends were Dr. Jacob Cornell, of the
Cornell Medical School, and Dr. Cornell’s
sister, Mrs. Henry Hardwicke.
In addition to setting himself in dental
practice, Waite began to do serious re-
search at the Medical School where later
—as the need arose—he was able to lay
hands on a plentiful supply of germs to
slip into his in-laws’ food.
Mrs. Waite told the court of her sur-
prise, after her mother’s unexpected
death, when Waite said it had been Mrs.
Peck’s last wish to be cremated. “It was
the first I’d heard of it,” she said. On the
night of March 12 she heard Arthur, who
had been sitting up with her father, ring
the doctor. Later he came into the bed-
room in his robe, looking disturbed, and
said: ‘‘] don’t think Dad’s too good.”
Already dead
She rushed to her father’s room, but he
was already dead. Once again she was
surprised when Arthur told her: “It was
Dad’s wish to be cremated.” Neverthe-
less, she accepted his word. The next day
Arthur busied himself having the body
embalmed and making arrangements for
it to be taken, first to Grand Rapids, then
to Detroit.
The only time he did not seem his nor-
mal charming, helpful, and urbane self
was when Dr. Cornell called to pay his
respects. Arthur was irritable and offhand
with him. In fact, he refused initially to
let him see the body of his old friend who,
according to the death certificate, had
died, like Mrs. Peck, of kidney disease.
His behaviour was so uncharacteristically
brusque that Dr. Cornell commented
upon it that evening to his sister. That
comment was to lead to Arthur’s undoing.
Arthur and his wife—plus the coffin—
set out by train for the Middle West at
five o’clock the next morning. The family
party waiting at Grand Rapids station
included Percy Peck, Clara’s’ elder
brother, and Aunt Catherine Peck. Aunt
Catherine—unaware at this stage that
Arthur had set out at one time to kill her
with germs, arsenic and ground glass—
was her usual friendly self. But Percy
seemed hostile and withdrawn.
Nobody thought that too strange. Percy
had lost his father and mother in the space
of six weeks. Over and above the natural
grief and shock, he and Arthur had never
really got on too well. Percy had some-
thing else on his mind, however. That
morning he had received an anonymous
telegram, later discovered to have come
from Mrs. Hardwicke, saying: “Don’t
allow cremation until an autopsy has been
carried out.”
‘“‘Everything’s fixed,”’ Arthur announced
efficiently. “I’ve arranged for poor Dad’s
99
ee ee oe a 060
JEKYLL AND HYDE: CASE
finally to Shanghai where, in 1914, he
learned of the outbreak of war and decided
to return home and become a hero.
True was by now a morphia addict,
but despite the effects of that and his
general fecklessness, he had a certain
surface “‘polish’’.
He could be charming and observe
the social graces when he wasn’t being
foul-tempered and moody. And it was
that superficial charm that helped to get
him into the Royal Flying Corps as a
Student-pilot with commission prospects.
To the amazement of some of his
fellow trainees, True passed his pilot’s
examination. He immediately ordered an
insignia of wings for his uniform jacket,
three times the size of the regular type
and worked in silks of rainbow colours.
Guy Dent, another pilot who trained
with him at Gosport, Hampshire, said:
‘‘He had a feverish air about him. He was
always rushing about and laughing with a
loud voice, and he seemed deficient in
common sense. When I saw the case in the
paper I thought if this is the same True,
he was unstable six years ago.”
Crashing aircraft
Inevitably, and despite his “wings”, the
only thing True could do with aircraft
was to crash them. After one accident,
in which he was seriously injured, he was
invalided out of the air force.
By the end of the war True had in-
vented the “other True”. In a nursing
home, where fruitless attempts were made
to wean him from his daily dose of 30
grains of morphia, he went into a rage
when any bill was presented to him and
declared: “It’s not meant for me—it’s
for the other one.”
Once out of the nursing home he adopt-
ed the title of “major” and announced that
he was a wartime fighter ace who had
shot down at least five German aircraft.
Exhibiting his loaded revolver, he
shouted that he was “out to get the
other Ronald True”. If any of his friends
had anyone they wanted removed he
would do the job, he offered, at ‘ta bob
a nob’’—a shilling a head.
He told a woman friend: “1’ll murder
someone one of these days. You watch
the papers and see if I don't. There'll
be a big case about it.”
This woman decided there and then
that True was insane. Yet his circle of
friends increased, and many found him
amusing. With his fantastic stories and
sudden outbursts of maniacal anger he
became something of a party clown—for
the men around him, at least.
On the night of February 18, 1922,
True paid his first visit to Olive Young at
her Fulham flat. They had met a few
days previously in London’s West End.
Olive Young had once been a shopgirl.
She drifted into prostitution, and because
96
RONALD TRUE
REPRIEVED.
| CONVICT
Ronald ‘True,
guilty and sentenced to death at the
Central Criminal Court on May 5
for the murder of Olive Young, has
been certified to be insane, and the
death sentence has been respited.
The following official notice was
CERTIFIED
TO BE INSANE.
who was found
jigsued last night:
THE GREATEST TRAGEDY of all was
that so many people who knew of his
illness did nothing to help him— and
so save the life of Olive Young.
of her intelligence and attractiveness had
built up a successful “business”. She
had money in the bank and, unlike a
common street-walker, could be choosey
about her clients.
She quickly decided that Major True
was not her type. During his first night’s
visit to Fulham he had frightened her by
his routine with the revolver. After he
had left she found that a five-pound note
from her handbag had gone with him.
From then on she tried to avoid him.
She made sure that each night no light
was visible from her flat. She let him
hammer at the door in vain. She would
not speak to him on the telephone.
Close to midnight on Sunday, March 5,
a near-penniless True, who was keeping
his hired car until the final moment of
payment arrived, ordered the faithful
Mazzola to drive him to Finborough Road.
For once Olive Young had relaxed her
vigilance. Through the glass of the front
door True saw a light in the hallway. He
knocked, and Olive opened the door.
In view of her efforts to dodge True
the girl must have been dismayed when
she saw the tall figure of the *“major”’
looming in the doorway. But in her pro-
fession she could not afford to create a
“scene” in the quiet, respectable street.
She had no option but to let him in and
so bring about her own violent death.
The medical evidence given later show-
ed that she had died at between 7 a.m.
and 8 a.m. on Monday, March 6. It was
clear that, on the pretext of making tea,
True had gone to the kitchen in search of
a murder weapon and had found the
rolling-pin.
While the girl sipped her tea he moved
behind her arid struck her five savage
blows on the head. He then used the towel
and the dressing-gown cord to ensure
that she was quite dead.
The fact that True so stupidly remained
in the flat until the “daily” arrived was
made much of at the trial by his defence
counsel, the brilliant Sir Henry Curtis
Bennett. That, and the wild spending
spree that followed, were clear pointers
to True’s insanity, Sir Henry pleaded.
Sentenced to death
All the same, a cautious jury found True
guilty as charged, and he was sentenced to
death. From Pentonville Prison he wrote
to a friend: “If you come to the same
place I’m going to I'll have a drink of
nice cold water ready for you.”
But True did not go to that place. In-
Stead, on the intervention of the Home
Secretary, he was sent to Broadmoor.
He lived out the rest of his life there
and died in 1951, at the age of 61—one
of the happiest, most popular and longest-
Staying patients the criminal mental asy-
lum had ever had.
The greatest tragedy of True’s case is
that so many people who realized how
split and mentally ill he was did nothing
to help him—and so save the life of Olive
Young, who loathed and feared him.
TRIAL
JEKYLLAND HYDE
SP SEER:
JEKYLL:A
A DOSE OF DEATH
As a loving husband,
he was naturally
distraught after finding
his wife Elizabeth
dead in the bath. But
why did Kenneth
Barlow’s dry clothes
show no trace of
his efforts to revive
her? And what
accounted for the
strangely dilated pupils
in the staring eyes of
the drowned woman?
r Yorkshire Post
Press Association
|
|
|
|
JEKYLL AND HYDE: TRIAL
body to go right on to Detroit to be
cremated. I'll go with it and see this sad
business finished. Would any of you folks
like to come with me?” Percy, however,
wanted to do more than that. ‘Just a
minute,” he said bluntly. “I guess we
aren’t in all that hurry to see the last of
Father. I'll see to the coffin.”
Arthur professed to be puzzled. “I
can’t understand what that brother of
yours is up to,” he said to Clara, as
they hurried off to see the family lawyer
about her father’s will. “Why can’t he
let poor old Dad have his last wish car-
ried out?” Then, as they travelled back
to New York later that day, Arthur had
recaptured his customary good spirits.
Dad had left more than a million dollars,
including a bequest of $2000 to Arthur’s
father ‘out of regard for his son’.
Bombshell news
Back on Riverside Drive, Arthur’s high
spirits did not last long. First came the
bombshell news that Percy had asked
for an autopsy. Newspaper reporters
descended on Arthur’s doorstep. Others
were let loose in New York, Michigan,
Glasgow, and South Africa. Gradually
it emerged that Arthur was by no means
the straightforward pillar of respectability
that he claimed to be. There was another,
and twisted, side to his personality.
As a boy he had been in trouble several
times over thefts from his parents, rela-
tives, employers, schoolmates and others.
While at the dental college at the Uni-
versity of Michigan, Ann Arbor, he had
been expelled from his fraternity for an
act of dishonesty. He had used false
papers to help him get a quick degree at
Glasgow University, so that he could
practise in South Africa.
In South Africa itself his attempt to
marry an heiress had been foiled by her
father on the grounds of Arthur’s “un-
savoury reputation”. As the dossier built
up, the New York newspapers suggested
pointedly that the $20,000 he had brought
home from South Africa could not have
been come by honestly. Finally, the Press
broke the story that—married less than
six months, and in the process of mur-
dering his father-in-law — Arthur had also
been carrying on a passionate affair with
a married singer named Margaret Horton.
In the middle of this trial by publicity,
Arthur, beginning to feel desperate,
telephoned Aunt Catherine at her New
York apartment. His voice sounded
strained. ‘“‘What is the best thing for a
man to do who has been cornered?” he
asked. ‘Do you think suicide would be
the right thing?”
Aunt Catherine counselled him against
it. But it was the course he decided to
take when the news was ultimately re-
leased that five grains of arsenic had been
found in old Mr. Peck’s body after
100
several days of tests. On March 23 police,
who had him under surveillance by now,
broke into the Riverside Drive apart-
ment and found Arthur dying from a drug
overdose. He was rushed, sobbing ‘‘not
to be taken to prison’, to Bellevue Hos-
pital, where his life was saved.
In the dock Arthur listened good-
humouredly—very much the man-of-the-
world—as witnesses unfolded this tale.
From time to time he gave an amused
chuckle. As a dentist, it was explained,
he had bought the arsenic quite openly,
claiming that he wanted it to “kill a cat”.
Books about the uses and effects of
arsenic had been found in his flat with
the pages marked. Initially, however,
he had claimed buying the arsenic at
Mr. Peck’s request.
‘‘He was so wretched about his own
life after his wife’s death that he im-
plored me to provide him with the means
of self-destruction,” he explained. ‘That
was all I did. I did not administer the
poison to him, nor did I see him take
any. But, of course, you won't believe
me. I suppose I'll go to the chair.”
Arthur, the court learned, had also
been caught out in an attempt to bribe
two witnesses to keep silent. One was
Dora, his Negress maid. He had offered
her $1000 not to reveal that she had
seen him ‘“‘putting white powder into Mr.
Peck’s food”. The other was Eugene
Kane, an embalmer, who asserted that
Arthur had given him $9000 to say there
had been arsenic in the embalming fluid
injected into Mr. Peck’s body.
Small embalmer
The appearance of the small, bespec-
tacled embalmer clearly tickled Arthur’s
fancy, and he burst out laughing several
times during Kane’s testimony. Kane
explained how Arthur had come out of a
telephone booth and “pushed a roll of
notes in my pocket”.
Prosecution: Did you know what it
was for?
Kane: No, I thought it must have been
for something I had done.
Prosecution: He told you, though,
didn’t he?
Kane: He said: ‘Put some arsenic in
that fluid and send it down to the District
Attorney.”
Prosecution: Were you nervous?
Kane: | certainly was.
Prosecution: Did you count the money
when you got home?
Kane: No. I tried to, but I was too
A PASSIONATE AFFAIR with married
singer Margaret Horton (far right) was to
prove Waite’s undoing. Her testimony
demolished his hopes of pleading insanity.
Was she the “more beautiful wife”’
that the killer had planned to marry
after he had murdered Clara (right)?
Mibetete's: rth sep
vet
<
me
i
“2
eax Vis he 6 arabe 2
is
JEKYLL-AND HYDE
£
A FATEFUL TELEGRAM from Mrs.
Hardwicke (top left, with Waite’s wife
Clara)... and brother-in-law Percy
(above) demands an autopsy on his father,
nervous. | saw some fifties and some
hundreds and that’s all.
Prosecution: Any large bills?
Kane: Yes, sir. Two five-hundred do}-
lar bills. I hid the money in a closet, |
tried to count it two or three limes,
Finally, I went to Long Island and buried
it. I went to Greenport, way to the cast
end of the island. I don’t remembe; just
how long I stayed. I was too nervous.
Prosecution: Did you deliver : simple
of embalming fluid to the District At-
torney’s office?
Kane: Yes.
It was after this exchange that Arthur
himself went into the witness-box. He
did not refute any of the testimony piven
against him. Rather, with the aid of his
attorney, he did everything in his powes to
embellish it and blacken himself suill
further. After he had confessed 1 the
murder of his in-laws, the start of his tt-
tempt to murder Aunt Catherine, and {js
intention one day to murder his Wile, his
counsel asked: ‘Why did you” want
to kill them?”
“For their money,” he answered
laconically. “I’ve always needed lots of
money, and it has never worried me how
I] get hold of it.” Into his evidence he
102
dropped various asides about himself
and the world around him. He confided
that he had always considered himself
“attractive and charming”. ‘Everyone
liked me,” he said disarmingly.
Reincarnation was a topic to which he
returned frequently. “I believe,’ he ex-
plained, “that, although my body lives
in America, my soul lives in secret in
Egypt. It is the man from Egypt who has
committed these foul crimes.’”’ When the
prosecution pressed him for details of his
other life by the banks of the Nile, how-
ever, there was not much he could recall.
He mentioned Caesar, Cleopatra, and the
pyramids —to the last of which he applied
the improbable adjective “voluptuous”.
Streak of piety
The whole purpose of this charade —
carried through with unflagging style,
laced with wit and laughter—was_ to
implant in the minds of the jury the
thought: ‘Surely such a civilized and
intelligent man could not have carried
out the crimes to which he has confessed
so freely and, at the same time, be sane?”’
One entire day towards the end of the
trial was taken up with a series of wit-
nesses paying tribute to Arthur’s impec-
cable manners and gentle heart.
He had a strong streak of piety in him,
some stated, and had attended church
regularly while in the process of poison-
ing his relatives. An alienist told the
court that Arthur had informed him:
‘Miss Peck said that, when she remem-
bered how beautifully | had sung hymns
in church while my wife’s relations were
visiting us, she could not believe that I
committed the crimes. It was my real self
that appeared then.”
‘Whatever they may say of me,” he
announced on one occasion, “I pride my-
self on being kind and always giving water
to flowers so they will not die. They are
beautiful. This is nature.”
There were, of course, experts for the
defence to say that a man who could
murder in such cold blood, and talk about
it afterwards in such a carefree manner,
could not be sane. And there were prose-
cution experts to assert that Arthur gave
the normal responses and was sane. The
judge finally ruled in favour of the
prosecution. He had, in part, been swayed
by his irritation over Arthur’s constant
smile. But far more vital was the evi-
dence of Margaret Horton.
Between February 22 and March 18,
Arthur and the singer had spent many
hours together in a studio she rented at
the Hotel Plaza in New York. According
to her husband, Harry Horton, a 56-year-
old dealer in war supplies: “They were
brought together by a mutual interest in
art and modern languages. She made the
kind of mistake any young woman might
be guilty of. I personally am ready to
forgive her.”
It was Mrs. Horton’s disclosures that
robbed him of any slender chance he
might have had of escaping the death
sentence. At the time when rumours and
innuendos about Arthur were being
voiced, she remembered his inviting her
HIS SUICIDE ATTEMPT (below) a
failure, Waite lives to face damaging
testimony. Among the witnesses is em-
balmer Kane (far right) who alleges bribery.
JEKYLL AND HYDE: TRIAL
to his laboratory—where he showed her
various tiny germs wriggling under a
microscope.
She had brought everything out into
the open by asking: “You didn’t really do
it, did you, Arthur?”
“Yes,” he had answered. “It’s true,
I did.”
After his arrest, Arthur had sent her a
letter which she subsequently destroyed
on the advice of his attorney. Under
pressure, however, she had to admit that
she could remember some damning words
from it. “If they prove it, | suppose it
will mean /a chaise, but ] hope and expect
to spend a while in detention as an
imbecile, and then I'll be free again to
join you...”
It was this, more than anything else,
that impelled the judge to rule that Arthur
was not a moral imbecile but was fit to
plead: madmen do not, as a rule, show so
calculated a faith in the benefits to be
derived from their insanity.
Waite was found guilty in May 1916,
and sentenced to die in the electric chair
at Sing Sing. The case dragged on, how-
ever, until the following spring, pending
hearings in the Court of Appeals and
before a lunacy commission. In the third
week of May 1917, both bodies decided
that there were no grounds for inter-
fering with the verdict of the lower court.
The condemned man responded with a
gesture matching the performance he had
put On in court a year earlier. He sent the
following letter to Warden Moyer from
the death cell:
“Dear Sir: In one of the newspapers
today is the statement: ‘A. W. Waite to
die next week.’ On inquiry I learn that
you have power to name the day. I am
sure you would not be averse to obliging
me if you found it possible and reason-
able to do so, and I wonder if we could
not arrange for Monday of next week.
There really is a reason for asking this,
although I will not trouble you with ex-
planations. I would be very grateful in-
TO THE END Waite (below, in police
van) was in complete control of himself.
He read Keats and the Bible and wrote
poetry as he awaited execution.
deed for this favour. Yours respectfully,
Arthur Warren Waite.”
This latest touch of bravado convinced
“many outsiders that, despite what the
experts said, he must surely be abnormal
to crave as early a death as possible and
show so little fear. They were even more
convinced when he walked calmly to the
chair on the morning of May 24, 1917,
with a boyish smile on his somewhat
effeminate lips. He was in full control of
himself right to the end, reading the
Bible and Keats before he was finally
taken to the execution chamber. In his
cell was later found the beginning of a
poem he had started to write. The first
two lines read:
Callus with morning faces,
Eager to labour, eager to be happy...
At the autopsy—after Waite had been
killed with two shocks of 2000 volts
each—doctors found the scars of an old
meningitis Operation on the right side of
the cerebellum. This they thought could
be the result of a fall or a blow on the
head in childhood. But, they added, they
did not think that would affect Waite’s
sanity. The other discovery they made
was that he had an abnormally large heart.
DR. WAITE
Although his contract was for
five years and despite the fact
that the other young dentists
- who left with him never seemed
to earn enough money to make
ends meet, Arthur returned in
four years, with several thousand
dollars in cash.
We don’t know what the other
despondent dentists thought of
Arthur’s affluence at the time.
We do know that later, after
every bridge was burned beneath
his feet, Arthur bragged of how
he had looted his employers.
Here was another bend in the
road, another chance to start
anew. Not many young profes-
sionals can start a career with
ready money. Waite could have
settled down and built a practice,
perhaps even some day repaid
the stolen money. Not Arthur.
~ He looked into the future, saw
years and years of drilling and
filling teeth... That, was not his
path. The ‘mere thought of all
that work appalled him.
He balanced his',good looks
against a career of dentistry and
decided to..marry an_ heiress.
Healthy, wholesome, social Con-
nie Fort was his’ willing victim.
Miss Fort’s- father was a lum-
ber magnate ‘whose fortune was
close to a million dollars.
Arthur’s:heart: yearned for that
fortune: Cupid responded read-
ily to this mercenary, murderous
Romeo. Miss Fort was his in a
whirlwind courtship.»
“ As though’ a million dollars
was not enough reason for Ar-
thur’s delight in his darling, he
- was thrilled to discover an added
inducement in his’ lovely wife’s
spinster aunt.
She ‘was an elderly woman,
worth a half million dollars, and
‘
devoted to’‘her niece and’ her
new nephew-in-law. She was so
devoted that she insisted that
Arthur come to New York. Grand
Rapids, she said, was too small a
town to fully appreciate the re-
markable talents of Dr. Waite.
‘Miss Rosalind. Fort, the aunt,
talked Arthur’s. father-in-law
into giving the young couple $300
a week to live on until they be-
came established. ’
“Once settled in an. expensive
apartment on Riverside Drive,
and equipped with an ultra-mod- -
ern office just off Central Park,
Arthur showed his gratitude to
his benefactor.
He devoted a great deal of his
spare time, of which he had
plenty, since he made no effort to
build up a practice, to, Miss Fort.
He told her stories of his prog-
ress, told her of being called in
consultation on very difficult
cases. He flattered her to such
an extent that she gave him $75,-
000 to invest for her.
Besides all these tender atten-
tions, he fed. her every virulent
disease germ he. could get his
hands on! Typhoid fever, pneu-
monia, influenza were a few of
the bacteria he injected into her
food at every opportunity.
ery things saved her from be-
+ing Waite’s first victim. One
was her tough constitution,
which continued to fight off the
attacks of the germs.
The. other was the fact that
Waite found out that legal com-
plications tied .up her fortune in
such a way that it would be im-
possible for his wife to benefit by
Miss Fort’s death. — i
The scythe of. death having
lowered ominously, swung away. —
But not for long}:
Once Waite had come to the
conclusion that every decent hu-
man emotion and desire was in-
significant compared. to money,
his nee was cleaf, ;
Without a *
started a n
This time he
too well
He bo
father-in-law
He demandex
visit. He in
was theirs.
for it.) The
sisted, on con
their absence
young wife,
- 4 his invitation
one, and es}
and father,
> and contenté
thur had ma
Business k
from New Y«
Mrs. Fort cai
met with lov
In two we
Another two
mated body
Grand Rapid
March, 194:
got they all knew. She was naked’
‘except for a wisp of cloth around
her loins.. The firm, virginal
breasts, that more than one sol-
dier had dreamed of seeing, were
bared to the world, Her beauti-
ful body was streaked with blood.
Her breasts were covered with
a score of bites.
> She came to a stop a few feet
away from her father and Cor-
pora] Chy. She stared at them
and then, slowly, a fiendish grin
distorted her lovely face. Her
fingers curled like claws and she
rushed towards the corporal.
“Mon :Dieu!” Colonel Marceau
exclaimed, rushing forward to
stop her. ;
Just as he was about to touch
her, she turned and sprang for
her father’s throat. The colonel
was paralyzed with horror as he
realized that his only daughter
was trying to reach his jugular
vein. No one was near enough to
save him, and he was unable to
move or protect himself. Then,
only inches away, Margot Mar-
ceau crossed out of the swamp
and a great change came over
her. The savagery went out of
her face and she crumpled to the
ground, with a strangled sob.
Colonel Marceau covered her
nakedness with his coat and car-
ried her back to the barracks:
There, thirty minutes later,
she recovered consciousness. She *
recognized her father and clung
Once again Wally’s objections
were overruled.
Mr. Fort weht to New York
and to'his death! —
- Two weeks to the day, after he
was conffortably settled in his
daughter’s home, he was dead.
His body, loaded with. arsenic,
was on its way to the cremato-
* rium. Dr. Waite’s clutch on that
million dollars was tight. The
path was clear. : sa
How Waite must have exulted!
Once again fire would destroy all
the evidence and once again’
to him while wild sobs Shook her be back. That’s the reason the
body. Finally she was able to
talk. .
f “Tt was horrible,” ‘she. said.
“He—the man you punished—
came into the garden and carried
me to the swamp. As soon as we
were in, the swamp, I felt as
though there was some terrible
pressure on my brain. Suddenly
1 saw'a ring of faces, without —
any bodies, all around me. What-
ever way I looked, there were
the faces. Some of them laughed
at-me. They seemed to be tell-
ing {We something — there was
something they wanted me to do.
_ “Then I wanted to do it my- '
self.~I wanted to kill that man!
1 wanted to bite chunks of flesh
from him—to taste his warm
blood.: I jumped on him and tore
my teeth through his flesh. I had
never enjoyed ‘myself so much,
yet I knew I was killing him, -
“Then when he was goné, I
tore off my clothes and bit my-
self. I—I knew what I was doing,
yet the hot blood seemed to taste
so good and when my teeth sunk
into my flesh it was like some
heavenly ‘pleasure. And all the -
faces laughed as if they were
enjoying it too. ae
“It was like some fire burning
inside of me. And there was one
face, more horrible than the rest.
After a while it seemed that he
was helping me bite and he ‘too
was drinking my blood—and_ it
was such ecstasy. ... . After a
time he left me, But I knew he’d
ey
b
the loss’ of a loved one.
How stupid Waite must have .
considered ‘killers: who , trapped
themselves’ by some unremem-
‘bered. detail!"
And’ yet; with poor old Mr.
Fort’s body due to be cremated
in two hours, an unremembered
detail brought the world crashing
down around his murderous head.
One slip, one crack in the jo-
vial, hail-fellow-well-met charac-
ter that was*his pose, put. this
cool killer. right where he : be-
. wished to follow in
everyone would console him on
\
lights... made :-me. angry and: I
wanted to kill all af you. .:..,
Then; when I stepped out. of the
Swamp, it was as though all that
terrible fire left me. If there is.
a hell, father, that swamp is it!”
. Later, there was a hearing on
the death of the native but there
never was any question of charg-
ing: Margot Marceau with his’ -
murder,’ despite her. admission
that she had done so.: In fact, the
whole case was dropped .as. quick-
ly as possible, for the French did
not want to admit the presence
of devils in the swamp yet there
was no way of getting around it. :
But the natives knew what had
murdered one of their number—
and neither did they blame Mar-
got Marceau. . No
Colonel Jean Baptiste Marceau
and .his daughter remained in
French Indo-China for. several
months, but Margot’s popularity
waned. She was still as beautiful |
as ever, but the young French-
men could not forget the picture
of herwhite teeth tearing through
a man’s jugular vein. :
Most of them scoffed at super-
stition, but they still remembered
that the natives whispered that
Margot Marceau was no longer a
maid when she returned froin. .
the swamp—that she had become .
‘Satan’s mistress. And not one
among the gay French blades
the footsteps
of the Prince of Darkness.
Seles, or ori ag Based ry
used in the above story, | i
Sb os
shea Nduatd,
longed—in the chair at Sing Sing!
The morning of the day that
found Mr. Fort dead, Waite had »
been ‘angry and contemptuous
. when Dr. Parnet, a local physi-
cian, had expressed astonishment
_at the death of Mr. Fort. — sth
Dr.‘Parnet had seen Fort the —
night before and in view of his —
health at that time, found ‘his -
death surprising. When Waite
had refused: to’ go into detail
about Fort’s death, he put him-'
self in the death chair.) )-
Suspicion aroused: by Waite’s
' Keyhole Detectives
ecu
. TORS ius cee eae
‘id Nia eat ape «ial St eae 4 hi 2
Ke soos, er, x bait am RY 4 1 Rite fad
wa
Wr see aes y sapeen
/<— : os Si ~~;
i
ts
Ls
7S
oF,
ia conduct, Dr. P-~
*.’ gram to Wally
of what he su _
> a false name to tl
suggested an autc
Young Fort use:
“> when he telegra
York police.
So, two. hours
< , mation, the police
-Even.-the first cw
the post mortem :
-~ Qnce given the s:
‘« quickly discovere
astonishing facts.
|. This loving hu:
made his little wi
happy, was keepir
called herself Mr:
In a drawer
. . library was found
It was half full o
‘der. Half-filled, i:
- of arsenic. Three
an adult!
The druggist’s 1
-+ tle led the police
‘store in the sixt
gist, when asked
of the arsenic,
Waite very: clear]:
druggist will ca:
arsenic like ca
checked Dr. Wa:
had even phone
who had vouc
Dr. Schull
. questioned. He ;
lice that he kn
°° well and that W:
wanted the arse:
* cats which had b
’- awake nights.
Dr. Schull tal!
telling the police
fellow Waite wa
course of convers
police how inter«
in bacteriology.
“As a matter
Schull said, “it w
\< that Waite took
teriology. I refe:
|. own proféssor.”
‘THIS was a ho
‘police, under
'- Detective John
. District Attorney
' time in followin;
|. March, 1942
i a
This blow, staggering as it was
to Waite’s plans, did not upset
him. The embalmer’s testimony,
he thought, would kick a hole
right through the District .Attor-
ney’s case, ,.
His next move was a clever
one. He went to Mrs. Nullen
who, by: the way, knew nothing
ef his nefarious plans, and sent
her out’to buy a dozen trional
pills, #of54° .
When she returned with the
sleeping tablets, he told her that
as soon as he had a good night’s.
sleep, _ he'd | get everything
straightened out and theh they'd
be able to pick up the strings of
their tangled romance.
As soon as she left, reassured,
he took.a heavy dose of the tab-
- lets and went into a coma. This,
. he had figured, would save him
from a possible third degree. ©
While he slept, Cuniffe dug up
the final damning proofs against
him. ‘In Waite’s library desk was
found a medical book on poisons:
' with paper°markers in the sec-
tions devoted to arsenic, sulph-
. onal and chlorine gas.
arsenic rubbed _
' . shoulders with/ twenty-four tubes
A bottle o
of germ cultures and over one
hundred: and fifty slides which
contained typhoid fever, influ-
enza, diphtheria and many other
deadly disease germs!
_ Waite’stayed in a coma for
three days,: When he recovered,
he was a closely-guarded prisoner
in Bellevue Hospital. a
He denied any suicidal inten-
tions and said that he’d merely
taken an overdose by accident,
Waite was: completely assured
and his usyal debonair self as
he asked,.“‘By the way, has the
embalmer turned in his sample
of fluid yet?" e
“Yes.” .Cuniffe watched him
. closely
“Were there any traces of ar-
senic in it?!’ Waite’s poker face
showed no’ emotion. He might
have been’ asking about the
weather, . ie
~ “No; not-a sign of arsenic!’
Bane had doublecrossed Waite,’
¢
He had taken the bribe and then .~
turned in an honest ‘sample!
Everything had ‘gone wrong.
Waite was hopelessly entangled,
_ yet he still had one more string
to his bow.’. He pretended to
break-down and sob.
“It’s time to tell the truth,”
said this practiced liar. “I’ve held
it in long enough. Old Mr. Fort
was dying of'a painful disease.
He said that if I helped him it
would be a blessing. All I did
- was help him commit suicide by
the arsenic. It was.
getting hi :
the only merciful thing to do.”
Cuniffe looked at Waite scepti-
cally and said, “Do you expect
anyone to believe that hog-
wash?” ‘
‘Waite was through. He smiled
suddenly and said, “No, of course
not. I’m all washed up. Sure, I
murdered both of them. They
were old‘and rich and I was young |
and poor. I just tried to equalize
things.”
“Sure,” he continued, “Thad
some money, but I wanted a lot
of it. While we’re on the sub-
ject, I tried to-kill the aunt, too.
But she was too healthy.” .
From that moment on, Waite
threw off the jovial mask he had
worn and showed himself for’
what he was—a loathsome, slimy,
inhuman monster. He gloried in
his evil, He bragged of the hor- |
rors he ‘had committed,
He was so determined to show
_ off his real nature that his lawyer
was forced to play up his vile
qualities, hoping to have him
judged insane, -
On the stand he gave every
* revolting detail of his’ inhuman
crimes. with ‘a’ bland, confident.
smile. He looked flattered. when
. an alienist described him as, “A
completely unmoral monster!”
He told of’ his unsuccessful:
murder attempt on Miss Fort, the
aunt, ‘He described with relish,
how quickly ‘his mother-in-law
~ succumbed, =: Sei hype
“Father was a more difficult. :
subject. I gave him every germ
I had; with no’ result. I"put ty-
phoid germs in his nasal douche. ©
No’ result! “Then I figured ‘that
I’d weaken him’ with calomel so.
that the germs would have an
easier job. He did get weaker
but not enough.”
He told how he had gassed the
poor old man with chlorine. This
failed because Mr. Fort worked in
the middle of the night and com:
- plained to the maid of a peculiar
odor. She opened a window and
so he was saved for a while.
Arsenic, chloroform, and suffo-
cation were what finally killed
Mr. Fort. Waite fed him the ar-
senic until he was almost’ too sick’
to raise a finger, then chloxo--
formed him in the ‘middle ‘of the
night. As soon as he was com-
pletely anesthetized, Waite placed °
. a pillow over his face and suffo-
cated ,him!
An hour and twenty-three
“minutes after his confession the
revolted jury brought in a ver:
dict of guilty.
_ . The incredible Waite took the
news of his sentence to the chair
with such equanimity that he
startled even the hardened prison
guards. . a?
Told when and where he was
to die, he smiled and! whistléd
- La Paloma!
The prison doctor who exam- |
ined him on the day of his execu-
tion records that just before:
. Waite went to the electric chair,
his pulse and temperature were
~ normal! . Hk
He read all of his last day on
earth. The book was a scientific
* work on psychology, which held
his interest td the end. He ate
well and as he went through the
‘ little door to meet his terrible -
_ end, he turned to the rést of the -
condemned killers and wav
gaily...
His last ‘words were, “Here’s
. luck, boys!”
‘NEXT MONTH
WAS A
PALMIST.
The true story of how a
Palmist swindled the
public.
WATCH FOR IT
Keyhole Detectives
RES
De ans Orme 8
self as tiny as possil
that the shadows -
her.
Under any other
they might have. |]
4%
» ling workman \
around the cellar v
| He was sent to tun
for a new tenant. A
ing box was in fro
: that controlled tk
» . pushed the box cas:
grunted in surpris«
pected weight of
down and turned |
flash light into the
His eyes went s)
-prehendingly from
siere bound ankle v
silk-stockinged leg
' preciatively at the
‘ness of her heavin;
‘ to her face.
His eyes wider
* looked at her fa
pupiled eye had
/ again.
. Under any other
he might have s
stolen moments of
silence. But the n
had said there was
company reward of
for Lillian. He col
TEN to twenty jy
.~ prison was the se)
. down. This creati
’ endurance, ingenui'
like cunning, was t:
at least ten years.
was what the law
-- saw it differently.
she was a’ model
"least on the surface.
* .she dug. She dug f
hundred days. Du;
». of State Prison wit)
- Again Fate decid
‘Free of prison, but
’ friendless, the .v:
turned. against he
- without food for e:
that time-she livec
,in haystacks, behi
anywhere, while th
4 March,’ 1942
Re XS ae
r niece’ and her
i-law. She was. so
she insisted that
New York. Grand
d, was too small a
appreciate the re-
iis of Dr. Waite.
d Fort, the aunt,
r’s father-in-law
young couple $300
on until they be-
ad.
in an expensive
Riverside Drive,
vith an ultra-mod- -
off Central Park,
| his gratitude to
i great deal of his
f which he had
» made no effort to
tice, to Miss Fort.
ories of his prog-
of being called in
very difficult
d her to such
she gave him $75,-
or her.
hese tender atten-
ier every virulent
he could get his
ohoid fever, pneu-
za were a few of
: injected into her
opportunity.
saved her from be-
first victim. One
ugh _ constitution,
ed to fight off the
germs.
was the fact that
ut that legal com-
up her fortune in
at it would be im-
; wife to benefit by
ith. © ;
of death having
usly, swung away.
ag!
had come to the
t every decent hu-
and desire was in-
npared_ to money,
lear,
mi
ynuie Detectives
a |
RON we
on
°
Without a moment’s delay, he
started a new plan of death.
This time he was to succeed only
too well.
He bombarded his mother and
father-in-law with invitations.
He demanded that they come and
visit. He insisted that his home
was theirs. (It was. They paid
for it.) The only blight, he im
sisted, on complete happiness, was
their absence. His loving, lonely,
young wife, naturally seconded
his invitation. She wanted every-
one, and especially her mother
and father, to see how happy
_and contented her darling Ar-
thur had made her.
Business kept Mr. Fort away
from New York for awhile. Old
Mrs. Fort came gladly. She was
met with love and affection.
‘In two weeks she was dead.
Another two days and her cre-
mated body was enroute to
Grand Rapids.
ee
Love and affection. And un-
der that cowardly cloak, foul and
filthy murder.
Lost to all human decency,
Arthur had killed an elderly
woman who had never harmed
him—who ‘had, as a matter of
fact, looked with wholehearted
approval on her daughter’s mar-
riage to the dashing doctor;
This time typhoid fever and
sulphonal removed the barrier
that stood in Waite’s terrible path
to a million dollars.
eArthur looked at his handiwork
' and pronounced it good. Crema-
tion had destroyed all evidences
- of his crime. It was the perfect
murder.
With barely a breathing spell
he rushed onto the next dreadful
step. ;
His father-in-law shocked, aged
by the tragedy that had swept
into the grave his. companion of
many years, lent a,willing ear to
his son-in-law.
Certainly it was true that he
needed a change. Every room,
every object, his home itself was
a reminder of his beloved wife. A
trip to New York, the companion-
ship of his daughter and his son-
in-law would ease the shock.
_ Lured like Hamlin’s rats, he
followed his son-in-law’s. piping.
In this case though, the piper was
the rat and the rat was a killer.
The only voice that was raised
against Waite’s blandishments
was that of Wally Fort, his
brother-in-law. Wally had never
succumbed to Waite’s charm. He
had done his best to prevent his
sister’s marriage, but to no avail.
His dislike was disregarded by
his mother, father and sister. All
of them thought it was petty
jealousy.
(Continued on Page 44)
4
Famous Poison] I
America’s Arch Poisoner
‘Dr. Arthur Warren Waite.
turned to his home city of Grand Rapids,
Michigan, in 1914, after an absence of several
years, and the circle that once had known him as a
schoolboy found him changed into a romantic figure
and a bit of mystery to boot.
Educated in the Grand Rapids public schools,
Waite’ had graduated with honors from the dental
college of the University of Michigan and had been
given a scholarship in the College of Royal Surgeons
at Edinburgh, Scotland. Graduating there, he had
[) ret ARTHUR WARREN WAITE re-
Editor’s Note: This is the third of a series of true articles on celebrated
ison. cases that are being written especially for this magazine. The
ourth will appear ip the next issue.
60
REAL DETECTIVE
May, 1930
_and throw many cases my way.”
No. 3—Murder, with
‘Two Millionsas the Stake
The True Story of One of the Greatest
‘Poison Plots in Criminal History
“~
By
WILLIAM MOORE
With diabolic cunning, Dr. Waite plotted to kill
his father-in-law, his mother-in-law, and his wife,
and thus get possession of their wealth. By the
merest chance, and later by keen detective work,
his plans were discovered, though only after two
of his victims had died.
gone out to South Africa as branch office manager for an
English dental concern.
ow, after five years, he was back with.a pocket full of
. money, far more money than any young dentist, however
/ Skilled, can be expected to pick up from his profession alone.
It was pointed out, however, that Africa is a land where
there is money to be made “‘on the side’—diamonds, ivory
and what-not. Perhaps Waite had been lucky.
Waite himself said nothing. He let them guess.
Waite was then 28 years old, more than six feet tall and
well built. His features were regular, his complexion dark,
his eyes almost hypnotic. A man of great charm and person-
ality, he nevertheless gave the impression of having such tre-
mendous self-control that his real feelings never were ap-
parent in his face.
Deliberately, it seems now, he renewed an old acquaintance
with Clara Louise Peck, daughter of an aged and extremely
wealthy druggist and manufacturer, John E. Peck. Miss
Peck was not particularly attractive or popular, but Waite
began to “rush” her, and when she went with her mother to
Palm Beach that summer he followed and continued his
ardent suit. . ;
When they returned to Grand Rapids they were engaged,
and their marriage on September 9, 1916, was a brilliant
social function. After the honeymoon they settled down in
a luxurious Riverside Drive apartment in New York, where
Waite proposed to continue the practice of his profession.
“It would be a great mistake to establish an office in the
wrong locality,” Waite told his adoring bride. “Until I de-
cide Where mine shall be, I am located in Bellevue Hospital,
where they have temporary offices for physicians and den-
tists in my position. Meanwhile, I am finding that whatever
reputation I have has preceded me and that others are quite
eager to take advantage of my knowledge of dental surgery’
.
’ ~
Ano
real
Every
wife goo
the afte:
hospitals
in the ca
Returr
her with
performe
“to see a
he emerg
had just
he had gi
One d
other do
had mad
they sha:
Waite st
cut glass
thanks o
Severa
was awa:
she put b
which sh
Mrs, \
mas and
When hi
compani«
On Janu:
made by
_ early in t
Dr. W
night bei
the medi
was soup
Mrs. F
ashes tak
THRE
invite
son-in-la
man, anc
ance at h
Dr. M
found P.
to a hear
toes he h
Seven
leaving b
awakene:
This he did, and to give the sketch a
more prof:ssional touch, he enlisted the
help of an artist whose pencil executed
scrupulously Heger’s verbal picture.
A number of copies of the sketch were
placed in the hands of the police force and
the hunt was taken up again.
On May 18, 1937, Charles Tierney him-
self made the pinch. He spied the man as
he drunkenly staggered out of a beer |
parlor. His name was Robert Remington,
and the fingerprint he had left behind on
the scene of his last transgression was
conclusive proof that he was the culprit.
Stories attesting to Heger’s extra-
ordinary abilities can be told by the dozen.
There is—to take another instance—the
one of a stick-up man’s sweetheart. He
had held up and robbed a store, firing a
shot which luckily missed the resisting
owner.
The cops had the. bullet, and if they
could have found the gun it was fired
from, ballistics would have clinched the
case.
That they were unable to get the gun
‘was all the more vexing as they had a
* suspect—a suspect the storekeeper was
unable to identify with absolute certainty
because of his excited state of mind during
the holdup.
The officers showed Heger the suspect’s
fingerprints.
“Sure, this man has definite criminal
tendencies,” Heger said after inspecting
the prints.
He went on to explain that the suspect
was the “scientific type” of criminal, a
cunning and deceitful character who plans
and figures his deeds beforehand, and
knows how to beat a police rap.
“You never will get a confession from
him,” Heger said, “not unless you: have
definite proof. Then he might talk readily,
as he thinks that cooperation with the
police might help him in court.”
But despite this knowledge the cops had
to release the suspect.
But most important, she told where the
gun that had figured in the last holdup
was cached. The officers picked it up and
the Ballistics Department found that it
was the weapon from which the bullet had
been fired.
The possibility of uncovering tendencies
of criminal nature, tendencies which might
be hidden or still in a stage of develop-
ment, led Heger to examine the prints of
children in relation to juvenile ~ de-
linquency.
Here he made a discovery which might
become one of the most powerful weapons
against crime. .
The hand of the adolescent, in un-
mistakable danger signs, clearly shows
the presence of still undeveloped criminal
inclinations. Again, Heger explains, it’s
all a matter of balance of glands.
Criminal urges, in many cases, aré a
matter of glandular disturbances. One
gland especially is a trouble maker, the
thymus gland, in the back of the breast-
bone. Normally it shrivels up at the age
of 14. If it fails to do so, the organic basis
for juvenile criminality is created.
Here Heger’s analytic method comes in
—any trouble with the thymus gland-
shows clearly in the hand, right across the
center of the palm and at the junction of
the thumb and hand.
If trouble with the thynius gland is
diagnosed at an early stage,| particularly
during the period of adolescence, medical
science can take corrective measures,
adjust the proper functioning of the
disturbed gland and save a jyvenile from
becoming a criminal menace.
Or, as Heger puts it: “The gcientifically
trained analyst is able to tell'a man what
may happen to him if he,! or society,
doesn’t do something about it. It is true,
a man makes his own fate, but the analyst
can tell him, especially duringftht years he
is growing to manhood, what physical
and moral problems he will have to face in
the future.” , F |
The case, however, wasn’t closed. For
Heger, their indefatigable consultant,
decided to do some sleuthing of his own,
and he learned that the holdup suspect
was running around with a pretty moll.
Heger managed to meet the girl, a little
brunette, only she didn’t look like a moll,
rather like an ordinary working girl.
All Heger wanted was to have a look
at her hands, but she kept her gloves on
during the whole conversation. Finally
he was forced to resort to a ruse.
Asking her what kind of jobs she had
held in the past, she chattered on that at
one time she had worked in a bakery.
“In a bakery? You must have gotten
your pretty hands calloused from that
kind of work.”
Her feminine vanity was aroused. She
pulled off her gloves and displayed her
hands. “See how soft they are!” she said,
inviting his inspection.
HECER examined her dainty fingers
and narrow hands with admiring
glances, penetrating glances. Hers was
the hand of a person with criminal ten-
dencies, of a bluffer and a liar. He saw
the telltale marks of a criminal mind also
in the loop type pattern of her fingertips.
“What an interesting hand you have,”
he said, and the girl was in seventh heaven.
The same day she was also in a station
house cell.
Heger had told the police that the
woman from all appearances was the
stickup’s accomplice, that she was weak
and would sing readily when squeezed
expertly. :
That’s what the cops did. They had
rarely come across a more lusty canary.
She spilled the whole yarn after their first
few questions. \
She said she had been on half a dozen
holdups with the man, driving the getaway
car. She named places, remembered the
dates more or less exactly, and gave the
amounts of the various loots.
\Mlurperers
I HAVE KNOWN
[Continucd from page 43]
would believe it. Most of the men who
go to the chair protest their innocence so
often they become to believe it themselves.
Becker was otherwise; he was convinced
* that outside factors were in conspiracy to
trap him. These factors were public opin-
ion and the hatred of an underworld. Top-
ping all these, in Becker's opinion, was the
misguided strategy of his lawyers.
B ECKER was indicted for the crime o'
causing the death of Herman Rosen-
thal. In many opinions, then and since,
Rosenthal’s death wasn’t a bad day’s
work. He was a 14th Street gambler who
‘ aspired to midtown prestige. As a gam
bler he contributed no better standards
to his new environment. Merely, he added
new handicaps for the bettors. He was,
in two words, no bargain.
Lieutenant Becker was head of what
we newsmen preferred to call the Strong ©
Arm Squad, appointed by Rhinelander
afoot, he called me. Becker had a keen
sense of news.
He impressed me as a man of utter fear-
lessness, a theory assisted by his enor-
mous bulk, all of which was solid muscle.
Never have I known a more powerful
man. He was supremely confident that no
situation could arise which could dumb-
found him. These qualities gdve him an
extraordinary arrogancg, invaluable in his
status of one man against the underworld.
And, when I first knew. him, he was in-
corruptible. \
Boxes of cigars sent him were inlaid
with impressive paper currency, and with-
out indication of the donor. Envelopes,
crammed with fine folding money, also
anonymous, were slipped under the door
of his apartment. It was not unusual for
him to run a hand into his pocket and
find it full of bills, slipped there by a
skilled pickpocket. All this money he
turned over to the relief fund of the police.
These manifestations enraged him to
harder blows against the elements with
which he was warring. Later they amused
him, and then—the relief fund no longer
received such contributions.
Rumors spread that Becker had been
“reached.” Gambling raids against the big
fellows became fewer. Now and again
their places were crashed but these were
token invasions. I noticed that no axes
were used on the costly gambling para-
phernalia, as in previous months.
It was evident to those watching events
that someone had spread before him the
Waldo, then Police Commissioner. He
and his squad tore through the town like
a scourge, for he had been granted unlim-
ited powers.
The indictment said he caused the
death of Rosenthal, not that he fired the
lethal bullets. He wasn’t even on the
scene, in front of the old Hotel Metro-
pole on 44th Street, when Herman was
pegged. The document said he had pro-
cured the death with the connivance of a
group of gamblers who in turn had
- pressed a group of gunmen into service.
In other -words, a many-handed conspir-
acy which is the toughest thing in the
world to prove. Charles Whitman, dis-
trict-attorney of New York, proved it, and
Becker was sentenced to death.
I had covered the Becker case from the
morning it broke with Rosenthal going
to the New York World and making an
affidavit that Becker had collected graft
from him and others, from everyone who
was running a stuss game in the lower
f East Side, from floating crap games all
over New York, and from those who con-
ducted gambling with Park Avenue dig-
nity in swank places.
Jack Rose was his collector, the affi-
- davit said. Bridgey Webber, who ran a
place at Sixth Avenue and 42nd Street,
and Harry Vallon, of the lower section of
town, were “cappers” in the scheme.
. I had known Becker for a year, ever
since he had been made head of the Strong
Arm Squad. Now and again, when a coup
of more than average importance was
<r
———a
_
“ey
ot
‘oh ee Age ae Be
great panorama of New Yo i
rk and whis-
pered the words of an earlier marauder
ys what a city to loot!” ,
. nce committed to graft, Beck
i 7 er
: to the armpits. As overlord of the bn
aera he could command his prices;
on they were exorbitant. Which is why
ping Rosenthal, ever a close lad with
7 ollar, turned on Becker. And also why
— in the office of Becker’s lawyer that
he et to hear what he would Say
he e i
fe wos xpose Rosenthal had given to “Okay,” Gyp the Blood res onded, “I’
Becker laughed it off He would pe Ar ya has
next day. Ho dae ee w 2a see us He had no traffic then or thereafter wi .
thal was killed oes Sz 4 night Rosen- the desperadoes who we to b
— pet ar hewn a ie the tools of his meter deenee = nes
Pineapoipg 7 enottdesk- The man’s subli ith in hi
as head po phe sige Court to of difficulties —— te peeercamse!
mparation a Pein Wy popes when the Appellate Division cevereed =
: ‘ ; igh ter ; :
the jaemtually Justice John Goff chareed . ‘Sag See oes a
nd they retired sad [
i hoe A . I guess Distric i
Becker, whose en with Mrs. over-reached himstli’ an
ia an deme to . to her husband crowded his huge frame into the f y -
pant dec Ce Aer ni Be e chatted coat of his attorney. It was belie wal a
then ee vce ae y, ose other erally that Charles Whitman Contd det
deathie ak ta on ened rd ace grew make the original indictment sti i S rat
IF pelea ens Cd about to faint. of the witnesses had re ys pews
pad ore her. She moaned mony. Yet, in the Leama! ie ped
‘ A , rial, th i
me * God. I've broken a tooth!” Rane hg cm ree District
aioe bad,” I said, “but it can be re- vittion.” WPISSES 604 -xocom age
; .
2 on The Supreme Cor i
He cog By ng ee it's an omen. We Becker was F yet 5d i en
finan en tooth forebodes In the meantime. Whitman’ Be eyo
m - : : elect 7 of N oe
ike atc avi Jury came in with — of dei ee pais:
ia ween — was guilty of mur- _ I did not see him again until the morn-
The verdiee oe a tell cured ing he swaggered into the death chaml
Recker. ie aged. ae — ae = fat — sat between me and the electric
ramed; i ran a.
ed; that no man, however Innocent, door awnng, conn ie es neta i
al parade.
“could stand against the lying” i
of: Rese, Watkne .s Vole testimony Becker and I were looking into each oth-
been schooled in their stories, he Chideed er's eyes as the electrodes were strapped
to him,
UCH of his venom’ ; The overlord of the und
i Id was
lawyers: they had aici against his done to death. Aft erwor
: hheld h . erward I heard
the stand; they had refused mats Ef oe ecker
stories, all of which indicated
' » all that Becker
suguestions in the crosexamition 2 ultimate end believed himself in-
S. He told his friends th i 1
Golf kad bn i Ss that Justice Even Sheri i i i
opened. So, pap prt iser Penie fhe trial : Becker's See eet cag hs
was takin to the tenn plaze of fury, he ria a group of us ps de rally wile a
Tage se, ast in an ini .
wee rebar of the condemned were Execution foci on 3 gr eee ate
removed but airly' adjacent to Ue ere er entered. Griffenhagen rose
ock. The news of Becker’s arrival
from his table retching,
’ g.
and within a few months fou
men came into the death fouse, the poor
men who had riddled Herman Rosenthal
They entered blithely. As they walked the
narrow way between cells they asked the
— Keeper—"Where's Becker?”
e pointed to a is
out, “Hey, Chai wee ee —
. “Go to hell,” Becker responded ungra-
Becker's supposed associates—
gunmen—Lefty Louis, Gyp he Be
Whitey Lewis and Dago Frank, were
easier .to assimilate into a picture of a
“9ep murderers.
ley became fugitives after the kill
of Rosenthal but finally were Siete ot
he ith the police descriptions added to their
ong records, they had reached an emi-
nence of revulsion. But nothing was more
ludicrous than the moment when Patrick
Henry, the Commissioner of Correction
offered them for newspaper interview.
; Soe known facts were that Lefty Louis
tad come of a good family; his father was
a respected merchant who had jammed
the kid through high school. He was the
only one in the quartet who had a tent
ous claim to intelligence, Gyp the’ Blood
was a laughing moron, with perceptible
tubercular tendencies, Whitey Lewis, an
vol deserter, was a complete subnor-
family, wes a surf eehe UP in a ice
A surly
had been —— oe type who
t least three of them wer.
cappers for joints of depravity and dane
ES the mob of oe hopheads. They were
of Jack Zelig who i
around Chatham Secale An a ee
ey at its apex, between Chinatown and
the gory Second ward, that illustrious
tavern known as the Bucket of Blood.
We confronted these janizaries of Zelig
tion of a mayor. The
A y selected Be
be the Mayor of Death House These he
wea given im. : ict
‘Keep it,” Becker sn led. “
think I oclation wit Jom
pote want any association with you
From then on, whe
c , n men walked t
the little green door which peirked toe
The wheel of justice made its slow whirl .
YES, THERE'S REAL HONEY in Imperi
enough to eat! Dear to payee
smokers everywhere because it en-
tirely eliminates “breaking-in"!
HERE'S HOW THE HONEY IS
the pipes. It coats esa
pipe bowl Permanently, It
mingles with tobacco and
forms @ beautifully-cured
cake” A sweet, satisfying
smoke, mild and smooth, no
matter what tobacco you use.
Shape
What a difference,
when you smoke the
the pipe that contains
and for $1, there's the standard
YELLO-BOLE also sprayed
with real honey
and stay sweet and mild.
© 1942, Kaufmann Bros, & Bondy, 630 Fifth Avenue, N.Y,
These $1 Yello-Bole Pi, also
treated with Nesey. euahe
sweet, without breaking-in,
103
inom
leased out to Jack Rose and Bridgey
Webber—for the Rosenthal job—and it
was like meeting a group of Dead End
kids. By common accord, Lefty was their
spokesman, interrupted occasionally by
Dago Frank, who had his own sense of
superiority. Nothing came of it but ac-
quaintance.
The circumstance was revealing. These
thugs were tigers when they had weapons
in their hands but, in the words of an old
policeman, they would bust out crying if
they were caught without a weapon. They
could be slapped down. At this confer-
ence, Whitey Lewis, totally amazed at the
sudden importance which had been
wished upon him, tried to act important,
and Gyp the Blood giggled and wise-
cracked throughout. These were the
menaces to society. :
At frequent intervals, when Becker was
on trial, these ten-cent bravos were hauled
into court. Each time they staged a dem-
onstration. They were building up their
reputations with a proper contempt for
the workings of justice. The law, to them,
was a thing to be made foolish and out-
raged. Usually they were drawn back to
their cells violently—and they loved it.
They held a false horizon, one in which
. they believed their underworld pals were
going to deliver them from prison.
This I know because a relationship had
sprung up between Lefty and me.
Strangely, this resulted because while
they were fugitives an uncle of mine had
run them ragged. While they were dodg-
ing the law they walked in extreme neg-
ligee before a hotel he owned. He chased
them into the Atlantic Ocean. Because of
that these rock-crabs gave me a reflected
glory. .
In the cells, Lefty and Gyp dwelt to-
gether and Whitey and Dago Frank main-
tained unprized communion in the next
cage. Talking through the cellgate, Lefty
told me that I was to be an honored guest
at their coming-out party. Without shar-
ing their optimism, I accepted the invita-
tion. Dago Frank took a thorough dislike
to me. He regarded all newspaper-
men as a handicap to his eventual free-
dom. It came to an issue as to whether
Frank or I would be present at the party.
Lefty declared in favor of me—but I
sharpened no teeth for the promised feast.
That party, the one that was to tip the
East Side into the river, never came off.
The trigger men were convicted. As a
’ social and as a professional duty I had to
call upon my intended hosts. First, I
stopped at the cell shared by Frank and
Whitey. Ina gesture of high disdain they
took to their bunks. Frank lifted his head
enough to say:
“All right, you guys have crucified us.
Now get the hell away from here.” It
must have been the choir boy in him
which brought up that word, crucified.
Whitey whined, “Why don’t you let us
alone?”
This bitterness was not reflected in the
next cage. Lefty and Gyp came to the
bars together, welcomingly. They were
disappointed. Their party was in forfeit.
They were at a loss to account for the
disaster. I attempted to explain:
“T think it was that summation speech
of the Assistant District Attorney, Frank
Moss, when he said, ‘If these denizens
have any more bullets to expend I bare
my breast to their rage—’”
“Boy,” Gyp said, “was that hot! I ex-
a the judge would lean over the
ench and bean him with a bladder.”
“Cut it out,” Lefty ordered. “Why are
- you always finding fun in these things?
Don’t you know we're due for the death
house?”
“Ts that bad?” Gyp chortled. “I'll die
~104
before they ever get around to me.” He
was balancing the inroad of the tubercular
germ against the heavy pace of the law.
Lefty was capable of meditative com-
ment. After considerable pause he said:
“Get this: they'll never burn us in the
chair. You watch what I’m saying.”
He was wrong. They burned them, all
four, and I was there to sec it.
It was long after these occurrences that
I heard the full story of the last days of
the gunmen, They made a daring final try
to cheat the state of their lives.
The last day was visitors’ day. All the
known relatives were permitted to see the
doomed men, These relatives were not
accorded the privilege of the usual room,
but had to talk through the interstices
of the wire fence, several fect outside the
cells.
Suddenly one of the departing relatives
went into convulsions close to the exit of
the death house. The guards abandoned
their posts and hurried to the stricken
woman. The area of death was in tumult.
Finally it subsided.
HE chaplain of the prison, Father
William E. Cashin, now Monsignor,
arrived, For months he had held the con-
fidence of the doomed men. He entered
the cell of Lefty Louis. An unusual com-
placency was visible.
“What are you so cheered up about?”
the priest demanded.
Lefty was in the glow of some victory.
“I just want to tell you, Father,” he
boasted, “that when they come to get us,
they can’t have us.”
Father Cashin did some quick thinking.
There seemed to be no possible escape
from the consequences; yet there had
been that stream of visitors, They had
concocted something.
“Consider this, Lefty,” he said. “If you
fellows beat the chair that may represent
a gain for you—but there are others.
Everyone who called upon you today is
listed and if any of you do away with
yourselves, they are going to be indicted
for murder. No less! Every one of them,
your wives, your parents, your other
relatives.”
He expanded the idea, in terms of law.
Finally Louis called to Gyp in the ad-
joining cell, “It’s all up, Harry.”
He surrendered a capsule full of
cyanide. Gyp in the next cell offered his.
That of Whitey Lewis had been crushed
under the heels of a guard. None had been
offered to Dago Frank. The demon-
stration had been staged so that in the
excitement, the capsules were rolled
under the wire meshing.
This was the story that none of us,
who witnessed the subsequent executions,
knew.
I've often wondered, too, about Jack
Rose. He was the focal point in the whole
case against Becker and the four gunmen.
An unlovely creature was Rose, denied by
nature the growth of hair. His head was
as barren as a billiard ball, It was he who
let Becker look down on a city ripe for
resage and it was he who collected the
tolls.
When the winds blew against Becker
they were certain to cyclone Rose. Never
a daring gambler, Rose had mastered the
art of coppering a bet. Never could he be
caught in the middle. Rose hired himself
a lawyer.
What he acquired was a legal genius—
but bibulous. He had come out of one of
the country’s greatest law schools and
felt that it was sporting to keep half
drunk all the time so his adversary might
have an even mental chance. His alma
mater accorded him summa cum laude and
the bartenders of New Haven a laurel of
mint leaves. He went into court only
when thirst griped him.
In one of his infrequent moments of
sobriety he took on Jack Rose’s case. He
made himself aware of all the turmoil in
the Becker trial. With cold, objective eye
he viewed the colleagues who stood, with
Rose, against the law. Craftily he first de-
manded his retainer.
“Rose,” he stated his conclusions suc-
cinctly, “you're one of three. In the code
which obtains among you the double cross
is the ruling theory of existence. You are
reluctant to acknowledge yourself a
squealer, but are you sure that, Bridgey
Webber and Harry Vallon have the same
scruples? They’d cut your throat for a
dime and give change.
“Otherwise I'd say, offhand, that you
are perfectly made for an electrocution.
They will nof even have to shave your
head for the chair. Come to think of it,
you are almost anointed. Yes, you are a
perfect specimen.”
Rose, who had a reputation for stoi-
cism broke as his lawyer dispassionately
cited his qualifications for doom.
“Go ahead and make a deal with’ the
D. A.!” he panted. :
It was made, but not a minute too soon.
Webber and Vallon were battering down
the doors of the District Attorney's office
to offer their confession. Thus, Rose be-
came the star witness against Bécker.
The trial of Harry Thaw was before
my time, but I caught up with him after
his escape from Mattewan, the asylum
for the criminal insane. Through the
agency of hirelings—who, like his law-
yers, were left unpaid—he cilacked out
of the nut joint. He fled into Canada,
and that practical dominion short-cut all
the laws to promptly dump hin} back into
custody of the United States
So it was in Colebrook County! in New
Hampshire that I became acquainted with
Thaw. It was an illuminating experience.
Thaw gave audiences. Not to fiiselose
news but to project his personality. The
first thing I learned about hink was that
he cherished the eulogistic things that
high-priced advocates had said about him,
For instance, one of his lawyers had
likened him to St. George whose blade
was ever ready in the protection of chas-
tity. Thaw considered that grand. He had
a brochure printed in which he battled
the forces of evil. When he handed me,
one of those, I snickered with delight.
Thaw, who regarded reporters as his
retinue, was shocked by this effrontery.
“You are an enemy!” he cried.
“Don’t disturb yourself,” I told him.
“I’m just calling the shots as J see them.”
We had another run-in, The story of
Thaw, who killed a man in defense of his
wife’s honor, had gained glory in the
timbers. On a pay night the lumber men
came into town. Through one of the lob-
bygows on Thaw’s payroll, they offered
to spirit him away.
Most of us had lost sleep watching ‘the
movements of this eccentric killer, We
knew the plans of the loggers, so Fogarty,
of the Toronto Sfar, and I—sharing a room
across the hall from Thaw—were respon-
sible to all the others in our craft. About
two in the morning we heard a rumpus
outside Thaw’s door. The loggers had
come. We aroused all the reporters. Thaw
never liked us thereafter because his res-
cue had been thwarted.
When I was called off the story I had
breakfast with him. William Sulzer had
been impeached as governor of New
York. I was called back for the proceed-
ings and so I told Thaw.
“Let me do something for you,” he
said, leaning over our ham and eggs.
“You can go back with a fine opportunity,
een a
LEE
* selves studiously to interest her in the
for Martin Glynn, the actin
ng governor. packed a i
ileard te Guns and tell him that if he The promater died t Peay vith the
8 aw his temporary status as ici We seer roa lkory
*governor will be confirmed.”
“ I placed my napkin back on the. table.
Let your legal boys run your errands.”
Thaw made an outrage of American
ar ~ he bag done annually for years,
japon ge ag to ridged York. of criminology to the contrary, there a
an alienist who had testified 4 ae co ee bp epee ¥ the'murderer
1 ; t ears, di ;
Recon hggtony him, chose that mo- foreheads mean nel A The kites =
tla te — = the stand against contributed by every class. ini
sane and had the ran Of the town Once wend G characteristic they are alike
¢ wn, : On ed to the blindi :
s oe poems my paar again. _licity they crave sige igh Pits
ape yr a Sebegge —— against glare. As one of them said to me as the
p Ekta age oo e fled to Phila- gates of Sing Sing slammed behind hi :
—aeagtha pital gs to take his life. “I could take this like the kiss fa
ieigathedhdhie 4 fiche he, who sweetheart if my favorite tabloid 1
poate apd y e New York courts, ollow me six months wherever [’ te
Fautstane cect ins State of after they knock me off.” —
€ im to a nice, Which is a b ‘ i
Frente Aly ia,caueht oP rk duction of Charles Grp nt MS
[ his earlier Chapin knew ici ; :
cen epered ea he’s around. was city editor pg Po Yok ere
pig yah oe! aq him was Evening World. By general knowledge =f
Sine ~s seg : 4 compton tepute in newspaper circles he was a late
ale Saag — _— eee foe’ _— edition of Machiavelli, a modern Sentiare.
ot see vl ong — Cagliostro, godfather to Frank-
The terrible tempered Mr. Ban
only crumbs from the Sreiaing Sent
of his temper. He was an all-time, all-
American relative of a dog and at the
same time the greatest city editor the
country had known. His self-adoration
had constant perpetuation because in the
movies he saw in Sing Sing, the shadow
city editor, Was a weak carbon copy of
what Chapin had been in the original
Chapin knew how to extract the last
ounce of interest from every hatchet kill-
ing; how to interpret the moans of be-
a og horrified distress of the
. Then i
pore SS he made news on his per-
He killed his wife. In their iv
suite in the best hotel in town. Kisced ber
and killed her—that was his story. He
walked the streets for hours picking u
every new edition of his own paper eo Ya d
told that the dragnet was out for him
Hour after weary hour of this until when
the last edition had been sent to bed, he
wandered into a polic i
€ stati -
rendered, coho
He got away with second d
‘ egree—twent
ine sg life—but he cut it cousiderabiy
pent parole, Now he plays in a radio
Lombroso, Bertillon and other students
ALL of us, I suppose, are obsessed with
a curiosity about killers. I have wit-
nessed some 16 trials,and have talked with
most of those whose fate I discussed in
my newspapers, but the riddle of the rash
- has ae evaded me.
recall—this also in a Broadway o:
car—four heavy set fellows tenderly Aa
ing a woman to her seat. They set them-:-
Passing scene, to tease her
ey of these brothers Rete Shemini
‘ 1 four subsequently were indicted and
ater I saw them playing handball to-
rp e the owt of the Death House.
all four subse
ond we iid at 7p aigag raed:
en there was my first murder cas
ant po first murder. He was a bewildered
head rom the South, a musician who had
igher ambitions, not for himself but for
his lovely bride. He had an invention
He took it to a promoter who gave
him a rollicking runaround. Then the
Southerner as a gesture of mastery
musician through the days of the trial. °
Chapin, through his wife, had i
quite a fortune. He wanted to ren ito
so he could get himself a yacht and rove
the Seven Seas. He was caught between
one of those slumps and, rather than hay-
ing his wife know that she would have
to relinquish her luxuries, he placed a
pistol to her head. She never knew.
It was touch and go for a while be-
tween him and the death chair but the
eign of his newspaper friends got him
: with a life sentence. Slowly and then
‘aster he faded into the gray pall of prison
life. One day Father Cashin found him
<— then nly Sespondent mood.
ather,” he admitted, “I was up.
= bibs of er shop Salter eect
was
think, Tid it yet” nt SAE
“Boss,” said Father Cashin, givi i
the title he loved because he erp ge
through his despotism, “I appreciate you
are too old for the manual labor the
could give you here. You ought to pod
yourself a hobby. Look, that reminds me
My mother is older than you. Yet I'm
going into town to get her gardening
tools, She is going to cultivate flowers.”
CHAPIN turned away. “I don’t know
a weed from an orchid,” he said.
Fathes Cashin came back with a kit of
ps and out of that grew a veritable
‘den in the Sing Sing yard. First there
bere flowers, then pools were added in
w ich swam rare fish, then birds. Chapin
Was regenerated. More than that, he was
oe correspondence with thousands of
son i
pot S anxious to promote his garden
One day I was there. W.
. We paused on th
eter ak a pool. He told me how Father
a had saved his life. I asked him
: this startling introduction of beauty
ad produced any beneficent results
yar i sfgern population.
ruthfully, or as an analy. z
. 7. ee are yst, I
say, ctl wht His arm swept a aend
ne yard in which the tho
bes Sisiee clustered, oe
ere are the scum of every si
sin
es world. There is no crime t oni
z ey have not or will not put their hand
i sven the opportunity. Yet, not one
peal ig degenerate, depraved and men-
7 ee men has bent a leaf or hurt
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105
“Shee
atest
story
a
to kill
3 wife,
sy the
work,
ax two
wer for an
ket full of
it, however
3sion alone.
land where
onds, ivory
eet tall and
exion dark,
ind person-
ig such tre-
r were ap-
squaintance
1 extremely
‘eck. Miss
but Waite
r mother to
atinued his
re engaged,
a brilliant
ed down in
“ork, where
rofession.
office in the
‘Until I de-
te Hospital,
is and den-
it whatever
rs are quite
ital surgery:
n! Murders
An authentic account of a porsoning mn
real life that ws as thrilling as fiction
“Suspicions aroused. Demand
autopsy. Examine body.”
It was this mysterious
message, signed ‘“K. Adams,” that —
set the undoing of Dr.
aite, the master poisoner.
$$
———
Every morning, sharp on the dot of 8, Waite kissed his
wife goodby and departed “for the office.” Occasionally in
the afternoons he would take her in their car to various |
hospitals, where he told her he was to operate. Leaving her
in the car, he would be gone a half hour or more.
Returning, he was not willing to drive on until he had told
her with the greatest detail of some operation he had just
performed. Sometimes it was to a private house he went
“to see a patient,” and there the stops might be longer. Once
he emerged to tell his wife, laughingly, that an elderly woman
had just expressed a desire to adopt him because of the relief
he had given her through a minor operation.
One day Waite mentioned that virtually every one of the
other doctors, with temporary offices in Bellevue Hospital,
had made some gift to the furnishing of a lounge room which
they shared. He wanted to do his share, he said, and Mrs.
Waite suggested that he take two oil paintings and a large
cut glass vase from their home. Later he brought back the
thanks of his fellow professionals to her.
Several times he told her he was called out of town and
was away from home overnight. On one of these occasions
she put into his traveling bag a pair of lavender silk pajamas
which she had made for a birthday gift to him.
Mrs. Waite returned to Grand Rapids to spend the Christ-
mas and New Year holidays, but Waite said he could not go.
When his wife returned, early in January, her mother ac-
companied her. Shortly afterward Mrs. Peck was taken ill.
On January 30 she died during the night, the discovery being
made by Mrs. Waite when she went to her mother’s room
_ early in the morning.
Dr, Waite, who had permitted the nurse to go home the
night before and volunteered to stay up and give Mrs. Peck
the medicine prescribed by a physician, Dr. A. A. Moore,
was sound asleep on a nearby couch.
Mrs. Peck’s body was taken to Detroit and cremated. The
ashes taken to Grand Rapids.
IHIREE months later, in March, aged John E. Peck was
invited to come to New York and visit his daughter and
son-in-law. He accepted. Dr. Waite made much of the old
man, and when he became ill was in almost constant attend-
ance at his bedside.
Dr. Moore, who had attended Mrs. Peck, was called and
found Peck suffering from violent nausea and attributed it
to a hearty meal of pea soup, oysters, steak, and baked pota-
toes he had eaten the night before.
Seven nights later, Mrs. Waite retired about 10:30 o’clock,
leaving her father dpparently at ease. At 1-o’clock she was
awakened by her husband. “s
His Inamorata
Mrs. Margaret Horton.
“Your father has had a very hard night, dear,”
he said gently. “You had better go in and see him.”
Something in his tone alarmed his wife. “Is he
gone?” she asked.
Dr. Waite put his arm around her. “Yes, he has
gone. He didn’t suffer at the end. He looks very
peaceful.”
Then Dr. Waite telephoned Dr. Moore.
“T can’t believe he is dead,” the physician said.
“Go back and feel his pulse and make sure.”
Waite came back to the telephone a few minutes
later. “There is no pulse,” he reported. “I am cer-
tain he is dead.”
Dr. Moore presently arrived at the house, ex-
amined the body and signed a certificate giving heart
failure as the cause of death.
That same day the Waites departed with the body
for Grand Rapids. Waite urged upon his wife and
61
wv nal opine maid or ee
bj
the Peek
n, learned
been made
Colosseum
Plaza. It
Walters”
receiving a
the day he
1 in Grand
ina coma,
apartment,
‘ Attorney
mysterious
» the Dis-
: ioning,
coman who
of chissie
an air of
ist. striking
lark brown
ucation and
it. she was
of Harry
wineer and
it 56 West
‘ity. Mrs.
was Mar-
as born in
vars before.
soula, Mon-
rphaned by
on and had
few months
\lpin Hotel
otel they
nddress.
ree, said
mid had sev-
Kk, and after
sony she had
nein Doctor
cd her sing
_better ac-
dome to ate
loot Lian
trict Attor-
ood) friends.
able pianist
un. He told
ree hospital,
ends on thre
Mrs. Horton
doctor Waite
peak French
ton told the
took a room
ced up as a
nd I studied
mnderful stu-
iliet together
! a Romeo as
rict Attorney
er friendship
roved it) and
r met in the
Iaza so hur-
er.
the respolise,
I. oT did not
o T deft and
dv She did
aite had) pre-
6" Mrs.
Ric's hectic
New York life was being unearthed, the
debonair young dentist: still lay in a coma
in his apartment, a detective at his bedside
and physicians watching closely. Tlis con-
dition pointed to an excessive dose of some
form of sleeping potion, administered cither
by his own or some other hand.
There were one hundred suits of clothes
in the dentist's wardrobe and the detectives
searched through the pockets of all of
them. Finally, in the pocket of a light-
weight overcoat, the detectives found sev-
cral small glass tubes, containing tablets,
which were turned over to chemists for
analysis. One tube contained five-grain
trional tablets and sulphanol tablets. There
also were tubes containing five-grain ver-
onal-sodium tablets, and attending physi-
cians declared their belief that these drugs
had been taken by or had been given in
large quantity to Doctor Waite.
HE investigation, both in New York
and Grand Rapids, was moving rapidly
while the District Attorney waited for
Doctor Waite to recover sufficiently to
stand questioning.
It will be remembered that after his
interview with Mrs. Waite in Grand
Rapids, Assistant District Attorney Man-
cuso had wired District Attorney Swann
to hunt Dora Hilliar, the colored girl who
had been discharged from the Waite house-
hold, And now Dora Hilliar had been
found. ‘This is the story she told the
District Attorney:
Two days before the death of Mr. Peck
—March 10th—Doctor Waite had gone to
the kitchen of the apartment, where she
was preparing food for a meal, and had
put some “medicine” in the soup intended
for Mr, Peek! "This is medicine for
father,” Doctor Waite said to her, ‘Paste
it and see if it is too hot, as 1 know his
mouth is sore.” Dora said she tasted the
soup, but did not notice any peculiar taste.
She put two other plates of soup, for
Doctor and Mrs. Waite, on a tray, and car-
ried the one for Mee Peck to the dining
room in her hand,
“But,” continued Dora, “Mr. Peck didn’t
eat his soup and a little later Doctor Waite
came back into the kitehen and said: ‘lather
didn't like his soup, se TT put some med
icine in his tea.’ ‘The doctor put the
medicine in the tea, but I don’t know
whether Mr. Peck drank it or not.”
There was one thing which appeared to
baffle the detectives. A minute inspection
of the Waite apartment had failed to re-
veal a single trace of arsenic. Under-
taker Potter had declared that no arsenic
had been used in embalming Peck’s body
and no record had been found of the pur-
chase of arsenic by anyone even remotely
under suspicion.
The District Attorney decided that the
source of the arsenic must be found, even
if it were necessary to comb every drug
store, retail and wholesale, in New York
City. Store after store they visited through-
out the neighborhood, examining the record
of poison sales in each.
Finally the widening circle reached cast
to Lexington Avenue and detectives walked
into the drug store of Doctor William I.
Timmermann. Doctor Timmermann got
out his records and his clerk, Robert C.
Schmadel, remembered a site of arsenic,
made on March Oth—and the record
showed that the purchaser had signed op-
posite the notation of the poison, as de-
True Detective Mysteries
manded by law, the name, “Doctor A. W.
Waite!”
The druggist and his clerk now recalled
the incident clearly. They had a telephone
call from Doctor Richard W. Muller,
whom they knew, saying Doctor Waite
had asked him to telephone to the drug
store, so he (Waite) would have no trouble
in obtaining poison with which he wanted
to kill a cat. Shortly afterward Doctor
Waite appeared and asked for arsenic.
The druggists had suggested that strych-
nine would be better for the “doctor’s”
purpose, but he had insisted upon arsenic
and the poison had been sold to him.
N Friday, March 24th, physicians
watching Doctor Waite notified Dis-
trict Attorney Swann that Waite had re-
covered sufliciently from his overdose of
drugs to be examined. In the morning he
had been able to talk for brief intervals
with Assistant District Attorney George
N. Brothers and Detective Cuniffe and his
condition had improved rapidly during the
day, The effects of *the drugs virtually
had worn off. This was two full days
after the dentist had cither taken the
drugs or had been drugged by some other
person.
It was late in the afternoon when Dis-
trict Attorney Swann, Mr. Brothers, De-
tective Cuniffe, private detective Raymond
Schindler and a stenographer entered Doc-
tor Waite’s bedroom, The handsome young
dentist Jay propped up in- bed, smiling,
chatting with another detective who had
stood guard over him while he lay un-
conscious.
“Come in, gentlemen,” Doctor Waite
called cordially, as the District Attorney
and his aides stood at the doorway. “What
can Todo for your”
“You can tell us what you know about
the murder of John E. Peck,” responded
Swann.
“Why, I don’t know anything about at.
I don’t believe Mr. Peek was murdered,”
sid Waite, in surprised tones, “Mr. Peck
died here, but he was an old man and _ his
death was due to natural causes.”
“Doctor Waite,” said the District Attor-
ney, “Mr. Peck was killed with arsenic
and we have your receipt for arsenic,
bought on Mareh 9th, Meree days before
Mr. Peck's death, You asked Doctor Mul-
ler to telephone to the druggist for you and
then you bought the arsenic. What have
you to say to explain that?”
The expression on Doctor Waite’s face
did not change by a flicker. His eyes met
those of the District Attorney without
flinching, as he calmly pulled the costly
bed linen closer to his shoulders.
“Come on, Doctor—what have you.to
say? ...”
What has the suave Doctor Waite to
say now? Is he innocent? Can he ex-
plain the damning evidence piled up
against him by the authorities? This
sensational case takes a surprising turn
and is solved only by a strange ironical
twist of Fate such as has never been
known before, Don’t miss the conclud-
ing instalment of this gripping story in
April TRUE DETECTIVE MYSTERIES
wherein the mysterious “K. Adams”
appears on the scene to aid the detectives
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Poison
Mystery
By P. L. TRUSSELL
The story so far:
OHN E. PECK, millionaire drug manufacturer of Grand
Rapids, Michigan, died at the Riverside Drive New York
apartment of his daughter, Mrs. Clara Peck Waite, wife of
Doctor Arthur Waite, a young dentist, in 1916.
On an earlier visit Mrs. Waite’s mother, Mrs. Hannah
Peck had died and her body returned to Grand: Rapids and
cremated. John Peck’s cremation was interrupted when
Percy Peck, son of the dead man, received a mysterious
telegram from New York advising him to demand an autopsy.
The identity of the sender was hidden in the signature “K.
Adams.” The subsequent autopsy disclosed traces of arsenic.
Doctor Waite’s movements attracted the suspicions of the
investigators and they learned that he telephoned a Mrs.
A. M. Walters at the Plaza Hotel, advising her to get out at
once. When the detectives arrived at the hotel she had
checked out.
64
The Great Riversipe Drive
he Sonya: ater 26%
is a even ate ISSO x
(Upper Right) School days! And happier days they were, for this photo shows the mys-
terious Doctor Waite as he appeared when attending the University of Michigan. Could
this innocent face have led one to believe its owner would one day become the central figure
in one of the most infamous crimes of the century? Years later, (above) he is shown being
carried from his Riverside Drive apartment on a stretcher, on his way to Bellevue—a
broken man—the grim shadow of the electric chair already looming over his wasted form!
“The ‘Man from
Egypt’— he MADE
me do it!” sobbed
the pale figure,
lying on the bed.
The detectives shook
their heads. With
ik
LATER
Assistant District Attorney
Mancuso on going to Grand
Rapids and having an autopsy
performed discovered that Mr.
Peck died of arsenic poisoning
given to him in his food.
The mysterious ‘‘Mrs. Wal-
ters’’ was located and identified, but she could throw no light
on the mysterious poisonings.
Detectives, acting upon Mancuso’s advises from Grand
Rapids, who went to the Waite apartment to arrest the
Doctor found him unconscious from an overdose of drugs.
Then, about the time Waite recovers sufficiently to be
questioned, it is learned that he purchased arsenic three
days before Peck's death. Confronted with this damning
evidence Waite is asked what he has to say.
The story continues:
Part THREE—CONCLUSION
“wr'LL tell you, but you won't believe me,’ Doctor Waite
| answered. ‘Mr. Peck was an old man and he was
very despondent because of the death of his wife. He
talked with me at some length about ending his life
and he insisted that I get poison (Continued on page 102)
e
IF 0
Pk
Princess P:
and refine
refreshing
ey
102
True Detective Mysteries
The Great Riverside Drive Poison Mystery
for him. I think he mentioned arsenic.”
At this point Doctor Waite paused medi-
tatively,
“Yes,” he resumed calmly, “He men-
tioned arsenic and I got it for him. It was
powdered and in a paper bag. And Mr,
Swann...”
Waite raised up from his pillows and
looked the District Attorney squarely in the
eyes.
“I gave the package to Mr. Peck un-
opened. I have no proof that he poisoned
himself, but if arsenic has been found in
his stomach, I guess he did. I told Doctor
Muller and the druggist that I wanted the
arsenic to kill a cat. I know you don't be-
lieve me. I guess,” he concluded with a
smile, “I’ll go to the electric chair, all
right.”
Waite was self-possessed throughout the
ordeal, and seeing the stenographer partly
hidden behind a large arm chair in the
room the dentist called to him:
“You don’t have to hide. Come on out,
take it all. I don’t mind.”
HEN, turning again to the District At-
torney, Doctor Waite said, still smil-
ing:
“I guess it’s the chair, all right. I’m
rather sorry I did not die from the drugs
I took to make me sleep. By the way,
how much did I take?”
“I don’t know,” responded the District
Attorney.
“Well,” said Waite, reflectively, “It was
an awful lot.” .
Doctor Waite denied that he was a drug
addict. He merely had taken the drugs the
previous Wednesday night, he said, be-
cause he had not been able to sleep for
several nights.
The dentist's smile left his face when
he was apprized of the story told by Dora
Hilliar, the discharged maid.
“Of course, I did not put poison into Mr.
Peck’s food,” he said. “Although I did
give Mr. Peck medicine which had been
prescribed by his physician in that way.”
He said he never had taken his wife into
his confidence after buying the poison for
Mr. Peck.
“My chief regret,” he said gravely, “is
that this will hurt her deeply. No one
knew about this but me—and nobody be-
lieves me.”
After the District Attorney and his men
had left the bedroom, Raymond Schindler,
the private detective, approached Doctor
Waite’s bedside and the two engaged in a
long conversation. Waite, not knowing that
Schindler had been on his trail, grew con-
fidential.
“IT did not kill Mr. Peck,” Waite said
earnestly. “The old man wanted to kill him-
self, and the girl, Dora Hilliar, probably
knew of it. Help me. Try to see Dora
and tell her I’ll give her a thousand dol-
lars if she will testify that she knows of
her own knowledge that Mr. Peck wanted
to end his life. I’ll give you a check for
the money.”
Schindler convinced Waite that he would
aid him in his plan and looked for a blank
check, but could not find one.
“T’'ll fix that,” said Waite eagerly, and on
a blank piece of paper the dentist wrote an
(Continued from page 64)
order on Spaulding, McLellan & Co.,
brokers, of 74 Broadway, for one thousand
dollars, payable to Dora Hilliar !
While the examination of Doctor Waite
was going on, detectives had located an-
other bit of evidence through conversations
with E. H. Williams, a tailor of 2811
Broadway, who had known Peck. Before
February 23rd, Williams said, Peck, a fre-
quent visitor to his shop, had seemed in
excellent health, but on that day he had
complained of severe stomach pains.
“Peck told me,” said Williams, “that
the previous night he had eaten some
pistachio ice cream in Doctor Waite's
apartment and believed he had suffered
plomaine poisoning from it. After that
Mr. Peck was in my place frequently and
always complained of feeling badly. He
became haggard. He hadn't seen doctors,
he said, because his son-in-law was treat-
ing him, but the treatment didn’t seem to
do much good.”
All this time the detectives had con-
Francis X. Mancuso who, as Assis-
tant District Attorney, was one of the
kingpins of the investigation into the
great Riverside Drive poison mystery
tinued the search for “K, Adams,” the
mysterious person whose telegram to Percy
Peck had brought about the investigation
which now had assumed myriad ramifica-
tions. Mancuso and his aides in Grand
Rapids had failed to find a trace of the
mystery woman, and the New York de-
tectives had struck a blind trail. It was be-
lieved that the name, “K. Adams,” signed
to the telegram form was a fictitious one,
for officials in the District Attorney’s of-
fice recalled that the alleged victim in the
Roland B. Molineux poison case was Mrs.
Katherine J. Adams.
Although Doctor Waite denied it vehe-
mently, the report had spread that the den-
tist had taken the overdose of drugs in an
effort to commit suicide upon suspecting
that he was being shadowed by detectives,
That report had reached Grand Rapids,
where Mancuso still was following leads
turned up earlier. Mancuso wired this
message to District Attorney Swann:
“Case nearly completed. Evidence
against defendant overwhelming. Suicide
theory ridiculous.”
Mancuso stayed on at Grand Rapids,
checking every possible movement and
activity in Doctor Waite’s carly life. He
also interviewed Mrs. Waite again, telling
her of Waite’s confession that he had
bought poison at Peck’s behest and had
given it to the old man.
“M* faith in Arthur is about gone,”
Mrs. Waite said, and she admitted
that her attitude toward him first had been
shaken by the knowledge that he had taken
a room in the Plaza Hotel with Mrs,.Hor-
ton and that previously, on a visit to
sethlechem, Pennsylvania, shortly before his
marriage, Waite had made violent love to
two girls there, denying his engagement to
the then Miss Peck,
It was on the night of Saturday, March
25th that Doctor Waite was taken from
his palatial bedroom in the Colosséum
Apartments by Doctor Harold E. Bates
and an ambulance crew to the Bellevue
Hospital prisoners’ ward. There he was
examined by Doctor Rufus T, Reid, who
declared Doctor Waite was suffering from
sulphonal and trional poisoning. Waite had
not deviated a whit from his story that
he had bought arsenic for Peck and had
given the poison to the aged man un-
opened,
But the net was closing closer around the
handsome young dentist daily. Letters were
produced and turned over to the District
Attorney, which Doctor Waite had written
to Archibald Morrison, an attorney of 140
Nassau Street, who had represented Waite
and Miss Catherine Peck in financial mat-
ters, In the first letter, written by Waite
te Morrison on February 1st,—two days
after the death of Mrs. Peck—Waite had
asked the lawyer what would become of
John E. Peck’s money, now that his wife
was dead and whether Peck possibly would
make another will. In the second letter to
the attorney, dated February 15th, Waite
had asked Morrison what would become of
the Peck fortune in the event of Mr. Peck’s
death. Waite justified the inquiries by say-
ing that Mr. Peck was aged and feeble.
ie was while he was in the prisoners’
ward in Bellevue, recovering from the
effects of the drug poisoning that Doctor
Waite amplified his confession relative to
his purchase of arsenic for Mr. Peck. De-
spite the secrecy surrounding the autopsy
performed on Peck’s body—the first
autopsy ordered by Percy Peck—Waite.
on his return to New York from. the
funeral, had learned that the presence of
arsenic in the body was suspected. He
felt that he would be involved, he said,
so he got in touch with the undertaker,
Potter, and learned that the mortician who
had prepared Peck’s body for burial lived
on West 57th Street, New York. (The
name of the mortician is being withheld
by True Detective Mysteris and he will
subsequently be referred to in this story
as Edgar C, Keller.) Waite, upon learn-
ing the name and address of the man, im-
mediately got in touch with him.
“I told Keller,” Waite said, “that if he
would swear, if questioned, that arsenic
had been one of the ingredients in embalm-
ing fluid used in Mr. Peck’s body, and
(Continued on page 104)
itts
Shrili
fr
ET Over o1
you needn
report for
in that y
these complaints,”
This was the ul)
of Detectives Cly
Pittsburgh police,
spring morning to |
ter and his partne
There was little
although Porter an
over on this assigi
six weeks and knew
goose chase so far
make it.
The first complai:
city missionary who
and lived on the blo
was supposed to be.
reported, by letter, a
half previous to the
several occasions, he
being beaten during
screamed “murder” ;
the last gasp, always
stopped and the cries
Following the firs
and his partner had |
case. The house was
cheap apartment, so
going in for “light
gas hotplates. The |
tectives had develope.
man who ran the pla
was any woman beate
had never heard ser.
A careful check-up ,
showed that they were
ple who were away a
seldom stayed up lat
of the neighbors had
ing. But .the missio
not only about the scr:
ings but he had hear:
every night, but with
—and sometimes not
usually about midnigh
N0OzopY had seen a
man going into or
other than the tenants.
tives measured the roo:
attic, sounded the walls
where, hunting for son
woman might be hidd
Purpose. That part of
Pittsburgh is a place
racketeer hangs out, T
men in the neighborhoo:
tective Porter was fa
might have been “stgo]s
them, he could get no in
had heard nothing the:
heard no rumor of any
Two weeks after the n
plaint, the owner of a
house in the Vicinity, whi
ing late at his office,
Police headquarters wh
104
would prepare a sample of embalming fluid
containing arsenic for the District Attor-
ney’s office, I would pay him nine thousand
dollars. I feared that I might be involved
in Mr. Peck’s death,” Waite explained.
“Keller,” the dentist continued, “agreed,
and the following morning I went to the
garage of Gustave Cimiotti, at 2906 Broad-
way, near One Hundred and Fifteenth
Street, and gave Cimiotti a check for nine
thousand, three hundred dollars, which I
asked him to cash at the University Branch
of the Corn Exchange Bank, next door to
his garage. Cimiotti cashed the cheek and
brought the money to me.
. “I then went in my car to a cigar store
on the south side of Fifty-ninth Street
near Ninth Avenue where, by appointment,
I met Keller. There are two telephone
booths in the store and I passed the money
to Keller in one of them. He went out one
door and L the other.”
Detective Cunifle, who had tailed Waite
at the time of the incident, confirmed a
part of Waite’s story. The. detectives in
the meantime had got on the trail of Keller.
At his home, Mrs. Keller said her husband
was out, but the detectives took samples
of embalming fluid in the house, and no
arsenic was found in them. Keller, learn-
ing that detectives were on his trail, sur-
rendered to District Attorney Swann and
admitted that he had received nine thousand
dollars from Doctor Waite, but denied that
he had agreed to any illegal suggestions
made by the dentist. Ile said Waite had
been extremely nervous and virtually had
forced the money on him, with a frantic
plea for Keller to aid him. -
Keller was frightened, he told Mr.
Swann, so he left his home with the money
in his pocket and had gone to a lighthouse
near Orient Point, Long Island, where he
had fisherman friends, and buried the money
there. Keller, who was accompanied to the
District Attorney’s office by his lawyer,
John J. Cunneen, of 11 Wall Street, said
that at the funeral he had been struck by
the coldness of Doctor Waite, who seemed
to be in a hurry to get the body to Grand
Rapids.
FTER Mancuso and detectives had
visited the Plowright undertaking
establishment and seized embalming fluid,
Keller said, he had told Potter that some-
thing must be wrong and that Potter had
better get his money for embalming the
body at once. Keller was sent to collect the
bill from Waite, he said, and at that time
Waite put him off, but asked whether ar-
senic was used in embalming fluid. Keller
then confirmed Waite’s story of the passing
of the nine thousand dollars in the cigar
store, much as it had been told by Doctor
Waite.
The sum of seventy-cight hundred dollars
of the amount received by Keller from
Waite was recovered later by Detective
Cuniffe, who went with Keller to the
desolate spot not far from Greenport,
Long Island. A solitary tree marked the
spot where Keller had buried the money.
Keller lifted up a bit of loose sod beneath
the tree and drew forth a tin can. In the
can was the seventy-eight hundred dollars.
What became of the rest of the nine thou-
sand dollars never was disclosed.
It was on March 27th—ten days after the
inquiry into John E. Peck’s death had been
True Detective Mysteries
(Continued from page 102)
started by Assistant District Attorney Man-
cuso—when the District Attorney’s office
learned that Doctor Waite had spent six
months in mysterious study which he had
carefully concealed from members of his
family and friends.
This study was concerned particularly
with the germs of virulent diseases,
Detectives following up the activities of
Doctor Waite since his advent into New
York City life, finally worked their way to
the Cornell University Medical School, at
First Avenue and Twenty-cighth Street,
New York City, and there, after some in-
quiry, learned that Doctor Waite, posing as
John S. Potter, the undertaker who
played an important part in the
solution of the Waite poison mystery
a physician doing research work with
virulent bacilli, had secured from the uni-
versity laboratory typhoid and diphtheria
bacilli on several occasions — between
December 17th, 1915, and March 8th, 1916.
And on one of the occasions on which
Doctor Waite had secured the deadly germs,
the laboratory attendents said, he had been
accompanied to the laboratory by a beau-
tiful woman, a woman of particular charm,
handsomely gowned and with a mass of
dark brown hair.
The description of the woman fitted al-
most absolutely that of Mrs. Horton—the
“Mrs. Walters”. who had been Doctor
Waite’s companion in the room at the
Hotel Plaza—and Mrs. Horton made an-
other trip to the District Attorney’s office,
where she said without reservation that
she had accompanied Doctor Waite to the
laboratory for the germs,
“Doctor Waite told me,” said Mrs. Hor-
ton, “that he was experimenting with
bacilli and he allowed me to watch them
wiggle under a microscope.”
At this time Mrs. Horton retained Har-
old Spielberg, of 346 Broadway, New York,
as her attorney, and asked for permission
to sce Doctor Waite. The District Attor-
ney refused to allow such a visit.
TIER the dramatic scene in the Dis-
trict Attorney's oflice when Mrs. Hor-
ton was identified as Doctor Waite’s
companion on a visit to the Cornell labora-
tory, William Webber, a laboratory
assistant, told Swann that Waite had taken
virulent bacilli from the laboratory on six
occasions,
“He represented himself as a licensed
physician,” Webber said, “and said he was
experimenting with the reaction of the
germs on cats. He always got the germs
after our closing hours, usually sitting in
the laboratory until after closing time.”
Webber believed Waite to be a recog-
nized physician and the dentist had won
his confidence completely.
The further investigation of the District
Attorney’s detectives revealed that Doctor
Waite had begun his study of disease germs
on September 17th, 1915, only eight days
after his marriage to Clara Peck, under
the direction of Doctor Louis Heitzmann,
of 110 West Seventy-eighth Street, upon
recommendation of Doctor Richard W.
Muller, who had accepted Waite’s word
that he was a registered physician par- ,
ticularly interested in research work.
And detectives who had been guarding
Doctor Waite’s apartment in the Colos-
seum, going over the evidence they had
seized in their many searches of the place,
produced a number of small glass plates,
found hidden among Doctor Waite’s ef-
fects. They were the same kind of plates
that are used by scientists in handling the
deadly germs they study in the interest of
humanity.
By this time Assistant District Attorney
Mancuso had returned from Grand Rapids
with a complete history of Waite, from
Waite’s early boyhood. It was not all
agreeable news for friends of the young
society figure and athlete. Mancuso
had evidence of Waite’s cheating in ex-
aminations while he was in dental school,
of his attempt to rush a wealthy girl into
a hasty. marriage while he was in South
Africa and of thefts from two employers.
It was on the same day that these
startling developments came—the revela-
tion of Waite’s stealthy study of germs and
his muddy past—that District Attorney
Swann, Assistant District Attorneys Man-
cuso and Brothers, and Walter B. Deuel,
retained as Waite’s attorney, walked into
the alcoholic ward of Bellevue Hospital,
to which Doctor Waite had been moved,
and again sat before the dentist.
The District Attorney was sternly sol-
emn; his subordinates grave.
“Doctor Waite,” said District Attorney
Swann, “was any other person besides your-
self, concerned in the poisoning of John
E. Peck?”
Doctor Waite looked first at the District
Attorney, then at Mr. Deuel, his lawyer.
a
His eyes gs
before him
those of the pros:
“Yes,” Waite
Eaypt!”
District Attort
stood astounded |;
“What man fr.
District Attorney
“The Little Ma:
nates me,” respor
was born in Egy;
has lived in the ;
incarnation was ij
me from there a
“Describe him,”
Attorney.
“T never saw hi
amazing response,
but he had been y
this influence and |
off, but he had s
making me do as |
“I feel now that
added Waite, “dran
has made me do t!
to leave me last ;
turned today, But, a
him and sometimes
alone, so I could st
Doctor Waite,
revelations which
used the first pers:
“better self” and the
ing of his “evil nai
this,” and “He did
described “He” as °|
To his brother, Fra;
Hull Street, the Bri
the room, Doctor \
“He made me do hot
from Egypt.”
“Well, what did ¢/
make you do?”
ney Swann, :
“T lied when I told
the arsenic,” Waite
did not ask me for poi
Eqvpt made me give «
Peck and she died, He
to Mr, Pech and whe
Doctor Waite (looking
asked them to wait while he went in-
side to see a patient or perform an
operation. Then he would enter the
hospital, wander around the corridors
for a reasonable length of time, and
return to the car with another story
of a surgical triumph.
Coolly, impersonally, Dr. Waite
confessed that he had not only poi-
soned Mr. Peck, but had also mur-
dered Mrs. Peck. He had even tried
to kill the aunt who had given him
and his bride a $6,000 wedding present
check.
He was planning eventually to
cause the death of his own wife!
The motive, he said calmly, was to
gain possession of the $50 ,000 be-
quest left to his young wife in John
Peck’s will.
Bu even more shocking than his
cold-blooded admission of mur-
dering the elderly Mr. and Mrs. Peck
was the method he had devised to
carry out his diabolical plot. Arthur
Waite had succeeded in killing his
mother-in-law, and had planned to
kill the others by infecting them with
germ cultures of the: worst diseases
Percy S. Peck, son of the victims, aided police
in every way in the solution of the enigma.
known to man—tetanus, pneumonia,
typhus, tuberculosis, diphtheria, strep-
tococcus, cholera and many others!
He succeeded, he said, with death-
producing germs injected into Mrs.
Peck’s frail body. But Mr. Peck was
a strong man. He fought off typhoid,
diphtheria and pneumonia germs
which his son-in-law gave him in an
atomizer.
Dr. Waite had given the aging man
overdoses of calomel. He had damp-
ened the old man’s bed clothes in an
effort to induce pneumonia. Once,
he admitted, he had placed a chemi-
cal compound in Mr. Peck’s bedroom
in the hope that it would emit a
deadly gas, but that plan, like all the
others, had failed.
And so, Dr. Waite concluded, he
procured 90 grains of arsenic and
doctored the aged man’s food with it.
Just to make assurance doubly sure,
he had pressed a chloroform gag over
Mr. Peck’s face just before he died.
If Dr. Arthur Warren Waite nur-
tured any hopes that his gruesome
confession would gain him leniency
on the grounds of admitted moral im-
becility, he was doomed to disap-
50
COMPLETE DETECTIVE CASES
pointment. May 27, 1916, after
deliberating for one hour and 25
minutes, the jury on the first ballot
found him guilty of first degree
murder.
The night of May 24, 1917, the man
who had betrayed every bond of love
and devotion, whose conscienceless
brain had conceived a plot almost too
horrible to believe, sat down in the
electric chair at Sing Sing prison and
paid in seared flesh for his monstrous
crime against society.
THE END
FT. WAYNE
SLAYER
(Continued from page 21)
pelrch ies ‘or checking. The two ser-
geants, like tenacious bulldogs, had
found one of Miss Girton’s girl friends
who knew all about the wanted youth.
“That must be Fred Johnson,” said
the girl. “All the girls that know him
like him lots, but he’s never had any
use for them except Alice May. They
loved each other.”
Smith and Kammeyer smiled
grimly. They asked if she knew
which place the couple frequented.
She told them. Ten minutes later
they entered the establishment and
sat down at a table which would con-
trol a view of. the door.
It was late in the evening. The two
men were about to give the watch up
as a hopeless task and resort to police
broadcast to pick up the wanted man.
Then a dark-skinned, handsome youth
came through the doorway. There
was a troubled frown on his face. He
looked about uncertainly. His glance
slid across the forms of the two
sergeants, but no light of recognition
was in his eyes. At the table, Kam-
meyer nudged his companion and
arose.
“That’s our man,” he said quietly.
“Come on.”
The two men strode over to the
youth. He looked up at them.
“You Fred Johnson?” demanded
Smith.
“That’s right,” answered the youth.
“Who are you?”
“Police,” said Smith. “We've been
looking for you for a long time, kid.
Come along with us to headquarters.”
“But what for?” demanded Johnson,
now thoroughly frightened. “I haven’t
done anything wrong!”
“We'll see,” announced Smith,
grasping the youth by the arm.
“Meanwhile, come along: with us.
We've got a lot to tell you!”
He was placed in the squad car
where he remained defiant and silent
until the trio had reached Police
Headquarters. He remained thus un-
til he was seated in the Detective
Bureau where he was confronted by
Captain Taylor. He stared at the
small group of grim-faced officers.
His lips began to tremble.
“All right!” he said suddenly,
“what’s all this Biysteny about? Why
have I been dragged down here like
a criminal?”
“Take it easy, son,” said Taylor
lifting his hand. “We just want to
hear your story. What’s your alibi?”
“Story? Alibi?” The youth seemed
thoroughly amazed and bewildered.
“T don’t know any story!”
“Do you mean to tell me that you
don’t know Alice May Girton_has
been murdered?” roared Captain Tay-
lor. “You were out with her last
night, weren’t you?” . ‘
“Alice? Dead!” The words fairly
shrieked from Johnson’s mouth. “Oh,
no! You fellows are fooling me!”
“We never fool with serious mat-
ters like this,” answered Taylor as he
slid a copy of an evening paper across
the desk. ‘Read those headlines.”
There was deadly silence as John-
son read the black headlines and the
story beneath in heavy type.
“Tt couldn’t be,” he murmured.
“Why, I was with her until three
o’clock this morning.”
An audible sigh escaped from the
lips of the officers. Here was a frank
admission that the girl’s last com-
panion, to their knowledge, was the
man now before them.
“Are you positive that you left at
three o’clock?” asked Taylor softly.
“I want you to be sure of everything
you say, because you’re the one we’ve
wanted for questioning concerning
this crime.”
“I didn’t kill her,” protested John-
son. “Sure; I left her room at that
time—maybe it was a few minutes
before or after three. [I’m not sure
of the exact time.”
“And what did you do all evening?”
“Well, we went out for a walk real
early. Then we went to a movie and,
afterwards, we walked over to the
place where these two men found me.
Riv had a glass of beer and came on
ome.”
“ “How much did you have to drink
there?” demanded Kammeyer.
“Just a glass of beer each,” insisted
Johnson. “Well, we came on home.
It was about midnight. Alice—Miss
Girton—told me I could come up for
a while, and we sat out on the porch
in the swing. Then it began to get
chilly, and we went inside where we
danced and talked about her home
and her ambitions. Just a short while
before going home, I picked up a pil-
low and threw it at her. She threw
one at me. We kept this up for a
couple of minutes. After that, I went
home. I was supposed to meet her
tonight at the beer garden.”
Captain Taylor looked at his men
and read the same question. For
Dr. Rhamy had said previously that
a pillow was probably used by the
slayer to muffle the girl’s first cries
of alarm! He turned and addressed
the suspect.
_“She’s lying on a slab in the morgue
right now, cold and stiff in death. Her
parents are going to be a sad sight
when they see her. I think you bet-
ter tell us what you know.”
“But I don’t know anything about
it!” cried Johnson. “Do you think I
would, have gone to that beer parlor
if I had committed this deed? If I’d
killed Alice, I wouldn’t be here right
now! I would be far away!”
The men continued to hammer
Johnson with questions, always in-
sisting that he might have a theory
or a clew as to who the slayer really
was. But the suspect steadfastly
maintained that Alice was well liked
by everyone he knew and who knew
her. He became a cold, calculating
young man, on his defense at all
times. It was at this time, while his
head was clear, that he remembered
something.
“Wait!” he said sharply, interrupt-
ing a question from Captain Taylor.
“Maybe thi:
we first w
other man’:
is—was aje
didn’t want
went back
we came !
hallway ar
open again
it pretty lc
so noisy.”
“Why dic
Captain Tz
“She saic
wanted to
son. “She
too much,
way to avc
something
liked.”
This was
Two logice
admit that
with the de
girl, havir
questionab
down. W
strange Fa
and Johnsc
pects unti)
portunity
the police
* And wh:
slightly to
phers, Joh
to knock
even jerk
to prevent
FTER *
inac
eral detec‘
to the Det
him agai:
varied. H
the same
told the o
the papers
his girl-fr
Meanwh
the police
son’s conc
that he h
Ohio on a
that he ha
served six
minor crin
plausible 1
gone all ¢
the girl’s «
to be ques'
tragedy in
woven, at
was placed
set at five
But the
cold for |
suspects \
stories we
tradiction.
Miller wh
alone.
Suspicio
to Miller.
Taylor cai
meyer int
“Either
something
“but the »
trap them
I don’t k
other is g
two do.
“About
ler’s room
asleep. 7
him dow:
Don’t giv
around af
have to, «
here. Th:
| 30
FEW DOCTORS EVER ATTEMPT TO TAKE A LIFE, BUT
THOSE WHO DO PROVE THEY HAVE NO KNACK FOR IT
mw Dr. Jean Thevin was, in many re-
spects, a most efficient physician. At the
age of 45, he was a well-to-do doctor in
a suburb of Lyons, France. Happily
married and with three children, he
might well have finished out a career
there as a model of respectability. He
had only one flaw. He secretly strained
at the bonds of his own respectability
and envied the man who had mastered
the art of playing fast and loose. Un-
fortunately it was the lot of Alphonse
Martin to fall ill and need the services
of Dr. Thevin.
Martin, a well-to-do horse trader
about Thevin’s age who ‘ad married
for money and looked upon fidelity to
his wife as something to which only lip
service need be paid, was the epitome
of everything Dr. Thevin envied.
Martin was told by the doctor that
he would require weekly visits. Eventu-
ally the pair became well-acquainted
and Martin revealed some of the se-
crets of his love life. He even explained
how he financed his philandering. He
simply did not inform his wife of an
occasional important deal.
One day Martin came to the doctor’s
office after his regular time, and ex-
plained that he was late because he had
been closing a big deal, involving a few
carloads of horses.
“And I was paid in cash, too,” he
said. “I don’t like to keep so much
money on me, but it is too late now to
go to the bank.” He pointed to the
_ bulging wallet in his coat.
A thought that had been passing
through Dr. Thevin’s mind for some
time now registered again. He pressed
a button on his desk and told his nurse
who answered: “You have been work-
ing hard all day, and I have been think-
ing lately that you need a little fresh
air. There won’t be any other patients
tonight, so you don’t have to return
until tomorrow.”
The doctor talked idly to Martin until
the nurse had left. Then he said, “To-
day I shall not give you one of the
usual shots. There is a new medicine
which it is claimed works wonders.
We'll have a try with that.”
Thevin loaded a syringe with a crystal
liquid and injected into Martin’s vein.
The horse trader shut his eyes because
he didn’t like the jab of the needle. He
never reopened them. He had been
given a murderous dose of cyanide.
There was a brief convulsion, a small
groan, and Martin died right where he
sat.
The physician took his victim’s wallet
and found it contained far more than
he expected. But what was he going to
do about the body? He decided not to
worry about that at present Tempo-
rarily he stuffed it in a closet in his
waiting room and locked the door.
Then Dr. Thevin, the prude and self-
appointed judge of others, went wild.
He became far more of a rogue than
his victim had been. That night he took
the first of a string of fancy women
that were to become his steady diet.
-The next morning when his nurse
tried to open the closet door, she found
it locked. The doctor explained that he
was keeping some important material
in the closet and that she should hang
her coat elsewhere.
Within a few days, an unpleasant
odor became noticeable in the waiting
room. Still, Dr. Thevin did nothing
about removing the body. By the time
the odor was strong enough to bring
complaints from patients, Thevin sug-
gested perhaps a rat or some other ani-
mal had died under the floor and he
instructed his nurse to spray the wait-
ing room.
HAT helped, but only for a while.
Soon the odor was exceedingly bad
and the nurse traced the offensive smell
to the closet and suspected something
horrible had to be inside. She passed
along her suspicions to a neighbor who
picked the lock while Dr. Thevin was
out, When he opened the door, the
swollen and half-putrefied body of Al-
phonse Martin fell out.
Dr. Thevin was arrested and he
promptly confessed. Eventually he was
sentenced to life imprisonment. The
most puzzling thing about the case was
why he had done nothing about dis-
posing of the body. An expert at anat-
omy, surely he could have done a mas-
by CARL SIFAKIS
terful job at it. Dr. Thevin, himself,
could offer no explanation. x
Actually Thevin’s bungling is in
keeping with the history of doctor slay-
ers and serves to substantiate the brief
that medical men make poor murderers,
rarely killing with any of the finesse
their training would indicate.
Dr. Sam Sheppard’s story was that he
had fallen asleep on the living room
sofa. Some time before daylight, he was
awakened by what he thought was a
scream by his wife. He dashed upstairs
and saw a man in the bedroom “work-
ing Marilyn over.”
Then, he said, a terrific blow on the
back of the neck knocked him uncon-
scious. When he came to in the hall-
way, he struggled to his feet, he said,
and went in to feel for his wife’s pulse,
and then heard a noise downstairs. He
went down to the living room and
caught a glimpse of a man fleeing across
the porch and out onto the lawn. Dr.
Sam said he pursued the man to the
edge of the cliff above the beach, grap-
pled with him there, then plunged down
the steps when the fellow broke loose,
and tackled him at the water’s edge.
Dr. Sheppard said he was again beat-
en into unconsciousness, and awakened,
how much later he couldn’t say, lying
in the water at the shore’s edge.
Sheppard said he staggered back to
the house and found his wife dead, and
then blacked out again. It was a story
laced with holes. There was no sign of
a struggle in the bedroom where Mrs.
Sheppard died; there had been no noise
from the family pet, a part Irish setter
dog. There was some ransacking of
desks but police found it hard to believe
a housebreaker would devote much
time to a desk that was only ten feet
away from the sofa on which its owner
slept. There were too many small de-
tails that made the suspect's claims pre-
posterous.
There was much speculation about
Sheppard's guilt, but one reason many
persons thought him innocent was that
a brilliant man such as the doctor,
would have come up with a better mur-
der plan than that. Nor did Dr. Bernard
Finch show the finesse that could be
expected from one with his skills. Much
was made in the newspapers of the
“murder kit” Finch carried when he
went to his home on the night of July
18, 1959. Finch well may have gone
there with a careful plan of murder, But
what did he do? He proceeded to as-
sault his wife (Continued on page 52)
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52
Robert P. Fullerton told me of my rights, that
I was entitled to have a lawyer. I was sur-
prised. A lawyer would help a lot and I
told the judge I would welcome an attorney.
Judge Fullerton nodded. He appointed For-
est E. Clark Jr. to represent me.
Clark and I went over my record together.
In my ten years of freedom, I had made a
good living for my wife and family; I had
gone as straight and been as honest as any
man possibly could. And wasn’t that sup-
posed to be the purpose of prison, to rehabili-
tate a man to the point where he could be-
come a useful, working member of society?
The way Clark and I looked at it, I was
walking proof of rehabilitation.
Judge Fullerton allowed me to go free on
$2500 bond.
I expected people ‘to shun me when I
came out of jail, but I was due. for a sur-
prise. The sand and gravel company wel-
comed me back as a driver with open arms.
Neighbors wanted to know if there were any-
thing they could do to help. Strangers, rec-
ognizing my name from storics in the papers,
shook my hand and wished me luck.
It was a great feeling, knowing I wasn’t
alone.
Clark and I will fight the case, all right.
With ten years of honesty and }ird work
behind me,.we think we have a geod chance
of winning. Only time will tei That, though.
Right now, I’m making arrangements to
have my name changed to George King.
Changed legally, that_is. This time I really
want to bury Al Gunsell—forever. a
THE DEVIL DOCTORS continued from
clumsily and artlessly and in front of a wit-
ness |
It was the late Sir Bernard Spilsbury,
called the greatest medical detective of the
century, who once observed that doctors
make poor murderers. “They do not have
the knack of it,” he declared. “Any scheme
they may perfect is either so involved that
suspicion in the end must point only to them
or else they ‘pull it off? well only to founder
on some trivia that no ordinary criminal
would overlook.”
Beck Ruxton, an English doctor who mur-
dered both his wife and the 20-year-old nurse-
maid for his children, is a case in point of
the latter type.: There were rumors that Dr.
Ruxton had an amorous interest in the nurse-
maid. When she and the doctor’s wife sud-
denly disappeared, tongues in Lancaster start-
ed wagging.
Dr. Ruxton, at various times, explained
their absence by saying that they had gone
on holiday to Scotland, that they’d gone to
Blackpool, that Mrs. Ruxton had gone to
London, that she had gone off with another
man, and that’ the nursemaid was pregnant
and Mrs, Ruxton might have taken her away
with the idea of procuring an illegal operation.
The stories were too glib and too varied.
People got it into their head that the ravine
below the bridge of Gardenholme Linn was,
more than likely, the destination for the two
females.
Then one day two bodies indeed were
found there and suspicion centered strongly on
Ruxton. The next day, however, Dr. Ruxton
was delighted to read in the papers that the
human remains had been identified as those
of a man and a@ woman,
“You see,” he said triumphantly to the
charwoman, “it is a man and a woman; it is
not our two at all.”
Clearly, Dr. Ruxton had put his surgical
skills to good use to thus disguise his victims,
but his plan had not been perfect enough. Pre-
occupied with the medical detail of the mur-
ders, he left behind at the burial scene a
blouse that could be identified as belonging
to the nursemaid and the strips of sheeting
used to wrap up some dismembered parts of
the body were found to be from the same
loom as sheeting taken from Mrs. Ruxton’s
bed.
That set the police to checking further on
the two dismembered bodies. Scientists from
the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow
went through a systematic reconstruction and
examination of the bodies, and, in spite of
the care that had been taken to efface every
evidence, the true identity of the victims was
established in what is considered a classic
achievement of forensic medicine. Ruxton
was hanged.
page 31
Another medical monster, Arthur Warren
Waite, must be credited as one of the world’s
most persistent murderers. Dr. Waite was an
exceptionally handsome man of 29, tall, ath-
letic, debonair. He had made a considerable
dent in the life of New York’s Upper West
Side after only ‘six months in the city. An
expert tennis player, he won several tourna-
ments and several well-known tennis buffs
considered him to be the best player on the.
local courts.
While Dr. Waite was socially involved, he
also was devoting a good deal of attention
- to the matter of making himself a million-
aire. That promised to be a reasonably simple
matter. All he had to do was to wipe out his
wife’s family. His wife was the only daughter
of a wealthy drug manufacturer of Grand
Rapids, Mich. If Dr. Waite could hasten her
parents’ departure from this life, his wife
would inherit a lot of money. And if he
could also dispatch his brother-in-law and a
few aunts, Waite really. would be rolling in
wealth.
Dr. Waite went at his self-assigned tasks
with the devotion of a dedicated man.
He took his mother-in-law for a drive with
the windshield open in a pouring rain so as
to bring on pneumonia. He put ground glass
in her marmalade. He sprayed her throat with
germs of typhoid, influenza, anthrax, diph-
theria, streptococcus and tuberculosis.
He worked on his father-in-law by filling
the old man’s rubbers with water, dampening
the sheets in which he lay, opening a contain-
er of chlorine gas in his bedroom while he
slept, and feeding him on burned flypaper
and veronal. As a topper he fed his victim
enough arsenic to kill off a dozen horses.
Eventually, the’ authorities caught up with
Waite. He may have committed his murders
with certain medical skills, but he hadn’t the
sense to act like an innocent man. Just hours
after his father-in-law died under his minis-
trations, Waite couldn’t resist celebrating with
his paramour. He was seen. by a casual ac-
quaintance of the family who thought it was
callous of him to be carrying on so shame-
lessly with his father-in-law’s body not even
- cold. The woman wrote an anonymous letter
to the authorities suggesting they look more
closely into the death. Such inspection revealed
Waite’s talents as a slayer and he burned
in the electric chair at Sing Sing, the victim
of his own careless inattention to detail.
Equally as careless after performing a
job of murder was a New York doctor named
Buchanan. Buchanan married his wife solely
for her money and learned too late that she
intended to keep a tight grip on it. She actu-
ally believed that her husband should sup-
port her from the revenues from his practice.
Dr. Buchanan fed her a lethal portion of
morphine to settle that argument. It was as
near a perfect murder as one could be. There
was no reason for any suspicions by the law.
First of all, when his wife became “ill,” Dr.
Buchanan promptly called in not one but
two other physicians to treat her. Both of
them were with her when she died. Clearly,
the doctors had no reason to view the wom-
an’s death as anything other than apoplexy
which had resulted from cerebral hemorrhage.
Dr. Buchanan had found a sure way to fool
his colleagues.
His plan, in essence, was quite simple.
Apoplexy and morphine poisoning produce
similar symptoms except for one major dif-
ference. In apoplexy there is no change in the
pupils of the eyes while in morphine poison-
ing the pupils contract greatly. The doctors
were certain their: patient had not been
poisoned because her pupils did not contract.
Buchanan had managed that neat bit of
medical hocus-pocus with atropine which is
used by, eye doctors to make the pupils di-
late or enlarge. Buchanan simply gave his
wife both morphine and atropine at the
same time. They counteracted the other,
leaving the pupils perfectly normal.
Dr. Buchanan had pulled off the perfect
murder. Unfortunately, he, too, had a fatal
weakness that did him in. He was a notorious
elbow-bender and spent most of his spare
time at the corner saloon impressing the boys
with his knowledge. One evening the con-
versation got around to a current murder case
in which the husband foolishly isc tried to kill
his wife with morphine.
Everyone knew that morphine was a poor
killer because it was so easily detected. Dr.
Buchanan let out a drunken cackle at that
one. He babbled on about how a smart man
could pull off such a murder and, when
pressed as to what he would do, he merely
winked knowingly and said, “Just take my
word for it. A really bright person like myself
could find a way.”
Unfortunately for Buchanan a report of
his drunken statements got back to the ‘dis-
trict attorney’s office and it was decided to
exhume the doctor’s wife just to make sure.
Dr. Buchanans’ perfect murder was destroyed
by his own babbling tongue. He went to
the chair. :
In all of the above cases, the murders were
designed for a specific purpose asd usually
claimed but one victim. Not so with the no-
torious French monster, Henry John Felix
arcel Petiot who became a doctor just to
get a thrill from seeing people suffet.
During World War II Dr. Pet:ot-racked up
more murders than did the oahci two top
Bluebeards of all time, his felicw ‘Frenchmen
Gilles de Retz and Henri Desire Landru. Dr.
Petiot ran up a score of over 10) scurders in
a scant two years and he did i: with the
consummate skill of a dedicated sa‘ist.
seg tl ein tine pehitte e MEE AO NAER
aa
‘hidy
Dr. Petiot fed on human misery and could
indeed have taught a few things about cruel-
ty to the Nazis who were occupying his
country.
In the Paris of 1941 there were a great
many refugee Jews as well as wealthy French-
men on whom the Gestapo had its eyes.
These people all wanted to escape from
France. Petiot began’ calling on these fear-
ridden men and their families. He asked them
if they would like, for a price, to get out of
France on an underground railway. Natural-
ly, the idea was met with enthusiasm. “Very
well,” the good doctor said. “Just stay where
you are until I contact you.”
Petiot then roared around Paris on his
motorcycle, looking for a house that would
provide the privacy and the special accommo-
dations he would need for what he had in
mind. He finally found a vacant villa that
answered his purpose. This villa was to be
the first stop on Petiot’s underground rail-
way. It also was to be the last. None of his
clients ever were to be seen alive again after
having entered there.
When he bought the place he explained he
intended to convert it into a sanitarium for
mentally disturbed persons. Petiot had a fake
door placed in a windowless triangular-shaped
room in the rear of the house, made both
soundproof and airtight. A peephole would
give a view from another room. Through the
peephole Petiot could watch his hapless vic-
tims growing short of breath and dying slow-
ly all the while trying frantically to get out
of the room through the false door.
When French police eventually broke into
the villa they found two furnaces stuffed with
the remains of human legs, arms, torsos and
heads. They raised a concrete slab in the ga-
rage and found a mass grave of bodies in
quicklime.
Eventually, Dr. Petiot was captured and his
head sliced into a basket in May, 1945.
The annals of crime have their share of
women killers, too, disguised as angels of
mercy; women trained to give comfort and
aid to the ailing, but who show an utter dis-
regard for human life. Take, for instance, the
Swedish nurse in Stockholm who worked in
an old age home. It was discovered recently
that on two separate occasions she had smoth-
ered a patient to death because she had erred
in her bed count and come up with one more
patient than her figures showed. The poor
woman had to kill somebody to make the
book balance, did she not?
§ roe most infamous of all woman killers
was Nurse Jane Toppan who dispatched
roughly 100 of her patients during her life-
time as a nurse in Lowell, Mass. Doctors
there recognized her as the community’s finest
and most capable nurse. It turned out she
was all too capable, she poisoned patients left,
right and center just to watch them suffer.
First she would help build up the patient
so that the doctor would be encouraged. Then,
once the physician stopped making regular
visits, she would sit at the bedside of her
charge with her own poison brew in her
hands. She would feed a little to the patient,
each day increasing the dosage. The patient’s
breath would grow short and painful, his
body would be seized with convulsions, then
‘become lax, then chill and then again go into
convulsions. As the climax approached and
the patient neared death, Jane would become
more and more excited.
“I can’t quite describe the sensation,” she
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said at her trial. “I wanted to laugh. I would
kiss the patient . . . simply because I was
happy. I remember kissing Edith. (Edith was
her step-sister who had encouraged Jane
Toppan to become a nurse.) I remember Edith
still thought that I was trying to save her. If it
hadn’t been for her, I never would have been
a nurse . .. and now I was paying her back.”
“Paying her back, Miss Toppan?” a ques-
tioner asked in bewilderment. “What do
you mean by ‘paying her back?’”
The answer was: “I don’t know. She had
been very kind to me.”
How many persons fell victim to Jane
Toppan’s fatal ministrations during the 18
years before she was apprehended no one
knew. Not even she, was sure. “In the be-
ginning, I was a novice. And of course I didn’t
kill everyone. I was a very fine nurse and
every doctor in Lowell will tell you so. It
was only the patients who were particularly
kind to me, the ones I liked, that I poisoned.
But at first, I couldn’t tell whether they might
not have died of natural causes. But there
were at least a hundred I did kill.”
In all, 31 deaths were verified by the state
by exhumation. In other instances, relatives
of the deceased refused to allow bodies to be
dug up.
Jane died in an asylum in Taunton, Mass.,
in 1938, a jury having found her insane, a
verdict that no doubt must have been a
comfort to all of her victims.
Sir Bernard Spilsbury was right. Few doc-
tors ever outrage the vow to which they are
pledged, the preservation of human life. And
those few who do, make poor murderers. They
do not, as Spilsbury remarked, have the
knack of it. One who came close was Dr.
Robert George Clements, who, in the sum-
mer of 1947, was mourning the loss of his
fourth wife. There was no reason to doubt
that the fourth Mrs. Clements had died from
anything other than natural cause. It was
Dr. Clements, himself, who suggsted that an-
other doctor perform the post-mortem. This
was done, with negative results.
Funeral arrangements were made, but, at
the last moment, Scotland Yard received a
letter from a woman doctor who was well
acquainted with Clements and who suggested
that the death of his latest wife might bear
further police. investigation. Initial tests were
run off, but revealed nothing out of line. As
the investigation continued, however, detailed
laboratory analysis of a piece of spinal cord
weighing less than an ounce showed a pinhead
fragment one-sixteen-thousandth of an inch
that had been injected with deadly poison.
Dr. Clement had performed his murder with
a skill that reflected credit on his training,
but he did not live to remark the dubious
plaudits or deserved censure of his profes-
sion.
The moment he heard extensive investiga-
tion into his fourth wife’s death was under-
way, he took his own life. The gesture was
accepted as an admission’ of guilt, but the
suspicion that three previous wives—all
wealthy, all dead, all cremated—might also
have been dispatched in similar manner, though
there now could be no proof, lent strength to
the theory that Dr. Clements may have been
the most efficient devil doctor of all time.
naetieetanetenianianil
)
- py HOWARD SILBAR é
fociety pageant. Fountain Street Baptist
hocial gentility, was banked with flowers for t
John Peck had turned their home over to the leading
ought in his best china, his sterling flatware |
feserved for such regal occasions. The table was
isut-glass punch bowl, and the guests
dividual spun-sugar nests, each
apes of bunches of grapes.
| © Clara Louise Peck was truly as beautiful a bride
ty hur Warren Waite stood tall and handsome a
Hannah Peck beamed, and Warren and Jennie Wait
of their son who ha
Who understands when a
apparent promise, success,
\
BS
ey
In the <ase of Arthur Waite, it was: from downtown out ‘of the Grand River
Epobably the age-old story of the haves’*: Valley. :
Syersus the have-nots. When he added up Jennie Waite gave birth to Arthur in
to what he felt he didn’t have as against “ 1886, The new. baby, full name of Arthur *
“what he felt should belong to him, nothing Warren (after his father) apparently eas-
Upparently was going to stop him. As he~_ ily survived the hazards faced by young
Aendishly moved from murdering his children of that time, went to school, *
Pwife's mother (virulent bacilli) and his grew into a handsome teenager, and
wife's father (arsenic), he went to work ‘graduated from Grand Rapids High-
School in the Class of °05.
oa i oA aunt (ground glass), and was mak- -
Bf ee eT , e 3 ans to dispose of his wife. Arthur Warren W. Waite, the father, provide
on Arthur's ‘death pare lived to appear at dy trial. At right is Elizabeth PYait would be the only survivor and the for his family of wife and three sons by
e female intuition broke the case wide open. x. BS tothe Peck estate. selling fruit and vegetables. y
- Retrospect points the reader to focus It’s not determined when Arthur Waite
@n John Peck's million dollars, which he . first became eware of Clara Peck.
“had amassed as a druggist and manufac- Michigan Stree: Hill near their home was
turing pharmacist in Grand Rapids. The
day that Arthur Waite decided to become
tis son-in-law so that the money could be *
} his is the crux of the story about one of the
“most calculated and motivated crimes in
Day earlier 20th Century. .
) Arthur Waite, however, wasn’t exactly
‘Ahave-not. He lived with his parents and
his brothers in a modest neighborhood
‘nown as the Hill District in Grand
Rapids, just off the top of the steep,
half-mile Michigan Hill which leads up
BERTI NE ae oar eee
Clara Waite (left), who was
Hardwicke, whos
+ Shamed, two-timed and in deep
/*. mourning for her father and
} ; mother, Clara Peck Waite was in
~ Mortal danger as her husband
A can pursued his poisoning career.
“eth
oh i ll
ithad beena long time since Grand Rapids, Michigan,
Church, headquarters of the town’s ©
he ceremony. Mr. and Mrs.
and the embossed linen
were duly impressed when served with
holding tinted ice cream moulded in
s her groom. John and
e were justifiably proud
d such a bright and prosperous future ahead of him.
* Who knows at what point in time this happy scene began to fall apart?
human personality changes from such a scene of
and well-being to a tangled web of greed and
sunning which could turn a man into a homicidal maniac?
* tobogganer’s dream in the winter. Quite€> ‘ae
often a bobsled loaded with young peoplegs i i i
had seen sucha high i:
‘
‘
”
caterer in the city, who
graced with a two-tier
as money could create.
widely known as the bane of the horse-FY¥ i il
drawn street cars in the summer, and as a€) i it
would get such a start that it would virtu-er ie
ally sail down the hill, across the bridge atD |
the bottom over the Grand River, an
would end up several blocks into anothe 1) |
less desirable industrial part of tow i
known as the ‘‘west side.” @ |
Michigan Street Hill from Novembe® |
through March was the gathering plac, | |
for the town’s young. Perhaps this is {
where Arthur Waite first met Clara Peckey |
|
'
(
}
3 J
- -
(continued on next page)
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hands, Miss Brandon is not present. She
has not been in the courtroom since she
testified against her former sweetheart.
The closing arguments’ completed, Judge
Hopkins delivers his charge and instruc-
tions to the jurors. Three possible verdicts
are listed.
You may find Major Shepard guilty of
first-degree murder, with death!
You may find Major Shepard guilty of
first-degree murder, without capital punish-
ment. This verdict carries an automatic
sentence of life imprisonment!
You may find him innocent and return an
acquittal verdict!
The jury retires.
Wise IS YOUR VERDICT? You have
heard the testimony. You have list-
ened to the attorneys make their opening
and closing statements. You saw Major
Shepard on the witness stand. He denied
the crime. You saw Grace Brandon on the
witness stand. She said the officer wanted
to marry her, but his wife interfered.
What is your verdict?
Did Major Shepard murder his wife?
For sixteen hours and forty-five minutes,
the jurors deliberated. Finally, they noti-
fied Judge Hopkins they had agreed. The
principals in the case were summoned,
Crowds who had waited almost a full day
for the verdict, filed into the courtroom.
“Guilty !”
- Out of. the foreman’s first sentence, that
word alone stood out! “Without capital
punishment!”
FIDDLING FIEND
around, Mr. Glenn?” he offered.
“Thanks,Alfred. But I wanted to see
the troopers or the sheriff first; Then later
this afternoon we'll go out searching.”
‘Glenn met.Lieutenant Sager and Trooper
Knight a short time later. They brought
him into their temporary headquarters, the
rear of the local drugstore, and some of
the things he told them enlightened them
somewhat as to a possible motive, but
knocked down what appeared to Sheriff
Ferris and even to themselves ‘as a possi- !
bly good clue, That is the story told by .
Volckmann of the purchasing of the three
penny lollipops,
“Just before we left yesterday after-
noon,” Glenn began. “I gave Helen five
new pennies and told her to buy some
lollipops for Donald. I wanted to break
him of that habit of taking candy from
strangers. I guess Mrs. Glenn told you
about the stranger.”
When Sager nodded assent, Glenn con-
tinued :
“As for Alfred’s story I believe it’s just
another one of those things. The poor bo
has hallucinations. I feel sorry for him,”
Ces THEN TOLD THE TROOPER of an un-
comfortable experience he had while
chaplain of the New York State Asylum
for Criminal Insane at Napanoch, New
York.
One of the inmates was arrested for set-
ting fire to his cell cot, Glenn recalled, and
when he was arrested, blamed Glenn for
telling on him because the latter was in
close proximity at the time.
Glenn said the inmate swore he would
avenge himself upon “someone who is most
nearest your heart.” He told the trooper
this worried him very much, |»
Since the incident, he recalled, he had
been informed the maniac had escaped the
asylum.
Lieutenant Sager said he wouldn’t really
worry about this phase of the case, insofar
88
Life imprisonment for Major Shepard.
Major Shepard, those twelve men decid-
ed, had murdered his wife! Unless. re-
versed by a higher court, he’ must go to
prison for life!
Major Shepard slumps in his chair. His
body is shaking with sobs,
“IT am innocent and my name will be
cleared,” he is saying. “We will fight this
case clear through to the Supreme Court.
“If the jurors believe I am guilty, they
‘should have sentenced me to hang.” ’
Major Shepard, freed on $20,000 bond
again pending his appeal, left at once for
Denver.
At the, tubercular hospital, he became
once more just “Major Charles A. Shep-
ard, Medical Corps, U. S. A.” His asso-
ciatés -and. patients never spoke of his
trial. ;
‘In November, 1933, the United States
Supreme Court overruled the lower court
and granted Major Shepard a new trial.
Simultaneously; Major ‘Shepard revealed
that while his appeal had been pending, he
had acquired a third wife—the former
Mrs. Alice J. Watt, of Denver, who had
aided him financially in his legal fight for
vindication on the murder charge.
They had eloped to Russell Springs, Kan-
sas, for the ceremony.
Mrs, Watt, socially-prominent widow of
Albert. J. Watt, Denver manufacturing
company - executive, became acquainted
with Major Shepard shortly after his
_ transfer from Fort Riley, Kansas, to the
as the maniac apparently was ranting mad
when he :swore such vengeance, and, that
Glenn’s only danger from such an enemy
would be in meeting him face to face.
“I’m working on a few other angles—
local angles, Mr. Glenn, and as there reall
is so little to report on them there isnt
much use of me to talk about them. They
are merely suspicions at this time, anyway.
By the way, was Helen the. type of. girl
not might accept candy from strangers?”
“Oh, never,” Glenn seemed shocked at
this question. :
“But, of course, you didn’t know Helen,
: Lieutenant,” the genial, round-faced min-
ister apologized.
“The poor child was wary of strangers.
Outside of her few playmates here in
Greenville, she never bothered with any-
one.
Gace KNEW THEN AND THERE that Glenn .
was going to be of little help to him,
if he should suspect someone in Greenville.
The ministerial Glenn was too much the
Christian to cast suspicion upon someon
who might possibly be innocent.
After excusing himself, Lieutenant Sager
and Trooper Knight left Glenn and said
they might see him later that evening.
At the‘Glenn home, Ernest, -Volckmann,-
Zivelli and Lawyer were waiting for the
head of the house.
“Well, boys, I. would appreciate it if
you would take me for a little drive,”
Glenn said.’ “Maybe we might find some-
one who saw Helen.” :
“T am sure we will,” young Lawyer held
out hope, .
* Telling’ the other boys to get into the
rear of the car; Volckmann helped the tor-
tured minister into the front seat alongside
of him, j
They drove out again along the road to
Freehold. : rt
“Gee, Al, we've been over this road a
half dozen times,” Zivelli challenged. :‘Let’s
Denver institution. Like hundreds of other
prominent persons she was skeptical of the
government charges that he murdered his
second wife,
Meanwhile, almost two years later, Maj-
or Shepard was again placed on trial in
Topeka, Kansas, Federal Court. Virtually
the same line of testimony was adduced
by both sides as they had in the earlier
trial,
And, on February eleventh, 1935, a jury,
after sixteen hours and fifteen minutes de-
liberation, acquitted the graying-haired
Army officer of the charge of slaying Mrs.
Zenana Shepard, his hard-drinking second
spouse.
Immediately after the verdict was an-
nounced the courtroom was thrown into a
tumultuous uproar of approval. And Maj-
or Shepard, beaming, with his bride on his
arm, announced:
“We are going back to Denver, where
after a short rest, I shall go into private
practice.”
Thus was recorded one of the few in-
stances in which it is known that CIR-
CUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE DOES
LIE!
24 issues of REAL: DETECTIVE cost you
$5.00 unless you use coupon on page 79.
Save $2.00 by ordering today.
From page 29
try another one.”
“No. I think we might find something
if we go along it further,” Volckmann
opined.
Then, turning to the drab, sad-faced
minister, he said:
“Let’s go down around Basic Creek.
That would be a good spot to get rid of
a body.”
“Please don’t talk that way, Alfred,”
Glenn covered his face so as not to show
the horror written on it.
“Well, it’s just a suggestion, If some-
one hit her with a car they wouldn’t want
to leave her lying near home.”
“And why not, Alfred?” young Lawyer
asked.
“T don’t know.”
“Then why don’t you shut up.”
“All right, but we'll drive out to Basic
Creek anyway,” Volckmann announced,
AsIC CREEK; WAS THREE MILES from
' Greenville in an isolated, swampy hol-
low off the main highway. When they ar-
rived there none of the party excepting
Alfred cared to get out and look in such
a desolate swamp for traces of the child.
It was still raining and it seemed so.futile
that any killer would bring his victim out
that far. fas
“Well, if you don’t want to get wet and
look here what can I do?” Alfred seemed
about ready to cry for making the stupid
suggestion to his friends.
“That’s all right, Alfred,” Glenn broke
in to check the silence. “Your efforts will
be rewarded some day.”
The searching party didn’t return to
Greenville until late that night.
When Glenn arrived Lieutenant Sager
was waiting for him with Mrs. Glenn.
“Did you find anything, Father?” Mrs.
Glenn asked. Glenn merely shook his head.
“Mr, Glenn, I must appeal to your fath-
erly duty and love for your little-child to
confide in me any suspicions you may have
of any pers
to hold li
Lieutenant
“IT can’t
for the past
anyone wh«
“Well, I
ville did hz
absolutely
tinued. Th
“T’ve had
way, cellar
ville and fo
questioned
no one with
mann, saw '
Mrs. Volck:
into the sto
that evenin;
upon a few
and drove h
son saying
little girl w
parsonage.
This line
weary past
Greenville, |
his child?
wasn’t imag
vestigator n
uUsT AS GI
_ Trooper
Sheriff Fer
in. They w
rains.
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tonight,” Fe
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For a mc
Trooper Kn
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Headlinin
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Brooklyn, N
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crushed anc
cellar, the vi
kept the nev
distraught p
“Well, I g
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Sager said,
Trooper Kn
When the
to his weepit
lap, and witl
floor at her
“Let us pri
our baby is
halted his v«
face the wor
Heavenward
to us soon!”
In the m
had subsidec
rain had cea
On the c
Sheriff Ferr:
read the sto:
Brooklyn sch
for no reas
off a crowde
gro, dragged
and, with his
blood of the
gled her to d
HROUGHO!
he could :
could meet
wondered w!
sumption mi
Greenville ar
thoroughly «
When Fer:
ville there w
1s of other
ical of the
irdered his
ater, Maj-
m trial in
Virtually
.s adduced
the earlier
135, a jury,
ninutes de-
‘ing-haired
aying Mrs.
ing second
t was an-
»wn into a
And Maj-
ride on his
ver, where
ito private
he few in-
that CIR-
E DOES
E cost you
a page 79.
in page 29
something
Volckmann
sad-faced
isic Creek,
get rid of
y, Alfred,”
ot to show
. If some-
uldn’t want
ng Lawyer
”
it to Basic
1ounced,
(ILEs from
vampy hol-
ien they ar-
y excepting
»0k in such
f the child.
ed so futile
victim out
zet wet and
‘red seemed
the stupid
‘enn broke
efforts will
return to
nant Sager
Glenn.
her?” Mrs.
ok his head.
your fath-
tle child to
u may have
of any person in Greenville who might want
to hold little Helen against her will,”
Lieutenant Sager challenged.
“T can’t tell you that. I’ve lived here
for the past several years and I don’t know:
anyone who would want to harm Helen.”
‘Well, I am afraid someone in Green«
ville did harm her.” \
“But My God, who?”
“I can’t say that, just now. But I feel
absolutely certain of that,” Sager con-
tinued. Then—
“T’ve had troopers check every lot, alley-
way, cellar and home in and about Green-
ville and found no trace of the girl, We've
questioned’ nearly everyone in town and
no one with the exception of young Volck-
mann, saw the girl that day. We talked to
Mrs. Volckmann and she says she stopped
into the store sometime after seven o’clock
that evening, and that after Alfred waited
upon a few customers, he closed the shop
and drove her home, She remembered her
son saying something: about..seeing. your
little girl walking in the direction of the
parsonage. But that’s as far as we got.”
This line of questioning puzzled the
weary pastor. Why should anyone in
Greenville, his adopted parish, wish to harm
his child? No, Glenn reasoned,’ it just
wasn’t imaginable. The veteran police in-
vestigator must be wrong.
UsT AS GLENN WAS ABOUT to further ask
. Trooper Sager about his suspicions,
Sheriff Ferris and Trooper Knight came
in. _They were drenched from the heavy
rains.
“We have to discontinue the search for
tonight,” Ferris hesitantly admitted. “It’s
raining buckets-full out there and the
thunder and lightning is no help on a night
like this. I called the posse off.”
For a moment no one uttered a word.
Trooper Knight had a sheaf of New York
and Albany newspapers under his arm. He
handed them over to his chief.
Headlining the New York papers was
a story of a gruesome child murder in
Brooklyn, New York, little Helen Sterler,.
about the same age as Helen Glenn, whose
crushed and torn body was found in a
cellar, the victim of a brutal rapist. Sager
kept the newspapers from the sight of the
distraught parents.
“Well, I guess we'll turn in for the eve-
ning and get out early tomorrow morning,”
Sager said, and with Sheriff Ferris and
Trooper Knight left the parsonage.
When the police were gone, Glenn turned
to his weeping wife, holding Donald in her
lap, and with Ernest sadly slumped on the
floor at her feet, and tried to console her.
“Let us pray to Almighty God, dear, that
our baby is still alive. But if—” and he
halted his voice momentarily, “if—we must
face the worse—” and Glenn raised his face
Heavenward, “then please God, bring her
to us soon!”
In the morning the turbulent. weather
had subsided. It was still cloudy but the
rain had ceased.
On the drive up from Catskill with
Sheriff Ferris, Lieutenant Sager studiously
read the story of the murder of the little
Brooklyn school-girl, Helen Sterler. Hélen,
for no reason whatsoever, was snatched
off a crowded city street by a hulking Ne-
gro, dragged to a cellar, horribly assaulted
and, with his devilish appetite sated by the
blood of the little baby, gruesomely. stran-
gled her to death.
HROUGHOUT THE STORY, as Sager read,
he could see just how little Helen Glenn
could meet such an awful fate, and he
wondered where a search on such a pre-
sumption might be conducted insofar as
Greenville and its near-by vicinity had been
thoroughly combed.
When Ferris and Sager arrived in Green-
ville there was a large crowd outside the
_ Glenn home... It was bright and sean this
y
‘ parsonage,
morning of Jurie 28th, and-apparent
posse was again all set to go to work.
. Sager noticed young Roy Lawyer talk-
ing with Ernest Glenn on the porch of the
Maybe, ~he thought, musing
upon his theory that Helen might be such
a victim of savagery as the little Brooklyn
girl, if he talked with Roy and some of the
other youngsters about town he.could learn
of some place not yet thoroughly searched.
He took aside Lawyer, an impressive
looking young man, husky and with a keen
look in his blue eyes, and’ expressed: his
theory to him. :
“That would be horrible, Lieutenant,”
Lawyer vouched. “I can’t imagine such a
thing happening.”
“Well, I hope not,” the trooper said.
“But yet it is quite possible.” }
“But I am sure she must have wandered
away some place and got lost,” Lawyer re-
marked,
. After a moment’s hesitation, Lawyer
snapped his fingers. His face brightened
the
and he almost slapped the State Trooper
on the back.
“I just thought, Lieutenant. Yesterday
The camera snaps one of the most pathetic
ictures ever recorded. A fiend snatched the
ife of pretty Helen Glenn in horrible fashion.
The child's body is being removed to the
morgue.
morning Al Volckmann drove us down to
Basic Creek, That’s about two miles down
the Mill Road in the direction of Freehold.
In the Summer months many tourists take
long walks in that direction, I wonder
could it be possible Helen did go down that
way, as Al pointed out, and maybe been
hit by an automobilist who .tossed.her into
the woods.” ertinte SHO a
“Did you go ‘there yesterday?” Sager
asked.
“Yes, but it was raining so hard we
didn’t do much looking.”
“Did Mr. Glenn think it might be pos-
sible his daughter wandered down. that
way ?” ‘tat
“Well, no. But Al almost convinced us
we shouldn’t pass up looking in and around
that spot.”
“Who else was with you yesterday;
Roy?”
“Just Mr. Glenn, Al, Johnny Zivelli and |
myself.” : panera eda te
Sager asked Lawyer to round up his two
friends, Zivelli and Volckmann, while he
went inside to get Sheriff Ferris and
Trooper Knight. He'd wait to tell Glenn
about his theory.
Roy got Zivelli but couldn’t locate Volck-
mann, Tonether with Lieutenant Sager,
Trooper night and Sheriff Ferris, the two
boys drove in the direction of Freehold
and about two miles out turned into the
Red Mill Road to Basic Creek.
“Te HAD TO stop their car a short dis-
tance in on the sand-blown road. Be-
fore them was an open expanse of under-
growth and wild shrubbery. Huge rocks
jutted up and made passage difficult along
with the intermingling tree stumps and
swampy terrain.
_“We'll spread out and attempt to en-
circle the creek, boys,” Lieutenant Sager
ordered. Trooper Knight went with Sager
while Ferris accompanied Zivelli and
awyer,
As Sager and Knight were no more than
twenty feet out on their portion of the
search they heard the unearthly, shrill cry
of the boys and Ferris,
“Here she is... Here she is .. . over
here!”
Sager and Knight almost tripped over
each other to get to the spot at the edge
of the creek where the boys had made
their gruesome discovery.
Underneath a clump of green under-
growth, spread over the body like a funeral
shroud, lay the lifeless form of Little Helen
Glenn. She was stretched out on the flat
of her back and the upper portion of her
body was partly submerged in the swamp.
Every bit of clothing was stripped from
ed and a gaping wound tore through her
chest.
H® LEFT HAND ARM WAS BENT up toward
her face as though in a protective ges-
ture. Insects that infested the swa~py
creek already were busy at work on the
child’s features, and at first the two youths,
Lawyer and Zivelli, said they were doubt-
ful as to whether it was Helen. But this
doubt changed after the terror-stricken
bovs took a second look.
Sager turned to Sheriff Ferris.
“Now I am certain my. theory is right.
Some maniac killed this poor child. And
I have an idea who did it.”
Ferris was amazed at this statement.
“My God, Lieutenant. Do you mean you
suspect someone ?”
“I do, Sheriff, but you'll have to excuse
me if I keep it to myself for a while.”
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. After a moment, Sager asked Ferris to
ride into Greenville and notify the District
Attorney, the Coroner and Mr. Glenn of
their discovery.
As Ferris and: the~boys were. about to
drive away, Trooper Knight, who had been
in conversation with Lieutenant » Sager,
called to the party and asked them to wait
for him. He had gotten orders from his
commiander and he was going to carry them
out.
Presently, Greene County Medical Ex-
aminer Mahlon E. Atkinson and District
Attorney John C. Welsh came to the scene,
as well as hundreds of persons attracted
like wildfire by ‘the report that the body
was found, ; .
Upon a cursory examination, Dr. Atkin-
son, concurred in by Dr. Arthur Wright,
chief pathologist of Albany Hospital, said
that Helen was violated before being mur-
dered, obviously by the lowest type of de-
generate. Portions of her bruised body
had been ripped in sadistic manner and she
doubtlessly was criminally assaulted a
sr ae of times before being mercilessly
slain.
“Apparently she met death,” Dr. Atkin-
son opined, “as the result of the stab wound
through the chest, apparently inflicted by a
long-bladed knife plunged downward from
the chest, penetrating the liver and aorta,
which is the main artery. The blade en-
tered her left chest with such force that
the point reached her back-bone.”
Ge BROKE DOWN, weeping at the sight
of his mutilated child and had to be
carried away from the scene. Mrs. Glenn
wasn’t brought out to view the remains,
but stayed at home with Ernest and Don-
ald, heart-broken over the terrible news.
Helen’s body was taken to the morgue at
Catskill, where an autopsy disclosed that
Doctors Atkinson and Wright were ‘right
in their earlier examination. The child
had been brutally assaulted but met death
as a result of the stab wound.
From all appearances the victim was
killed on the spot where the body was
found, although this couldn’t be determined
for certain because rigor mortis had set in.
But of particular. interest to Lieutenant
Sager and his police assistants were two
findings of the medical detectives.
One was the fact that Helen had appa-
tently been stabbed with a long-bladed
knife. Sager had the doctors give him as
close a description of the knife as possible.
Dr, Atkinson said the knife’s blade was
about seven inches long and about one-half
inch wide. It was apparently very similar
to a butcher’s knife.
The second medical finding was some-
what mystifying. On portions of the body
were evidences of burnt grease. Grease
that was melted and smeared on the child’s
body. This also stunned Sager, but hold-
ing to his hunch theory of a sex slayer of
children as the possible murderer, he knew
that anything could be possible in a de-
ranged mind. ;
“Another fact brought out by the autopsy
was that Helen met her ‘death the night
she disappeared. About the nearest the
medical men could come to the hour of
death however, was .“sometime between
nine and ten o'clock.” | ;
_. However,; Lieutenant Sager had enough
to reconstruct. the disappearance and sub-
sequent murder of Helen Glenn,
S= LEFT HER HOME: about 5:30 P.M., went
into Volckmann’s butcher ‘store and
purchased some lollipops. No one saw her,
with the possible exception of Volckmann
and his-mother on the way home that’ eve-
ning about 8 Pp, M. At that time, according
to Volckmann, Helen was-walking’ in the
direction of her home.
Now if Volckmann’s story was believ-
able—and many of the townsfolks as well
as Pastor Glenn warned the troopers not
to put too much faith in Volckmann be-
cause of his moronic complex—it was pos-
sible that she might have been picked up by
some imbecilic autoist who took her for a
ride, and then, after criminally assaulting
her, slew her to seal her childish lips.
But Sager dismissed this immediately
because of Helen’s intelligence and per-
sistent warnings from her good parents to
keep away from all strangers.
Sager turned to Sheriff Ferris and -
asked him for an idea.
“Well, I still have an idea it is just pos-
sible some of those Gypsies—”
But Sager halted him.
“Gypsies might steal and kidnap, but
they don’t go in for child assault.”
“Well, what do you think, Lieutenant?”
“Tm finished doing any thinking until I
question young Volckmann again. He may
have something more to tell us.. By the
way, Sheriff, have you seen Trooper
Knight ?”
Just then Trooper Knight waiked into
the morgue office. Under his arm he car-
ried a bundle. He motioned Lieutenant
Sager aside. With Ferris the three police
officers went to the sheriff's office in the
rear of the morgue.
In there Knight opened the package.
It contained a long pair of men’s trousers,
greasy and stained with a red substance.
“T think we should have it examined im-
mediately,” Knight suggested.
“Immediately, isn’t the word. Haste is
more like it! Hop in a car, Knight, and
take it over to the laboratory in Troy an
report back post haste in the morning.”
|B on a tote SuerirF Ferris inquired
of the troopers whether they had a
clue.
“T’ll say we have.”
As Knight left the room, Sager mo-
tioned to Parris to call Sergeant Trooper
Cunningham on the wire at Greenville.
“And just listen to my conversation,
Sheriff. I think it will open your eyes.”
Ferris got Cunningham on the telephone
immediately.
“Hello, Jim. This is Lieutenant Sager.
Go to the Volckmann home immediately
and pick up young Alfred Volckmann, Try
to avoid the reporters, and when you get
him drive him over to the Trooper’s Bar-
racks in Hudson. I’ll see you there later.
gl ae his parents we want to talk to
im.
Ferris’ eyes and mouth were wide open.
“Do you mean you suspect young Volck-
mann
“T'l] tell you later, Sheriff,” Sager
shouted as he darted out the door and into
his car.
It was nearly ten Pp. M. when Sager got
to Hudson.
“Did you have a tough time getting
him?” the lieutenant inquired of Sergeant
Cunningham.
“Well, his mother naturally was worried,
and I understand his father is raising Cain
in Greenville now. Hired a lawyer and
is threatening to call up the Governor.
He’s a big-shot. from New York, you
ow.
“That’s all right, Jim. Where's the boy
now?”
“Inside sleeping. He said he was sick.
Drank something today that didn’t agree
with him. His stomach turned over a few
minutes ago and I got a little worried. I
thought you didn’t want us to question
him until you got here. So we laid off.”
“Fine, Jim. I am not so sure this kid
had anything to do with this, but just the
same he’s worth while checking.”
“Is there anything I can do before turn-
ing in, Lieutenant?” ;
“Ve:
author
there.”
HE
Jer
self a
troope
tenant
Volck:
tioning
The
ceived
Volc
Jersey
was or
an abn
old be
old be
proble:
“sissie’
girls in
On (
to mal
finally
parent:
He |
and hi
New *
York
Green,
and ge
occup)
to nor
As §
telephc
“Say
threate
if they
and ap
The
phone
“Kee
@ Sager
in a sl
them.”
“But
young
“Ho\
was a
- DON
ma
was dc
and he
trooper
used to
“Did
tended
* the meanest ever
stricken parents vis-
end him comfort.
+y in his heart for
this fiendish son.
irerest to Fer-
as to Helen's
peared.
> Glenn
search of the
s butcher shop
true, Was con-
hing anyway.
Us
Glenn that Helen
yome about 5:30
rding to Ernest’s
“d plausible, in
Catskill shortly
now that Helen
when she went
i.
id young Volck-
selling her three
we.. three-quarters
eft her home
n,” mused Sher-
» must have wan-
lost insthe woods.
ugh, about those
rs. Volekmann in
yn the-
is went
red vainly to figure
s lovely child.
the farmers in
»1f New York
untryside, prac-
ing ‘inhabitants
farmer
matches because
me poor
t
i kept. his “moun-
folk as “Apple},
iy anything like this,
kill a man, kill afy
uv of them would
rrving about them ?},
“and most of his
reason for anyone
was just a poor
ver wealthy. So,
course, there was
i Gypsies, as Mrs.
ecause Helen Glenn
ed. and called
Only a brain possessed of the devil could
so wantonly slay an innocent child, and then,
passion and blood-lust sated, cunningly cover
up his cruel deed. The youth (right) paid
for his act with his worthless life.
up the local newspaper reporter in
Catskill, who flashed word of the mys-
terious disappearance of Helen Glenn
out over the news wires of the country.
Thunder that came crashing down on
the mountains like so many bomb-shells
greeted the augmented posse that Sher-
iff Ferris led out the following morning
to search every lake, pond, dell, cliff-
side and cranny in the rambling coun-
tryside.
As soon as word of the disappearance
reached near-by towns, villages and
hamlets in the neighborly country, hun-
dreds of bronze-faced farmers, handy-
men, apple growers, and even pale-
faced clerks and_ne’er-do-wells came
into Greenville in droves, on all sorts
of contrivances to see if they could be
of any help.
By noon that Thursday it was esti-
mated that at least 1,000 men, women
and children had joined in the search.
Two hundred and fifty well-trained
State troopers were dispatched to
Greenville with bloodhounds, and an
airplane from a near-by field was
pressed into service. The State police
likewise commandeered searching par-
ties of boy-scouts.
The newly-organized “Scotland Yard
Division” of the State police also en-
tered the case. This organ of the de-
tective branch of the State and the
Glenn case was its first big assign-
ment.
The State detectives were in charge
of Lieutenant Garry A. Sager, a vet-
eran trooper.
Lieutenant Sager was informed by Mrs. Glenn that she
had just notified her husband, who came on from Kingston
to a Summer school, at Carmel, New York, where he was
to have made an address that afternoon, of Helen’s disap-
pearance, and that he was hurrying home.
AGER WENT TO CATSKILL to confer with Sheriff Ferris.
When he learned that roving bands of Gypsies had been
frequent visitors to Greene County, Sager, too, wondered
at the advisability of calling in the agents of Uncle Sam’s
Federal Bureau of Investigation, then beginning to become
famous in solving kidnaping cases.
The G-men were notified and came late that afternoon.
Sager also was particularly interested in young Volck-
mann’s story, and set out immediately with Sheriff Ferris
to check the facts with Volekmann’s mother.
Meanwhile, the frantic Glenn reached his home about
noon.
Outside the parsonage quite a crowd had collected, News-
papermen who attempted to ask Glenn questions were told
to wait until he could find out from his wife what had ac-
tually happened.
Inside, Mrs. Glenn was prostrate and Glenn had to learn
the story of the disappearance of his daughter from kindly
neighbors.
Presently, young Ernest, his feet dripping with mud from
the muddy terrain in the woods, came in. It was almost
noon and the rain was beginning to let up. With Ernest
were Volckmann and two other boys of the village, John
Zivelli and Roy Lawyer.
Alfred enlisted his car, a large sedan, in the search, and
drove Ernest and the little searching party all about the
wild countryside.
LL THE BOYS EXPRESSED sorrow to the dour-faced,
A stunned Glenn, who less than twenty-four hours before
was so happy at the prospects of reading about his daughter
receiving high honors at school.
“We've been all over the main highway and Alfred even
drove out in the direction of Freehold, but we couldn’t find
anything,” Zivelli began.
“Thanks, boys, I’ll never forget you for what you're try-
ing to do.”
“I don’t know. I think there is still hope,” Roy Lawyer
chimed in. ‘‘We haven’t touched half of this country yet.”
“Do you know, I was just thinking: Could it be possible
that someone might have hit Helen with an automobile and
then dumped her body away somewhere ?” Volckmann asked.
“Let’s hope for the best, fellows,” Glenn replied. “Do you
know where the troopers are making headquarters? I’d like
to see them.”
“Oh, shucks. We’ll do better than they do,” volunteered
Voleckmann. “Let me drive you (Continued on page 88)
29
own life, the District Attorney again
went to the Riverside home. The sus-
pect now was in shape to answer ques-
tions.
“Tt lbthke as though your game is
up,” Swann told him. “We found out
where you bought the arsenic that
killed your father-in-law.”
The dentist, his haggard, unshaven
face showing the strain of long eva-
sion and fear of detection, lay on a
bed in a back room of the apartment.
He attempted a weak smile.
* “T guess you're right, Mr. Swann,”
he said. “But I’m not as bad as you
. think I am. I bought the poison for
‘Mr. Peck, all right; but it was at his
request. He came to me and said he
didn’t want to live any more; he wanted
to kill himself on account of his wife’s
death. I felt sorry for him. He asked
me to get some poison, and I agreed
to do so. If you found arsenic in his
stomach, it must have been the ar-
senic I bought and handed over to
him.”
Then Waite made the first in a series
of remarks with which he condemned
himself. With queer criminal psychol-
ogy, he seemed to take morbid pleas-
ure in shutting out all hope.
- “Of .course,” he said, “I don’t ex-
pect you to believe me. You’ve got the
law on me, I know. I expect to go to
the chair, because I can’t prove what
T am telling you.”
But a few minutes later he reversed
his attitude when he was alone with
Detective ‘Schindler. Evidently he
-thought the private detective would,
. for some strange reason, be on his
‘side.
“Here’s an order on my brokers for
$1000,” he told Schindler. “Please get: §
it cashed and turn it over to Dora
Hillier, the maid. Tell her she has to .
testify she heard John Peck ask me
to buy poison for him. It’s my only
chance.” :
Naturally Schindler repeated this re-
quest to the District Attorney. The
scrawled order for $1000 went. into
the State’s growing collection of x-
_hibits. ‘
Still in weakened condition, Waite
was removed to the prison ward of
Bellevue Hospital. A heavy guard was
put over him to frustrate a possible
second attempt at suicide. His parents
and his brother, Frank Waite, rushed
to New York from Grand Rapids to
-help him. At first incredulous, they
were speedily convinced of his guilt,
but took the attitude that he was “not
in his right mind” when he committed
his crimes,
District Attorney Swann and his>
aides, far from satisfied with Waite’s~
confession, set about gathering up‘the *
loose ends of the investigation: Even
this experienced prosecutor “was «not,
aware of the surprise in store, for him:
Mrs. Horton, among others, was
questioned again. She admitted going
with Waite to the Cornell medical
school when he obtained his aaa sul
' tures.
“He put them under a microscope
-and let me watch them wiggle,” she
_ said, 4
FRONT PAGE DETECTIVE
es Mites CATHERINE Peck, the gener-
ous aunt,-admitted knowing that
Waite was in some kind of trouble.
Shortly after returning from Grand
Rapids he asked: “What would you
do if you were in a terrible jam and ~
couldn't see any way out? Do you think
suicide would be the right escape?”
Of the $40,000 he had obtained from
Miss Peck, Waite sent $10,000 as a
loan to his brother and received a
mortgage as surety. The remainder he
invested through a brokerage house,
and there had been some profits from
his trading. But an accounting of the
investments had never been ener to
Miss Peck.
Mancuso, vabuseie: ‘from Grand
Rapids, reported that his investigation
showed that Arthur Warren Waitevyhad
always been a Rha and. ‘al-
Sg Shae 7
Escaped Death
Mrs. Arthur Warren Waite—heir to the
Peck fortune—believed that her father
and mother had died natural deaths
until a mysterious telegram—
ways had had a tendency toward
criminality.
As a boy, according to the assistant
prosecutor, Waite took fiendish delight
in drowning animals and watching
their death throes. He did not finish
the full dental course at the University
of Michigan, but stayed there just two
years. While there, he seemed to show
a Special interest in poisons out of all
proportion to their use in his chosen
profession.
' Waite had no ) aptitude for the me-
chanical side of dentistry. In one ex-
- amination -he was detected stealing a>
dental plate made by another student.
and passirig it off as his own work.
At asummer resort where he worked
for a while, Waite had been.accused of
stealing $400 from his employer. His
parents made good, according to Man-
cuso, and the affair was hushed up.
In ‘order to get a contract with the
95
South African firm of dentists, Waite .
- had to finish his education in Scotland.
Mancuso said the young student faked
the final certificate which enabled him
to land the contract.
His bad deeds continued after he
went to Capetown. He failed to make
proper returns for fees he received
through the firm that hired him, often
putting down five dollars for a twenty
dollar piece of work and keeping the
difference in his own pocket. There
also was evidence that he swindled
women and even participated in the
smuggling of ostrich plumes.
“The, $20,000 Waite brought back
from South Africa,” said Mancuso,
“was largely obtained through dishon-
est means, and not from the practice
of his profession.”
The newspapers made much of offi-
cial speculation that Waite had plan-
ned to poison others in order to come
into the vast Peck fortune. His wife
was on his list of victims, as was Percy
Peck. Even Miss Peck, who had done
so"*™aych for him, was included in the
deatti roster. Some authorities claimed
Waite eventually would have tried to
kill Mrs. Horton, “because she knew
too much.”
During all this period Clara Waite,
a saddened, disillusioned woman, re-
mained in Grand Rapids. For a time
she believed in her husband’s inno-
cence, but turned ‘against. him as the
evidence became overwhelming and
when she heard of his friendship with
Mrs. Horton. As if that weren’t enough,
detectives found among Waite’s posses-
sions a notebook in which he had jot-
ted down the names of other women
he had seen occasionally while Mrs.
Waite thought he was going about his
business.
Frank Waite was at his brother’s
bedside most of the day following his
removal to Bellevue. Seeing that it was
hopeless to protest innocence, he urged
his brother to “tell all.”
District Attorney Swann and his as-
sistants, armed with their additional
information, went to Bellevue to ask
further questions.
“Don’t you think you’d bettas come
clean?” the prosecutor: urged. “We
know as well as you do that John Peck
had no desire to commit suicide. You
can’t expect us to believe that story
about your buying poison for him.”
Waite sighed deeply and lay back
and stared at the ceiling for a moment.
Finally he said:
“Well, everything you suspect is
true. I did it. I killed both Mr. and
Mrs. Peck with germs and poison.”
“And you did it to get their money?”
“That’s right.”
The suspect showed signs of great
relief. There was something boastful
about his detailed descriptions of the
murders. Again he said he was sure
he would get the chair.
* Swann asked him if: anyone had
helped him in the crime. -
“Only a fellow that I’ve never seen,”
was the bewildering reply. “He comes
* to me sometimes with strange sugges-
tions; I can’t see him, but I can hear
him. He was born in Egypt in his pres-
ent life, but he had lived before in
Sha EE Ae Stet eS
‘|
t
uy
|
t
{
r
4 OORT OEY TORT WEEN Tr OI
94
reports from his operatives, suspected
Kane might be able to tell. plenty, but ©
as yet he was afraid to tip his hand.
to Waite by questioning the embalmer.
Two days later, when detectives were
ready to ask Kane what he knew about
the mystery, the man had disappeared! .
The investigators had better luck at
the Plaza Hotel..A messenger bearing
a note from “Mrs. Walters,” arrived at
_the hotel the day after Waite’s mysteri-
ous meeting with Kane. Attached was
an order against a drawing account
that had been established: with the
cashier, sufficiently large to pay the
bill. The management was also di-
rected to turn over to the messenger
some clothing and other personal ef-
fects which the woman had left in the
room. : on
When the messenger left with his
parcels and luggage, detectives trailed
him to the apartment of a Mrs. Dorothy
Palmenberg on West 72nd Street. Hav-
- ing made the delivery, the boy was
questioned then by the detectives. He
admitted he had acted in behalf of a
Mrs. Horton, a friend of Mrs. Palmen-
berg and a visitor at the latter’s apart-
ment,
cE DID NOT take much investigation
* to prove that Mrs. Horton was indeed
the “Mrs. Walters” of the Plaza. She
was a singer who had enjoyed some
success on the popular stage, and the
wife of Harry M. Horton, an inventor
and electrical engineer.
When Mrs. Horton was questioned
by District Attorney Swann and his
assistants, she indignantly denied that
there had been any wrong-doing be-
tween her and Dr. Waite.
“Ours was a platonic friendship,”
she declared. “Yes,-we did have that
room at the Plaza, and I received a
call there from Dr. Waite when he
came back from Grand Rapids. But we
went to the hotel simply to study lan-
guages and music together. It was our
studio.” ,
She first met Waite,.she said; when
he camie backstage at the Academy. of
Music to congratulate her on a” pér-
formance. With his irrepressible love
of posing, the dentist had told her that
although he was only twenty-eight, he
was the head of a big London hospital.
He professed a great interest in lan-
guages, and persuaded her to go with
him to classes at the Berlitz School,
where they studied French. _.
“He’s such a nice gentleman,” Mrs.
Horton sighed. “I’m sure he -couldn’t
have done anything wrong. ¥, hus-
band knows all about my frieridship
with him and approves of it. When
we met at the Plaza we studied French,
or I sang while Dr. Waite played the
piano.”
All through the investigation, Harry
Horton stood by his handsome wife.
’ She was, in his words, “a dove among
the crows,”.
Just before the mystery probe was
brought into the open and hit the front
pages with a smash, Prosecutor Swann
called in Dr. Waite for a polite pre-
liminary questioning. As yet the at-
torney had to handle this suspect with
kid gloves.
Nel A am a tl ome A
trysting place at the Plaza. . :
‘
FRONT PAGE DETECTIVE
The young tennis champion exuded
confidence when he entered the Dis-
- trict Attorney’s office, : ~
“I suppose you want to talk to.me
about the. death of John Peck’ he
said, stiling. “T know-that my brother- .
in-ldw.gnay have kicked up some kind
of a fuss—he never did like, me~sand
I assure you I want to do,everything
Ican to help.” ° ...°..
“Well, under the circumstances——”
“Oh, I know,” Waite broke in
breezily. “You're going to say that my
wife inherited about a million dollars :
from her father. That is true, but I
assure you it is immaterial to me. I
have a good practice as an oral sur-
geon; I have more than enough money
for the needs of my wife and myself.”
“Can you think of any way in which
John Peck might have taken arsenic
into his system?” Swann asked.
“None at all. If poison was found, it’s
as much of a mystery to me as any-
body else. Of course, arsenic might
have been in the embalming fluid, or
it might have been. in the medicine
prescribed for him by Dr. Moore.”
The District Attorney mentioned the
“Oh, so you found out about that,
did you?” said. Waite coolly...“That’s
part of my private life I -refuse*to.dis-
cuss. But there was nothing wrong
about it, and I don’t care to reveal
the identity of my—er ... friend.”
The unruffled Dr. Waite agreed to
be on hand if wanted for questioning
again. He was permitted to leave—fol-
lowed, of course, by .the detectives
who had been on his trail since his
return from Grand Rapids.
The inquiry made by the District
Attorney’s staff and Detective Schin-
dler into Waite’s “practice” revealed
some astonishing facts. «
Other members of his profession did
not know of him or of the high repu-
tation he was supposed to have. Neither
was he known at the hospitals where
he had claimed to have done his work.
Instead of practicing his profession so
assiduously, as his wife believed, he
had spent his days with Mrs. Horton
or other women, had played tennis oc-
casionally, and frittered away: his time
generally,: ee Age
. The ‘only moments:,
‘Dre Wai spent
in‘scientific-pursuits “had beén“in ex-
perimentation with germ culttires. De-
_tectives discovered that he had ob-
tained’ ‘cultures of. diptheria, typhoid
and tuberculosis ‘at. the Cornell Uni-
versity: Medical: ‘School. He told of-
ficérs" Of thé ‘school that he was a
bacteriologist experimenting with cats.
“With cats!” Swann exploded when
he received this information. “He got
those germs for members of the Peck
family!”
Meanwhile the investigation also
‘was proceeding in Grand Rapids. Dr.
Schultze, representing the District
Attorney, confirmed the findings of the
autopsy performed by the other doc-
tors on the body of John Peck. As-
sistant District Attorney Mancuso
gathered all available information
from the Pecks andsdelved deeply inta
Waite’s background. : :
“The murderer,” Mancuso wired his
Oo
yg) a
. ty?
ae vs
chief, “‘is one of the cleverest criminals
I haveyever been called upon to deal
withgUnquestionably he had several
othér. persons marked for death.”
A little later, Mancuso sent a second
message: ,
“Arrest defendant immediately. Evi-
~ dence of guilt overwhelming. He ob-
,tajned substantial amounts of money
‘on false pretenses.”
$0,
ae, $s .
ATOTHING could be gained by wait-
-’’ ing any longer, But just as Swann
was ordering detectives to take Waite
into custody, a call came from Dr.
Moore saying that the suspect was in
a coma as a result of taking drugs.
The District Attorney, Schindler, .
and other detectives rushed to the
Riverside Drive apartment. Dr. Moore,
who had been called when a servant
found the dentist in a stupor, was in
. attendance. He said Waite had taken
doses of trional, sulphonol and veronal,
but not in quantity sufficient to cause
death. He could not be questioned or
removed from the house, so a guard
was established over him.
Detectives Schindler, Cuniff and
others made a thorough search of the
apartment, finding slides of germ cul-
tures, textbooks in which. passages
dealing with poisons were heavily
~marked, and great quantities of fine
clothing which Waite could never have
afforded on the income from his sup-
posed practice.
Dora Hillier, a colored maid, told
the investigators that she was in the
kitchen making some soup for John
Peck two days before the latter’s death
when Waite entered with a bottle in
his hand. He poured from the bottle
into the soup, explaining this was the
only way he could get his father-in-
law to take his medicine.
Peck complained that the soup was
bitter and sent it back. Waite ordered
the maid to prepare some tea for him, .
poured something into it, and then he
himself carried it in to the old man.
To forge another link in the growing
chain of evidence, investigators set out
to find where Waite had purchased the
poison. One group canvassed drug
Stores in the area around the Plaza
Hotel, another detail covered the drug
stores near the Waite apartment,
Detective Frank Gallagher ended
the quest when he interrogated Rich-
ard Timmerman, proprietor of a:
pharmacy at Lexington Avenue near
Fifty-ninth Street. On March 9th,
three days before Peck’s death, Dr.
Waite had called there and asked for
ninety grains of arsenic. He said he
wanted it for killing a cat.
“Strychnine would be better,” Tim-
merman suggested.
“No, I’ve got to have arsenic,” Waite
insisted. ;
Before he would sell the arsenic, the
druggist called a registered physician
who vouched for Waite. The dentist
. then Signed the poison register, as re-
quired by law, and handed over twen-
ty-five cents—a small sum, considering
the stakes he was playing for in his
desperate game. J
On the day after Waite had made
what seemed to be an.attempt on his
‘ ‘
een
‘es
AFTER THE MILLIONAIRE AND HIS WIFE DIED IN THE SAME BED,
CAME A MYSTERIOUS TELEGRAM
THE DOCTOR was surprised and shocked by the
sudden death of a patient who had apparently
been improving, At length he concluded that the
cause of death was a severe cold and complica-
tions. (Photo portraying scene is posed by pro-
fessional models.)
AN
INSIDE
DETECTIVE
CRIME
CLASSIC
“STRONGLY ADVISE AUTOPSY’’
mr
HE OLD MAN lay still as death
between the sheets of the big double
bed. Holding his withered hand,
softly sobbing, sat an attractive brunette
in her early twenties. Outside the tow-
ering Colosseum Apartments at 435
Riverside Drive, New York City, a chill
March wind moaned mournfully.
“Papa! Papa!” wailed Clara Peck
Waite. “Try to fight this awful thing.
You've got to. You're all I have left,
now that Mamma’s gone!”
But John E. Peck, her father, already
had slumped into a coma. The face of
the Grand Rapids millionaire, who had
made his fortune as a manufacturing ©
druggist, had begun to resemble that of
amummy. The parchment-like skin was
drawn even tighter across his high cheek
bones. His once-bright blue eyes lay
hidden behind wrinkled lids, sunken in
their sockets. His color was ashen.
Clara babbled on hysterically. “But
Papa, the doctor says it’s only stomach
trouble. You'll be all right by tomor-
row. Brace up, Papa. Oh, please do!”
Clara’s encouraging words were ut-
INSIDE DETECTIVE MAFAZINE, SEPTEMBER, 193.
tered only in the desperate hope that they
might help her father to pull through.
But deep down, she knew that he was
dying—slowly, torturously and inev- -
itably.
As she sat there in the luxuriously-
furnished tenth-floor bedroom overlook-
ing the Hudson River, watching her
father’s life ebbing with the setting sun,
the events of the last seven months
flashed through her mind in a kaleido-
scopic sequence .. .
The pages of her memory flicked back
to the bright September day in Grand
Rapids, Michigan, when she had been
married to Dr. Arthur Warren Waite,
the tall, dark and handsome young dentist
from New York.
Theirs had been a fast and furious
courtship, during which he had virtu-
ally swept her off her feet. When he
had popped the question, she had com-
pletely forgotten about all the eligible
young men of her home town. With all
her heart and soul she had answered:
“Yes!” Their marriage, in the great
white Colonial mansion where she was
33
*LT6T *2T Ame (XN) AN *OeTS foqtyM Suersem mmyug"y *qrTw
another life and in other ages. All
my evil promptings came from him. He
made me do it.”
Did the revelation of this alter ego .
mean that Waite was going to try to
escape the supreme penalty through
a plea of insanity? It seemed likely,
especially since his father made out
an affidavit showing there had been
traces of insanity in the family. But
Waite said: .
“Don’t worry. I’ll go to the chair,
I’m as sane as you are.”
.
Te DENTIST then went into his
dealings with Kane the embalmer.
His purpose in going to Gustave Cim-
iotti’s garage, he said, was to cash a
check for $9000. For some reason, he
did not want to go direct to the bank,
but sent the garageman. The teller at
the bank came back with him to talk
to Waite, since the check was for such
a large amount. When Waite received
the cash, he met Kane at the cigar store
and turned the $9000 over to him.
For this inducement, Kane promised
to testify that he used arsenic in the
fluid with which he embalmed the body
of John Peck. Further, he was to in-
ject arsenic into some embalming fluid
at his establishment‘to mislead any
investigators who might come around.
Having failed in efforts to cremate
the body—efforts which had been suc-
cessful in the case of Mrs. Peck—Waite
was making a last desperate attempt
to cover up his tracks.
About the last of March, several days
after Waite’s full confession, Kane
finally was located by detectives, and
admitted the plot to account far the
arsenic found in Peck’s body. He said
he had taken the money without count-
ing it and buried it on Gardiner’s
Island, off the tip of Long Island—
which incidentally is the spot where
Captain Kidd is supposed to have
buried treasure.
Detectives accompanied Kane to the
island and dug out of the sand a tin
can containing not $9000 but $7800.
' “Where’s the rest of it?” Detéctiye
Cuniff jested. “Did that fellow frdqg.
‘Egypt take a rake-off?” a“
The discrepancy in the sums re-
mained a mystery, but was immaterial
so far as the fate of Arthur Warren
Waite was concerned.
At the trial, held late in May, 1916,
the sender of the “K. Adams” telegram
was disclosed. ‘
Miss Elizabeth Hardwicke of Somer-
ville, New Jersey, a niece of Dr. Car-
roll, took the stand and wir eign
was the one who dispatched the
which opened the whole investigation.
Dr. Carroll had more than one reason
for being suspicious of his cousin’s
death. In the first place, when he visited
John Peck at the Waite home just a
few hours before he died, the Grand
Rapids millionaire seemed in the best
of humor and, while weak, obviously
was recovering from his intestinal ail-
ment. Furthermore, Dr. Carroll knew
absolutely that Peck had not suffered
from heart disease, given as the cause
of death on the certificate.
-On March 12th, the day John Peck
»
vire ~
Ee aon SCORN Oe ee
FRONT PAGE DETECTIVE
passed away, the small town doctor
called at the apartment un Riverside’
Drive and could not help noticing that
Waite seemed nervous and very ill at
ease. He recalled the..ssudden passing
of Mrs. Peck.-With both the old folks
out of ‘the, ‘way/ hé reflected, Waite—
. whoni hé never liked—would now have
control of a large fortune. He, put:two
and two together, talked things over
with his niece, and asked’her to send
the telegram. :
“I didn’t sign the wire K. Adams.
because of the Molinéaux case,” Miss
Hardwicke said, “but simply because:I .
had a girl friend by that name who
had recently married. The name was
the first-one that came in my mind. I
didn’t want to sign my own name or
that of Dr. Carroll, because our sus-
picions might not come to anything
and then we would look silly.”
The doctors who examined John
Peck’s body, the druggist who sold the
poison, the medical school officer who
gave Waite the germ cultures, the de-
tectives in the case, Kane the embalm-
er, Mrs. Waite (who told of making
out a will in favor of her husband),
Mrs. Horton—all these and many more
took the stand to paint for the jury’a
picture of Waite’s villainy. "en eee.
~
Bay,
But the best witness for the: State.”
was Arthur Warren Waite himself!
At a spectacular night session the
poisoner gloried in baring the details
of his evil life and in telling how he
plotted to kill off an entire family to
gain a fortune.
Not only had he taken the lives of
Mr. and Mrs. Peck, but he had also
tried to kill Miss Catherine Peck, he
admitted. He put ground glass in her
marmalade, of which she was very
fond, and also put some germ cultures
in fish that she ate. Neither attempt
was successful.
He declared he killed his mother-in-
law by feeding her a mixed diet ‘of
germs, and finally by adminisfering
veronal.
“T gave typhoid, diphtheria and pneu-
monia germs to John Peck,” Waite tes-
tified, “but they didn’t seem to have
much effect. I’:put germs in-an anti-
septic mixture and had him: spray his -
throat with it every time he went out-
doors,, but that didn’t.seem* to take
effect, either, To’weaken. him;,I <gave
him calomel, ‘half a bottle at a time.
I soaked the sheets in his bed with cold
water,-hoping that he would catch cold.
“Then he planned to return to Grand
Rapids; I knew:.} didn’t have much
time.zleft, so I.bought: the arsenic.
“I think it was three days before
Mr. Peck*died that I began to give him
arsenic. I gave him a little at first
and increased the dose until it was
all gone. I put it in his food and milk.”
Waite told how he slept on a couch
on the night before Peck died “so as
not disturb my wife.” He got up one
hour after retiring to administer
chloroform—the death dose—to the
aged millionaire.
“I put chloroform over his face. I.
said, ‘This will help you,’ and he said,
‘All right.’ I kept putting it on his
face until he was qjiliet. I knew he
2 le dudalen ee
hduaniaaee ee
La
was dead. Then’ I called the under-
taker and Dr.’’Moore.”
Never‘had a more cold-blooded pro-
gramof murder been described in an
American courtroom.
“Are you crazy?” the prosecutor de-
manded.
. “I think not,’ the defendant an-
swered, . ©
*“You don’t care what becomes of
‘a youry ° ,
4“fwish done what is right.”
‘sOver: Waite’s protests, his attorney,
, Walter R. Deuel, tried to prove that
' the self-condemnatory performance on
the witness stand was but another proof
of his client’s insanity. Alienists were
called who said that beyond doubt
Waite was not responsible when he
committed his crimes.
But the State had alienists, too, and
they declared the defendant to be sane.
The jury was out less than an hour
ri a half, then returned with the ver-
ict:
“Guilty of murder in the first de-
gree!” rs
Waite’s comment was: “No more than
I expected.” He whistled cheerily as
he was led back to his cell. a)
His nonchalance lasted through the
months he spent in Sing Sing’s death
house while his attorney, at the urg-
ing of Waite’s family, appealed the
case, When all hope was gone, and
after his wife had divorced him, he
said:
“That’s all right: How could I ex-
pect anything else?” :
And so,’ one April night in 1917, Dr,
Arthur Warren Waite walked through
the little green door and was embraced
by the electric chair.
_ There is no better example in all the
annals of criminology than the case-of
Arthur Warren Waite. to prove the
truth of the statement “Crime does not
pay.” Here was a young man with
every advantage and every opportuni-
ty for success deliberately turning his
back on the established laws of society
and cold-blogdedly planning and car-
rying out murder. His greedy hands
reached out for money that was not-
his; and there was little sympathy for
their owner when those same hands
gripped the solid wood of Sing Sing’s
electric chair in one last desperate
death struggle.
Arthur Warren Waite could have
been a leader in his community. He
had the intelligence, the personality
and the friends. But he chose to ignore
these things. His ego told him that he
could get away with it. That he would
be the “super-criminal.” But he
learned—too late—that there is no such
thing as a “super-criminal.” He saw
himself trapped by his own misgivings;
saw his clever schemes defined by of-
ficers of the law who knew more about
crime and so-called “super-criminals”:
than Arthur Warren Waite ever
dreamed of. He heard a prosecutor out-
line his every action and heard the
sentence of death pronounced by the
court. He knew then that instead of the
brilliant super-criminal he had pic-
tured himself—he was a fool—paying
with his life for a fool’s folly. :
abi paisa. te lili li
were registered
he Hotel Pant-
next afternoon,
The weather
din mind. The
ere Was an in-
dv they wanted
vault in Oak
Yorkers drove
ff the land.
owing morning,
ad into a down-
men slid away
t from the Hotel
ealed who three
nugh it can be
n mentioned in
mess is as good
Four, of course,
grimly lined as
it cigar.
- like a tomb in
h the ear parked
he point nearest
‘tet entering the
to their ankles in
sary to betray a
t what happened
the visitors were
nside the burial
minutes later,
carrying a coffin.
Ives into an un-
arranged for in
ir burden to the
ody. It was nec-
vs of an oil lan-
‘tricity had been
was now placed
he Medical Ex-
It took him an
| the brain.
ultze and Man-
back. the Peck
securely in its
uin in glass con-
Examiner's suit-
SNIFF was wait-
ie New York end
a find out. Jack?”
rict Attorney.
ook around the
ed all rigat, off-
ich attention to
figured anybody
nu know all those
»%ks in the room
. thev have a lot
ire Greek to me.
m, and there was
if vou know what
hat it was. One
x out of the case
st of them. were
picked this one
ill piece of paper
bookmark. Wait
uth reached into
x he had written
e book is Wood’s
cacology, Volume
ut the bookmark
ween a couple of
senic does to the
9
ned suitable for
YETECTIVE, 122
3, covering full
this magazine. |
MASTER DETECTIVB
Mancuso whistled softly and looked at
Schultze. The Medical Examiner just
grunted. The prosecutor turned back to
Cunniff. “The pages well worn, Jack?”
he wanted to know.
“They are badly soiled from finger-
prints,” replied Cunniff.
A telegram waited for Mancuso at his
office. It was from Percy Peck in Grand
Rapids, and read:
W ARRIVES WOLVERINE TOMORROW MORN-
ING GRAND CENTRAL ELEVEN OCLOCK
SISTER STAYING BEHIND
In the morning, Mancuso and_ several
detectives loitered in Grand Central Termi-
nal. The prosecutor had meanwhile made
a careful study of several photographs of
Dr. Waite in the Riverside Drive apart-
ment. When a tall, immaculately groomed
figure passed through the gate that dis-
gorged the Wolverine passengers, Man-
cuso drew a handkerchief from his pocket
and blew his nose. The sleuths swung into
action.
Two redcaps, laden with expensive lug-
gage, followed the son-in-law of the dead
couple toward a line of waiting taxi-cabs.
Waite had his bags put in a cab, smilingly
gave each porter a bill, then said something
to the driver. He then turned and headed
for a row of telephone booths while the
cab waited. The detectives spread them-
selves in the booths, so that no matter
which one Waite chose he would be next
to an officer.
THs was in the days before dial tele-
phones, when you gave your number to
the operator. Two detectives, in booths on
each side of the one chosen by the
smartly dressed, athletic young man, heard
him calling a number, then asking for
Room 1105. “Hello, darling,” were Waite’s
words. “I just, got in. Listen: I have no
time to explain, but are your bags all
packed as I wrote you to have them? Fine.
Check out immediately. Don’t waste a
second. IJ’ll see you at one of the classes
within a week. I’ve got to rush.”
While Waite was being trailed to the
Colosseum, one of the sleuths spent a nickel
on the number that the Doctor had called.
When he learned that it was the Plaza
Hotel he and others scurried from Grand
Central and into a cab. The hostelry, on
upper Fifth Avenue, wasn’t far away, but
the detectives got caught in Manhat-
tan’s early morning traffic. They weren’t
precisely surprised, then, when upon arrival
at the Plaza they found that the occu-
ant of Room 1105, who had apparently
een awaiting the call from Waite, had
checked out immediately without leaving
a forwarding address.
The register gave the name of Mrs. W.
Walters. of New York, with no street ad-
dress, Mancuso was soon talking with bell-
boys, elevator operators and other em-
ployees. They recognized photographs of
Dr. Waite as those of a man who had
frequently called at the Plaza and gone
to the eleventh floor.
“What did this Mrs. Walters look like?”
Mancuso asked an employee at the desk.
“She was a pippin, sir, if I may use the
expression. A woman of about thirty,
I would say. Striking looking, she was—
dark hair, large brown eyes, nifty form.”
“How long has she lived here?
“About three months. I understand
she’s something of a singer. She ordered
a piano put in her room as soon as she got
here.”
Waite came out of the Colosseum short-
ly after one-thirty that afternoon, hopped
into a passing cab, and went down to the
Palace Theatre in the Times Square area,
then America’s premier two-a-day vau-
deville house. He purchased a seat in the
third row and went inside. A detective
MARCH, 1941
‘ a
also entered, to make certain he would re-
main until the end of the performance, late
in the afternoon. Mancuso wanted to find
out what, if anything, the Doctor had done
since returning to his apartment.
Cunniff had been hanging around the
apartment house lobby from the time
Waite had entered the passing cab. Pres-
ently a call came through for him. He was
informed that the suspect was in the
Palace, Another sleuth waited downstairs
to get any warning tip that might come in
while Cunniff went up to the lavish abode
on the fourth floor.
The investigator found nothing of an
incriminating nature in the returned
traveler's baggage. He therefore went
again into the room where he had found
the book on poison, which had attracted
his attention because it had been sticking
out slightly from the neatly arranged row
of volumes. “Well, I’ll be d——” the in-
vestigator muttered under his breath as he
looked at the row of books. He had placed
this particular tome back precisely as he
had found it, not wishing to leave any-
thing disturbed. Now he saw that the
back of the book was even with the rest
of the volumes. That meant but one
thing: Waite had touched it since his
return—for there had been no one else
in the apartment.
Cunniff took the volume out. He no-
ticed that the marker, which had been
placed between the two well-thumbed
pages that dealt with the effects of arsenic
on the human system, had been re-
moved!
The buzzer sounded six times in rapid
succession. That was Mancuso’s signal.
Cunniff told the Assistant District At-
torney of his discovery.
“That’s about enough to send him to
the chair,” remarked Mancuso. “TI just got
Schultze’s report before I came up. He
found plenty of arsenic in Peck’s heart and
brain.”
Mancuso went through the whole apart-
ment again, asking Gunniff if he had
checked this, that or the other thing. The
answer was always in the affirmative until
the alert official glanced at one of several
costly Flemish tapestries that hung on
the walls of the living-room. He looked at
his investigator steadily.
“Chief,” exclaimed Cunniff, “I don’t
know why I didn’t think of that before!”
“PUMB cop,” taunted Mancuso with a
smile, for his opinion of Cunniff was
just the opposite. He walked over and
raised the tapestry from the wall. They
looked at what they saw in silence, then
the investigator said:
“Shall I call the office and have them
dig somebody up?”
Mancuso nodded. “But tell them to
make it snappy; we've only got about an
hour and a half until he’ll be back from
that. show.”
Forty-five minutes later a man with
shuffling gait came into the apartment ac-
companied by a policeman. “Where’s what
you want opened?” he asked. The new
arrival was a reformed “Jimmy Valentine”
who did little jobs for the District Attor-
ney once in a while.
Mancuso and Cunniff led him to a
small. circular safe that had been placed
in'a wall under the tapestry. He pressed
his ear close to the strong box as his sen-
sitive fingertips manipulated the combi-
nation. He smiled faintly, frowned, smiled
again, and frowned once more as his ear
told him that he was either growing hot or
cold. Then his leather-like features lighted
and he swung open. the door of the safe.
Mancuso made short work of cleaning
out the repository. When he got back
to his office an assistant said, “We've dug
up the colored maid.”
“Bring her in.”
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75
cna kh at nee enn etal aan daaataeatat
Doctor?” inquired
just yet,” was the
u to do something
= going away on
vant you to invite
Vaites know you're
tomorrow to com-
. then.”
going on a fishing
ll a lie, even if you
coing to New York.
too. He can use
trip out of town.”
ht hours after the
ind Perey Peck had
study that Shuritz
ric. His face was
to leave on the
w York,” he said.
the station.”
news, then?”
Dean Vaughn up
has found enough
ody to kill a dozen
three men waited
ice in anugly build-
that housed head-
Attorney of New
lv through the door
h keen brown eyes.
{ tails. Francis X.
strict Attorney in
Bureau, had been
he Waldorf-Astoria
topper on a rack
oker face as Dr.
rv of the telegram
Mancuso asked.
led it to him. He
id an assistant ap-
the boys take this
d get the original
rned to his visitors.
the original blank
= to the identity of
if is.
alte and his wife
‘ed
s in Grand Rapids
know of anv one
io 1s friendly with
sband?”
<. of the Park Ave-
father’s sister.”
of; perhaps Aunt
idress of the Waite
>
slip of paper. “It’s
“that’s the Colos-
place. Dr. Waite
ise
that.” said Perey
ier made them a
ish to get them off
yutton again. “I’m
he said to an as-
1. “Look up the
ie the names of the
‘rtificates for these
the assistant a slip
Te then turned over
with the name and
‘eck. “Send a man
‘ou can get him—
person’s in, detain
y at the Colosseum
trict Attorney that
‘nions could not en-
it
MASTER DETECTIVE
SS
“Oh, no?” replied Mancuso, displaying
his credentials. The attendant gulped
and led the way to the fourth floor.
The four separated. Mancuso found
one room that was apparently Waite’s
study. Bookcases were lined with medical
volumes and on a large table at one end
were test tubes and chemicals, indicating
that the young Doctor had been carrying
on some kind of experiment. The Assis-
tant District Attorney moved quickly
through the premises. “All right,” he said
at length. “There’s nothing here that
won't keep—until Waite gets back.” He
looked at Dr. Shuritz. “Notice anything
odd about this layout?” he asked.
“You mean he’s supposed to be a practis-
ing physician, yet has no office?”
Mancuso nodded. On his way to the
elevator, he saw a colored attendant duck-
ing around a corner that led to the fire-
stairs. The official whistled sharply, then
called, “Come here, you!”
The boy appeared, frightened. “So long
as you stuck your nose into this,” Man-
cuso said, “suppose you answer some
questions.”
MANCUSO wanted to know if the
Waites had many visitors. It turned
out that the physician and his wife had
always kept pretty much to themselves. In
fact, the boy was able to recall only one
person who had visited the Waites with
any frequency—a modishly and expensive-
ly attired lady in her thirties. who talked,
as he put it, as if she were a “swell.” When
a physical description was forthcoming,
Percy Peck whispered to Mancuso, “That’s
Aunt Cathy.”
“Did the Waites go out much?” the As-
sistant District Attorney wanted to know.
“At nights, a lot,” was the answer. “But
Doc was always dashing in and out with
his black bag. He'd come back and say
once in a while that he was tired from a
big operation.”
“Thanks,” said Mancuso. “Now keep
quiet about this.”
At the switchboard in the lobby through
which telephone calls of tenants passed,
Mancuso learned that Dr. Waite_ fre-
quently telephoned to the Plaza Hotel.
then and now one of Gotham’s swankiest
hostelries. The calls had usually been
made very early in the morning, around
six-thirty or seven o'clock, or quite late
at night, often as far along as 2:30 a. M.
These three men were vitally inter-
ested in the investigation. Left to
right: Dr. Perry Shuritz, Grand
Rapids physician; Percy Peck, and
Assistant District Attorney Francis X.
Mancuso
MarcH, 1941
Mancuso’s eyebrows raised. “Hmm.
Looks as if the Doctor might have been
calling a woman either after. his wife had
gone to bed or before she had awakened.”
At the Park Avenue Hotel, where John
Cunniff, Special Investigator for the Dis-
trict Attorney’s office, had located the
sister of the dead man, Mancuso found
a gracious and charming lady. Miss Cath-
erine Peck was curious to the point of
alarm, ‘however, at the sudden activity on
the part of the authorities.
“Your brother was poisoned with
arsenic,” Mancuso said bluntly, “probably
his wife was, too.”
Miss Peck looked straight at her dark,
alert visitor. “And just what are you driv-
ing at?” she asked.
“We're not sure yet—but it looks like
murder.”
“But who would have done such a thing?
Certainly not my niece or her husband.”
“We're not naming names at the mo-
ment. But we would like you to tell us what
you know about -Dr. Waite.”
“Warren is an extremely fine young
man. I would trust him with anything.
In fact he has made many investments
for me.”
Mancuso wanted to know the details.
Miss Peck said that since the previous
September, when the Waites had come to
live in New York, she had given her niece’s
husband about $50,000 to “play with” in
the market, and that she had realized a
profit of about $10,000.
“Have you received any of the prin-
cipal back?” asked Mancuso.
“No, just the profits. The principal is
out in stocks.”
“What stocks—and do you hold them?”
“No; Warren handles everything.”
When the official got back to Centre
Street, he found awaiting him Dr. Porter,
who had signed the death certificate for
Mrs. Peck; and Dr. Moore, who had at-
tended the millionaire drug manufacturer.
The Assistant District Attorney asked
each consulting physician, “Could the
symptoms of the illness you were called in
on possibly have been caused by the
administration of arsenic?”
BotT# doctors reacted precisely the
same way—wonderment. deep thought,
and then; “Why, yes!”
“Notice anything funny going on up
there?”
Porter hadn’t. but Moore had—that
business about his prescription being in
the death room, and Dr. Waite’s high
spirits in the presence of death.
Mancuso suggested to his three Grand
Rapids visitors that they get some sleep.
He was working away busily, when, after
two in the morning, a tall commanding
figure burst in on him without knocking.
“What’s up, Frank? I couldn’t get here
any faster.” the newcomer said.
“Looks like a pair of murders up on the
Drive—people named Peck from Grand
Rapids. The mother came on for a visit in
January and died in the home of her
daughter and son-in-law. Then the father
came on and after he died somebody got
suspicious. They found enough arsenic in
him to kill a dozen people. Half a million
dollars changes hands.”
“Made any arrests yet?”
Mancuso shook his head. “We're not
that far along.”
“All right, what am I supposed to do?”
inquired Dr. Otto Schultze, Medical Ex-
aminer of New York County.
“T thought maybe you could get hold
of the undertaker and see what percentage
of arsenic he uses in his embalming fluid,
and then write me a report saying all that
poison couldn’t possibly have got into old
man Peck from the fluid.”
Schultze asked if Mancuso had a report
on the Peck findings. The Assistant Dis-
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74
trict Attorney handed him the one from
Dean Vaughn, brought in by Dr. Shuritz.
“This is no good, Frank,” the Medical
Examiner said. “It’s only on the stomach.
How many times do I have to tell you
prosecutors that I’ve got to get the heart
and the brain in order to convince a jury
that arsenic bas been administered before
death?”
Mancuso grabbed the telephone and got
Shuritz out of bed. ‘“How’s chances of
examining that body again, Doctor?” he
wanted to know. His features clouded
when the reply came over the wire. He
shook his head as he replaced the receiver.
Schultze was at a mirror, smoothing his
graying hair.
“Bad news,” Mancuso told the Medical
Examiner. “Owing to certain formalities
that must be gone through there would be
a lot of publicity—and that’s one thing I
don’t want.”
CHULTZE put the final touch to his tie
7 before replying. “I’ll go out there and
steal the body,” he said.
It was almost dawn when Mancuso
completed issuance of a long list of in-
structions, and the tentacles of the law
were already reaching to many corners of
Greater New York when Manhattan’s
spires reflected the first light out of the
east. At nine o’clock the prosecutor was
back at his desk after an hour in bed, a
shower, breakfast and a change of clothes.
It was Investigator Cunniff who caused
the first_of Mancuso’s three telephones
to ring. The records of practising dentists
and physicians in Greater New ¢ ork dis-
closed no Arthur Warren Waite. This hard-
ly reconciled with the colored boy’s story
of having seen Waite dashing in and out of
the Colosseum apartments with a black
bag.
Cornell Medical College knew of Waite,
“according to the message received on the
second phone. The Doctor from Riverside
Drive, the Medical College’s records dis-
closed, had, four months previously, made
purchases of typhoid and_ diphtheria
bacilli.
A third telephone call was to spell bad
news for Aunt Cathy. The brokerage firm
of Spaulding, McLellan & Company, at
74 Broadway, produced for Mancuso’s in-
vestigators records showing -that the dap-
per physician-dentist had been a singularly
poor prognosticator of market leaps and
dives. He had begun right after his ar-
rival in New York with $50,000, and lost
$40,000 of it—a pretty pat figure, to
Mancuso’s way of thinking. The $10,000
that hadn’t gone up in Wall Street smoke
he had given to Aunt Cathy as “profit.”
Schultze and Mancuso had their bags
packed to entrain with the Grand Rapids
trio for a secret mission to that city when
the Assistant District Attorney got hold of
the last loose end that he wanted to tie
into the crime knot before proceeding fur-
ther. This was the original of the tele-
gram that had set the investigative ma-
chinery in motion. It was not in the form
of good news. “No handwriting to trace,”
were the words of the detective who tele-
phoned in. “K. Adams had a Western
Union clerk do the actual writing. The
wire was phoned in from a telephone pay '
station and the money dropped in a coin
box.”
Mancuso and Schultze were registered
under assumed names in the Hotel Pant-
lind, Grand Rapids, the next afternoon,
waiting around for dark. The weather
was ideal for what they had in mind. The
sky was overcast and there was an in-
termittent drizzle. The body they wanted
still reposed in a locked Vault in Oak
Hill Cemetery. The New Yorkers drove
out to look over the lay of the land.
At one o’clock the following morning,
when the drizzle had turned into a down-
pour, a car bearing four men slid away
from a point a block distant from the Hotel
Pantlind. It cannot be revealed who three
of those four were, although it can be
stated that they have been mentioned in
this chronicle and your guess is as good
as the next one. Number Four, of course,
was Dr. Schultze, his face grimly lined as
he puffed furiously on a fat cigar.
Oak Hill Cemetery was like a tomb in
more ways than one. With the car parked
outside the grounds at the point nearest
the vaults, the grim quartet entering the
cemetery sank almost up to their ankles in
mud. It would be necessary to betray a
confidence to tell you just what happened
next. Suffice to say that the visitors were
joined by a fifth man inside the burial
ground and that twenty minutes later,
they were outside again, carrying a coffin.
Presently they let themselves into an un-
tenanted house near by, arranged for in
advance, and carried their burden to the
cellar.
Schultze removed the body. It was nec-
essary to work by the rays of an oil Jan-
tern, inasmuch as the electricity had been
shut off. Old Mr. Peck was now placed
on the cellar floor and the Medical Ex-
aminer went to work. It took him an
hour to get the heart and the brain.
Long before dawn, Schultze and Man-
cuso were on the way back, the Peck
coffin being once more securely in_ its
vault, the Least and brain in glass con-
tainers in the Medical Examiner's suit-
case.
[AVESTIGATOR CUNNIFF was wait-
ing for Mancuso at the New York end
of the trip. “What did you find out. Jack?”
asked the Assistant District Attorney.
“Plenty! I took a look around the
apartment first. It looked all right, off-
hand. I didn’t pay much attention to
the chemicals because I figured anybody
could have them. But you know all those
books?”
“Yes, the medical books in the room
where he experimented.”
Cunniff nodded. “Well, they have a lot
of technical names that are Greek to me.
But I keep looking at them, and there was
something not just right, if you know what
I mean. Then I saw what it was. One
of the books was sticking out of the case
a little, while all the rest of them. were
neatly arranged. So I picked this one
book out and saw a small piece of paper
sticking up, and it was a bookmark. Wait
just a minute.” The sleuth reached into
his pocket for something he had written
down. “The name of the book is Wood's
Therapeutics and Pharmacology, Volume
Number Two. I took out the bookmark
and saw that it was between a couple of
pages that tell what arsenic does to the
human body.”
HAVE YOU A STORY? |
If you have in mind any fact case, with actual photographs, deemed suitable for
publication in this magazine, please address the Editor, MASTER DETECTIVE, 122 |
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RRL Ni elgan
MASTER DETECTIVB
Mancuso whistled
Schultze. The Me
grunted. The prose
Cunniff. “The pag:
he wanted to know.
“They are badly
prints,” replied Cum
A telegram waite:
office. It was from
Rapids, and read:
W ARRIVES WOLVERI
ING GRAND CENT}
SISTER STAYING BE}
In the morning.
detectives loitered in
nal. The prosecutor
a careful study of s
Dr. Waite in the R
ment. When a tall, |
figure passed throug
gorged the Wolver
cuso drew a handke)
and blew his nose. 1
action.
Two redcaps, lade
gage, followed the s
couple toward a line
Waite had his bags
gave each porter a bi
to the driver. He th
for a row of teleph
cab waited. The de
selves in the booth:
which one Waite chi
to an officer.
HIS was in the «
phones, when you
the operator. Two de
each side of the
smartly dressed, athl
him calling a num!
Room 1105. “Hello,
words. “I just got i
time to explain, bi
packed as I wrote yo)
Check out immedia
second. I'll see you
within a week. I’ve
While Waite was
Colosseum, one of the
on the number that t
When he learned tl
Hotel he and others
Central and into a c
upper Fifth Avenue,
the detectives got
tan’s early morning
precisely surprised, t]
at the Plaza they {
ant of Room 1105.
een awaiting the «
checked out immedi
a forwarding address
The register gave
Walters, of New Yo:
dress. Mancuso was +
boys, elevator oper:
ployees. They recog
Dr. Waite as those
frequently called at
to the eleventh floo
“What did this Mi
Mancuso asked an «¢
“She was a pippin
expression. A won
I would say. Strikii
dark hair. large bro.
“How long has sh«
“About three mc
she’s something of a
a piano put in her ro
here.”
Waite came out of
ly after one-thirty tl
into a passing cab, a
Palace Theatre in th
then America’s pre:
deville house. He pi
third row and went
MARCH, 1941
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76
Dora Hilliard. who had been dismissed
by the Waites following the death of Mr.
Peck, had been located through a canvass
of employment agencies. Mancuso asked
her if she had noticed anything strange
during her employment in the Colosseum.
She told him about the noise in the hall-
iin. during the night the old lady had
ied,
“Did either of the Waites spend much
time in the kitchen?”
“Oh, yes,” replied the girl. “The Doctor
liked to be there when I was cooking.”
Mancuso glanced at the stenographer
to see that she was getting everything
down.
“Did you ever see him monkeying
around with any of the food that you were
to serve?” he inquired.
“He used to put medicine in it.”
“Medicine? What kind? Who for?”
“For beth Mrs. Waite’s father and
mother. He would say to me, ‘Dora, Mrs.
Peck won’t take her medicine, so I’ll just
put it in the soup here.’ Then he would
smile and tell me not to say nothing.”
“And Mrs. Waite knew nothing of this?”
“Oh, no, sir.”
ON the third day of the surveillance
following Waite’s return from Grand
Rapids, he was trailed to the Berlitz School
of Languages. The shadowers imme-
diately concluded that this was the “class”
referred to in his telephone conversation
with the vanished Mrs. Walters, who had
occupied Room 1105 in the Plaza.
This deduction seemed to be borne out
an hour and a half later when Waite left
the school with a woman answering Mrs.
Walters’ description. The two were trailed
to a rooming house in Greenwich Village.
When Waite came out, alone, more than
an hour afterward, Mancuso’s men had in-
structions to look over the place. They
had nothing to hold back now. The prose-
cutor was ready to break the case wide
open.
The officers found a Mrs. W. Walters oc-
cupying a small apartment. They were
soon in the living-room, talking to a bad-
ly frightened woman.
“How long have you known Dr. Waite?”
she was asked.
“I met him several months ago at a
small recital I sang at. He’s in serious
trouble of some kind, isn’t he?”
“Yes,” replied one of the investigators.
“He poisoned his wife’s folks.”
Mrs. Walters—that was not her real
name, but to reveal her identity would
serve no good purpose—tried to muffle a
gasp. Then, with an effort, she regained
control of herself. “Please tell me all
about this,” she said, “and then I’ll be glad
to tell you everything I know.”
A woman betrayed listened first with
eyes wide with curiosity, then narrowed
with hatred as one of her visitors told
her in a general way what had been
found out. When this recital was com-
pleted, she said, “Very well, I think I can
be of help.”
She sketched her personal relationship
with Waite, making it clear, however, that
despite the fact that he had made many
advances to her, she had never submitted.
He had paid for her room at the Plaza,
true, after having evinced a desire to see
her progress with her musical ambitions.
He had suggested attendance at the Ber-
litz School, explaining that a study of
languages would be useful in music. It
had finally occurred to her, though, that
the school had merely offered a conve-
nient place for the Doctor to meet her. As
the friendship had progressed he had gone
to her hotel room. First he had listened
to her sing, then he had read poetry; then
he had tried what he had obviously had
in mind in the first place. Somehow or
other he had mistakenly inferred a promise
of things to come and had continued his
attentions.
One day, not long after he had first met
Mrs. Walters, he had told her, “I’m not
getting along with my wife, but I’m going
to stick it out until her parents die. I'll
then have half a million dollars and you
and I can take a trip around the world.”
Mancuso was talking over the case with
Schultze that night. “It adds up, all
right, Doc,” he observed. “I’ve got a
cable here from Glasgow, saying Waite
never finished his medical course. He
merely pretended to be a doctor in order
to win Clara Peck.”
“How me could he have continued his
pose of dashing in and out of the apart-
ment house, pretending to her that he was
a physician?”
“He didn’t intend to keep that up in-
geepely tor his wife was next on the
ist.”
“What?”
-Mancuso nodded. - “You know why she
didn’t come on here with him now? She’s
been taken suddenly ill out there. Pains
in the stomach and the usual symptoms of
arsenic poisoning. She would have been
a goner, only he couldn’t stay there to
finish the job!”
“Why?”
Mancuso shrugged. “I don’t know ex-
actly—but he became suspicious of some-
thing and just had to come here to New
York to find out what was what.”
“You have a pretty good case, Frank?”
“Well, enough to break him, I think.
We located that colored maid and she
tells us he put stuff in the old folks’ soup.
The poison book you know about, also
the visits to the Cornell Medical College
for the germs. He told Mrs. Walters that
he expected to come into the Peck fortune.
I imagine he started rushing things a little
bit so as to be able to make good the
$40,000 of Miss Catherine Peck’s money
that he lost.”
SCHULTZE doubted Waite’s good in-
tentions as regards the $40,000. “Why
don’t you arrest him?” he asked.
Mancuso smiled. “I wanted to keep you
in suspense, Doc,” he replied. “They
nailed him just before you dropped in.
He’s on his way down to the Tombs now.”
In a little while the telephone rang.
After the prosecutor took the message, he
said, “Stick around, Doc; I’ll tell you all
about it in a little while.”
Schultze was sticking around for a good
long while, and it was early morning when
the Assistant District Attorney came in.
“What took you so long?” asked the Medi-
cal Examiner.
Mancuso was smiling. “I got a full con-
fession,” he said. “Signed, sealed and de-
A group of detectives examine drugs
found in the murder apartment
MASTER DETECTIVE
livered.” He
“He admitte:
“Yes, And }
just as I said
“Have much
“Some. I sh
theria and typ!
wall safe and h
were kept secr:
be legitimate.
“T told him
him coming f)
night the old |
He thought he
ting back into
wife he had bi
scream woke |
7 HAT ma
whole t!
Mancuso la
four men who
night?”
“How could
“Well, he sa
“What!”
“Yes; he fig
queer going on
the delay in c
between giving
he used to sli
nights to see w
stretched. “W:
phecy was to
on the road t
swamps is an ic
and poisonous
At its north«
ville, is a larg
Goleman hid
A few days
approached the
Jackson, at Gc
before any of
visitor.
He imparted
fantastic tale c
hidden in the
terious Big Th
Before the o
his two small ;
Goleman desc:
wealth and pro
with him, offer
Jackson reluc
Silently, he cli
his Chevrolet
in the back s
driver’s right
miles directed
roads.
On the fring
whipped out
uncle to stop
Red then n
Jackson’s pock
A snarl of
ment came fron
$10 in cash an:
Goleman, pré
his relative, or
hands behind |}
he securely bou
wire was so ti;
cruciating. W
bandit laughed
“You ain’t si
leering. “Wait
and your famil
Peering into
two sons, now
threatened the:
they attemptec
keys, he. opene
ordered the tw
MARCH, 1941
n this, they]
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“But Major
to me and
titted State's
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What To said
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selected a
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He knew
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onnections,
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‘their busi-
the impres-
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plometrist,
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plied then
of Tndian-
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litted that. |
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’ Charles
iTECTIVE
vs stands
True Detective Mysteries
The Great Riverside Drive Poison Mystery
(Continued from page 64)
you are better now.
Do not speak to any one about my
affairs. There are certain persons who are
trying to make trouble for me, just because
I am not a licensed dentist,
With lots of love, yours,
Arthur,
Quickly sealing the letter again, Man-
cuso dropped it on the desk before the
superintendent returned with the word that
he had been unable to reach the Post-
master by telephone and would not. dis-
regard regulations without the Postmaster’s
authority. Mancuso could not stop the
transfer of the letter.
But Mancuso, by this time, did not. want
to intercept the letter. Knowing its con-
tents, he wanted it to go forward to Mrs.
Waite in Grand Rapids. He thanked the
superintendent—although the superintendent
did not know why he should be thanked—
and left for his office.
Shortly before 4 o'clock on the follow-
ing afternoon, Monday, March 20th, four
men left Mr. Mancuso’s office in the Dis-
trict) Attorney's suite—but they did = not
leave together. About 3:30 o'clock Doctor
Otto Schultze, the medical examiner, wan-
dered casually from the Center Street
building. Apparently he did not have a
care in the world; not a thought of any
serious business. Ten minutes later, two
professional-looking men—they were Doc-
tor Wishart, the Grand Rapids divinity,
and) Doctor Schuritz, the Grand Rapids
physician—left the building together.
At 3:45 o'clock Mancuso followed them,
waving his hand to several reporters in the
corridor and laughing disarmingly when
they called, “Anything doing, Frank 2”
Hite four men met a few minutes be-
fore 4 o'clock in the Grand Central
Terminal and, without discussion, moved
through a door to the lower train level and
boarded a train, going into a compartment
immediately and making themselves com-
fortable for a long trip. They had reached
the train without letting anyone—except
District. Attorney Swann—know that they
were off to Grand Rapids in a further ef-
fort to clear up the mystery of the deaths
of John I. Peck and his wife.
While the train was carrying Mancuso
and the three doctors westward the de-
tectives in New York City still were trail-
ing Doctor Waite’s every movement and
combing the city for the mysterious “Mrs.
Walters” who so unceremoniously had left
the Plaza Hotel following ‘the telephone
call from Waite shortly after his arrival
from Michigan that Saturday morning.
Employes at the Plaza remembered her
well, for she was a beautiful woman, of
striking classic beauty, a pronounced bru-
nette, voluptuous in appearance. She and
“Doctor Walters” had been registered at
the Plaza for weeks, “Mrs. Walters” re-
maining in the hotel many hours each day
and “Doctor Walters” joining her there
daily, usually about 4 o’clock in the after-
noon.
But, the mysterious “Mrs. Walters” had
disappeared almost magically. No one knew
by what means she left the hotel after
paying her bill. “Mrs. Walters” and her
baggage simply had vanished into thin air.
In the meantime Mancuso and his pro-
fessional companions had sped westward to
Michigan, arriving in Grand Rapids on the
morning of ‘Tuesday, March 2lst. They
were met at the station by Percy Peck
and while riding from the railroad depot
init closed car they laid plans for their
next move. Secrecy, all agreed, was essen-
tial—secrecy even from the police of Grand
Rapids, for the time, at least,
It was realized that any publicity at this
stage of the proceedings would be fatal,
that it would warn persons under suspicion
and) probably thwart the move the in-
vestigators contemplated.
While the others remained under cover,
Perey Peck engaged a suite of rooms for
them in the Hotel Pantlind, one of the
largest hotels in Grand Rapids, and the
four men registered under fictitious names,
There was curiosity about their arrival,
. curiosity on the part of hotel-beat reporters
who tried to learn what their presence in
the city might mean, But the reporters did
not learn—and the report went abroad that
the four men, one of whom wore clerical
garb, were prohibition advocates, who had
come to Grand Rapids to promote the cause
of prohibition there!
On the afternoon of their arrival, with
the cooperation of Percy Peck, Mancuso
drove to the palatial Peck home and had
a long interview with the former Clara
Peck, now the wife of Doctor Waite. She
was ill in bed, prostrated by the death of
her father so soon after the loss of her
mother, and it was with difficulty that
Mancuso learned much from her. The
death of her father was a painful subject,
Mrs. Waite said, and she did not want to
discuss it, but her brother, Percy, finally
persuaded her to answer the questions put
to her by Mancuso.
oh AS there anything peculiar about
your father’s illness, Mrs, Waite?”
the New York prosecutor asked. “Do you
recall any significant things, on reflection,
which might point) suspicion toward any
one 2”
“None in the least,” Mrs, Waite replied.
“Pather had been taking medicine for
some time before his death. He did not
like to lake it and sometimes it was given
to him in his food. He had a very bad
cold and my husband, on one occasion, gave
him his medicine in some clam broth which
the maid had prepared for him.
“But father complained of the taste ‘of
the broth and demanded that I get a new
cook. He was given medicine in coffee
after that—but I had to discharge the
servant to please him.”
“Mrs, Waite,” asked Mancuso, quietly,
“had the servant been satisfactory previous
to that time?”
“Oh, yes,” was Mrs. Waite’s response.
“Had she been with you long, even be-
fore your mother’s death?”
“Yes,” Mrs. Waite responded with a
puzzled look. “Why do you ask about her ?”
“I’m just curious, Mrs. Waite,” responded
Mancuso. “By the way, Mrs. Waite, what
is the girl’s name, and where does she
live?”
“Why, her name is Dora Hilliar—and TI
don't know where she went after she left
us. She is a colored girl.”
“Thanks, Mrs. Waite,” said Mancuso,
“On, Tom! You don’t know how proud it makes me,
“Now we can put a little money aside each week
and mf some of the things we need so badly.
t
“And to think that only a few months ago you were
worried for foar you would lose your pet od
“Remember how you came home that night and sald
you were tired of being a failure? Remember how
you determined to gt out of the rut by taking up a
course with the I, C, S.?
“I knew it would help you and the firm would
aon notice the difference in’ your work, But I didn’t
think you would get such a big raise so soon!”
piacere tints Aibas
Every day in officc, chop and factory, you will find men
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102
and then he switched his questioning to
incidents of her life before and after her
marriage. He learned that Mrs. Waite
fairly worshipped her handsome husband ;
that their married life had been one marked
by his solicitude for her and for members
of her family and entirely a happy one.
HE® love for her husband had been
given visible demonstration by Mrs.
Waite, for shortly after her father’s death
she had made a will making Doctor Waite
her heir.
Mancuso and others in the sick-room had
been painstakingly quict while Mrs. Waite
was being questioned, but the minute they
left her bedroom the tempo changed. Seiz-
ing Percy Peck by the arm, Mancuso hur-
ried him into the library and said, ex-
citedly :
“Mr. Peck, will you please expedite this
message to District Attorney Swann in
New York City? It must go immediately.”
“Certainly,” said Peck, and he waited
while Mancuso wrote this message to his
chief:
“Get Dora Tlilliar, colored maid, dis-
charged from Waite household recently.
Case developing quickly and THlilliar girl's
questioning is imperative.”
The message was speeded to New York,
opening up still another line of inquiry into
the mystery. :
But, Mancuso and his aides were also
making inquiries along other angles and
these brought interesting facts to light, In-
quiries showed that a brother of Doctor
Waite, a resident of Grand Rapids, who
had been living in’ rather poor circum.
stanees, almost over night dad come inte
possession of considerable funds and had
bought a piece of property. It was learned
that this sudden acquisition of money had
come from Doctor Waite. This explained
why Doctor Waite had been so hard up,
as he had confessed to Miss Catherine Peck
in the hearing of trailing detectives.
On this same day, District Attorney
Swann, in New York, had had a talk with
Doctor Waite, who had no inkling that
his every footstep was being followed by
detectives.
The handsome young dentist, expressing
deep sorrow at the double bereavement in
the Peck family, told in intimate detail his
knowledge of the history of the Peck fam-
ily. Waite frankly admitted that he was
not a registered physician and never had
practised medicine, although his name ap-
peared in directories as “Doctor” Arthur
Warren Waite. He said many of his
friends believed him to be in medical prac-
tice, but he had studied only dentistry at
the University of Michigan and had not
secured a license to practice dentistry in
New York State. Waite told Swann of
his experiences in South Africa, much as
he had told reporters in Grand Rapids on
his return there from abroad.
On that same afternoon, Tuesday, March
2Ist, Maneuso, Doctors Schultze and
Schuritz again held a conference in their
suite in the Hotel Pantlind. There was
one significant feature lacking in the case
and they wanted it cleared up. The autopsy
on the body of John Peck had shown the
presence of a large quantity of arsenic.
But the autopsy had not been deep cnough
to settle definitely this question: “Was
the arsenic injected into the veins before
or after death, or was it assimilated in
food, thus causing death?” This question
True Detective Mysteries
could be answered only by a careful ex-
amination of the brain, heart, and several
other organs, so the conferees determined
that another autopsy was imperative,
HE necessity of secrecy still hampered
the investigators. They had formed
definite suspicions—not sufficient yet to war-
rant arrests, but deep enough to make
them realize that speed was essential to
their success. The body of John Peck
was ina vault in Oak Till Cemetery, on
the outskirts of Grand Rapids and publicly
to ask for permission to disinter it would
bring down on the heads of the investi-
gators the much-disliked publicity. © John
Peck had been a prominent man, and any
hint that suspicion surrounded his death
would bring reporters rushing to the scene
for a story which would be given much
space and display not only in Grand Rapids
newspapers, but in papers throughout the
country.
The conferees in the suite in the Hotel
Pantlind finally decided that the only
chance of securing the body for the second
nutopsy lay in disregarding the Grand Rap-
ids Health Department regulation and vir-
tually “stealing” John Peek's body from
his vault under cover of night!
Perey Peck was in favor of this pro-
cedure. Tle was convinced that some per
son had murdered his father and) probably
his mother and he pledged all the resources
of the Peck family to aid in tracing down
the malefactors.
To Newspapermen
Police Officials
and Detectives
If you have in mind any
fact case, with actual photo-
graphs, deemed suitable for
publication in this magazine,
please address the Editor,
TRUE DETECTIVE Mys-
TERIES, 1926 Broadway, New
York City, and ask for our
“Letter of Suggestions,” cov-
ering full information relative
to writing the accounts of fact
crime cases for this magazine.
Percy Peck had been an invaluable aid
to Mancuso and his associates, but there
was one mysterious point on which he was
unable to give any assistance. Tracing back
through his memory all friends of the fam-
ily, he could give no inkling which might
lead -to the identity of the phantom “Ix.
Adams,” sender of the telegram from the
Grand Central Terminal in New York
which halted the cremation of John Peck's
body and started Perey Peek and the au-
thorities on their investigation.
The younger Peck went over with Man-
cuso the names of persons who had been
familiar with the Pecks and the Waites in
New York—but none of them gave even
a hint to the identity of “K. Adams.” De-
tectives in New York who also were try-
ing to fathom the “K. Adams” mystery,
reported that the telegram, the original
form on which it had been written, had
been found in the telegraph company files,
but the handwriting proved no clue, for the
telegram had been written by one of the
company’s clerks at the Grand Central of-
hee oat the dictation of the sender!
The elerk who had written the telegram
had been questioned closely, but his recol-
lection of the sending of the message was
vague.
UT that was as far as the New York
detectives had been able to follow the
trail of the warning message.
But, to return to Grand Rapids. As has
been said, Mancuso and his co-investigators
had) determined that) on) Tuesday night.
March 21st, or in the carly morning hours
of Wednesday, March 22nd, the body of
John FE. Peck should be spirited from the
vault in Oak Hill Cemetery and removed
to some place secretly where another au-
topsy could be performed. The plans for
the removal were made in the suite in the
Hotel Pantlind, with Percy Peck concur-
ring.
It was determined to seck the aid of a
Grand Rapids undertaker, a man of dis-
cretion and high business standing. — He
was sent for, and upon his arrival at = the
Pantlind, Assistant Distriet Attorney Man-
cuso, explained the situation. lor obvious
reasons, the name of the undertaker is not
disclosed,
In the presence of Doctor Schultze, the
New York medical examiner who was to
perform the autopsy, Doctor Schuritz, the
Peck's family physician in Grand Rapids,
Doctor Wishart, the Peck’s religious coun-
scllor and Percy Peck, Mancuso. said to
the undertaker:
“Circumstances have arisen which make
it imperative that another autopsy be per-
formed on the body of John I. Peek, and
it is highly important that no inkling of
the second autopsy become public. We
want your aid in removing the body from
the cemetery vault, because we feel that
even the Grand Rapids police or health
authorities must not know of it. Tf the
removal becomes a matter of public record,
some publicity is sure to follow, and if
there is publicity all that we have ac-
complished in our investigation may be de-
feated.”
“Mr. Mancuso,” asked the undertaker,
“what do you want me to doz”
“We want you to get John Peck's body
from the cemetery vault, take it) to a
mortuary until we can have the autopsy
performed, and then take the body back to
the cemetery without a single soul, except
us, knowing anything about it.”
“Mr. Mancuso,” responded the under-
taker, “you are asking me to break the
law. Official authority is necessary before
the body can be taken from the cemetery.”
But the arguments of Maneuso and his
associates finally prevailed, and the under-
taker, persuaded that a violation of the
Health Department regulations in this case
would further the cause of justice, con-
sented to the almost ghoulish plan.
Through the silent streets of the city
the automobile passed, its black body melt-
ing into the darkness as it headed toward
the sparsely settled sections in) the out-
skirts. Almost at the minute set, 3 o'clock.
it reached the entrance to Oak THill Ceme-
tery and passed through the gates, driving
slowly through the winding roads which
led to the vault where the body of the
millionaire Tay.
The vault, of course, was locked se-
curely, but
the ke
the por
tuker’s
slowly tp te
came to as
by the four
from the au
rehearsed fa
memorized <
ders or com
Then, as
trees and In
ments and t
the vault s\
figures pass:
worked sile:
appeared at
time with a
the body oi
gered throu
ness with t!
who had re:
taker’s car,
and the. sil:
into the au
car beside |
away, tow
awould take
the underts
In the ¢
taking esta
morning, t!
the seeond
and placed
physicians,
come from
took over t!
medical sciv
whether Jo
of a hme
moved the
other orga:
placed — the
steril! ;
jars '
waitil
to Ann Art
tant, where
sity of Mi
their comit
When D:
another ghi
The body ©
the vault in
break, trac
crated so 1
taken place
as the star
before, the
silent street
through the
ITH
door
ottsly reap)
carried the
ifs resting
coor of th
the funeral
traversed
inte the hiv
The body
had been
jected to.
vault in the
soul in th
the secret
thing had
in’ the ins
mystery ha
The mo:
or the
ot the
al ot-
ek ram
recol-
te Was
York
mw the
\s has
ators
tight,
hours
dy of
m the
moved
er au-
ns for
in the
oneur-
lofia
ty dis-
He
at the
Man-
Datos
In Met
re, the
to
he
pids,
> coun.
aid te
Ne
iomake
De per-
*k, and
ling of
We
vy from
el that
health
It the
record ’
and it
We ates
be de-
rtaker,
‘s body
i to oa
autopsy
hack to
ere) ft
under-
ak the
before
netery.”
and his
under-
of the
Dis case
‘¢, cone
the city
iy melt-
toward
he out-
o'clock.
Berrie =
Bibra
vich
of the
keds se-
fo ~ inaantann diag Sit seat
curely, but) in) some mysterious manner,
the key which opened the lock reposed in
the pocket of one of the men in the under-
tuker’s car. The black, somber car drove
slowly up to the entrance of the vault and
came to a stop. Not a word was spoken
by the four dark figures which emerged
from the automobile. The action had been
rehearsed faithfully, instructions had been
memorized and there was no need for or-
ders or comment, .
Then, as the wind howled through the
trees and hissed ghost-like past the monu-
ments and tombstones nearby, the door of
the vault swung back and the four dark
figures passed silently into the tomb, They
worked silently, but quickly, and soon they
appeared at the door of the vault, this
time with a burden—the casket containing
the body of John E, Peck. As they stag-
gered through the door in the murky dark-
ness with their heavy burden, a fifth man,
who had remained at the side of the under-
tuker'’s car, opened the doors of the vehicle
and the silent four slid the Peck casket
into the automobile and climbed into the
car beside it. The machine slowly moved
away, to wind back to the highway which
would take it into Grand Rapids and to
the undertaker’s establishment.
In the eerie atmosphere of an under-
taking establishment at 4 o'clock in’ the
morning, the body of John E. Peck for
the second time was taken from its casket
and placed in the hands of post mortem
physicians. Doctor Otto Schultze, who had
come from New York to perform his duty,
took over the work and lent his learning in
medical science to another effort to decide
whether John E. Peck had been the victim
of a human fiend. Doctor Schultze re-
moved the heart, a lung, the intestines and
other organs from Mr. Peck’s body and
placed them in jars which had been
sterilized in the presence of witnesses. The
jars were packed to avert breakage and a
waiting messenger rushed off with them
to Ann Arbor, approximately 135 miles dis-
tant, where Dean Vaughan of the Univer-
sity of Michigan Medical School awaited
their coming for another analysis,
When Doctor Schultze’s work was done,
another ghostly pilgrimage was to be made.
The body of Mr. Peck must be returned to
the vault in Oak Hill Cemetery before day-
break, traces of the removal must be oblit-
erated so no one should suspect what had
taken place during the eventful night. Just
as the start had been made several hours
before, the long black car moved over the
silent street, through the suburbs and finally
through the winding roads of the cemetery.
Wire precision the car drew up to the
door of the vault, the key mysteri-
ously reappeared and four huddled figures
carried the body of John E. Peck back to
its resting place, closed and locked the
coor of the vault and silently stepped into
the funeral car, which moved slowly away,
traversed the cemetery roads and slipped
into the highway just as dawn was breaking.
The body of the Grand Rapids millionaire
had been taken from the cemetery, sub-
jected to an autopsy and restored to the
vault in the dead of night with not a single
soul in the city—aside from those in on
the secret—even suspecting that such a
thing had been done! And another step
in. the investigation of the Peck poison
inystery had been successfully accomplished.
The morning hours of that Wednesday,
True Detective Mysteries
March 22nd, 1916, were spent by Mancuso
and his associates in awaiting the report
of the analysis from Dean Vaughan at Ann
Arbor. The report came about noon and
it was startling.
The analysis showed that arsenic, in huge
quantities had been found in the heart and
brain of John E. Peck. The report meant
beyond a particle of doubt that Peck had
been killed by arsenic administered to him
in his food and not through injection into
his veins of an embalming fluid containing
arsenic. Quantities of arsenic large enough
to be picked up on the tip of an instrument
under the microscope had been found in
the brain,
Mancuso moved quickly, and in the mov-
ing he revealed the results of some of his
investigations in Grand Rapids which were
not known even to the men with whom he
had been working. From his suite in the
Hotel Pantlind, Mancuso sent this tele-
gram to District Attorney Swann in New
York:
ARREST DEFENDANT IMMEDIATELY.
OVERWHELMING EVIDENCE FOUND.
ME OBTAINED SUBSTANTIAL AMOUNTS
OF MONEY UNDER FALSE PRETENSES
CHECK UP HIS BANK ACCOUNTS AND
HOLD UP ALL DEPOSITS.
MANCUSO
This telegram was followed by other
messages which informed the New York
District Attorney of the intimate details
which the Grand Rapids investigation had
revealed. Swann called officials of the
Homicide Bureau to his private office and
they were informed of the most recent de-
velopments. Orders were issued hurriedly
and three detectives of the Homicide Bu-
reau, headed by Detective John Cuniffe,
left the District Attorney’s office on Cen-
ter Street.
They had been ordered to arrest Doctor
Arthur Warren Waite.
The detectives reached Waite’s luxurious
apartment within a half hour and hurried
to the door on the sixth floor, the same
door which had been opened in the dead
of night for a secret survey a week be-
fore. They rang the bell, but there was
no response, The detectives continued
ringing futilely, and finally summoned the
superintendent, to whom they showed the
warrant for Waite’s arrest. He agreed to
admit them. Fe
phe door was opened and as the de-
tectives entered they fancied they were
in a deserted apartment. There was no
sign of any person in the living room, din-
ing room, or library.
Then the detectives walked into the dark-
ened bedroom, the main bedroom of the
apartment. A tumbled bed could be seen
in the dim light. A detective snapped on
the electric light and all eyes turned to the
bed. In it was the figure of a man, a
large man, handsome, but with tousled hair
and a strange expression on his face.
They walked to the side of the bed and
realized that the figure was that of Doctor
Waite. They shook him, but could not
arouse him; they called his. name and
prodded him, but to no avail. A physician
was stmmmoned hurriedly. He bent over
the stupified man and examined him closely.
Then he turned to the detectives.
“Gentlemen,” the physician said, “Doctor
Waite is in a deep coma, probably induced
by drugs. Apparently he has taken an
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overdose of some sleeping potion or some
one has drugged him! He cannot be
moved and he must have strict medical at-
tention. If you must arrest him, you must
keep hin in custody here.”
A detective took up his vigil at the foot
of the bed.
Doctor Waite, under arrest and facing a
charge of homicide, was utterly unconscious
of the serious predicament in which he had
involved himself.
While Doctor Waite, watched by phy-
sicians and guarded by detectives, lay in
a coma in his palatial apartment on River-
side Drive, District Attorney Swann was
receiving reports on the New York life of
the dashing young dentist and a few scat-
tered details of the mysterious “Mrs. Wal-
ters,” who had disappeared so incredibly
from the Plaza Hotel,
The District Attorney, working on the
tip of financial manipulation hinted in ad-
vices from Mancuso in Grand Rapids,
learned from Miss Catherine Peck that
Doctor Waite had received from her more
than $40,000 for investment. The money,
Waite told her, had been invested in build-
ing and loan organizations, but Swann
suspected that it might have gone into stock
market speculation,
Waite, apparently, in his New York
life, had been a gigantic bluff. tle was
known to many persons as ao physician
deeply interested in the study of institu-
tions and hospitals, others looked upon him
as a physician who had made a fortune in
Wall Street. Still others who knew him
thought he was widely known as an author-
ity on oral surgery, and this belief was
fostered by incidents whieh the police had
collected. One of these incidents was told
by a friend of Doctor Waite as follows:
nf CROWD of us had been playing ten-
nis on uptown courts frequented by
society folk and Doctor Waite was in the
crowd, He was an ‘exceptionally good
player, probably the best of those who fre-
quented those courts, After we were ready
to start for our homes, Doctor Waite said,
‘Jump into my car; I'll take you down-
town.’ But, instead of driving us home
he drove to the entrance of Bellevue Tlos-
pital and stopped. ‘Won't you folks wait
achalf hour for me in the car?’ Waite
asked, ‘I have a diflicult operation to per-
form in here, but it will not take me long.’
We waited for him and he reappeared in
about half an hour, saying modestly that
the operation had been a success.” Waite
had performed no operation. He merely
had loitered in a corridor of the hospital.
Doctor L. W. Doxstater, a dentist of 667
Madison Avenue, New York, who had been
a classmate of Waite’s in the University
of Michigan, also told something of Waite’s
activities. Doctor Waite, Doctor Doxstater
said, had gone to him and asked aid in get-
ting on the staff of some hospital, admit-
ting frankly that he wanted to make good
on the reputation he had made as a man
active in operations.
Deeper investigation revealed that Doctor
Waite had been known as a “big spender”
in New York, Tle was a frequenter of
dansants at the big New York hotels and
was popular in every circle within which
he moved.
With this background, District Attorney
Swann extended his inquiry in an effort
to locate the mysterious “Mrs. Walters”
of the Hotel Plaza. Raymond Schindler,
the private detective engaged by the Peck
family to aid in the investigation, learned
that many telephone calls had been made
from the Waite apartment in the Colosseum
to the woman in her suite at the Plaza. It
will be remembered that “Mrs. Walters”
left the Plaza hurriedly after receiving a
telephone call from Waite on the day he
returned from the Peck funeral in Grand
Rapids.
And while Doctor Waite lay in a coma,
a drug-induced sleep, in his apartment,
technically under arrest, District Attorney
Swann’s detectives located the mysterious
“Mrs. Walters.’ She went to the Dis-
trict Attorncy’s office for questioning.
It was a charming-looking woman who
faced Mr. Swann. She was of classic
beauty, dressed modishly, wore an air of
refinement and one of her most striking
features was her luxuriant, dark brown
hair. Her speech indicated education and
culture as she told Swann that she was
Mrs. Margaret Horton, wife of Harry
Mack Horton, an electrical engineer and
inventor, who lived with her at 56 West
Fleventh Street, New York City. = Mrs.
Horton said her maiden name was Mar-
garet: Weaver and that she was born in
Cincinnati, Ohio, twenty-two years before.
After her parents moved to Missoula, Mon-
tana, she said, she had been orphaned by
their deaths, had married Elorton and had
come to New York only a few months
before, living first at. the MeAlpin Totel
with her husband. From the hotel they
had moved to the Eleventh Street address.
Mrs. Horton, who had a good voice, said
she hoped to be a singer, She had had sev
eral engagements in New York, and after
one appearance at the Academy she had
been approached by the debonair Doctor
Waite, who said he had admired her sing
ing and wanted to become better ace
quainted with her, :
OCTOR WAITE persuaded me to at-
tend the Berlitz Sehool oof Lan-
guages,” Mrs. Horton told District Attor-
ney Swann, “and we became good friends,
Doctor Waite was a remarkable pianist
and a man of particular charm. Tle told
me he had been head of a large hospital
in London and had many friends on. the
Continent.”
As their friendship ripened, Mrs. Horton
said, she had given money to Doctor Waite
to invest for her.
“Doctor Waite’s ability to speak French
drew us together,” Mrs. Horton told the
prosecutor, “and eventually we took a room
in the Plaza, which was fitted up as a
studio, where Doctor Waite and I studied
cach afternoon. He was a wonderful stu-
dent, We read Romeo and Juliet together
and he was masterful, as good a Romeo as
E. H. Sothern!”
Mrs. Horton told the District Attorney
that her husband knew of her friendship
with Doctor Waite and approved it) and
knew that she and the Doctor met in the
room at the Plaza.
“Why did you leave the Plaza so hur-
riedly?” Mr. Swann asked her.
“L owas frightened,” was. the response,
“when [ got his telephone call. I did not
know what had happened, so I left and
went to the home of a friend.” She did
nol explain why she and Waite had pre-
ferred to be known as “Dr. and Mrs.
Walters” at the Plaza.
While evidence of Doctor Waite’s hectic
New Yor
debonair
in his apz
and physicians
dition pointed t
form of sleepin
by his own or
There were «
in the dentist's
searched throu
them. Finally,
weight overcoa
eral small gla-
which were tu
analysis. One
trional tablets ¢
also were tube
onal-sodium ta
cians declared °
had been take:
large quantity
HE investi
and Grand
while the Di-
Doctor Wait
stand question
ly will be
imerview wit
Rapids, Assist
cuso had wire
to hunt Dora |
had been disch
hold. And m
found. ‘This
District: Attor
Two days bx
—Mareh 10th
the kitehen ot
Wats Prepeeb ity:
puto some “me:
for Mr. Peek
father,” Docto:
if and se
mouth is
soup, but
She put two
Doctor and Mi
ried the one
room in her he
“But,” contir
eat his soup an
came back inte |
didu't like his
icine in his
medicine in tl
whether Mr. 1’
There was 0
hafle the dete:
of the Waite :
veal a. single
taker Potter h
had been used
and no record !
chase of arsen:
under suspicion
The District
source of the a
if it were nec
store, retail am
City. Store afte
out the neighbo:
of poison sales
Finally the w
to Lexington A
into the drug s'
Timmermann.
out his) records
Schmadel, rem
made oon Mar
showed that. th:
posite the nota
‘apids elite had
y when pretty
ost her heart to
-old Dr. Waite.
i all the char-
ory book love
’ but ambitious
Jaite had been
pids. For two
ity of Michigan,
ate work at the
wo-year course
ified for a posi-
ment manufac-
1914, when the
was in Africa,
{ to local news-
s on the Dark
1, he had pros-
it two valuable
iled up a large
) his birthplace,
il eyes. An ex-
ifted conversa-
like Clara Peck,
catch.” To the
» couple, almost
a, Arthur Waite
inette beauty of
« seemed almost
ung heiress and
en married in a
Rapids. Lavish
nsive household
ung couple. A
< of $6,000 as a
John E. Peck, wealthy society personage of Grand Rapids, Michigan,
of his son-in-law and daughter on New York’s exclusive Riverside Drive.
was suddenly and mysteriously taken ill while he visited the apartment
The same eerie illness caused the death of his wife (right) just six
weeks before the husband was fatally stricken.
wedding present, apologizing that it was not more!
After a ten-day wedding trip, Dr. Waite and his bride
moved into a handsome, seven-room apartment on
Riverside Drive in New York City. A New Yorker
herself, the same generous aunt who had given the
couple a $6,000 check as a wedding present had leased
and furnished the sumptuous apartment for them. And
here, with the additional gift of a $300 a month allow-
ance from the bride’s father, Dr. and Mrs. Waite began
their married life.
It was an auspicious beginning for any young couple.
Supremely happy, they would have laughed aloud had
anyone hinted that before six months passed, their faces
would be wan with tragedy and their brilliantly-
launched marriage a hideous mockery of that which it
had started out to be.
Quickly, the handsome doctor and his attractive wife
established themselves in the social life of New York.
With the benefit of his intelligence and charm, the
young dentist became acquainted with other medical
men in the city. He plunged himself into the task of
acquiring a following among the society element. Asa
diversion, he studied bacteriology, visiting in his spare
time laboratories where he could obtain for home study
germ cultures and other specimens.
The young couple spent the Christmas holidays with
the Pecks in Grand Rapids. Shortly after New Year’s
Day, Dr. Waite reluctantly announced that he must re-
turn to New York to perform several dental surgery
operations.
“T’ve got to go back, darling,” he said to his wife at
the dinner table one evening, “but before I go, you must
promise me one thing.”
He looked across the table at the elderly, white-haired
Mrs. Peck. She smiled affectionately as her son-in-
law continued:
“You've got to promise me, Clara, that you'll bring
mother back to New York with you when you come.
She’s been so wonderful to us I think it’s time we
showed her some of our hospitality.”
pte so it was agreed. Dr. Waite went back to New
York alone. January 10, his wife and Mrs. Peck
joined him at the sumptuous Riverside Drive apartment.
Eager to repay the devotion and kindness which his
mother-in-law had shown him and his wife, Dr. Waite
outdid himself in his efforts to entertain her.
One afternoon, as the three were driving down the
West Side, Dr. Waite stopped the automobile at the curb
and turned around to speak to the two women who were
sitting in the back seat.
‘lve got to go in the hospital for a few minutes,
mother,” he said to Mrs. Peck. “I want to see how a
patient of mine is coming along.”
Proudly the elderly woman watched as her handsome
son-in-law slipped from behind the steering wheel and
walked into the hospital. For twenty minutes she
chatted with her daughter as they waited for Dr. Waite
to return.
When he came back his face was thoughtful.
“Pye never seen anything like it,” he said, almost
to himself. “She was so grateful. And it was really
nothing at all.”
Pressed for an explanation, the young dentist modest-
ly admitted that he had just visited a 60-year-old
woman on whose fractured jaw he had successfully
operated, a few days previously, after several well-
known surgeons had been unable to set it properly.
“I simply used bridgework,” Dr. Waite explained.
“But the way she thanked me—well, it was really quite
touching. After all, I simply drew on my knowledge of
dental surgery. There wasn’t anything very difficult
about it.”
Impulsively Mrs. Peck (Continued on page 46)
31
ABOARD THE BLACK MARIA.
This vivid photo shows the mur-
dering conniver in the patrol
wagon, enroute to the Tombs
before he was brought to trial.
Even hardened police veterans
were shocked by the story he
finally told.
SUSPECT. Police are shown re-
moving a suspect in the enig-
matic case from his apartment.
to Bellevue Hospital for further
treatment of a strange illness.
Sickness and death are promi-
nent in this almost unbeliev-
able story of Manhattan's so-
ciety folk.
on the progress of the Great War. It was difficult to
think something could happen at home, which, for hor-
ror and brutality, would temporarily dwarf even that
crimson cataclysm.
Nor would the chance passerby that fateful night
have believed, even had he known, the shocking events
which were to follow, that the prologue to this revolting
drama was set not in an atmosphere of ghostly burial
vaults and deserted cemeteries, but at the most brilliant
and festive social function which Grand Rapids society
attended during the preceding year.
IF ever a marriage seemed destined to complete and
lasting happiness, it was that which united Clara
Louise Peck and Dr. Arthur Warren Waite in Grand
Rapids, September 9, 1915.
In her early twenties, cultured, well-educated, vibrant
with youthful charm, the smartly-dressed Clara Peck
had been considered the “catch” of the Grand Rapids
social swirl. Her father, elderly John E. Peck, had
amassed a considerable fortune in the wholesale drug
business. He had lavished it generously on his wife,
Hannah, his son, Percy, and his daughter. Socially, the
Pecks’ position in society was solidly established.
30
And the Grand Rapids elite had
nodded approvingly when pretty
young Clara Peck lost her heart to
handsome, 29-year-old Dr. Waite.
Their romance had all the char-
acteristics of a story book love
affair.
The son of poor but ambitious
t parents, Arthur Waite had been
- born in Grand Rapids. For two
Pi
years he studied dentistry at the University of Michigan,
then went to Scotland to do post-graduate work at the
University of Glasgow.
Almost miraculously, he finished the two-year course
in somewhat less than a year, then qualified for a posi-
tion with a British firm of dental equipment manufac-
turers in South Africa.
During the five years from 1909 to 1914, when the
personable and popular young dentist was in Africa,
his friends in Grand Rapids had thrilled to local news-
paper accounts of his fabulous success on the Dark
Continent. Almost overnight, it seemed, he had pros-
pered. Word spread that he had bought two valuable
farms in British East Africa and had piled up a large
private fortune.
And when, late in 1914, he returned to his birthplace,
the young doctor was the cynosure of all eyes. An ex-
pert tennis player, a charming and gifted conversa-
tionalist, independently wealthy, he too, like Clara Peck,
quickly established himself as a “social catch.” To the
gratification of everyone who knew the couple, almost
immediately upon his return from Africa, Arthur Waite
had been captivated by the mature, brunette beauty of
John Peck’s daughter.
As the culmination of a romance that seemed almost
too perfect to be true, the beautiful young heiress and
the handsome, self-made doctor had been married in a
cerernony which fairly dazzled Grand Rapids. Lavish
gifts of jewelry, silverware and expensive household
furnishings were showered on the young couple. A
maiden aunt of the bride sent a check of $6,000 as a
John E. Peck, wea)
of his son-in-law an
wedding presen
After a ten-d
moved into a
Riverside Driv:
herself, the sa
couple a $6,000
and furnished t
here, with the <
ance from the |
their married li
It was an aus
Supremely hap}
anyone hinted t!
would be wan
launched marri:
had started out
Quickly, the }
established ther
With the benef
young dentist t
men in the city
acquiring a foll«
diversion, he sti
time laboratorie
germ cultures a
The young co
the Pecks in G1
Day, Dr. Waite
turn to New Y
operations.
“T’ve got to g
the dinner table
promise me one
He looked acr
Mrs. Peck. Sh
law continued:
““You’ve got °
~prive
By RELUVIN KENT
WAN moon furtively rode the lowering heavens,
slipping from behind one fast-flying black storm
cloud to the next as if dreading each momentary
glimpse of what was transpiring below in the shadowy
City of the Dead.
It was 3 o’clock, the morning of March 22, 1916. In
the deserted Oak Hill Cemetery on the outskirts of '
Grand Rapids, Mich., there was being enacted a macabre
| drama whose denouement was to be so fantastic and
so horrible that it might have been lifted bodily from
the most gruesome pages of Poe.
A huge black automobile, sliding almost noiselessly
through the night shadows, stopped before a marble
burial vault. The headlights were snapped off. The
doors of the car swung open. Four men stepped out.
Quickly, as if conscious that the sightless eyes of untold
numbers of the dead were watching their every move,
they walked along the graveled path and stopped before
the massive bronze door of the vault.
For a moment, they stood there in silence, their
muffled figures briefly casting shapeless, grotesque
shadows against the vault facade before the pale moon
timidly crept back to cover again behind a cloud. The
wind moaned faintly, forlornly through the gaunt and
leafless branches of a nearby elm. One of the men
shivered and drew his heavy coat closer about him.
| With an ominous creaking, the solid bronze door of
the vault swung open. The man who had opened it
hesitated for a second. Then. he stepped across the
t threshold and disappeared in the pitch black void. One
28
‘Tricking The
MURDERING
CONNIVER of
lverside
_being dragged over stone.
a Bes
~<
re
a 4:
oF
by one, the others followed,
merging into the darkness
like ink drops on a black
blotter.
A man’s voice, low, com-
manding, was followed by
the sound of:a heavy object
Slowly the four men emerged
from the vault, carrying be-
tween them a casket. Strain-
ing under its weight and that
of the grim object it con-
tained, the phantom pall-
bearers walked toward the
car whose sombre outline
bore unmistakable proof of
its owner’s profession.
Carefully,
lifted the heavy casket into the rear compartment of th
undertaker’s car. Three of them climbed in beside it.
The fourth man walked swiftly back to the vault, closed
the bronze door and locked it. Then he rejoined his
companions in the car. The headlights flashed on again.
Slowly the car gathered speed. At the first intersection
of roads in the vast, rambling cemetery, it turned left,
then quickly disappeared in the direction of the sleep-
ing city of Grand Rapids.
Even if someone wandering through the cemetery
grounds that chill, dark night of March, 1916, had
é
the four men :
oo
WHERE HORROR
sinister talent her
York
chanced to wi
mission, he wo
he saw woulc
starkly horrif
newspapers of
manded equal
of fighting on ‘
that was ina
K
4
BAY
- vA: +
rtment of the
in beside it.
» vault, closed
- rejoined his
shed on again.
st intersection
it turned left,
of the sleep-
the cemetery
th, 1916, had
ig 2
ae
*
‘ $3 SPRL WATE RE 1
ee had a.
an fi ee or ot 24 oaspine STN SA
oe oe
WHERE HORROR REIGNED. The murdering conniver plied his
sinister talent here in this luxurious apartment along New
York City’s famed Riverside Drive.
ness every step of that ghoulish
have dreamed that what
he saw would shortly unfold into a drama so
starkly horrifying and unbelievable that, in
newspapers of the world’s largest city, it com-
manded equal space and prominence with reports
of fighting on the war-torn Western Front. And
that was in a day when every eye was centered
chanced to wit
mission, he would never
GAVE AID. Information given by Mrs. Margaret
Horton was an important help to detectives on
the case. Dr. Arthur Warren Waite (below) tried
to console his bride when her parents died
mysteriously.
POR Nuiy
“ft ti
b
Catskills
Setting out to join her brother at play,
little Helen Glenn, above, fell into the
hands of a human beast and became the
victim of a shocking crime.
<&
Hours of painstaking search were brought
to an end when the body of Helen Glenn
was found in the shallow waters of Basic
Helen walking in the direction of Norton
Hill, not far from the edge of town. An-
other hour passed... two hours .. . and
Helen Glenn had not come home to slip
into the little white dress. Not many
blocks away the schoolhouse blazed with
light, echoed with laughter and song,
then was dark and silent again.
Helen Glenn had not received her
prize.
And thus, on a gentle summer night,
began the strange case of the missing
student. But there were none, among
these placid villagers, who foresaw the
horror to come; none to sense that a
benevolent killer walked among them,
harboring a dreadful secret in his twisted
brain.
Police Begin Search
}* WAS late, on this June night, when
the villagé police answered Mrs.
Hoose’s frantic call and started a belated
hunt for the girl.
Searching parties were quickly or-
ganized, with a group of Greenville Boy
Scouts taking one direction and a party
of citizens headed by Donald K. Mabee
of the Greenville School in another.
Meanwhile others notified Sheriff H.
Clay Ferris of Greene county and
Sergeant J. Walter Wheeler of the New
York State Police at Jefferson Heights.
ADVENTURES
Both men sped to Greenville. Soon the
dew-damp knolls beyond the town
swarmed with human fireflies whose
shouting voices were ghostly echoes of
the little gnomes who led Rip Van
Winkle, stumbling dreamily, along simi-
lar mountain paths, long, historic years
before.
But the night was stern. It gave no
clue, no tiny footmarks on the wet brown
earth, no wisp of clothing or other poign-
ant spoor. At last dawn broke softly in
the verdant dales and the heart-weary
searchers went their homeward way to
sleep a bit, then roam the brush again.
They took the trails with no thought that
murder’s sign might meet them there.
Rather it was supposed that Helen Glenn
had met with some accident ... a broken
leg, perhaps; a swirling mountain creek
whose rush of blue would drown her
cries.
It was with these thoughts in mind
that Sergeant Wheeler and Sheriff Fer-
ris began a systematic search.
First they drained the tiny village
pond, a muddy, shallow puddle where
youngsters waded in hot weather. But
there was nothing on the slimy bottom
except a few frogs croaking and blinking
at the sun.
Resort swimming pools; patronized by
vacationing New Yorkers during the sea-
son, were carefully examined. Empty
creek, as shown at the left.
buildings in and near Greenville were
searched from cellar to roof. The woods
and wild brush throbbed with the alien
sound of human voices, calling.
“You know, I don’t think she got very
far,’ Sergeant Wheeler said to Sheriff
Ferris later in the day. “I’m going to
take some men and start at the parsonage.
Someone must have seen the child at that
time of the day. It wasn’t dark... .”
“All right, Walter,” Ferris nodded.
“Meanwhile I’ll get in touch with the
police and sheriffs of the other counties.”
Wheeler and Lieutenant Garry Sager
of the State Police, acting on a hunch,
went first to a large lot just beyond the
village where the tents and gay banners
of a small traveling circus rippled in the
wind. Sergeant Wheeler approached the
owner and described the missing child.
“I understand she was seen standing
in front of the main tent last night,” the
officer said. “I want to look around the
place a bit.”
“Why certainly,” the owner agreed.
“I’m sure you won’t find her here.”
He led them behind the big top and
showed them through the gaudy circus
wagons in which the troupe traveled. But
there was no sign, no single clue to indi-
cate that Helen Glenn might have wan-
dered among this painted clan of clowns,
perhaps to be lost in their anonymous
community.
45
THN Te ees ? he ek aia 5
mt ee See
VOLCKMANN, Alfred D., white, elec. NYS (Greene) February 11, 1937.
The CRIMSON
m 2 “ Ch, Ge
\ FarTERHOUSE OTEAK 472
Sa16.0(¥ “ LS
For. tt v; ;
ek OUND fs :
Ves Curler to
U VEAL CHOPS ‘Low
” t Pre
te LA JAB. 0 Leung:
” Ria
LEG.
Lois
CHors
LIVER Brae
MIG 4 \ t hue
yt >
——
The awful shadow of murder
shrouded the peaceful Catskills
when the pitiful body of little
Helen Glenn, victim of a sa-
distic attacker, was found
sprawled in a creek bed.
But the shadow was lifted
when grim manhunters ques-
tioned a suspect and found a
vital flaw in his story which
solved the shocking mystery.
DEAN S. JENNINGS
By
Alfred Volckmann, young shopkeeper of Greenville, N. Y.,
anxious to aid the police, gave the first clue to Helen Glenn’s
movements when he reported that the girl had bought a
lollypop at his store the night she disappeared.
T HE rays of the setting sun struck
softly across the ancient stained
glass of the village church. The
reddish beams flickered across a face in
the gloom, picked out the figure of a youth
standing near the altar rail, violin and
bow in hand.
The youth raised the violin. His bow
danced lightly over the strings. The altar
throbbed to the melody evoked by his
flying fingers and the youth swayed
dreamily to the rhythms he had wrought.
But although the setting was peaceful
and the youth’s demeanor was serene,
there was murder in his heart. Blood
lust gripped him—wild, disordered fan-
cies filled his brain which had no place
beneath that hallowed roof.
Tomorrow?
Yes—tomorrow would do. The bow
caressed the strings, the music became a
sensuous wail, and in mind’s eye he saw
crimson splashing from white skjn, glis-
tening on his blade. When the sun was
gone from the church windows, the in-
strument ceased its song. And the youth,
44
licking his lips, lowered the violin and
went out into the night where no light
would mirror the smouldering horror of
his eyes.
Prelude To Death
Ais had come with gay promise for
Helen Glenn, School would soon be
out, and the Catskills, the ripe, sweeping
hills just beyond Greenville, New York,
beckoned to youth with summer’s warm
vacation hours.
It was June 26, 1935, and commence-
ment exercises were to be held that night
at the Greenville Central School. Helen
Glenn had long looked forward to this
evening. She would be wearing her new
white party dress and she would receive
an award for perfect attendance.
But now it was still afternoon, and
there was yet time for a walk, down the
narrow village street to the green hills
that cradled the little town. The girl’s
parents, the Reverend and Mrs. Ernest
Glenn, were away from home, attending
Hele
Hill
a church conference in a nearby town. othe:
But Mrs. Ella Hoose, a family friend, Hel
was staying at the parsonage to watch the int
other children. blo
“Oh, Mrs. Hoose,” Helen said, “I’m ligt
going down by the pond to look for ther
Ernest. He’s been playing down there * H
and he should come home soon.” priz
“All right, Helen,” the woman said. : \
“But don’t be long. Remember, you have beg
to be at the school early tonight.” stud
The girl laughed. thes
“Don’t worry, Ill be back soon.” hor:
She went out, eyes bright, her dark ben
hair gently tossed by the soft summer har
wind. Gaily she walked away from home bra
—into the arms of death!
The sun had long since slipped down
behind the emerald ridge to the west
when Ernest Glenn, a tired little boy ]
with grimy hands and tousled hair, came
back to the parsonage alone. Mrs. Hoose He
saw him close the door, and said: hur
“Why, Ernest, where is Helen? She S
went out to look for you.” gat
The boy shook his head. Sc
“T don’t know, ma’am. I didn’t see of
her anywhere.” of
Unaccountably alarmed, Mrs. Hoose Me
hurried to the telephone and called sev- Cla
eral neighbors. None knew the girl’s ders
whereabouts; but one woman had seen Yor
STARTLING DETECTIVE NI
Martins lal ialias
Mirrat. (G3
Wheeler and his men retraced their
steps to the village, questioning residents
and storekeepers en route. But it was not
until the officers reached a small grocery
store operated by Alfred Volckmann that
they obtained any information.
Find First Clue
“W HY, yes,’’ Volckmann said in re-
sponse to their query. “I saw
Helen Glenn yesterday afternoon. She
came in here to buy some candy.”
“What time was that ?” Wheeler asked
eagerly.
“Tt was about 6:30,” the young grocer
answered. ‘She left here and went up
toward Norton Hill.”
‘Hm—that’s funny,” Sergeant Wheeler
said half aloud. “I wonder what she was
headed that way for?”
The troopers thanked Volckmann and
walked down the road toward the hill
until they came to the home of Mr. and
Mrs. Paul Augustine. There they heard
the girl’s name again. The couple startled
Wheeler with the statement that they had
heard a strange cry, a child-like squeal
of fear, near their home the night before.
“Did you investigate ?” asked Wheeler.
“Yes,” Augustine said. “We went out
and looked around. We even went toa
neighbor’s house to see if their baby was
crying, but they were mystified, too.”
Wheeler was thoughtful for a moment.
“T think,” he said slowly, “that we are
getting somewhere.” :
The troopers left the Augustine house
and went on to the farm of Paul Austin,
who, after chatting with them a moment,
mentioned some unholy sounds he had
heard the night before.
“It was about half past nine,” he said.
“T was standing outside the house when
I heard the cries. They were terrible
.. . blood-curdling, as though someone
were being tortured. Of course, it might
have been some wild bird, down there in
the swamp... .”
“Wait!” Wheeler interrupted. “The
swamp! Maybe that’s it! That’s the
place to look next, even if it is a couple
of miles from town. Let’s go!” .
Basic creek flows sluggishly away from
Greenville, a shallow, pale thread in the
bright pattern of the woods. It seeps into
the moss-grown banks, drowns the brown
earth until the soil swells to swampy mud.
Here and there, deeply rutted, little dirt
logging-roads run through the creek and
are lost in the grass.
Tragedy Revealed
|e WAS inthis area, on the afternoon of
June 28, that searching parties tramped
across the soggy ground, beating the wild
grass with sticks and looking for any
telltale clue. One group, led by Troopers
O’Neill and Merkel, was composed of
James Giery, John Zivilli, and LeRoy
Lawyer, all of the little village of Wes-
terlo, who had volunteered to help in the
search,
They followed the erratic course of
the creek until, about two o’clock, they
were more than two miles.from Green-
ville, in a desolate, thickly wooded hill
region, Suddenly, in a tone that startled
and shocked his hearers, one of the men
cried out:
CONFESSED SLAYER TAKES POISON
Do
A flaw in a suspect’s story gave Lieu-
tenant Garry Sager of the State Police
(right) a clue which was to lead to the
ultimate solution of a ghastly crime.
Following his confession, the slayer of Helen Glenn attempted to end
his life with poison. He is shown being treated by hospital superin-
tendent Alice E. LeGallais and Dr. Lyle B. Honeyford, former coroner.
46
“Look! Look... there... in the
creek bed.”
Stumbling across the yielding marsh,
the others reached his side and stared
down, where the creek flowed idly in
its earthen bed. And they knew, look-
ing at the thing lolling and rocking in
the dark wash, that Helen Glenn would
never laugh again.
She was lying on her back, nude, a piti-
ful white flower in death. Across her
face, neatly folded, was the play dress in
which she had left home—a mask some-
one had placed there to hide the fear in
her eyes. One hand rested in the water,
the other was pressed against her
breast. .
It needed no second glance to tell how
Helen Glenn had died.
Beneath her hand was a jagged gash,
an appalling wound which at first glance
appeared to have pierced the child’s heart,
causing instant death. Her body was
covered with bruises, her brown hair was
matted with grass and mud. The stunned
searchers backed away from the still body
STARTLING DETECTIVE
ana s!
throuy
WY,
wat
\ ohh
friend
erend
and -!
Tor De
DD
would
village
The
away
could
throug
Green
heade
Atkir
notifie
sped uf
John
as
caus
skin
have
ried t
Fert
here
ove!
tranny
on
amy
footy i
whi
whi
deat
Ay)
VI
:
8
a
*
and shouted to other groups wandering
through the woods.
“We've found her.” they cried. “This
way ... by the creek!”
A hundred feet away, with a party of
friends, was the child’s father, the Rev-
erend Mr. Glenn. He heard the alarm
and started running toward the spot, only
to be dissuaded by his companions.
“Don't go,” they pleaded. “Perhaps it
would be better to return to the
village.”
The unhappy father nodded and turned
away, knowing there was nothing he
could do. The tragic news, carried
through the woods in relays, soon reached
Greenville and a waiting group of officers
headed by Sheriff Ferris. Dr. Mahlon H.
Atkinson, Greene county coroner, was
notified at the county seat in Catskill. He
sped to the scene with District Attorney
John C. Welch.
“Well, Doctor,” Welch asked after the
coroner had made a preliminary examina-
tion, “what does it look like ?”
Dr. Atkinson, kneeling by the body in
the swampy grass, pointed to the child’s
chest.
“Somebody pushed a terribly sharp
knife right through her,” he said. “It
probably severed the aorta. But it doesn’t
look as if the crime was done here, be-
cause there is practically no blood on the
skin and none on the grass. She may
have been killed somewhere else and car-
ried to this spot.”
“Yes, that’s what I thought,” Sheriff
Ferris broke in. “Things are too neat
here. That dress was deliberately folded
over the face and the grass hasn't been
trampled down.”
Even as he spoke, officers carefully ex-
amined the ground around the body for
footprints, the weapon, or other clues
which might lead them to the monster
whose vicious hand had created violent
death in the peace of the woods. But
ADVENTURES
CORONER EXAMINES DEATH SCENE
Threading through the underbrush of a swamp some distance
from the village, searchers found the body of the missing girl.
Above, Dr. Mahlon H. Atkinson, Greene county coroner, views
the scene shortly after the shocking discovery.
cn baal
John C. Welch, district attorney of Greene County, displays
the cruel, thin-bladed skife which took the life of little Helen
Glenn after she had been assaulted.
there was nothing .. . nothing but the
still form of the child.
Coroner Atkinson and others gently
lifted Helen Glenn and carried her to a
waiting ambulance. Late that afternoon,
in an undertaking establishment at Cat-
skill, Dr. Atkinson and Dr. Arthur
Wright of Albany performed an autopsy
which revealed the ghastly perfection of
the killer's deed.
The Coroner’s Report
“ HOEVER did this,” Dr. Atkin-
son reported to Sheriff Ferris and
Lieutenant Sager, “used a very sharp
knife, a butcher’s knife perhaps. It took
tremendous strength, for the blade had
been pushed entirely through the body
until its point struck the backbone.”
“Tell me, Doctor,” one of the men
asked, “had she... was there any sign
of attack ?”
The coroner nodded gravely.
“Yes... she had been criminally as-
saulted. Incidentally, she did not move
after that cruel blow, because all the blood
was in the upper part of the abdomen. As
you know, there was no visible blood at
the scene; therefore, the killer must have
knifed her at some other spot and carried
the body to the creek, or else used a cloth
to absorb the spurts.”
Lieutenant Sager shuddered.
“Well...” he said grimly, “this is
one murder that won't go unsolved... .”
That night, with the whole of Greene
county still stunned by the shock of the
murderous crime, the manhunters gath-
ered to compare notes, to plan the next
step in the search for the fiend of the hills.
It was obvious from the first that the
slayer was someone living in the village
or nearby.
The officers checked over the events
of the day, read once more the reports of
conversations with friends and neighbors
of the Glenn family. They reviewed the
stories told by Volckmann, the grocer:
Mr. and Mrs. Augustine; and Austin. Of
the three, Lieutenant Sager recalled,
Volckmann was the only one who had
actually seen the little girl alive.
“T think we'd better check over these
points with those people again tomor-
[Continued on page 78|
47
74
FRONT PAGE DETECTIVE
“Pretty soon,” he confided to a friend, uy il be spending
the Peck millions.”
This remark did not come back, to’ ihe Peck family, nor
was it generally known until muich later. Otherwise, John
-+ Peck and his wife might havé-c died natural deaths.
“y KILLED THEM WITH ia ‘Clara was:entranced by Waite’s stories of ‘Capetown
*%. “and of his stidiesin Scotland, where he attended a dental
school ‘to polish, off the knowledge he had gained at the
University of* Mithigan. ‘His path of New York likewise
thrilled her? * + me &.
Strangely ‘enough, Waite’s Retactlig back in Manhattan
was not so demanding that‘héhad to deny himself the
pleasure of accompanying: Clara and her parents on a
vacation trip to Palm, Beach: Nor did he. find it difficult
to get away to see her during the summer: He lightly
explained that he had not yet found it advisable to open
an office, that he worked mostly. at hospitals as a con-
sultant—a very high-priced consultant, of course.
“Don’t worry,’”’ he said, “with my:reputation I'll still
o
GERMS AND POISONS,”
THE MURDERER SAID
“AVOICE TOLD ME TO”
been a shrewd one;. undoubtedly he had made plenty of
money on the side.
_ Fond mothers cast. appraising eyes upon. the young
man as a possible‘husband for their unmarried daughters.’
In many respects, Dr. Waite.was a model; besides being
a good provider, he neither smoked, drank, nor gambled
—seemingly he had all the virtues and none of the vices.
He was something of an athlete, too. In New York that
winter he had won the metropolitan indoor tennis cham-
pionship, and he was more than a match for any of the
racket-wielders on the Grand Rapids courts.
It is true that a few people recalled some unsavory
rumors circulated about Waite when he attended the
Grand Rapids High School and, later, the dental col-
lege at the University of Michigan. Nothing serious, yet
enough to put a slight cloud over his past. Apparently
he had lived down those mistakes, just as he had tri-
umphed over his rather humble origin.
Waite’s father was a vegetable dealer, having given up
farming to move to the city when his son started high
school, and consequently the family had not rated with
Grand Rapids society. Now, however, the elite were
happy to welcome the romantic yo . dentist into their
homes.
In particular, Dr. Waite’s success and Modeniable charm
opened to him the doors of the Peck mansion.
OHN E. PECK was one of the wealthiest men in Grand
Rapids, his holdings being estimated in the neighbor-
Maria Peck, belonged to the old aristocracy of the town.
They had two children—a son, Percy, and a daughter,
Clara Louise. % 2 a ,
Clara Peck and Arthur Warren Waite were about the
same age, and had known each other in high school.
Rather a plain girl, Clara was not overly popular and
up to this time had not seriously entertained any suitors,
possibly fearing that they were more interested in her
money than they were in her. But when the young man
from South Africa appeared on the scene to renew his
acquaintance, and to shower her with attention, she be-
lieved that at last she had found her ideal.
Brother Percy was not-overjoyed by the courtship;
somehow, he was suspicious of Waite. But this did not
lessen the confidence of the self-styled expert in oral
surgery.
.
BL aan Wa i AN ia ia ier ia lib AS as el Wa leaned he sat Lh ae te -
hood of two million dollars. He and his wife, Mrs:,Anna
DOCTOR
Otto Schultze,
New York pathol-
ogist, who was
sent to Grand
Rapids, Michigan.
He confirmed that
John Peck’s death
was brought about:
intentionally by
a dé@adly poison.
ling
nor
ohn
own
atal
the
vise
ttan
the
na
cult
atly
pen
‘on-
still
|
PRR er mere ep ne ’ * - ~¥
!
FRONF PAGE DETECTIVE ' .
be in demand if I stay
away a whole year.”
Clara and Waite were
engaged before the sum=
mer was over. Percy Peck
still felt uneasy about the ©
whole affair, but there
was nothing he could do.
Clara was deeply in love,
and Waite had convinced
her father and mother be-
yond any doubt that he
would make an excellent
son-in-law. .
The wedding, held at
the Peck home in-Grand
Rapids in September,
1915, was a major social
event. Everybody of im-
portance was there, and
there was a great array
of presents. One of the .
most welcome gifts was
a check for $6,000 from ‘
Clara’s aunt, Miss Cath-,,
erine Peck, who lived at »
a Park Avenue hotel in
New York City. The new-
lyweds used part of this
for an extended wedding
trip, and then settled
down in a spacious apart- '
ment on Riverside Drive, which then was Manhattan’s
most exclusive residential section.
While the bride busied herself arranging the new fur-
niture and attending to the decoration of their new home,
Dr. Waite hustled about his business. He said it was still
inadvisable to open his office; why should he when con-
sultations and calls at hospitals took up so much of his
time?
Every morning the dentist would kiss, his wife goodbye,
get into his expensive car, and drive. ‘away to his work—
presumably at one of the more prominent. hospitals. Oc-
casionally he would take Clara with him on a special
call. He would leave her seated in the car while he went
into a hospital and stayed for an hour or more. Coming
out, he would say:
“Good thing I was called in when I was! Those other
surgeons couldn’t do a thing with the case.”
Sometimes the dentist was called out at night. On a
few. occasions he had to go out of town and remained
away from home for two ‘or three days at.a time.
“Very important special jobs,” was his explanation.
He informed Clara that he did much of his work at
Bellevue Hospital and maintained something in the na-
ture of a temporary office there. On one occasion he men-
tioned that the doctors were improving the appearance
of the lounge at the hospital, and, with his bride’s per-
mission, took a couple of oil: ‘paintings from their. home
to add to the decorations: road :
Dr. Waite’s practice .was something of a mystery to
Clara. She couldn’t quite, figure out whether’ he was a
dentist or a surgeon—all the dentists.she: had known
back in Grand Rapids had done their work in their own
offices, had never found it necessary to go to hospitals,
Yet she knew that New York, being different from the
smaller Michigan city, ‘w asethe field for specialists. She
was glad that her husbatid was mofe than an ordinary
dentist, and, ial or not, his work was a source
of satisfaction to. Her,
The bridegroom’ occasionally boasted of his success as
ashrewd a Street speculator, usually in the presence
ae wy
“
Francis X. Mancuso, then assistant district attorney in New
York, who uncovered the background and true story of the
gay adventurer who murdered for mitlions by slowly poison-
ing his victims while seemingly giving them anxious care.
\ of Aunt Catherine Peck.
Miss Peck had taken a
great liking to Waite. (It
developed later that she
mond to be used in Clara’s
engagement ring.) She
was a frequent visitor to
the Riverside Drive
apartment, and at least
once a week the newly-
weds visited her at her
Pe hotel
- nected in Wall Street, how
Miss Peck asked the man
nephew-in-law.
“I'd be delighted to do
it for you, Aunt Cath-
erine,” was the reply. “Of
course, I would want your
complete confidence.”
And so Miss Peck,
wealthy in her own right,
turned over $40,000 for
him to invest. She ecount-
ed herself extremely: for-
tunate that her niece had
married a.man who was
so smart and dependable, in addition to being so charm-
ing.
As Christmas approached, Clara expressed a wish to
go home to spend the holidays.
“There are some cases requiring my attention, sind
much as I’d like.to go, I can’t get away,” Waite told her,
“But your parents are getting old and I think you ought
to go anyway. Tell you what—stay out there until the
first week in J anuary, then bring your mother back with
you.”
The bride followed this program. Unfortunately, Mrs.
Peck became ill shortly after she arrived in New York.
Dr. Waite was as solicitous as if he were her own son.
He insisted on calling Dr. A. A. Moore, hiring a private
nurse, and doing everything possible to make her com-
fortable in the apartment. Dr. Moore, somewhat puzzled
over her ailment, said it was probably due largely to
her advanced age.
Mrs. Peck got better in a week or so and was able to
go out in a wheel chair, but toward the end of the month
she had a relapse.
On the night of January 29th; Dr. Waite came into
the sick room and announced to the nurse, a Mrs. Lynch,
that she could go to bed on a couch in another room, and
that he would sit with the patient for a while. At that
time, according to the nurse, Mrs. Peck’s condition was
good, and it appeared that she was on the road to re-
covery.
But at dawn the following morning Dr. Waite had
some sad news to impart to his wife.
“Wake up, dear,” he said, gently shaking her into
wakefulness. “I’m afraid you must expect the worst.
‘Your mother took a sudden turn, and—well, I’ve called
* Dr. Moore, and he ought to be here soon.”
Dr. Moore came but his patient was dead. He wrote
on the death certificate that Mrs. Peck had passed away
from natural causes.
If Waite considered the death as a removal of one
barrier between him and the Peck millions he gave no
sign. He was properly sorrowful (Continued on page 92)
had. given him the dia- -
“If you are so well con— ’
would you like to invest
some money for me?”.
who had become her.
(a
{
H
92
blamed for the killing. Part. of the
story you told is probably true. It is
quite possible that Dr. Du _ Bois
slumped across the table after you fired
a bullet in the back of his head and it
is just as plausible that his hair was
singed by the electric toaster,
“When the body slipped off the table
to the floor, you were far too clever to
touch it and spoil the natural appear-
ance. But you hadn’t quite finished
setting the stage for the police! You
had to arrange the hunting materials
on the table, but you forgot all about
the cloth that had been jerked off when
the body fell. If the hunting things had
been on the table beforehand, as you
claimed they were, they would have
been scattered all over the floor when
the cloth was jerked out beneath them.
“Now Mrs. Du Bois, are you going
to admit that you murdered your son?”
Quietly and without emotion, Mrs.
FRONT PAGE DETECTIVE
Du Bois answered. -
“I might. have/done ‘it, but-I can’t”.
remember. I ,have ‘very strange spells
and there are long periods
can’t remember a thing.” :
She was speedily brought to-.trial.
As Geise previously had surmised, she
engaged three of the finest. criminal
lawyers on the Pacific Coast.to defend
her. One was Anna Zacsek, -brilliant
woman attorney who had a long list of
acquittals to her credit. Paul Palmer
and George Shreve, also noted criminal
lawyers, were the others.
But Geise and his partner had built
up a case that was too strong to turn
down. Before the trial was called, the
two sleuths had found the shop. where
Mrs. Du Bois had purchased the real
bullets to use in the gun Dr. Du Bois
never fired except in target practice
with “wad cutters.”
A jury before Superior Judge
wre, Bi
a
a
.~ Charles Frické convicted heron. the _.
circumstantial evidence — Geise - and
“* Bryan offered. Mrs. Du Bois carried the
case through her attorneys to the high-
est state court, but a few months later
she lost, ‘and Judge Fricke sentenced
her to serve the rest of her life at
Tehachapi)": :
There, aré. many murderesses at
Tehachapi, and most of -.them are
known to each other by name or by the
nicknames the other ladies of the Big
House give each other.
Mrs. Grace Du Bois is the exception.
From the day she entered Tehachapi,
she never emerged from the hospital
ward. She is old and feeble—the sickly,
unknown “she up there” the rest of the
female felons only hear about.
“China” sends the flowers up to her
room, “Queen Louise” Peete cooks her
invalid fare, but none of them know
or see her—and probably never will.
THE WEALTHY BRIDE—THE PLAYBOY HUSBAND—A
$y
(Continued! frompage 75)
ND THE DATE WITH DEATH
te
ae
when he and Clara accompanied the
. body back to Michigan. He insisted on
handling the funeral arrangements,
“I was with her when she died,” he
told Percy Peck, “and practically the
last wish she expressed was for cre-
mation. I will take the body to Detroit
where it can be done.”
Grief-stricken, Percy agreed. A day
or two later, an urn full of.ashes, all
‘ that remained mortal 6f Anna Maria
Peck, was placed in the cemetery vault.
Before he returned to New York, Dr.
Waite spoke confidentially to Percy
Peck about his father’s health,
“I’m afraid the shock of Mrs, Peck’s
death has affected him,” he said grave-
ly. “He probably won’t last another six
months.” ,
But to John Peck himself, Waite sug-
gested a visit in New York “to forget.”
The elderly man gave in to the sug-
second week in February. Waite, even
more than Clara, did everything pos-
sible to take his mind off his loss. Al-
‘though seeming to be in quite good
health generally, Peck suffered from .
intestinal trouble, and Dr. Moore again
Was called in. As in the case of Mrs.
Peck, Waite did all he could to assure
maximum comfort.
The aged manufacturer’s stay was
an extended one. His sickness went
away, but he was still weak and
couldn’t move about a great deal.
On the afternoon of March llth, he
was’ visited by his cousin, Dr, Jacob
B. Carroll of Raritan, New Jersey. It
happened that while Dr. Carroll was —
there, Dr. Moore made a call on his
patient and filled out a prescription
which he handed to Waite. Peck lay
on the davenport, chatting cheerfuliy
with Dr. Carroll, while Waite went out
. to a drug store to have the prescrip-
tion filled.
Returning, Waite mixed up the
medicine and gave it to Peck. Dr. Car-
’ gestion and arrived in New York the y
roll, just leaving, was surprised to hear
his cousin groaning as if in severe pain.
He thought of turning back, then
changed his mind and took the ele-
vator down to the first floor and left
the building.
Once more the dutiful son-in-law
played nurse. Peck suffered an attack
of nausea, but seemed to be resting
easily when his daughter went to bed
at about 10:30 that evening.
| WAS some time. after midnight
when Dr. Waite went into Clara’s
room and awakened her. He sat on the
edge of the bed and told her gently of
- the death of her father.
pisYou’d better go in and see him,” he
sald. “T guess this sickness, coming on.
top of your mother’s death, was just
too much for him... . But I was with’
him at the last, dear, and he didn’t .
suffer. It was all very’ peaceful.: He
spoke of his#love for
and asked "that: his-remains be cre-
mated.” «ty, :
Searcely. able to comprehend this
second tragedy, Mrs. Waite staggered
to the room:where her, father lay on
_-&the bed in cold repose. -
‘s Waite telephoned Dr. Moore and told
him that Peck was dead.
“Dead!” the physician said incredu-
lously. “I can’t believe it!”
“No doubt of it,” Waite replied, “I
tried his pulse carefully and couldn’t
feel a thing.”
When the physician arrived he saw
that Waite was right. He filled in a
certificate giving “heart disease and
acute nephritis” as the causes of death.
In due time, Dr. Carroll over in New.
Jersey, was notified of the second
tragic visitation in the Waitetheme. He
was even more surprised than Dr.
Moore. His cousin, he thought, seemed
to be recovering in fine shape the pre-
vious afternoon—that is, until he drank
the medicine Waite fixed for him. Then
‘
he had started groaning. First Mrs.
Peck and now old John Peck. What.
was the curse that hung over the lux-
urious apartment on Riverside Drive?
The canny Dr. Carroll wondered if
there might not be a sinister answer
to that question. «
Waite send a wire to Percy Peck in
Grand Rapids. informing ‘him of the
“death and saying they would accom-
pany the body to Michigan for burial.
Before the Waites arrived with the
body, Percy received a second wire
which caused him consternation. It
read: ”
“Suspiciofis aroused... Demand. au--
topsy. Examine body. K. Adams.”
‘Percy Peck knew no one named
Adams in New York, where the wire
was filed. He did, however, recall a
famous poison case of the late 1890's
in which one Kate Adams was the vie-
tim. Miss Adams died’ when she took
you and Percy,” ‘a dose from a seltzer bottle that con-
tained cyanide of potassium. A gay
young man-about-Manhattan, was con-
victed of sending the poison, intending
it for a love rival, but was acquitted
at a second trial. The story became
known as the Molineaux case.
Did the signature “K. Adams” ‘on the
strange telegram mean that John E.
Peck might have been poisoned? If so,
who had administered the poison?
Percy Peck remembered his old sus-
Picions of Dr. Waite. He decided to fol-
low the suggestion contained in: the
* wire,
As soon as the body reached Grand
Rapids, Peck had it taken to an under- ,
taking parlor, where Dr. Victor C.
Vaughan of the University of Michigan
began making a careful examination.
Mr. and Mrs. Waite took rooms in
a hotel. The dentist explained this by
saying Clara was nervous and could
not stand to be in the family home at
this time. |
“You know,” he confided to Percy,
‘
“she s
of he:
surpri
result.
Perc
in-law
curate
missed
be in |
a con\
betwee
have £
“Dar
their h
just gc
can he
anythi
we'd kx
of each
Still
suggest
drawn
wrote
tically |
and the
He mai
attorne
The {
taken t:
than to
Waite. :
it, but ;
After
day the:
dentist
the stat
and a sn
coffin.
Dr. V
physicia
made a
some vi
closed a:
lid be rz
in a stat
‘HE F¢
servic
ly man, \
case of \
Detroit {
the requ
his body
“T thin
at the u
or two,” :
Waite
or three
days late)
he had t
departed
in Grand
Meanti:
Schurtz r
findings o
John P.
arsenic to
Nothing
vince Per
trail of a
termined
New Yo:
Schindler,
agency, to
tion of W
tacted Ne
Swann.
The pro
assistant,
Pathologis:
Rapids, ani
ees
"se
“she suffered terribly from the shock
of her father’s death. I wouldn’t be
surprised if her health declined as a
result.” |
Percy looked queerly at his brother-
in-law who seemed to be such an ac-
curate prophet of death, then dis-
missed the thought that his sister might
be in any danger. Had he listened to
a conversation that took place later
between Waite and Clara, he might
have been more concerned.
“Darling,” Waite told his wife in
their hotel room, “your father’s death
just goes to show how quickly things
can happen. To be prepared against
anything else that might occur, I think
we'd better make out our wills in favor
of each other right now.”
Still deeply in love, Clara did not
suggest that the documents might be
drawn up at a more suitable time. She
wrote out a testament leaving prac-
tically everything she owned to Waite,
and the dentist did the same for ‘her.
He mailed the papers promptly to an:
attorney in New York, itt
The fact that John Peck's body was
taken to an undertaking parlor rather
than to the home seemed to bother Dr.
Waite. He asked Percy the reason for
it, but got no satisfaction.
After dinner, on the evening of the
day they arrived in Grand Rapids, the
dentist went to the undertaker’s for
the stated reason of putting a flower
and a small picture of Clara inside the
coffin.
Dr. Vaughn and the Peck family
physician, Dr. Perry Schurtz, had just
made an examination and removed
some vital organs.. The casket was
closed again. Waite’s request that the,
lid be raised was denied. He departed
in a state of obvious agitation.
Tt FOLLOWING day, after funeral
services had been held for the elder-
ly man, Waite suggested that, as in the
case of Mrs. Peck, he take the body to
Detroit for cremation. He mentioned
the request John Peck had made that
his body be reduced to ashes.
“I think we'll have to hold the body
at the undertaker’s for another day
or two,” Percy said firmly.
Waite repeated his suggestion two
} or three times, but to no avail. Two
days later he suddenly announced that
‘he had to return to New York, and
departed in haste. His wife stayed on
in Grand Rapids. _
Meantime Doctors Vaughn and
Schurtz reported to Percy Peck on; the»
findings of the autopsy. ener eh.
John Peck’s body contained enough:
} arsenic to kill half adozenmen! .».
Nothing more was needed: to 'coh- +
vince Percy Peck that he was on the .
trail of a clever criminal. Hé was de-
termined to take vengeance. Calling
New York, he fetained Raymond
Schindler, head of a private detective
agency, to make a thorough investiga-
tion of Waite’s affairs, He also con-
tacted New York’s District Attorney
Swann. ae
The prosecutor arranged to send an
assistant, Francis X, Mancuso, and a
pathologist, Dr. Otto Schultze, to Grand
| Rapids, and promised to cooperate with
™@
y
Ms ;
FRONT PAGE DETECTIVE
Enigmatic Figure
” » ' al
: 4 ss ; ;
Doctor Arthur Warren Walte provided
crimifologists with one of the strangest
cases of a decade. He was a brilliant .
student, possessed a remarkable person-
ality and was widely traveled. Yet’ he
turned out to be one of the most cold-
blooded killers of the generation. What
were the underlying causes of this dual
personality? That is the question that
baffles students of crime even today.
a.
93
Detective Schindler in New York.
Swann was not at all convinced that
Waite was a killer or- that John Peck
had been poisoned—he had had pre-
vious experience with family quarrels
—but nevertheless it was his duty to
investigate fully.
When Waite stepped off the train
at Grand Central station in New York
on Saturday morning, Detective
Schindler was there. He trailed the
dentjst to a phone booth, and got in
the adjoining booth.
Waite gave the operator a number
and when he was connected said:
“Margaret? Listen, this is serious.
Look out for trouble. Check out right
away and don’t try to get in touch
with me.” :
This tip led Schindler and Detective
John Cuniff, of the District Attorney’s
Office, to the swanky Plaza Hotel.
There they found that a man identified
as;Waite and an attractive, dark-haired
woman—obviously not Mrs. Waite—
had been registered for some time as
Dr. and Mrs, A. W. Walters, New Ro-
chelle, N. Y. :
According to the management, the
couple had brought some oil paintings
and a piano with them when they
moved in. (These wére the paintings
Waite had taken from his apartment.)
While the couple frequently used the
room during the daytime, they seldom
stayed overnight. Unfortunately, by
the time the detectives arrived at the
hotel, “Mrs. Walters” had deft.
Except for taking a drive with Miss
Catherine Peck, Waite remained in his
apartment most of Saturday and Sun-
day.
Late Sunday afternoon the detectives
noted that the dentist had a visitor,
and discovered that he was Eugene
Oliver Kane. Kane was an embalmer
and had prepared the bodies of both
Mr. and Mrs. Peck for shipment to
Michigan, Strangely enough, he was
the man who embalmed the body of
Kate Adams, the victim in the Mo-
lineaux case! <¢ *
Kane stayed with Waite for nearly
an hour, drove from the apartment to
his shop where he remained for some
time, and then went home.
On Monday morning the detectives
saw Waite leave his apartment and go
to the garage on upper Broadway
where he kept his car. He held a con-
versation with the manager, Gustave ~
Cimiotti and handed over a slip of
paper. Soon Cimiotti, his face showing
amazement, stepped next door to the
bank and returned with one of the
tellers. Again there was a brief con-
ference. Cimiotti returned to the bank
with the teller, and soon came back to
the garage alone and handed some-
‘thing to Waite.
Next, the detectives watched Waite
go to the cigar store on the corner,
where he met Kane. The two men
stepped into a telephone booth, and
Waite gave the embalmer a package
which the latter quickly stuffed in a
pocket. Then they left, Kane to go to
his place of business, the dentist to
return to his home.
What kind of hocus-pocus was this?
District Attorney Swann, receiving
Then he turned
: of his head that
s wife to follow
rrect, Doctor,”
kidney disorder.
have you been
‘ared his throat
—only afew
Riverside Drive
en the door of
why. A figure
‘althily toward
all but lifeless
"said the fig-
uld not make
: this.”” Almost
then dropped
slowly away.
STER DETECTIVE
A moment later, there was a noise in
the hallway outside the room—a sound
made by some one stumbling against a
piece of furniture. Three bedrooms—
those occupied by Mrs. Peck, the one of
the master and mistress, and that of
Dora Hilliard, the colored servant—
opened onto this corridor.
Dora Hilliard suddenly screamed.
Mrs. Waite called to the Doctor, who
occupied a twin bed next to hers. He
switched on a lamp between the two
beds. “What’s the matter, Clara?” he
asked.
The Waites went into the maid’s room.
“Burglars,” said the colored girl. “I
heard one in the hall.”
Her employers told her they had heard
no sound and that she must have been
imagining things. Then they went in to
. g
see Mrs. Peck. ‘She was sleeping.
MARCH, 1941
A mysterious
telegram sug-
gesting that
murder had
been committed
Prompted in-
vestigators to
search this room
in the Waite
apartment
15
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aerate
“What do you think, Doctor?” inquired
the minister.
“I prefer not to say just yet,” was the
answer, “but I want you to do something
for me. You're always going away on
fishing trips. Well, I want you to invite
me on one and let the Waites know you're
doing it. Call on them tomorrow to com-
fort them and tell them then.”
“But we’re not really going on a fishing
trip?”
“No, you'll have to tell a lie, even if you
are a preacher. We’re going to New York.
Percy here’s coming, too. He can use
business reasons for a trip out of town.”
It was just forty-eight hours after the
physician, the minister and Percy Peck had
first gathered in the study that Shuritz
again called on the cleric. His face was
pale. “Be prepared to leave on the
midnight train for New York,” he said.
“Percy’s meeting us at the station.”
“You have alarming news, then?”
“Perfectly dreadful! Dean Vaughn up
at the Medical School has found enough
arsenic in John Peck’s body to kill a dozen
people.”
_ The next night the three men waited
in a dingy, cluttered office in an ugly build-
ing on Centre Street that housed head-
quarters of the District Attorney of New
York County. Presently through the door
came a stocky man with keen brown eyes.
dressed in white tie and tails. Francis X.
Mancuso, Assistant District Attorney in
charge of the Homicide Bureau, had been
called from a dinner in the Waldorf-Astoria
Hotel. He hung a silk topper on a rack
and listened with a poker face as Dr.
Shuritz related the story of the telegram
and the arsenic.
“Got that telegram?” Mancuso asked.
ERCY PECK handed it to him. He
pressed a button and an assistant ap-
peared. “Have one of the boys take this
to Western Union and get the original
of the message.” He turned to his visitors.
“The handwriting on the original blank
might give us a clue as to the identity of
K. Adams, whoever that is.’
“Where are Dr. Waite and his wife
now?” Mancuso inquired.
“They are remaining in Grand Rapids
for a few days.”
“Mr. Peck, do you know of any one
here in New York who is friendly with
your sister and her husband?”
“Yes, Aunt Cathy.”
“Full name?”
“Miss Catherine Peck, of the Park Ave-
nue Hotel. She is my father’s sister.”
“Any one else?”
“Not that I know of; perhaps Aunt
Cathy might know.”
“What’s the exact address of the Waite
apartment on the Drive?”
Shuritz consulted a slip of paper. “It’s
435.”
“Oh,” said Mancuso, “that’s the Colos-
seum. Quite a fancy place. Dr. Waite
must have a fine practise.”
“T don’t know about that,” said Percy
Peck. “But my father made them a
present of $18,000 in cash to get them off
to a good start.”
Mancuso pressed a button again. “I’m
going out for awhile,” he said to an as-
sistant who responded. “Look up_ the
death records and get me the names of the
doctors who signed certificates for these
persons.” He handed the assistant a slip
with the Peck details. He then turned over
a second memo sheet with the name and
address of Catherine Peck. “Send a man
up there—Cunniff if you can get him—
right away, and if this person’s in, detain
her until I get there.”
The doorman on duty at the Colosseum
told the Assistant District Attorney that
he and his three companions could not en-
ter the Waite apartment.
MASTER DETECTIVE
“Oh, no?” repli
his credentials.
and led the way to
The four separ:
one room that w
study. Bookcases °
volumes and on a
were test tubes ar
that the young D«
on some kind of «
tant District At!
through the prem):
at length. “The
won't keep—until
looked at Dr. Sh
odd about this la)
“You mean he’s
ing physician, yet
Mancuso nodde
elevator, he saw a
ing around a corr
stairs. The officia
called, “Come he
The boy appear
as you stuck you
cuso said, “supp
questions.”
ANCUSO wa
Waites had 1
out that the phy
always kept pretty
fact, the boy was
person who had
any frequency—a
lv attired lady in
as he put it, as if :
a physical descri
Percy Peck whisp:
Aunt Cathy.”
“Did the Waite
sistant District A
“At nights, a Ic
Doe was always
his black bag. I
once in a while 1
big operation.”
“Thanks,” said
quiet about this.’
At the switchb«
which telephone
Mancuso _learne:
quently telephor
then and now or
hostelries. The
made very early
six-thirty or sey
at night. often a
These three
ested in the
right: Dr.
Rapids phys
Assistant Dis
Marcu, 1941
“Here, drink this,” a persuasive
voice whispered to Mrs. Peck
(above), as she lay in the dark-.
ness. Next morning she was dead
At nine that morning Dr. Porter, the
consultant, called. “I was passing and I
thought I would drop in to see how the
patient is getting along,” he said to
Waite.
“She died just a little while ago,” re-
plied the latter.
Four days afterward, following funeral
services in Oak Hill Cemetery, Grand
Rapids, two deeply concerned men sat
in a cozy study on the outskirts of the
city. “It strikes me as strange,” said the
host—the Reverend Dr. A. W. Wish-
art, long-time friend of the Peck family,
who had officiated at the services—“that
Mrs. Peck expressed a desire to be cre-
mated.”
HE second man—Dr. Perry Shuritz—
ran his hand over his chin. “I’m won-
dering about that kidney business,” he
remarked. “Why, I gave Mrs. Peck a
thorough examination just before she
left for New York not three weeks ago,
and if there was one thing she had no
symptoms of it was kidney trouble.”
Young Dr. and Mrs. Waite, who had
been married only the previous Sep-
tember, remained at the Peck estate for
a fortnight to comfort kindly and affa-
ble old John E. Peck in his bereavement
over the loss of his mate of many years.
Then his daughter suggested, “Father,
why don’t you come back to New York
with us for a visit? The change will
do you good.”
A fortnight later, in the handsome
dining-room of the apartment in the
Colosseum, old Mr. Peck took one spoon-
ful of his vegetable soup, and shoved his
plate away. ‘“What’s the matter,
Father?” asked his daughter.
“T’m not hungry tonight,” he explained.
“T haven't felt myself today.”
“Daddy,” said Waite, “you aren’t
taking proper care of yourself. You
bundle up too much and then perspire.
The first thing you know you'll be down
with a bad cold.” Then he added, rais-
ing a cocktail glass, “Here’s a toast to
your good health.”
Peck took to his bed three days after-
ward. He was running a temperature
and he had severe pains in his stomach
and back and vomited a great deal. His
son-in-law was in constant attendance.
16
On the fourth day of the elderly man’s
illness, the physician made a telephone
call.
Dr. Albertus Adair Moore came into
the Waite apartment carrying the black
bag of his profession on a Saturday after-
noon early in March. After an exami-
nation of the millionaire, he agreed with
the diagnosis of the patient’s son-in-law
that Mr. Peck was suffering from a cold
that had settled in his intestines. Not
at all alarmed, the consulting physician
wrote out a harmless and soothing pre-
scription, and ordered rest.
Between midnight and dawn, when
those in the household had long since
been asleep, a skulking figure moved
through the darkness of the bedroom
where Mr. Peck lav—the same room
where his wife had died « few weeks be-
fore. Once more the form in the shadows
held a glass. Again there was the soft
command, “Here, drink this.” There was
repeated the almost mechanical compli-
ance of the patient and then the figure
melted again into the shadows.
It was at noon on the Sunday when
Dr. Moore pressed the buzzer of the
Waite apartment. The physician’s wife
answered. “You needn't come in,” she
said. “Daddy died during the night.”
Mrs. Clara Waite was scheduled
to be the poisoner’s third victim
—but sleuths forced the mur-
derer to change his plans.
John E, Peck, Grand Rapids mil-
lionaire drug manufacturer
(above), stood between a fiend
and a fortune. He was removed
Dr. Moore raised his eyebrows and
brushed past the fragile, brooding figure.
Waite seemed startled when Moore en-
countered him on a divan in the living-
room, immersed in the rotogravure sec-
tion of a Sunday newspaper. “Oh, Doc-
tor,” he said, rising and smiling, “it’s
you. The undertaker hasn’t come yet.
Would you like to take a look at the
body—and sign the death certificate?”
Waite’s almost hilarious spirits im-
pressed Moore as somewhat incongruous.
When they reached the bedroom, the
son-in-law pulled a sheet from the dead
man’s face. “He went rather quickly,”
he remarked.
“Yes,” said Moore thoughtfully.
“Rather.”
The visitor fingered the bottle of medi-
cine that he had prescribed the previous
afternoon. “Why,” he exclaimed, “this
hasn’t been touched!”
Dr. Waite’s handsome features grew
sober. “It was late in arriving,” he said,
“and when it got here Daddy was sleep-
ing so soundly I was reluctant to awaken
him.” He dabbed at his eyes with a
monogrammed handkerchief. “I thought
more of him than I did of my own
father.” He went to a vase of flowers,
plucked a rose, and put it in the right
hand of the dead man.
Moore was impressed, and promptly
forgot what might have developed into
& Suspicion.
He had just gone when the house
telephone rang. Waite was told by the
switchboard operator in the lobby that
there was another visitor—Dr. Jacob
Cornell. Waite frowned. He had never
particularly cared for Cornell, several
years his senior and a close friend of the
drug manufacturer. For one thing, this
man Cornell was too curious. He had
always insisted upon questioning Waite
about his patients and his hospital work
—a rather touchy subject with John E.
Peck’s son-in-law, as will presently be
understood.
“Tell Dr. Cornell nobody is home
here,” Waite instructed the lobby oper-
ator.
“But he’s already on his way up.”
The buzzer sounded while Waite cursed
under his breath. On his way to answer
the door, he (Continued on page 71)
MASTER DETECTIVE
LA\
low
cati
Police Dep:
man’s office
Headquarte
lay an old
from one 0}
killed a prc
“T know
fore,” Ouln
the arm of
fully out o
“Tt won’
can remen
“This old ¢
and you sa
on it.”
“No,” Oo
that gun \
any chancr
“What 1
seen it bef:
“Becaus:
original si
manner a
MARCH, 194
siscnacs ee... ngs isiiammmmmmmamamaamaamaataaaaiai
led its best. but it
sive. It consisted
were ready to tes-
ngs was obviously
sath of his wife or
reely from his eyes
‘er grave. Probably
ie tale of ancient
‘s Weep over those
he stand in his own
less inspired by his
from his mien,
{at the court. He
witness; it would
he had. In fact,
d the last damning
his guilt of the das-
Jury on July 22nd.
lv four hours when
ie defendant guilty
his punishment at
making its last
ooked at the jury.
e paled; his hands
denly collapsed in
t Six
ling them around.
sheepish at being
ft operatives took
: day.
ce me that it was
nformation before
~t no time in seek-
ite's Attorney who
ngle investigation.
iid name a logical
~ would be worth
me the suspect’s
my suspicions re-
n shook his head.
We checked the
newspaperman so
d be impossible.”
“I can’t give vou
ime that informa-
' Lingle case was
ink Foster was ar-
or the crime when
was established. It
yster was not the
‘rs was taken into
numerous contro-
to Brothers’ guilt
ve been discussed
{asTeR DETECTIVE's
Detective. With-
ffice it to say that
ble to show what
vossibly have had
rv that convicted
t returned a com-
id-degree murder,
\l a moot question
‘thers was the vic-
is been officially
to this very day
offer me $5,000
ibling those worn
were the “other
actual name of one
oregoing story hag
phy one substituted,
La
MASTER DETECTIVE
Devil’s Toast
(Continued from page 16)
intercepted Dora, the maid. en route to
do the same thing, and sent her back to
the kitchen. He hastily slipped into an
overcoat, clapped on his derby, and opened
the door, “Oh,” he said, “Doctor Cornell.
So glad to see you—but I’m just on my
way out to visit a patient.”
“Without your bag?’ asked the visitor.
Waite shot a hot glance at the physician.
“What is it you want, anyway?”
“I wish to see your father-in-law.”
“You can’t see him; he’s dead.”
“What? He wasn’t seriously ill!”
“Complications set in,” said Waite as
Dr. Cornell walked past him. Mrs. Waite,
who had been lying down in the bedroom,
had overheard the conversation. She came
into the entrance hall, nodded to the visi-
tor, then looked curiously at her husband.
“Where are you going, Warren?” she
asked.
“I was going to slip out and look at a
case—but I won’t go just yet.”
“Isn’t it awful about Daddy?” said Mrs.
Waite.
‘IVERFECTLY terrible,” replied Cor-
nell. “Did you have any other physi-
cian aside from your husband here?”
“A consultant was called in and agreed
with my diagnosis,” snapped Waite. “And
now, Dr. Cornell, my wife and I will
thank you to make your visit as brief as
possible.”
The caller went into the bedroom and
looked at the remains of his friend. He
examined several bottles of medicine and
satisfied himself that they contained pre-
scriptions that would normally be written
for an intestinal cold. With a brief word
of departure to the Waites, he was gone.
When the door had closed behind him
they just stood there, looking at each
other.
The death of Peck, social, church and
civic Juminary, not six weeks after that
of his wife, was on the lips of thousands
in Grand Rapids. Clara Louise Waite had
only a brother, Percy, in his late twenties,
with whom to share more than a million
dollars that would now change hands. The
townsfolk couldn’t help but comment on
young Dr. Waite’s falling into such a soft
spot.
' He was quite a dashing figure, this Waite.
Originally he had been on a much _ lower
rung of the social ladder than Clara Louise
Peck. But he was brilliant and had a way
about him. He had studied dentistry at
the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor,
then gone to Scotland and taken a medical
course at the University of Glasgow. From
there he had gone out to South Africa to
practise dentistry and medicine for five
years.
“ On his return to Grand Rapids the pre-
vious August, after an absence of seven
vears, he had engaged in a whirlwind court-
ship with the Peck heiress and had made
prompt work of relegating three other
suitors to the background.
Clara Louise, swept off her feet by the
dashing young man who spun such thrilling
tales of adventure in far-off places, had
become Waite’s bride at a wedding cere-
mony performed by the same Dr. Wishart
who, in the next few months, was to
preach the funeral services for both of the
bride’s parents. It was the understanding
of Grand Rapids friends that the Doctor
had started the practise of medicine in
New York. In fact, letters written by
his wife told of the rapid strides he was
making.
On the night of the day that the Peck
funeral services had been held, with the
body about to be removed from a tem-
porary vault in Oak Hill Cemetery to be
shipped to Detroit for cremation, two men
sat with Dr. Wishart in his study. Gravely
the three pondered the message that had
been delivered by a Western Union boy
less than an hour before:
PERCY S PECK
GRAND RAPIDS MICH
SUSPICION AROUSED STOP DEMAND AU-~
TOPRSY STOP KEEP TELEGRAM SECRET
K ADAMS
“And you say you have no idea as to
the identity of this K. Adams?” asked Dr.
Wishart.
Percy Peck—tall, dignified—shook his
head. “Nor does any one else in the
family.”
“Percy,” asked Dr. Shuritz, who had been
somewhat curious as to the cause of Mrs.
Peck’s death several weeks before, “just
what is your understanding as to the exact
cause of your father’s passing?”
“My sister said a cold, and complica-
tions.”
Shuritz ran his hand over his chin.
“Quite possible, all right. But’—he picked
up the telegram and read it again—‘‘this
ties right in with something that crossed
my mind when your mother died.” Shuritz
looked at the minister. “I said it was pe-
culiar that Mrs. Peck died of a kidney ail-
ment. Remember?”
ISHART nodded. “That’s right, Percy.
The Doctor did say that. And I won-
dered about this cremation business. You
see, your mother and I had often talked
about the end that must come to us all
and she had never mentioned cremation.
Just whose idea was that, anyway?”
“My sister was the one who mentioned
it. That is, she told father and me that
mother’s last wish had been cremation.
Naturally we respected it and did not
question it.”
“And your sister told you your father
had wished to be cremated, too?”
Peck nodded.
“Hmm.” Shuritz arose and his tall,
spare frame moved slowly and determined-
ly to a telephone. He called Oak Hill
Cemetery. “Has the body of John E.
Peck been sent to Detroit for cremation
yet? ... Very well. Hold it; I’ll be over
in a little while to make an autopsy. Keep
this confidential.”
As he slipped into his overcoat, Shuritz
said, ‘Percy, don’t say anything regarding
what we've talked about. Above all, keep
mum on that telegram.”
| to punish the guilty persons.
|
| °
| PLAGIARISM
| Any one submitting a plagiarized story through the mail, and receiving and accept-
| ing remuneration therefor, is guilty of the Federal offense of using the mails to defraud.
The publishers of MASTER DETECTIVE are eager—as are all reputable publishers—
| to stamp. out this form of literary theft and piracy. We advise all magazines from
which such stories are copied of such plagiarism and cooperate with the publishers
wancH, 194)
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True Detective Mysteries
stenographer, the Medical Examiner and
the two visitors from Grand Rapids stood in
the silent apartment where a millionaire and
his wife had succumbed within a period of
six weeks.
Wealth and refinement were indicated in
every direction which the eye could turn.
The rooms were furnished lavishly, rich
works of art, paintings and_ tapestries
decorated the walls. The furniture was of
different periods in various rooms. There
were rich hangings, costly rugs and carpets.
The furniture was distinctive, evidently
chosen with expert care. It was just the
sort of apartment one would expect t6 find,
knowing that it had been furnished by a
millionaire father for his only daughter.
But, time was passing and Mancuso
and his fellows realized that they must move
quickly. They entered the library, a room
lined with books including the classics,
reference works and books on dental methods
and medicine, books on chemistry, such as
one would expect to find in the library of a
medical man. Row after row of volumes were
scanned until one particular group attracted
the attention of Mancuso. The first volume
he took from the shelf was Wood’s Thera-
peutics and Pharmacology, Volume II.
Running quickly through the pages the
prosecutor saw a slip of paper, evidently
used as a book mark, between pages 324
and 325.
‘A’ sub-heading on one of the pages said:
“ Alternatives—Arsenic.'’ Closely following
were other paragraphs, touching on “Effects
on the System,” ‘Poisonous effects,” ‘Slow
poisoning” and ‘‘Veratra’’—another poison.
There were, in addition, many works on
medical subjects.
Mancuso’s stenographer noted every
significant object as the prosecutor called
them to his attention.
A search of the bathroom disclosed little,
other than two atomizer sprays, such as are
used in treatment of nose and throat ail-
ments. A similar atomizer was found on a
window sill in the dining room of the apart-
ment.
The search of the apartment was con-
tinued until 7 o’clock in the morning, the
only additional thing of interest found being
a small memorandum book ina pocket of one
of Doctor Waite’s one hundred suits of
clothes. This book contained numbers
alongside names, probably telephone num-
bers. No exchanges were given.
The search of the apartment, together
with the finding of poison as revealed in
Dean Vaughan’s telegram, had convinced
Mancuso that John E. Peck had met his
death by other than natural causes. He
felt that the books in the apartment dealing
with poisons indicated a strong suspicion
that poison, probably arsenic, had been ad-
ministered to Peck and he was in a hurry to
continue the line of investigation which had
been begun.
T was after 7 o'clock in the morning of a
cold, windy day of early spring and the
little party of investigators had been work-
ing all night. Keyed up by the problem which
faced them they returned to Room 616
of the Manhattan Hotel and with the stenog-
rapher, Burchill, reading his notes, went
over the case as it lay before them. Acting
in accordance with wishes of Percy Peck,
expressed before they left Grand Rapids,
Doctors Schuritz and Wishart engaged
Raymond C. Schindler, of the Schindler
Private Detective Agency, of 149 Broad-
way, to act with the New York authorities
in the interest of the Peck family.
A hasty breakfast was eaten in the dining
room of the Manhattan Hotel and the in-
vestigators had adjourned to Room 616
again to lay their plans when a tclegram
from Grand Rapids was delivered to the
room. It came from Percy Peck, and it
contained these words:
W. ON THE WOLVERINE BOUND FOR NEW
“YORK. ARRIVE THERE ELEVEN o'CLOCK
SATURDAY MORNING.
“ «WwW means Waite, of course,’’ said
Mancuso. ‘‘The Wolverine will arrive at
Grand Central Terminal and I’m going to
arrange to have the doctor trailed from the
minute he arrives in New York. He may
not lead us to a thing, but we will leave
nothing undone. I'll get the necessary men
for the trailing, but I'll need your co-opera-
tion.
“Doctor Wishart, you and Doctor Schu-
ritz know Waite and I’m going to station you
at doors in the Grand Central Terminal
through which passengers from the Wol-
verine must pass on their arrival here. Within
your sight will be detectives, skilled men who
can take up the trail, when you give them the
tip. You will not recognize them, for they
will be in the background. But this is
what I want you to do:
“Tf either'of you see Doctor Waite pass
through the door, either door leading from
the train level, I want you to try to avoid
his seeing you. But J] want you, at first
opportunity, to look directly at him, and
lift you hat from your head as a signal to
the detectives that you are looking at the
man they are to trail. If you will do this,
you can rest assured that we can continue
other lines of investigation secure in the
knowledge that every movement of Doctor
Waite will be watched.”
Between that time and the time of the
arrival of the Wolverine the plan to “spot”’
Waite at the railroad station was rchearsed
by the Grand Rapids men and detectives
who had been summoned to the hotel
room. The actors in the grim drama were
letter perfect when all left the hotel for the
arrival of the Wolverine.
Doctor Schuritz took up his vigil at one
door—but far enough away to avert recog-
nition by Waite. Doctor Wishart stood
defraud.
ORIGINAL and TRUE.
’ Plagiarism
Stories have been submitted to Macfadden Publications which are copies of
stories that have appeared in other magazines.
Anyone submitting a plagiarized story
cepting remuneration therefor, is guilty o
through the mail and receiving and ac-
f a Federal offense in using the mails to
The publishers of True DETECTIVE Mysteries are
reputable publishers—to stamp out this form of theft’ and piracy and are advising
all magazines from which such stories have been copied of such plagiarism, and are
offering to cooperate with the publishers thereof to punish the guilty persons.
Notice is hereby given to all who have submitted stories that the same must be
anxious—as are all
Sudds
tor whi
door ca
bundled
followec
is he d
hidden
room,
ind lift
Doct
Mancus
1 the
movenie
strange
As i
30 The.
The Great Riverside Drive Poison Mystery 41
ids, preparatory | asked Mr. Mancuso, eager to gain all knowledge possible. in the hotel room for the reply from Dean Vaughan.
ng his estate in “The spleen, lungs and other organs,” was the reply. Immediately after the wedding, _Doctor Wishart said,
S. Peck, and his | “Where can I reach Dean Vaughan?” questioned the Doctor and Mrs. Waite moved to their New York apartment
other bequests, prosecutor. : which was furnished by Mr. Peck in sumptuous fashion, and
Waite, father of “At his home in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He surely is Doctor Waite took up the study of voice culture and languages
home and in bed at this hour,’’ was the response. (It was in anticipation of future activities.
_ Grand Rapids nearly 2 o'clock in the morning.) 4 Another interesting member of the Peck family was Miss
“LPIl proceed just as quickly as I can get something from Catherine A. Peck, a sister of John E. Peck and aunt of Mrs.
the Assistant Dean Vaughan to justify it,’’ said Mancuso sharply—and Waite. Miss Peck was a woman who had shared in the
there in the hotel room he drafted a telegram, an urgent prosperity of the Peck family and was very wealthy. She,
telegram, to the dean of the University Medical School, too, had tired of Grand Rapids as a residence, and had moved
eb had it | asking for an immediate report on the result of the examina- into an apartment in the Park Avenue Hotel, in New York.
ave Deen ha a ‘
entually brought tion of Mr. Peck’s vital organs. She was close to Doctor Waite and Clara and the three con-
° The telegram was sent, and the four men sat in . the room, stantly were together.
lawver. awaiting a reply. But, during that wait, Mancuso drew By the time this recital of the Peck family’s history was
s the reply. And from his visitors the history of the completed it was after 3 o'clock in the
om his pocket a Peck family and knowledge of the morning. The conversation grew
niche it held in the life of Grand sporadic, for all five men in the room
Rapids. John E. Peck had been were weary. But they sat there, await-
ig born in Newburgh, New York, and ing the reply to their telegram to
wuToPey ator had gone to Grand Rapids fifty Michigan—the telegram which was to
kK. ADAMS years before his death, a poor man arouse the venerable dean of a medical
who opened a retail drug store with school from his bed and to bring a
e telegram had his brother, the late Thomas H. missive which would determine what
sent from a Peck. steps should be taken.
ern Union tele- Finally the message came. It was
office in Grand THE Peck brothers were thrifty delivered to Mancuso by a sleepy bell
ral Terminal, in and worked hard; they saved boy who shuffled to the door of Room
York City, and their money and when they had 616 and handed the Assistant District
rived rh 3 deati- saved sufficient capital they went Attorney a yellow envelope. The door
n just in time to into drug manufacturing, building was closed quickly and the five men—
the cremation of up a business which assumed. large Mancuso, Doctor Schuritz, Doctor Wish-
Peck's body! The proportions. After the death of art, Doctor Schultze and Burchill—
ation had been or- Thomas H. Peck, his brother, John bent over to read. It said, in effect:
— ve degree E. shes continued the business, ANALYSIS OF ORGANS INDICATES
SS e wis a married and had two children born Ww
sal of his body in into his family. The Peck fortune BEINGS IN BODY. birt Renee
t of his death follow grew and he acquired stock and be- —
means used in the came a director in banks and The telegram. electrified the little
h of Mrs. Peck, his large furniture companies in Grand Rapids. gathering of men in the room.
ng companion. As Percy Peck followed in his father’s business “Where is the apartment
he identity of “K. footsteps and the Peck fortune continued to where Mr. Peck died?”
ms,"’ no member of grow. The daughter, Clara Louise, was looked demanded Mancuso.
Peck family could on as a social ‘“‘catch’’ in Grand Rapids. She “It’s in the Colosseum,
| anyone of that had many suitors, but it was not until Arthur on Riverside Drive, near
e Waite, a childhood acquaintance, had returned One - hundred - and Six-
ir. Mancuso then to his home city after many adventures abroad, teenth Street,’’ was the
ned of the steps that she lost her heart. Waite had studied response.
ch followed receipt dentistry at the University of Michigan and “Ts the family—Doctor
the telegram. His | received his degree. Later, to secure a position Waite and his wife—
tors explained that with Wellman & Bridgeman, ‘a London or- there?” asked the Assistant
telegram had ganization, he took a post-graduate course at District Attorney.
cked Percy Peck, the University of Glasgow, in Scotland, and
) had no suspicion was sent to Cape Town, South Africa, where “N° was the answer.
through any except he spent five years. “Both Doctor Waite
1 to follow out the On his return: to Grand Rapids, Waite was and Mrs. Waite are in
elegram. He called given prominence in the newspapers, which told Grand Rapids.”
the latter a close | of his adventures on the Dark Continent. He The prosecutor paused;
stor at the brilliant said he had made $25,000 in business and was then he turned to the
rite, and asked their the owner of two valuable farms in British East others.
topsy essential under Africa. “Gentlemen,” he said,
orm it. <, Doctor Waite was at that time twenty-nine slowly, “I am going to
_ the vault in Oak Hill years old, a commanding, athletic figure, and a pledge you all to secrecy
here Doctor Schuritz skilled tennis player. He had fascinating in what we are about to do.
nd had them sent to mannerisms and characteristics. His friendship I feel that we are engaging
edical School of the with Clara Peck was renewed soon after his in a momentous case; a
Michigan, for analysis. return and after a courtship of very case which may demand
ean Vaughan’s hands, short duration Doctor Waite led Clara very careful handling and
7 oo, Peck to the altar. The wedding, which a case in which we must
_ Grand Rapids visitors | was one of the most brilliant ever held proceed, at times, in a
ad then came to New in Grand Rapids, was solemnized by manner which may bring
ithorities can aid tok Doctor Wishart, who told the Assis- down criticism upon us.”
isnlagiaie ren John tant District Attorney of the beauty of Mrs. Clara Peck Waite, daughter of the murdered The others agreed with
_ = ack body?” the ceremony as they waited anxiously pair and wife of the Doctor (Continued on page 133)
Wit. . ‘
Ey ee Sage Rae ee
who had
returned
to do some
ulding.
nz, a little
tunity to
~tealthily,
paused in
engraving
had seen
the boyY—
uiternoon
entrance
thereatter,
\s a
peratives
e respec-
i reporte d
that both
t would be
ie of the
made tor
ther one
ment for,
a sound.
my wits
d as that
never the
> door be-
1 opened
I started
iS slience
yself ina
t outlined
nea win-
OI Were
ilongy the
d founda
and was
dare to
e feeling
impelled
d ot the
noonlight
Ww.
light, and
S was the
d out on
\ seething
lind dur-
1 incredi-
had not
er things
puzzling
vlor and
ie hotel?
me, set a
rot down
while my
poe ket
I was in
eassured.
ce of
ief
concern, strange as that may seem. Whena
detective is in the midst of an investigation
of a mystery so mammoth as was this one,
his life is not always the first thing on his
mind.
This man in the corner, was he awake,
watching my every move, or was he asleep?
I couldn't leave the office unless I had as-
sured myself of this point. The whole
future of the investigation hinged upon it.
If, by chance, he was asleep then I might
successfully steal out of the place without
his knowing I’d ever been there. If he
was awake—well, I'd have to figure out
some way of taking care of him.
I must have stood there five minutes
without moving while all these thoughts
coursed through my mind. Then I took a
soft step forward. I would tiptoe up to this
still form and listen to his breathing. If the
breathing were heavy I would know he was
asleep for, strangely enough, most people
True Detective Mysteries
cannot feign sleep. They make the mistake
of not breathing heavily.
I took another step forward and a floor-
board creaked beneath me, but not a move
from the form in the corner. Closer and
closer, until I was within two feet of it.
Suddenly, the form moved... .
Is William J. Burns, terror of
crooks, caught at last in the snares of
a death trap from which he must shoot
his way to safety? What lurks behind
the phantom figure in the shadows?
The famous sleuth himself tells how he
got out of one of the toughest spots:
in all of his brilliant career as a
master detective, in March TRUE
DETECTIVE MYSTERIES. Don’t miss
the breath-taking conclusion next month
of this sensational inside story of
one of America’s greatest counter-
feiting rings. On all news. stands
February 15th.
The Great Riverside Drive Poison Mystery
(Continued from page 41)
the Prosecutor and everything he said.
“Dean Vaughan's message makes it
imperative that we, secretly, go at once
to the Waite apartment,’’ Mancuso con-
tinued. ‘I want to get an intimate view
of that apartment in which two wealthy
persons died within a period of six weeks—
and I don’t want anybody to know that we
are going there, or anybody to learf later
that we have been there!’’
Four heads nodded agreement, and
Mancuso, stepping to the telephone, called
a taxicab. Through the silent corridors of
the hotel the party of five men walked to
an elevator, descended to the street level
and, soon, through the cold mists of the
early morning (it was between 3 and 4
o'clock) sped north in a taxicab to River-
side Drive and 116th Street, leaving the cab
there and walking to the pretentious nine-
story apartment known as the Colosseum,
at 435 Riverside Drive.
The five investigators were halted at the
door by a drowsy doorman,
‘Who do you want?” he asked them.
“We want to go up to Doctor Waite’s
apartment,’ said Mancuso.
“‘There’s nobody home there,” said the
doorman, ‘‘and if there was, you could not
go up at this time in the morning.”
“Well, we are going up,’ retorted Man-
cuso, and he showed his badge of office.
‘“‘We represent the Law and we are going to
that apartment on a legitimate errand.”
The doorman protested he could not
allow them to go to the Waite apartment
during the occupants’ absence.
‘Where is the proprietor of the apart-
ment?’’ asked Mancuso. ‘‘And who is he?’
“The proprietor is Mr. Joseph C. Pa-
terno, and he lives on the ninth floor here—
but you can’t see him until eight o'clock,”
replied the doorman.
“We'll see him now,’’ retorted Mancuso,
and then he turned to the doorman menac-
ingly. ‘'We are going to see Mr. Paterno,
and he is going to allow us to see Doctor
Waite’s apartment. And I have this warn-
ing for you. You are not to tell a living soul
tnat we have been here, that we made any
inspection or asked any questions about any
tenant of the apartment. I am going to
hold you to secrecy and... '’ Here the
Prosecutor’s voice rose warningly. “If
”
you disregard my orders you will be inter-
fering with the Law and I will see that you
are punished for it.”
The now frightened doorman consented
to take the five men to Paterno’s apart-
ment and they boarded the elevator to the
ninthyfloor, A persistent ringing of the
doorbell finally brought Paterno, an indig-
nant Paterno, to the door. He was sleepy-
eyed and angry at being disturbed.
Mancuso quickly told the apartment
proprietor that it was necessary for him to
gain entrance to the Waite apartment.
“But there's no one home there,” Paterno
objected. “The Waites are away and their
servant was discharged recently. I have
no right to allow you gentlemen to enter the
place.”
“Mr. Paterno,” interrupted Mancuso,
“it is absolutely necessary that we, acting
in the interest of the Law in New York,
enter that apartment—and it is just as
necessary that our visit there be guarded
from everyone. You must help us enter—
and you must not divulge our presence there
to a living soul!”
PPATERNO protested again and again,
but finally said he would allow the in-
vestigators to enter the apartment.
A weird procession marked the approach
to the Waite apartment. It was decided
not to use the elevator, but to walk from
the Paterno apartment on the ninth floor,
down the stairs to the Waite apartment on
the sixth floor. Paterno led the way through
the tomb-like quiet of the halls and down
the winding staircases. Following him, in
order, were Mancuso, the two detectives
the two policemen, Doctor Schuritz, Doc-
tor Schultze, Doctor Wishart and Burchill,
the official stenographer. .
Down the stairs they went to the ‘sixth
floor, walking on tip-toe so as not to attract
the attention of tenants in the building,
On the sixth floor Paterno approached a
door. Silently he drew his pass key from
his pocket and quietly opened the door of
the palatial apartment. The little group of
men filed in and the door was closed quietly
behind them.
It was between 4 and 5 o'clock on the
morning of Saturday, March 18th—
and the Assistant District Attorney, his
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today. UNITED PORTRAIT COMPANY
900 W. Lake St., Dept. 8-991, Chicago, til.
oking at the
will do this,
continue
re in the
of Doctor
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Ni) FOR NEW
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him, and
signal to
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hotel for the
s vigil at one
avert recog-
Wishart stood
copies of
ng and ac-
1e mails to
are all
re advising
and are
ust be
near the other door. In the station crowd
were a half-dozen plain-clothes men, ex-
verts in the art of ‘‘trailing,’’ awaiting the
signal of the raised hat.
The stage was set at five minutes before
{1 o'clock. The Wolverine pulled into the
Grand Central Terminal on time and its
passengers began to stream through the
doors into the big waiting room. Mancuso,
keeping himself hidden in the moving throng,
watched Doctor Wishart and Doctor
Schuritz, glancing from one to the other.
Suddenly, Mancuso saw the movement
tor which he was watching. Through the
door came a tall, handsome young man,
bundled in a heavy fur coat. ,He was
followed by a “red cap’ burdened with
luggage. The tall young man hesitated for
‘ moment to speak to the “red dap” and
is he did so, Mancuso saw Doctor ‘Wishart
hidden behind a group in the big waiting
room, stare fixedly at the tall young man
ind lift his hat from his head.
Doctor Waite had been identified and
Mancuso knew that skilled detectives were
on the trail of at least one person whose
movements he wanted to follow in his
strange quest.
As Waite, followed by the “red cap”,
moved to a door of the station where taxi-
cabs awaited, Mancuso rejoined Doctor
Wishart and Doctor Schuritz and the three
returned to the Manhattan Hotel to prepare
for the next step in their investigation.
It wasa tired four who sat there. Mancuso,
who had done a day’s work before attending
the St. Patrick’s Day dinner. the night be-
fore, had been up all night. Doctor
Schultze and the visitors from Grand
Rapids also had had no rest—but all felt
that the time for sleep had not yet come,
so they kept at their task. Mancuso rushed
down to the District Attorney’s office to
clean away routine matters, but was back
in the Manhattan Hotel at 1 o'clock, still
without sleep.
By the time Mancuso had reached the
hotel, additional messages had been received
from Dean Vaughan, who had analyzed
organs taken from Mr. Peck’s body. The
messages virtually assured the investigators
that Peck had come to his death from
poisoning—but there still remained the
possibility that the arsenic found in the
organs might have been in the embalming
fluid used by the undertaker who prepared
the body for burial.
The next step, as the investigators saw
it, was to get in touch with the undertaker
ind to obtain samples of the embalming
fluid he used in his work. The physicians,
in discussion with Mancuso, agreed that
arsenic was a preseryative and might
possibly be used by some undertakers, so
it was agreed to concentrate on clearing up
the question as to whether Peck’s body had
been preserved by such means.
Mancuso learned that Mr. Peck’s body
had been in charge of the Plowright Under-
taking Establishment of 144 Lexington
Avenue, of which John S. Potter was the
proprietor. He and his Grand Rapids
colleagues went to the undertaking estab-
lishment, but were told that Mr. Potter was
out, conducting a funeral and would not
return for several hours. Mancuso notified
the employes that he must get in touch
with Mr. Potter as early as possible, and
in the meantime detectives went into the
mortuary rooms and seized all the embalm-
ing fluid they could find. This fluid was
kept in large, five-gallon carboys. One was
True Detective Mysteries
found full to the brim, evidently not hav-
ing been opened. It was sealed by
Mancuso. Another carboy, about half
filled with liquid was discovered, and from
this the detectives took a sample, then
sealed the container,
The samples were hurried down to Doc-
tor Goettler, a toxicologist at Bellevue
Hospital, for analysis and Mancuso notified
the undertaker’s employees that unless
Mr. Potter got in touch with him by 5
o'clock that afternoon drastic measures
would be employed.
The hurried analysis of the embalming
fluid by Doctor Goettler indicated that no
arsenic was to be found in the samples from
the Potter establishment, and the investiga-
tion along that line was stopped, tempor-
arily, pending the questioning of Mr.
Potter.
It was at this point in the investigation
when there came an important develop-
ment which turned the eyes of the Assistant
District Attorney momentarily, at least,
from the misty poison trail. It was the
first report from one of the detectives who
had followed Doctor Waite from the doors
of the Grand Central Terminal.
AYMOND SCHINDLER, Chief of the
agency hired at the behest of Percy
Peck, had followed Waite’s car from the sta-
tion and had seen it pull up to a cigar store
in Upper Broadway. Leaving his baggage
in the taxicab, Waite entered the store, got
change from a clerk and entered a telephone
booth. Schindler, carefully keeping out of
Waite’s sight, had entered the adjoining
booth, just in time to hear the end of Waite’s
conversation. The dentist had said:
‘“—— you later on. Better pay your bills
and pack up your things and get out at
once.”
Schindler, knowing the other detectives
would pick up the trail when Waite left the
cigar store, stayed in the booth and made
frantic efforts to trace the call which Doctor
Waite had made.
He learned that Doctor Waite had talked
with a woman in the Plaza Hotel—one of
New York’s most fashionable hostelries—
and that the woman who had answered the
call was ‘‘Mrs, A. M. Walters,”’ wife of
“Doctor A. M. Walters,’’ according to the
hotel register. Both had taken Room 1105
at the Plaza Hotel some time before.
By the time detectives had: reached the
Plaza to interview ‘Mrs. Walters,” she had
paid her bill at the hotel, checked out perma-
nently, and disappeared. She had disappeared
without leaving a single clue to either her
destination or her identity.
Of all the famous criminal cases in
this country, that of the Strange deaths
of the millionaire, John Peck, and his
wife, stands pre-eminent in its baffling
mystery. Who is the mysterious Mrs.
’A. M. Walters? Why did the Doctor
immediately call her at the Plaza on his
arrival in New York and instruct her
to flee? Will the detectives be able to
trace her secretive movements and con-
nect her with this sensational crime?
Who is the real person hiding back of
the name “K, Adams,” signed to the
mystery telegram? Don’t miss the thrill-
ing instalment of this, considered by
many as America’s greatest poison case,
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tective Cunifte seated on a chair nearby.
“Who is that man? What is he doing
here?” he asked the nurse and then, talking
direct to Cuniffe, demanded:
“What are you doing in my room?”
“l’m a headquarters detective. I’m here
to keep you trom doing any harm to your-
selt, Dr. Waite,” Cuniffe said.
The man on the bed made an effort at a
smile,
“You're lying,” he said, weakly. “You're
after me, I know. Well, I guess I’m the
worst scoundrel on the face of the earth!”
“T wouldn't say that,” the detective said,
seeking to win the sick man’s sympathy.
“We all make mistakes. Maybe you were
under the influence of liquor or a drug!”
A cunning look came into the eyes of
the murderer.
“You seem to be really friendly,” he
said. “I'll tell you something. I wouldn't
tell it to anyone else. It is true that I
was under the influence of something when
I killed my wife's parents but that thing
was a fiend from Egypt, a mysterious and
sinister spirit from the shadow of the
Pyramids, who, in the form of a man,
dogged me daily and goaded me on to kill
and kill!”
“You did kill your mother-in-law and
tather-in-law ?” asked the detective.
“Yes, I killed them both. As I have
been lying here in bed I came to the con-
clusion to confess it all. I have gone over
the incidents of the past few months. I
have made my peace with my Creator and
I stand ready to take the punishment.”
“Do you want to have a_ confession
drawn up by Judge Swann?” asked
Cuniffe.
“No. He’s against me. But I suppose
they all are—and justly so. All right.
Tell him to come‘here and I'll tell every-
thing!”
District Attorney Swann, with stenog-
raphers and detectives, hurried to the
bedside of the accused man.
“T killed both my mother-in-law and my
father-in-law,” began Dr. Waite, without
any hesitation, when the prosecutor said
he was ready to hear what he had to say.
THE STRANGE DEATH
Bern, as kindly as he knew how, an-
swered the letter.
“Dear Dorothy,” he wrote. “So far as
work out here is concerned, I think the
present time is a terribly difficult one.
Naturally, with the financial conditions of
the country as bad as they are, we too have
suffered. There are great numbers of
people out of work, and it will not help
to add to their number. Consequently, I
don’t think you should come out here now.
“Love, regards and best wishes always.
Paul.”
As she re-read that letter did some form
of resentment surge in her breast as she
recalled innumerable newspaper and maga-
zine stories which credited Paul Bern with
having led Jean Harlow to the cinema
top? Or was she merely seized with that
sinking feeling, sinking realization she was
too old to start over again? Did she come
to know there in the solitude of her room
that her future would be no more nor no
less than what the recent years had been
—living from hotel room to hotel room, a
leech on the generosity of a man who had
gone his own way? We only know that
her room was strewn with countless clip-
pings which told of the marriage of Paul
Bern and Jean Harlow—their romance—
their successes—their dreams—their plans.
And as’ she followed word by word the
lives and careers of Jean Harlow and Paul
Bern, did the memory of her own begin- °
ning with the producer, then a struggling,
90
“I did it to obtain the fortune which |
knew would then be left to my Wife.
“I first tried to kill Mrs. Peck with
germs of typhoid fever. I bought several
cultures of these germs from a bacteri-
ological laboratory and placed them in food
eaten by Mrs. Peck. But, for some reason,
they did not infect her.
“The night that Mrs. Peck died I went
into her room at two o’clock, and to my
surprise I found her still breathing, al-
though I had given her a full dose of
arsenic. So I took the pillow and held it
over her face until she was strangled. I
did the same thing to my father‘in-law for
after I gave him the heavy dose of the
poison the evening that Dr. Cornell called
at the house, I wanted him dead, quick.”
HE MAN ON the bed ‘stopped talking
District Attorney Swann spoke up:
“Did you intend killing anyone else?”
“Yes, I guess I did. My wife was the
next on the list and after her I intended
to kill her aunt. There were tvphoid germs
in the atomizers I gave Peck and my wife
to use!”
“You realize what you are saying and
you believe you are of sound mind at this
moment?” asked: Judge Swann.
“I know exactly what I am saying and
also what it means,” Waite answered.
He then went on and gave to the prose-
cutor the data needed to corroborate every
statement he made.
“I had planned to have my victims cre-
mated so there would be no trace of the
poisons,” he told Judge Swann.
As far as justice was concerned, the case
ended with that statement. It only re-
mained for the forces of the law to run
down the corroborative facts, the leads to
which Dr. Waite furnished. There were
115 witnesses called before Supreme Court
Justice Clarence J. Shearn who presided
at the trial for murder. And in the annals
of criminality in New York City, no more
harrowing tale was ever told to twelve
jurors. The Arch Fiend himself could not
have been more satanic than the evidence
proved Dr. Waite to have been.
Yet, a few days before the trial, he sent
to his wife a letter couched in such terms
‘that Mrs. Waite publicly said:
“It was as sweet in sentiment as any
love letter I had ever received from him!”
And after he was convicted and sen-
tenced to die in the electric chair at Sing
Sing Prison, while waiting on the New
York Central Railroad station for the
train to take him to his place of execution,
this arch fiend, whose diabolical plot was
as ruthless as any even of Borgian origin,
stooped to pet a dog and to straighten a
wire in the animal’s muzzle which was
cutting into its jaw and causing him pain.
Nor did he need an opiate to help him
prepare for the short walk through the
little door beyond which was death. He
ate heartily the evening of his execution,
received spiritual comfort from a clergy-
man to whom he said he believed he had
made his peace with God and, as a soldier
sent before a firing squad, walked without
histrionics or stimulants and took his seat
within the lethal chair as if, perchance, it
were at a tennis tournament, in which,
with steel nerve and never-failing skill, he
would smash his way to new athletic
triumphs.
Nyy ee SENT THE mysterious telegram
which sent the murderer to the chair,
just as a second cremation seemed about
to clear the way for more of his murderous
acts?
The sender was never revealed to the
public and District Attorney Swann saw
to it that the identity was kept secret.
But, there was a maid “Dora” in the house-
hold of the bride, devoted to her mistress
with the affection that had grown through
the years. And it is believed that it was
she who aroused the Grand Rapids au-
thorities to action with the resultant bring-
ing to justice of the monstrous criminal.
And when she sent it she was just playing
that silent hand which, since Cain first
smote with murderous blow, somehow
points the accusing finger at the slayer
just when he is most certain that no one
can find him out!
OF JEAN HARLOW’S 2nd HUSBAND #0 pose 17
ambitious writer-actor, return to haunt
her?
Haunted by these memories did Dorothy
Millette take any steps to thwart the cul-
mination of the romance between Paul
Bern and Jean Harlow? Between May 4,
the date of Dorothy Millette’s arrival in
San Francisco, and July 2, the date of the
Bern-Harlow marriage, Miss Millette was
missing on numerous occasions from her
hotel room in the Plaza. Where did she
go on these mystery trips? There is no
doubt but that she made frequent, surrep-
titious trips to Hollywood. In the shadows
unobserved, there was no reason why she
and Bern might not have gotten together
‘to talk over the twisted’ threads of their
lives, the strange pattern of fate in which
they found themselves—with Jean Harlow
the pawn in between. _ -
And if they held these secret trysts, if
Paul Bern did meet with this woman from
out of his other life—the life he had cast
aside years before—what did they say to
each other? What could they say to each
other?
Wo THE WORLD waiting for the mar-
tiage of Paul Bern and Jean Harlow,
what could he do? He could grit his teeth
and say: “I love Jean Harlow. Nothing
in the world can stop me from becoming
her husband—even if it only lasts for but
a little while. After that I’ll gladly face
the music, take any kind of medicine.”
No one will ever know what thoughts
and fears and memories pranced through
the brain of Paul Bern as he heard the
words of the Superior Court Jurist, Leon
Yankwich, make him the legal mate of
Jean Harlow. No one will ever know
what trepidation dogged his footsteps as
he led his glamorous, happy and smiling
bride to his mansion-home in picturesque
Benedict Canyon to the north of the heart
of Beverly Hills—the exclusive tramping
ground of the film celebrifies.
To Jean Harlow it was the beginning
of a new life, a new life with the con-
servative little man who had reposed in her
such boundless faith. In the great tragedy
that was suddenly to widow the vivacious
screen girl, she was more than to prove
she was deeply in love with the man whom
she had taken for better or worse. There
are those who say, of course, that Jean
Harlow was never in love with the pro-
ducer, but this is untrue. Whether or not
there was a physical companionship be-
tween Bern and his girl bride is entirely
beside the point. Many a fact loomed
high out of the intensive investigation to
establish definitely that Jean Harlow was
crushed: and heartbroken when her hus-
band of two months was suddenly taken
from her.
Although Bern and his bride now lived
beneath the same roof, life went on as
usual for them. Each went to the studio
to carry on the day’s work. Sometimes
they rode to
ments would
went their sé
inconvenienc:
nights when,
the home of }
rather than
Benedict Ca
course, wert
fateful night
life was end
Before wi
myriad myst
let us follow
Paul Bern an
of the nights
Let us detern
were leading—
view to a cert
eyes of filmi:
Bearing in
body of Bern
ber 5—a Mon
tember 1, on
3ern and Jean
nine P.M. app
in Santa Mon:
smiling, and ¢
ance of being
fect honeym
spacious ballr
pair entered a
corner. Earli
his bride had «
restaurant on
They returned
around midnig
to their separa
co FRIDAY §
peared at
studio and wor
“Red Dust” a:
tion several sc
into productio:
quiet dinner in
a mutual frien
wood scenario
producer for m
served by John
his wife, Wini
dinner the tri
drawing room
tion pictures,
The followin
tember 3, Jean
the studio. Sh:
camera at nine
required in put
Bern did not ¢
He remained a:
ternately sleepi:
to Carmichael.
returned to hau
was he merely
studio factory ?
that evening Be
“Tm going to
ner with my wi
Carmichael k:
worked late she
till eight in the
often had dinn
those hours at t
detained her.
But on this 1
Metro-Goldwyn-
his bride of ty
Harold Allen (
acted as the pro
serving in that
Instead Garris
the Ambassador
“On the way t
something about
given that eveni:
March,” Garriso:
why he didn’t g
think of going \
“I waited for
<n
Waite’s suggestion his wife retired imme-
diately.
“I'll stay up and read a bit and attend to
mother,” he said.
Presently, from her room, Mrs, Waite
heard the phonograph going and recognized
her mother’s favorite hymns which the
doctor son-in-law was playing for the sick
woman.
Mrs. Martha Lynch, the day nurse, who
had been in attendance for a week, had
found Mrs. Waite in such good condition
that with her permission she had gone
home shortly after nine o’clock without
notifying the night nurse, whose services
had not been required for several days,
to report for duty.
“I'll play nurse for you until you fall
asleep,” Doctor Waite told his mother-in-
law. So he gave her the medicine left by”
Dr. Porter and remained at her bedside
until his wife had fallen fast asleep. Early
the following morning Mrs. Waite was
awakened by her husband who was up and
fully dressed.
“I’ve just sent for Doctor Porter,” he
ange to her. “Mother has had a very bad
spell.”
The doctor arrived in a few minutes and
went to work on the sick woman. About
five o'clock he entered the living room
where Mrs. Waite and her husband were
Walting.
He looked at them and shook his head.
“What is it, Doctor, has she taken a
turn tor the worse?” inquired the bride,
anxiously.
Dr. Porter went to her and took her
hand.
“Be brave, Mrs. Waite. After all, she
had lived a full life.”
The bridegroom, who had risen as the
physician entered the room, seized him by
both shoulders.
‘Good heavens, man! Don’t tell me that
that dear little woman is dead?”
The physician nodded.
The dentist turned away and tears fell
like raindrops from his eyes. His bride
comforted him.
“Don't take it so hard, dear,” she soothed.
“As the doctor says, she did live a full
life and even though it seems terrible to
lose her, at such a time, too, when we are
so happy, we simply must face the in-
evitable.”
UT THE YOUNG man seemed inconsol-
able. The mood was on him all that
day and the next while they were on the
way to Grand Rapids with the body for the
funeral and the interment.
On the train the bridegroom suddenly
turned to his bride and said:
“T can’t bear the idea of placing mother
in a grave at such a time when everything
is covered with snow. I’ve always had
a horror for the grave. I think she should
be cremated. Won't you please use your
influence with father to see that she is
al Don’t you think it would be
est?”
Mr. Peck, when the suggestion of cre-
mation was made, at first was against it;
but when his daughter informed him it
was her husband’s wish he readily as-
sented. After the funeral, which was at-
tended by the most important residents of
Grand Rapids, the remains were taken to
Detroit and cremated.
“You must come and visit us,” said his
son-in-law to Mr. Peck after the mourners
had returned to the Peck home in Grand
Rapids. “I’m sure that in our home you
will recover more quickly from the shock
of your dear wife’s death.”
Early in February John E. Peck arrived
at his daughter’s home on a visit! Two
days after he got there a strange intes-
tinal disorder caused him to take to his
88
bed. Dr. Porter was called and prescribed
something of a soothing nature which had
an immediate effect. The next day Mr.
Peck was on his feet agaim
“Perhaps you got a grippe germ in you,”
said his son-in-law. “See. I bought a
couple of atomizers and I want you and
Clara to spray your nose and throat every
two hours with them.”
Mr. Peck and his daughter both used the
atomizers and while there was no apparent
reaction as far as Mr. Peck was concerned
the young wife developed a sore throat.
But this, too, vanished in a few days and
the entire household, recovered, went on
trying to forget its sorrow over the death
of the mother by sedate and dignified en-
tertainment.
On March 11, in the afternoon, Dr. Jacob
B. Cornell of Raritan, New Jersey, accom-
panied by his sister, called on Mr. Peck.
Dr. Cornell was a cousin of Mrs. Peck.
Mr. Peck was in excellent humor and,
lying on the couch, exchanged jokes with
his visitors. He seemed to be in good
health and declared that the slight in-
testinal trouble which had bothered him
for two or three weeks, was gradually
leaving him,
While Dr. Cornell was .there, Dr. Al-
bertus A. Moore, a neighborhood phy-
sician, called and prescribed some medicine
for the ailing man. Dr. Waite took the
prescription and left the apartment with
the physician, apparently to have the pre-
scription filled. Dr. Waite returned in a
few minutes, took the medicine and went
to a cabinet in his room where he appar-
ently was preparing it for Mr. Peck. Then
he went to Mr. Peck and gave him a dose
of the medicine.
At that moment Dr. Cornell left with his
sister. Outside there was quite a delay
in the arrival of the elevator. While they
waited, Dr. Cornell heard groans emerging
from the Waite apartment.
“That’s strange,” he remarked to his sis-
ter. “What could he be groaning about?
He certainly was in good health only a
couple of minutes ago?”
Dr, Cornell did not turn back but went
on down when the elevator finally arrived
and journeyed home to Raritan.
HE NEXT DAY, at noon, he received
a telephone call from Mrs. Waite that
Mr. Peck had died that morning.
“What was the trouble with him?” he
asked.
“Dr. Moore said it was heart disease
and acute nephritis,” said Mrs. Waite.
“It’s very strange,” commented Dr, Cor-
nell. “He was in such excellent good
spirits last night. I cannot understand it.
I suppose you'll take him home to Grand
Rapids for the interment?”
Mrs. Waite said she planned so to do.
“Warren thinks that it would be best to
cremate him and keep his ashes as we have
those of mother,” she said,
“Oh,” exclaimed Dr. Cornell. “It was
your husband’s idea then to have crema-
tion !”
“Yes,” said Mrs. Waite.
Dr. Cornell then offered his services if
they were needed and the conversation
ended.
Mrs. Waite prepared immediately for
her trip to Grand Rapids. Her husband,
whose eyes were red-rimmed from weep-
ing, was as solicitous as ever.
“I think you had better take your atom-
izer with you and spray your throat con-
stantly,” he cautioned her. “There’s much
grippe about. I’ve ‘got a powder here for
you, also, that I had the druggist prepare.
It will quiet your nerves and make you
bear the shock better.”
When Mrs,-Waite, alone, left for Grand
Rapids that night, leaving the matter of
the shipment of the body to her husband,
she had already taken a copius dose of
her husband's “nerve powder.”
At Grand Rapids she was met at the
station by her brother, Percy Peck, joint
heir with her then to the $2,000,000 estate
of the rich druggist. She complained to
him that she did not feel well.
“On the train I had an overpowering
sense of nausea,” she said.
Upon her arrival home she immediately
went to bed and a local physician was
summoned who declared her illness was a
reaction from a severe nervous shock.
About ten o’clock that night, as she was
dozing, her brother, pale-faced and plainly
excited, entered her room.
“Clara,” he said, “didn’t you tell me
that you felt severe nausea?”
“Yes, I do!”
He left the room and in less than ten
minutes another physician appeared in a
response to his hurried call and after a
whispered conference with Mr. Peck gave
her a powerful emetic. Other medicine
was prescribed and by morning all traces
of her nausea had disappeared.
“Tf Waite should by any chance come
here, don’t under any circumstances take
any medicine he gives you,” her brother
cautioned.
“Why?” she asked, suspicious at the in-
tonation of his voice.
“Well, it would not chemically agree with
the medicine the doctor has given. you,”
was his guarded answer.
AN TEN O’cLocK Dr, Victor C. Vaughn
of the University of Michigan called
at the house. Mr. Peck showed him a
telegram.
“I received it shortly after my sister got
home,” he said.
The telegram, addressed to him, read:
“Suspicions aroused. Demand autopsy.
Examine body.”
Dr. Vaughn shook his head gravely.
“Your mother died only recently and I
was shocked to hear of your father’s
death,”
“She died in Waite’s apartment in New
York City on January 30,” said Mr. Peck,
talking rapidly and under great excite-
ment. “Six weeks later my father died
similarly, in the same apartment. My sis-
ter, the only one who stands between
$1,000,000 and her husband, returned home
last night feeling ill, Nausea! Nausea!
The very symptom mother and father both
had. That is the one symptom, I am told,
that cannot be lacking in any case where
arsenic has been given!”
“You think arsenic has been used?”
“My sister, last night, had symptoms of
arsenic poisoning.”
“Who is this ‘K. Adams’ from the Colis-
seum apartment who signed the telegram?”
“I don’t know but that’s the address
where my sister and Waite live. Looks
as if some one, a maid or a nurse, has
seen or heard something suspicious. So,
I want you to perform an autopsy, with
the permission of the coroner, and see
what can be found.”
“When will the body arrive?”
“Tt is at the station now.”
Dr. Vaughn, informing the police of
Grand Rapids of Mr. Peck’s fears, obtained
immediate cooperation. At four o’clock
that afternoon the autopsy had been com-
pleted. Large quantities of arsenic had
been found in the stomach, throat and
other organs of the deceased.
By long distance phone the office of Dis-
trict Attorney Swann of New York City
was notified of what had happened. F. X.
Mancuso, then Assistant District Attorney,
assigned to the case, at once despatched
Dr. Otto E. Schultze, pathologist of the
District Attorney’s staff, to Grand Rapids
oon
to check 1
Dr. Schu!
the analys
stomach
York by t
Immed:
to do wit!
ing, was
Attorney.
Waite \
tioned by
the intervi
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even in th:
Swann be
soning we:
who did it
Waite an
was dem:
when Wa:
son Aven
charge of
which had
The tr:
leaving th
the traftic
Wate
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der the d
berger, m
found that
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Then th:
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lar, loomed
gation. S}
a vaudevil
his “studi«
¢As soon
ured in th
turn out
woman in
attraction.
issued a s!
“My wit
wrongdoing
that I beli:
Waite, if ;
doned by n
“Did yor
ceiving m«
asked.
“Oh yes.
someone w:
no way of
benefactor
shadow her
ciples.”
Mrs. Dor
friend of M
of the char
implications
from Dr. \
had_ passed
ported to ha
told newspa
which lifte
which she
the time of
formed the °
found linge:
male attire
Mrs. Hort:
night the +
known.
In the me
Louise Wait
tal ordeal t}
but a wom
insanity. S
husband was
who had be:
and to her,
the atrocio:
solely to get
ally all the
orse, exam-
mpared the
1 that Gail-
n though he
to Barrie’s
such a good
days it had
1 critical in-
retch of the
| as friendly
rimmers, but
was time to
‘jorida track
ey and more
ger crowds;
smaller mu-
Sir Johren,
. van, Paddy
ieel and the
gan. Paddy
1ade another
m Agua Ca-
was refused
, largely be-
esented by a
[e sO manip-
t he was ac-
headquarters
tered up with
mM was sup-
. sight. This
He simply
ok, it was a
, under the
{ to be all set
ly Luck sud-
new that the
ck when the
| this might
n, as it had
ime and ‘also
ar of almost
1 his backers
could win if
1 of his fear
down. They
al, caring lit-
The horse
n dollars for
consideration
they consid-
g tool, like a
seemed to be
) their horse
lengths as he
Then, as
ibruptly broke
the race on
se and his bet,
subject of an
result of the
» horse. The
s of the coun-
were trans-
skies who had
rse backed by
ng less than
< to the track,
tuel machines.
» receive this
nereases their
’ The heavy
uinly indicated
Chose backing
nething.” The
npounded, and
<nahton. And
ie! But, hav-
w what to do
sno crime. If
ier collects the
of obtaining
money under false pretenses, but Barrie
had never bothered to collect purses, and
in this instance his horse had not won. It
is not considered a crime to cheat book-
makers or poolrooms by betting on a
ringer, as these men are operating without
the law. It is legal to gamble only on the
inside of the race track enclosure; make a
bet on the wrong side of the fence and you
are a lawbreaker. Barrie knew all this. He
also knew that he was illegally in this coun-
try, being a British subject, born in Scot-
land of Irish parents, and having entered
the United States without a passport. He
wondered if the authorities also knew this.
They did. He was held in $500 bail to
answer a deportation charge; promptly filed
a bond and just as promptly disappeared.
“You can’t keep a squirrel on the
ground.” Nor can Paddy Barrie be kept
away from the race tracks. He-left New
York, but soon showed up at Fort Erie,
Canada, where, on August 6, 1932, a horse
running under the name of Janie G. won
a race and paid the juicy odds of 13 to 1.
The track officials in this case were more
alert than most racing officials, although
not alert enough to prevent the ringing
mob from collecting their wagers, which
showed a profit of more than $60,000 in this
case. Volta Green was the horse used as
an understudy for Janie G. in this race, as
the investigation that ensued revealed. Six
men were ruled off the turf for life because
of their connection with this fraud. One
of them was Paddy Barrie, this time ap-
pearing under the name of H. Williams.
Paddy, however, was not greatly discon-
certed. He had been ruled off on many
previous occasions, under one name and
another. And there are still plenty of
names left in the telephone directory !
foseue LEFT Fort Erie and slipped back
into the United States, although he
knew the police were looking for him here.
He never lacked the nerve to attempt any-
thing he wanted to do. He demonstrated
this on one occasion when he sold a stolen
horse to the Chief of Police of a city in
New York State, and then went out to
Chicago and “put one over” on Terry
Druggan, the beer baron and gangster.
Terry. owned a real good horse, Gibbons.
The animal went wrong, and Barrie ap-
proached the racketeer with a proposition.
“Let me take this horse, Terry. I'll fix
him up and make him as good as he ever
was,” Barrie suggested. “I know how to
handle a horse, and I’ll soon have him
showing his best form. Everybody knows
he’s broke down, and when he starts in a
race they won't back him. You'll be able
DR. WAITE
It seemed that for every pain the aged
woman suffered, he suffered two.
“I cannot bear to see her ill,” he said to
his bride. “I love her so that it breaks my
heart!”
Dr. William H. Porter of No. 46 West
Eighty-third Street, New York City, at-
tended the ailing woman. Under his care
she seemed to recover. The morning of
January 29, the date of the championship
tennis singles for the metropolitan area, at
Madison Square Garden, she was in such
good spirits that she asked her son-in-law
to give her a short auto ride. He took her
for a twenty-minute spin through Central
Park and then returned her to his apart-
ment.
“Now be careful, honey,” he said to his
bride. “Be sure that mother gets her medi-
cine on time.”
© See HE LEFT to play in the tennis
matches. When he returned about sup-
to get a nice, juicy price.”
This listened good to Terry, who was not
averse to any proposition that promised
easy money. He turned Gibbons over to
Barrie, who promptly bought a cheap horse,
bleached it, dyed its hair to resemble Gib-
bons and then delivered it to Druggan, with
the information that it was permanently
crippled and might just as well be de-
stroyed. Druggan never suspected. that it
was not Gibbons that had been delivered to
him, until tipped off by an enemy of Bar-
rie’s. Then he let it be known that Barrie’s
“name was up.”
arrie did not worry much about this,
‘however. Instead he worked on Gibbons,
and soon had him in.ex¢ellent condition.
Changed ‘in appearance, and with a new
name, the horse was taken to Batavia, New
ig where he won a race and plenty of
ets.
Druggan was frantic when he learned of
this. His own horse had been used as a
ringer, to win a race, and he had not been
let in on the larceny. Barrie learned that
several gunmen had been dispatched from
Chicago, with instructions to blast him
loose from himself. He did the usual thing
—silently faded out of the picture, and
laughed at his victim: Druggan was sen-
tenced to jail a little later, and the heat
was turned off.
In August, 1924, Barrie drove a horse
van up to a stable at Saratoga, loaded up a
horse, and drove away. He was caught,
however and placed under arrest, charged
with stealing the animal. It would seem
that some of the facts in connection with
this case have never been given to the pub-
lic, for Barrie “beat the rap,” claiming that
he owned the horse, and that it had been
sold by a man who had no claim to owner-
ship. The horse stealing charge was
dropped, but Paddy was once again held
for the immigration authorities, and the de-
tectives heaved a sigh of relief as they con-
fidently predicted that he would be de-
ported. The resourceful Paddy, however,
has been deported on other occasions, but
always managed*to bob up again, with no
great loss of time.
(Editor’s note.) Do you believe that
when you bet at tracks where you place
your money through mutuel windows, that
you are safe? Don’t entertain any such
silly notion. The mutuels, too, can and do
“gyp” you and your fellows to the tune of
millions a year. If you want to know what
goes on behind the scenes at many mutuel
tracks where crooks cut huge slices from the
public’s profits, read the second of this sen-
sational series of race track exposés which
will appear in June REAL DETECTIVE.
From page 48
per time, he came as a victor for he had
won the metropolitan championship. He
had two bright red roses in his hand. He
gave them to his mother-in-law.
“I thought you'd like these better than a
bouquet, mother,” he declared, kissing her.
“That’s awfully sweet of you, Warren,”
said the ailing woman. “Now, I tell you
what you do. You and Clara had better go
to the opera. I'll be all right. You needn’t
fear. You go ahead now and dress and be
ready to go and when Doctor Porter comes,
I'll let him assure you I’ll be all right and
you just run along with Clara.”
The young couple did as the old lady sug-
gested and attended the opera. . But, before
it was over, Dr. Waite said:
“Clara, I think we ought to go home.”
“Why, honey, aren’t you feeling well ?”
“Perfectly, except I am worried over
mother,” he replied.
To humorshim the bride accompanied
him home where they found the aged wom-
an feeling quite comfortable. At Dr.
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husband,
dose ot
et at the
‘eck, joint
UO estate
lained to
rpowering
mediately
siclan was
ss was a
hock.
s she was
id plainly
i tell me
; than ten
ared in a
id after a
Peck gave
r medicine
all traces
ance come
ances take
ier brother
s at the in-
agree with
zxiven you,”
C. Vaughn
iigan called
ved him a
y sister got
im, read:
nd autopsy.
gravely.
ently and I
ur father’s
ent in New
i Mr. Peck,
reat excite-
tather died
at. My sis-
is between
urned home
! Nausea!
father both
I am told,
case where
1 used?”
symptoms of
m the Colis-
telegram ?”
the address
live. Looks
1 nurse, has
picious. So,
utopsy, with
er, and see
o”
ve.
he police of
‘ars, obtained
four o'clock
1 been com-
arsenic had
throat and
fice of Dis-
w York City
ened, F. X.
ct Attorney,
» despatched
logist of the
irand Rapids
to check up on the report of Dr. Vaughn.
Dr. Schultze verified in every particular
the analysis made of the contents of the
stomach of the deceased and notified New
York by telephone.
Immediately everyone who had anything
to do with the deceased while he was ail-
ing, was summoned before the District
Attorney.
Waite was one of the first to be ques-
tioned by District Attorney Swann. But
the interview was cut short when the prose-
cutor was suddenly called into court. But
even in the brief talk he had with the man,
Swann became convinced that if the poi-
soning were an inside job, he was the one
who did it. He ordered a “tail” put upon
Waite and how well that “tail” worked
was demonstrated the very next morning
when Waite was taken in custody at Madi-
son Avenue and Fifty-ninth Street on a
charge of driving too close to a trolley
which had stopped to discharge passengers.
The trailing sleuth had figured he was
leaving the city and ordered the arrest by
the traffic cop.
HILE WAITE was in Yorkville Police
Court the Police Department, un-
der the direction of Inspector Schmitt-
berger, made astounding progress. They
found that Waite on March 9 had bought
an amount of arsenic at a local drug store
which was substantially the same amount
found in the body of Mr. Peck.
Then they took up his reasons for wish-
ing to come into possession of the Peck
fortune and, as in most such cases, it turned
out to be women. One of them, in particu-
lar, loomed large on the horizon of investi-
gation. She was Mrs. Margaret Horton,
a vatideville performer, who was called
his “studio companion” by Waite.
As soon as Margaret Horton’s name fig-
ured in the case, the newspapers began to
turn out columns of interviews and the
woman immediately became a box office
attraction. Her husband, Harry Horton,
issued a statement in which he said:
“My wife is so innocent of any sense of
wrongdoing and of the ways of the world,
that I believe whatever she did with Dr.
Waite, if anything, will have to be con-
doned by me.”
“Did you know that your wife was re-
ceiving money from someone?” he was
asked.
“Oh yes,” he replied, frankly. “I knew
someone was giving her money but I had
no way of finding out the identity of her
benefactor without hiring a detective to
shadow her and this ran against my prin-
ciples.”
Mrs. Dorothy Van Palmenberg, a close
friend of Mrs. Horton, came to the defense
of the character of her friend against the
implications of the money she was getting
from Dr. Waite. But after a few days
had passed, Mrs. Van Palmenberg, re-
ported to have quarreled with Mrs. Horton,
told newspapermen of the sudden affluence
which lifted the Hortons from poverty in
which she had known them to be up to
the time of meeting Dr. Waite. She in-
formed the District Attorney later that she
found lingerie, silk pajamas and part of a
male attire in a suitcase which, she said,
Mrs. Horton brought to her house the
night the poisoning first became publicly
known.
In the meantime, at Grand Rapids, Clara
Louise Waite was enduring bravely a men-
tal ordeal that well might have driven any
but a woman of granite into a state of
insanity. She could not believe that her
husband was a poisoner; that her husband,
who had been so kind to his mother-in-law,
and to her, could have possibly committed
the atrocious murders charged to him,
solely to get possession of money.
‘
RPOE Ta eer eee
Her loyalty was inspiring. She said to
Percy Peck, her brother:
“I married him for better or for worse
and until it is proved beyond the shadow
of a doubt that he is guilty, I shall stick to
him and cherish him in my memory.”
It did no good for Mr. Peck to point
out the evidence against her husband; the
purchase of the arsenic which had been
traced to him; the strange circumstances
which were so similar in the deaths of
both her parents; the fact that he was
then under constant surveillance and could
not make a move without a police detec-
tive’s shadow looming above him. She
would not believe him guilty!
HEN CAME THE disclosure in the eve-
ning newspapers of the “other woman”
at the Hotel Plaza. With trembling voice
her brother read the story to her. She
seized the newspaper from him and read it
eagerly, as her face blanched. She settled
back into her chair. Her eyes closed and
repressed sobs shook her figure. Finally
she opened her eyes, took a firm grip on
her emotions and said, calmly:
“Very well, Percy, I believe you. I feel
sure now that he duped me and did every-
thing he did to deceive me. I am sure now
that he wanted to kill me and you and
Aunt Katherine also.”
“I am glad to hear you say that, Clara,
for I believe that is just what he intended
doing. I was out riding with him the day
after mother’s funeral. He was chatting
and he remarked that you were not looking
well. I insisted you were and he said,
‘T’m sure she will not live six months!”
The deceived wife’s eyes blazed.
“The very next day he made the iden-
tical remark to me about you, Percy. What
a rogue he is!”
“Yes, and he succeeded in getting Aunt
Clara to give him forty thousand dollars
to invest for her. I wonder what happened
to that money!”
While his wife and brother-in-law were
discussing him at the Peck home in the
West, Waite, certain of imminent arrest
and aware that he was constantly shadowed,
left his apartment home and went to the
School of Languages, the place where he
first met Mrs. Horton. She was there.
He drew her to one side and said:
“T want you to do me a favor. I have
a prescription for some sleeping powders.
I want you to go to a drug store and get
them for me, This case has got my
nerves shot to pieces.”
Mrs. Horton went to a nearby drug store
and got the “sleeping powders.” Waite
thanked her, took them and went home.
A car trailed him from the moment he
left until he returned. :
At nine o’clock in the morning two de-
tectives called at his apartment. The maid
informed them that Dr. Waite was ill and
in bed. They entered the apartment. One
of them, Detective Cuniffe, carried a ma-
gisterial warrant for murder.
On the bed, unconscious, lay Dr. Waite,
gasping for breath.
On a table nearby were several phials
afterward found to contain morphine.
Waite was hurried in an ambulance to
Bellevue Hospital where Dr. Gregory took
personal charge of the case. For hours
he was in peril of his life; for days he
was dangerously ill. But every day, every
hour, a detective kept vigil by the bedside.
O*’ THE morning of March 24 Waite
suddenly emerged from a state of
coma and exclaimed:
“My God! Where is my wife?”
His question was directed at a nurse.
When she did not reply, his eyes roved
about the room until they discovered De-
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89
you—then would
alling headlong into the
Hours later the man was dictating a ] i
on
Wee a g & confession to the
In another of his sensational cases, Schindler was sum-
moned by a prominent family to investigate the deaths of a
: Na Grand Rapids urer and his wife, supposedly
-in-law, a p
olved, since he and his
- The burial was delayed
agek
» phase of his private life,
, Detective at Work 19
It took the detective only a short time t+ unmask the den-
t, who constantly boasted of his rare surgical accomplish-
-nents. He was unknown at the hospital where he- claimed _
have performed miracle Surgery; in fac’, his practice had
‘consisted mainly of street corner demonstrations in another
* country. Further inquiry revealed him as a.oretender in-every :
is man was out of the city, Schindler
opened to a page
_n the suite were
ting bacteria.
ody.
»- A chemist who examined the manufacturer's vital organs
‘reported that ney contained “enough arsenic to kill twenty
men.” This evidence, and much more that Schindler and his’
men had unearthed, was turned over to the authorities, who
Obtained .a confession from the dentist that he had put the
“poison in the food of his house guests and previously had
“tied to kill a wealthy aunt with supposedly deadly germs
which he had cultivated. o
An attempt to escape the supreme penalty by an insanity .
‘Plea failed, and the dentist was sent to the electric chair,
ae "To this resourceful detective Countess Nancy de Marigny
€ntrusted the life of her titled husband and *the fortune she : :
~
ced
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54
witness chair and told the story of
his life. He told of how his father
drove a peddler’s cart so he could
have an education; how he stole
‘rom students.at Ann Arbor and
vas expelled from his fraternity
here; how he went to work for a
chain of drug stores in Africa and
systematically robbed his employ-
ers.
Life without money: was agony,
he said, so he had made up his
mind to marry Clara Louise Peck
to get her fortune. He had never
loved her, but instead had planned
to kill her after her parents were
out of the way. He told of obtaining
the germs of a number of vicious
diseases from the Rockefeller Insti-
tute, Willard Parker Hospital and
the medical school at Cornell Uni-
versity. .
He said that he had represented
himself as a bacteridlogist, and that
several doctors, believing that he
was sincerely studying germ cul-
ture, recommended him to places
where germs might be had. The
prize of his collection was the mas-
toid of a tuberculosis corpse,* which
the New York City Hospital had
given him.
The defense set up the plea that |
Waite was insane, but in vain. The
jury wasted hardly enough time
to take half a dozen ballots before
finding him guilty in the first de-
gree, and he was sentenced to death
in the electric chair. In prison, he
gained the reputation of being “the
happiest man in Sing Sing.” He
asked no mercy, only that he be
executed as soon. as possible. No
more popular prisoner ever was put
to death there.
Early on the morning of May 24,
1917, Waite strode briskly from his
cell. He radiated life and energy.
Only a few steps to the chair, and
Waite took them eagerly. His face
was wrinkled in’ a broad smile.
“Good-bye boys,” he called to other
men. in the death cells.
Guards later found a piece of pa-
per in Waite’s cell on which he had
hastily scrawled:
Call us with shining faces,
Eager to labor, eager to be happy.
PASSION'’S
BLOODY DAY
“OF RECKONING!
(Continued from page 20)
tained a position as domestic in a
‘private household, supported her-
self and her two babies and insisted
she would stick to the father of her
children, come what might.
The only feminine heart which,
at this time, seemed still hardened
to.the magnetic defendant was that
of his former sweetheart who had
been widowed by his alleged crime.
In the intervening five years, she
had married again, but she was the
state’s chief witness against Van-
denhecke. She admitted, in her tes-
timony, that she had succumbed to
Vandenhecke’s illicit wooing. She
admitted that she had followed him
to Philadelphia, abandoning her
husband. She only did so, however,
because Vandenhecke had “threat-
ened” her, so her story went.
According to the erring wife’s
recollection of the day of the shoot-
ing, her first suspicion of trouble
was when she heard the bang of a
revolver. She ran out to a hall-
way, she said, and there was Van-
denhecke, gun in hand, confronting
her husband. As she watched, she
testified, Vandenhecke fired. Her
husband fell. Then Vandenhecke, so
she said, bent over his prostrate
victim and fired three times more.
With two shots left in his gun,
Vandenhecke rose and faced her in
a towering rage, the witness testi-
fied. He accused her of spurning his
love, of returning willingly to her
husband. With her baby in her
arms, the wife defied the killer, she
said. “Shoot me if you want to, but
don’t harm my son,” she screamed,
according to her story...
As Vandenhecke. hesitated, she
turned and fled. Two bullets, she
said, whizzed by her as she ran.
Those two bullets, when the de-
fense presented its case, were the
subject of inquiry by Vandenhecke’s
senior counsel, Attorney John P.
Kane. Police witnesses were obliged
to admit that the bullets were re-.
covered.
“Why aren't they here in this
courtroom?” Kane then. wanted to
know.
The officers, not without visible
embarrassment, admitted the bul-
lets had “been mislaid”’.
Not available, either, was the
single bullet which had been re-
covered from the murder victim’s
skull. More irritating still to the
state was the fact that police had
never found the murder weapon
and could not even describe it with
satisfactory detail.
The best that they could do was
to produce several witnesses who
testified to having seen in Vanden-
hecke’s possession a revolver which
“might have been” the one which
did the killing.
To his own story of a tussle with
BEST TRUE FACT DETECTIVE
the ar ~~
inferr
fense-
ingly. in r
duced testi
of the sho:
terviewed
in the pre
band’s boc
of “suicide
she denie
did not m
s
HE “ju
three-d
briefly.
The vér
der in tHe
Vanden!
preferred
to life in
good wor]
would rat)
view it ti
“If Ica
he said in
if the peo}
think I an
chair is mn
“T woul
endure th
prisonmen
long alrea
One of
quests wa
over to sc
tific exper
' “]'d pre
he said, “.
life for sc
man who
conv
from wnic
ing to sav
penalty w:
and their
Belgian-A
over New
City Co
son of Bc
ponents o
tempted |
Vandenhe
peal direc
H. Cox.
Almost
hecke was
anything
He did
wanted fr
Final d
was cont:
Supreme
the Lawre
fiable in \
high cour
state to pr
the testim
ow’s alleg
Other 1
“sufficient
guilty,” t)
Goverr\
pleas.
And tl
switch” o1
BEST TRUE 8
]
THE VINDICATORS
Doubleday edition published October, 1963
A Pocket Cardinal edition
Ist printing....... -February, 1965
fe
This Pocket Cardinal® edition includes every word contained in the
original, higher-priced edition. It is printed from brand-new
plates made from completely reset, clear, easy-to-read type.
Pocket Cardinal editions are published by Pocket Books, Inc., .
ond are printed and distributed in the U.S.A. by Affiliated Publishers,
a division of Pocket Books, Inc., 630 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10020.
Trademarks registered in the United States and other countries.
L
Copyright, @, 1963, by Eugene B. Block. All rights reserved. This Pocket
Cardinal edition is published by arrangement with Doubleday & Co
mpany, Inc,
Printed in the U.S.A.
qLIVA.
Tun Sudatey mmuqsy ¢
paqnoorqoete 04
“LUT "2. Sen Butg
A ie: VoLCKMANN butcher shop was on the opposite side
of Main Street from the church and parsonage, and two
short squares south. For the Volckmanns to get to their home
they would have to go one square in the direction of the
Glenn home, and then turn in two blocks to their residence.
Of course, young Volckmann was unreliable, but his story
was worth checking, Ferris believed.
Voleckmann, who was a gangly, overgrown boy, was a
moron in face and figure. He came to Greenville with his
parents, respected “city folks” from New York, in the Sum-
mer of 1934. Since that time he operated the combined gen-
eral store on Main Street and became well known in the
village because of his gift of music. He belonged to Mr.
Glenn’s Church and played the violin there with the choir.
His mother, a stately woman, was a choir singer in the
church, while his father, Alfred C. Volckmann, a wealthy
New York City merchant, was called one of the “pillars”
of Mr. Glenn’s church.
Young Volckmann didn’t seem to make companions of
the older boys in town, but preferred instead, the company
of the younger children. Of course, many parents objected
to this because of the boy’s age, but both Mr. and Mrs.
Glenn, in true Christian fashion, didn’t frown on their chil-
dren playing with Volckmann.
This, despite the fact that Volckmann was ninetecn,
whereas Helen was nine, Ernest eleven and Donald only
three.
But regardless of Volckmann’s abnormality, his story, if
28
Though his crime was one of the meanest ever
recorded, the slayer's grief-stricken parents vis-
ited him in his cell to lend him comfort.
Reverend Glenn found pity in his heart for
the parents who bore this fiendish son.
true, was of momentous interest to F
ris, lost for any other clue as to Helen's
actions before she disappeared.
Ferris advised Mrs. Glenn to pu
Donald and Ernest to bed and to ge!
some sleep for herself. as he and [us
men would continue searching through
out the night until little Helen wi-
found.
M's. GLENN saAip she would, and the
sheriff and his men left the Glen:
home to begin a minute search of th
area between Volckmann s butcher shop
and the Methodist Church.
Volckmann’s story, 1f true, was con-
clusive evidence of one thing anyway.
Ferris reasoned.
He knew from Mrs. Glenn that Helen
apparently left her home about 5:30
pm. That was according to Ernest's
story, which time seemed plausible, in
that she returned from Catskill shortly
before six o'clock.
Mrs. Glenn didn’t know that Helen
had any money with her when she went
out looking for Donald.
Then the sheriff had young Volck-
mann, the butcher boy, selling her three
lollipops about 6:15 p.M., three-quarters
of an hour after she left her home
“Not much to work on,” mused Sher-
iff Ferris. “I think she must have wan-
dered off and become lost in the woods.
“Funny, too, though, about those
Gypsies.
“Pl] have to see Mrs. Volckmann in
the morning and check: Alfred’s story,” Ferris went on the-
orizing to himself.
On the long ride back to Catskill he tried vainly to figure
some motive for the disappearance of this lovely child
He recalled the horror-filled days for the farmers in
near-by Acra, when Diamond and his gang of New York
hoodlums rode roughshod over the quiet countryside, prac-
ticing their gangster methods on unsuspecting inhabitants
of the mountains; of the day they took one poor farmer
and burned the soles of his bared feet with matches because
he wouldn't tell them where he made, and kept. his “moun-
tain dew”, more familiarly known to city folk as “Apple,
Jack.”
“Those Diamond gangsters wouldn't do anything like this,
though,” he told himself. “They might kill a man, kill a
dozen men, in fact. But I don’t think any of them would
hurt a child. But what’s the use of worrying about them?
Old Diamond was murdered up in Albany and most of his
gang are in jail.”
bes LIKEWISE COULDN’T SEE any reason for anyone
wanting to kidnap the child. Glenn was just a poor
country preacher. And his parish wasn’t over wealthy. So.
kidnaping for ransom was out. But. of course, there was
the possibility that some roving moh of Gypsies, as Mrs
Glenn feared, may have taken her, because Helen Glenn
was a pretty child.
“It’s going to be a tough one,” Ferris confided, and called
op eg
Only a brein
so wantonly
Passion and 6
up his crue
for his
up the |
Catskill.
terious dis
out over t
Thunde:
the mount
greeted the
iff Ferris
to search
side and c:
tryside.
As SOo1
reached ne
hamlets 31
dreds of bs
men, appl
faced clerk:
into Green
of contriva:
of any hel;
By noon
mated that
and children
Two hund
State troopc
Greenville \
airplane fro)
presged into
likewise com:
ties of boy-sc
The newly-
Division” of
tered the case
tective branc
Glenn case \
ment.
The State (
of Lieutenant
eran trooper.
Lieutenant
had just noti!
to a Summer
to have made
pearance, and
AGER WEN’
When he
frequent visit
at the advisal
Federal Bure:
famous in sol
The G-men
Sager also
mann’s story,
to check the
Meanwhile,
noon.
Outside the
papermen wh:
to wait until
tually happen
Inside, Mrs
the story of 1
neighbors.
Presently, :
AOA PN tie: co Lata
She went out to find her little
brother, this hapless minister’s
daughter. And she never
returned alive. Notaclue
was left by the killer, but
clever deduction and a
queer chain of circum-
stances — and — well,
there’s no such thing as
a “perfect crime... “’
Beneath a clump of green undergrowth spread
over the body like a funeral shroud, lay the life-
less form of little Helen Glenn. Her clothing was
ripped off, and her left arm bent up toward her
face as though in a protective gesture. Pretty
Helen, honor student, was unspeakably tortured
by the fiddling fiend
(below), before he
finally killed her.
rst Methodist
pstate farming
Canada, was
nnual Conven-
n, in Kines-
is daughter's
her. But he
ers in Green-
| ft he went to
n Mrs. Glenn
brothers,
|
shortly be-
{ the box con-
Reverend Glenn (above) with his wife and three children. Fate dealt
a cruel blow when their bright youngster was snatched and mur-
dered by a heartless beast. Mrs. Ella Hoose and her daughter, Thelma
(above, right), were visited by the child shortly before her death.
The victim is put to rest. Six High School boys served as pall bearers
after services in the church over which the girl's father presided.
taining the new white gingham dress with the ruffles at
the bottom, for Helen to wear at the school exercises that
evening.
Walking up the pebbled pathway to the white parsonage
adjacent to the church, she noticed the door leading into
the house was opened. It was still daylight. And Mrs.
Glenn thought that probably Helen and the boys were in-
side having a snack, unable to wait for her return.
Up the steps to the porch, she went, holding the box be-
hind her back.
“Helen,” she called, as she approached the door. But
there was no answer. ‘Oh, Helen,’ she repeated. Still no
answer.
The Glenn dining room was not unlike others one might
see if they visited any of the homes in rural upstate New
York. On the straight marble mantel-piece were two pic-
tures, one of herself and the other of Mr. Glenn, and in the
center, an outdated and bulky big clock with golden hands.
A large Persian rug with green flowers on a field of red
lent warmth to the room which contained a few chairs and
one huge ottoman that Glenn occupied in his study. In a
corner was a colonial type desk of the present day “secre-
tary” type.
Mrs. Glenn, exhausted from the bus ride up from Cat-
skill, fell into the open arms of the ottoman and rested.
It was now 6:30 vp. M. and no signs of Helen nor either of
the boys caused Mrs. Glenn to became worried.
pre with Donald tugging at his side, Ernest came
into the dining room.
26
EER APES ARBAB OIE eae
“Where's Helen?” Mrs.
Glenn asked. But the ashen
color on Ernest’s face almost
precipitated his answer.
“Gee, I don’t know, Mother.
I got in about 5:30, and Don-
ald wasn’t home yet. So
Helen said she was going out
to look for him. When both of
them didn’t come back I went
out. I found Donald. But I
haven't seen Helen since.”
Mrs. Glenn wasn’t an ex-
citable type of person.
Like her God fearing hus-
band, she too served her
Maker as best she knew
how. Before even contem-
plating marriage she did mis-
sionary work for the Method-
ist Church in far away India.
On her return to Montreal—
she was only a girl then—the
World War broke out.
Glenn, whom she met dur-
ing her missionary service,
enlisted in the Canadian
Army and became a Major.
Like many another woman of
that time she prayed and
waited many long months for
his safe return.
Soon after the deaths of their first two children, Mrs.
Glenn, heart-broken, wanted to get away from it all, and
they came to the United States seeking a brighter future.
Mrs. Glenn, trying to hide her fears, sent Ernest out to
look for Helen again while she prepared Donald’s supper.
AY
Count
countr
torious
his bee:
countr\
investi:
Wit
now pai
own sus
“T dre:
believe |
rough
“Do 3
“Ves,
Ferris
police
following
“Helen
pounds
striped dre
“Ts ther:
of Mrs. (
The wo:
“We h:
Glenn co)
some stra
course, he ;
Glenn or
we can’t ge
giave yi
out of him
“No. Jt
mumble ‘7
about all we
“There n
Ferris admi
of his depu
“Better
quarters at "
up their |
thorne.”
j A Ss Ferri:
tion M
of his pals, A
the combined
in Greenville
It was nov
the whole to
terrifying ne
ance. Man
stopped off
exercises at
been honored
Volekmann
for his age—|
alongside of
“We've bec
couldn’t find
the boy bowe:
edgement of
The knife which
Helen Glenn's
displays its kee
was still alive w
istered
<,shonniltiilimapaeted 0.
Mrs.
lie ashen
-e almost
wer
Mother.
nd Don-
So
oing out
both of
I went
But I
e knew
contem-
e did mis-
\Method-
vay India.
ontreal—
hen—the
met dur-
service,
anadian
Maye he
oman ot
ved and
nths for
ldren, Mrs.
it all, and
future.
nest Out to
s supper.
3
alongside of Ferris.
couldn't find anything, eh, Ernie?” and
‘the boy bowed his head in sad acknowl-
S THE HOURS dragged along without any trace of Helen,
Mrs. Glenn finally put in a telephone call to the Greene
County Sheriff’s office. Sheriff Henry Clay Férris, famous
country sleuth who was a thorn in the side of the then no-
torious New York racketeer, Jack (“Legs”) Diamond and
his beer-running mob when they attempted to terrorize the
countryside with their underworld exploits, took over the
investigation.
With Mrs. Glenn he could get nowhere. Because the
now panicky little woman could tell him little except for her
own suspicions.
“T dread to think this is true,” said Mrs. Glenn, “but I.
believe Helen might have been picked up by one of the
rough men who followed a tent show into town.”
“Do you mean Gypsies?” Ferris inquired.
“Yes, I guess that’s what you call them.”
Ferris immediately sent out a state-wide alarm to all state
police barracks and near-by police offices. He gave the
following description of Helen:
“Helen Glenn. Age, nine; four feet tall; weight, seventy
pounds. Blue eyes. Short, light brown hair. Wore yellow
striped dress.” ,
“Is there anything else you can tell me?” Ferris inquired
of Mrs. Glenn.
The woman hesitated for a moment.
“We have been quite worried about young Donald,” Mrs.
Glenn confided. “Lately, he has been getting candy from
some stranger in town, and has been acting strangely. Of
course, he is only a child, and when Mr.
Glenn or myself try to question him,
we can’t get a comprehensive answer.”
“Have you been able to get any name
out of him?”
“No. Just once in a while he will
mumble ‘mans give it to me.’ That's
about all we could ever get from him.”
“There might be something to that,”
Ferris admitted. He then turned to one
of his deputies.
“Better call State Police Head-
quarters at Troy, and tell them to send
up their bloodhounds from Haw-
thorne.”
waX, Ferris sat down to further ques-
tion Mrs. Glenn, Ernest and one
of his pals, Al Volckmann, who operated
the combined general store butcher shop
in Greenville, came in.
It was now close to ten and nearly
the whole town was aroused with the
terrifying news of Helen’s disappear-
ance. Many of her school chums
stopped off on the way back from the
exercises at which she was to have
been honored, to ask about her absence.
Volckmann, a rather large-boned boy
for his age—he was nineteen—sat down
“We've been all over the woods and
edgement of the futile search.
The knife which the thrill slayer drove into
Helen Glenn's bosom. A detective (right)
displays its keen point. The innocent victim
was still alive when the vicious youth admin-
istered the coup de grace.
“Did you see Helen during the day, Alfred?” Ferris
asked Volckmann.
“Yea,” the youth answered.
“Where and when? Let’s have it, Alfred. We have no
time to lose.” Ferris demanded.
“Don’t get excited, Sheriff.” Volckmann, who had the
reputation in town of being somewhat dopey, began giggling
at the officer’s chagrin.
“Now listen, boy,” Ferris was standing now and indignant.
“I want none of your gibberish. If you saw Helen, you
owe it to the Reverend and Mrs. Glenn to tell all you know
immediately, because it might help in locating her.”
Volckmann’s face tightened into seriousness. He apolog-
ized to the sheriff and assured him he thought that he, the
sheriff, had already been told of Helen’s whereabouts that
late afternoon.
“Sure. She came into my store about 6:15 p.m. and
bought three cents worth of lollipops. She said she was go-
ing looking for her baby brother, Donald.”
“Was anyone with her?”
“No; she was alone.”
“Did you see her again after that?”
“Yes. I guess it was about—lemme see? About—well—
between seven-thirty and eight o'clock.”
“You mean only a few hours ago?”
“Yea. I closed the shop and drove my mother home. On
the way I saw Helen walking in the street towards the par-
sonage. She was alone. I told my mother I saw her. But
I don’t think—no I am pretty sure, she didn’t see her.”
*,
HANDSOME Dr. Arthur Warren Waite—
was it always b of late i
that he remained away from home so much?
born, was the social event of the Grand
Rapids season.
Arthur had persuaded her to return
to New York with him sooner than she
had expected to go. After a brief honey-
moon on a Great Lakes steamer, her
suave husband firmly had insisted that
he must get back to take care of the
patients who were waiting for him.
Clara, head over heels in love, will-
ingly went to New York with Arthur
and busied herself during the next month
in furnishing the impressive apartment
he had rented for them. ,
For the first few weeks, Arthur came
home from the office promptly every
evening. Then he started to be late,
often staying away all evening. He ex-
plained that he had night appointments
at the office. Clara, wifelike, suspected
another woman—yet dared not accuse
him for fear she was wrong. She hoped
fervently that she was.
Thanksgiving and Christmas slipped
by, and Clara became homesick. Tear-
fully one day she told Arthur how much
she missed her parents, and he agreed
to send for them at once.
The pressure of business kept her
father from coming just then, but her
mother took the next fast train for New
York.
Sitting at dinner in the fashionable
new apartment which Clara had fur-
nished principally through the lavish
dowry her father had bestowed, Mrs.
Hannah Peck was radiantly happy. Dr.
Waite and her daughter made a fine
* pair indeed. How lucky she was! If
a
4
NS
only she could live to become a grand-
mother ! =
But fate, a fickle thing, had no such
plans for Mrs. Peck. That very eve-
ning, four hours after she had eaten the
delectable dinner served by the maid and
the butler, Mrs. Peck was awakened in
the guestroom by pains in her stomach.
Thinking merely that she had over-
eaten, she arose and mixed a dose of
sodium bicarbonate. She drank it and
went back to bed. But the soda did not
relieve her; the dull pains remained.
That was Friday night. On Satur-
day morning, Mrs. Peck was too ill to
get up. The maid brought her break-
fast in on a tray, but she could not eat
it. Clara insisted on calling a physician,
Dr. William H. Porter,
Dr. Porter, arriving half an hour
later, diagnosed Mrs. Peck’s ailment as
kidney trouble, an affliction she had
suffered from before. He left a prescrip-
tion to be filled and promised to call
again later in the day.
The medicine seemed to help her. That
evening Dr. Porter found her resting
comfortably. She even managed to eat
a light supper, brought to her by the
butler. 3
_ But in the wee hours of Sunday morn-
ing, Mrs. Peck awoke and cried out in
agony for her daughter. Clara rushed
to her side, held her hand and stroked
her brow as the elderly woman writhed
in torture. Dr. Waite anxiously tele-
phoned for Dr. Porter.
The physician arrived just 15 minutes
too late. As the grandfather’s clock in
the living room tolled ominously three
times, Mrs. Peck ceased to breathe. She
was dead when the doctor got there.
Clara was prostrated with grief. She
was too ill to accompany the body of her
mother on the grim train trip back to
Michigan. While she remained under
a nurse’s care, Dr. Waite rode back to
Grand Rapids with the corpse.
The young bridegroom himself showed
the shock of his mother-in-law’s pass-
ing. His handsome face was drawn and
pale, his eyes deeply circled as he got
off the train to meet his wet-eyed father-
in-law and brother-in-law, clean-cut
young Percy S. Peck.
At a family conference in the Peck
“mansion, it was decided to have the body
of Mrs. Peck cremated. Dr. Waite vol-
unteered to take the corpse to Detroit,
where the cremation was carried out.
Rising to the responsibility placed upon
him by the family he had newly entered,
he brought Mrs. Peck’s ashes. back to
Grand Rapids in a sealed silver urn.
Next day, the ashes were interred in a
vault in Oak Hill Cemetery there. Dr.
Waite returned to New York alone.
RS. PECK had died on Sunday,
January 30, 1916. Two weeks
later, John E. Peck received an urgent
letter from his son-in-law. Clara, Dr.
Waite wrote, had improved somewhat,
but still was grieving for her mother.
Would he come to New York as soon
as possible to visit her and try to cheer
her up? Peck came at once.
Clara smiled for the first time in weeks
when she saw her father once more.
Drying her tears, she tried bravely to
forget her mother’s tragic death.
Rich, elderly John Peck, too, was
cheered by being near the daughter he
worshipped, He felt sure he would be
happy with Clara and her husband, who
urged him to stay with them indefinitely.
He even showed them a postcard he
had written to an old crony in the drug
business back home:
“y am quite well, and not only that, I
am taking good care of the physical body.
The weather here is not as severe as in
Michigan. It lacks the vicious tendency
to pneumonia that belongs to the Lake
Regions . . .”
The elder Peck knew he had to watch
his health. After all, he was 72.
But late on the night of Saturday,
March 11, Peck awoke—in the guest
room, in the very bed in which his wife
had died—with cramps in his stomach.
He called agonizedly for Clara.
This time, Dr. Waite insisted on sum-
moning a different physician. Dr.
Alburtus Adair Moore hurried over from
Madison Avenue and made a careful
examination. At length he concluded
that the patient had a recurrence of an
old stomach malady. He administered
a sedative, and soon Peck was sleeping
soundly, free of pain.
The next day, John Peck felt well
enough to sit up in bed and take simple
nourishment, But in the early after-
noon, only an hour after lunch, he had
another sudden attack. A dose of the
sedative again soothed his pain and he
rested easily.
Toward evening, the third attack had
come. Clara was alone in the apart-
ment with her father. Dr. Waite was at
the office on a special appointment; both
the maid and butler had Sunday after-
noon off. Clara frantically telephoned
for Dr. Moore, then returned to her
father’s bedside to, await the physician’s
arrival, ..-
A numbing, helpless dread gripped
Clara as she sat holding her stricken
father’s hand. She shut her eyes and
shook her head to dispel the shadowy
visions that swirled through her brain.
Again and again, her ears rang with the
throbbing refrain: He is doomed. He
is doomed. He is
With sudden shock, she saw that her
father was no longer breathing. Eyes
wide with alarm, she slipped her hand
under the covers and over his heart. It
was not beating!
John Peck, like his wife six weeks
earlier, died before the doctor came. Dr.
Moore was surprised and shocked by this
unexpected fatality.
When Dr. Waite came home a half
hour later, he found the physician gently
attempting to pull Clara away from the
bed, where she had thrown her arms
around the still warm corpse of her
father, sobbing in hysterical grief.
It was the young husband who finally
drew her away and into his arms.
“Clara, darling,” he said softly in his
low, caressing voice, “please don't: cry.
There’s nothing any of us can do for
your father now.”
His wife buried her head on his shoul-
der, smothering her sobs. Her arms
gripped him fiercely. “Arthur, Arthur !”
she moaned. “Don’t ever leave me—
I’m so alone!”
This time, both Clara and Arthur re-
INSIDE DETECTIVE
INTERIOR of the Waite apartment is
shown being searched by investigators
for the district att yy. who ted to
know why death had struck here twice.
turned with the body to Grand Rapids.
At the station, they were met by Percy,
‘Clara’s brother, to whom they related
the sad details of John Peck’s last ill-
ness. It was due, yd se ws
a severe cold and complications.
! They remained in Grand Rapids for the
funeral and saw the body placed in the
family vault in Oak Hill Cemetery be-
side the ashes of the wife and mother.
Then Dr. Waite returned alone to
New York, while his wife remained with
Percy and other relatives at the Peck
mansion until the shock of the double
bereavement should have fully passed.
On March 17, Peck’s will was pro-
bated in Grand Rapids. The bulk of the
estate, which amounted to about $1,000,-
000, normally would have gone to Mrs.
Peck, but since her death, it reverted to
the son, Percy, and his sister, Mrs.
Waite. Among the minor bequests was
one of $2000 to Warren Waite, the
father of Dr. Waite, which Peck had
added in a codicil written in New York
rch 9.
oa ie day after the will was pro-
bated, Percy Peck received a mysterious
message. It was a telegram from New
York which read:
STRONGLY ADVISE
PERFORMING AUTOPSY
ON YOUR FATHER’S
j Y AT ONCE.
oe —K. ADAMS
Questions raced through Percy's mind.
Who was “K. Adams?” The name
meant nothing to him. Did this mean
his father had met foul play? But surely
the doctors would have detected that.
Why had this weeeage been sent to. him
his sister?
~— Peck wasted no time. For days
now, he had been pondering the strange
similarity between the final illnesses of
his father and mother—and their near-
ness. They had even died in the same
place—the same room, the very same
oithout saying a word to his sister or
the other relatives, young Peck put in
a long-distance telephone call for the
best medical authority he knew—Dean
SEPTEMBER, 1943
EXTERIOR. of the imposing Riverside
Drive apartment building is seen ~~
was Y -
ee ced, Sule,
gory g
Victor C. Vaughn of the Medical School
of the University of Michigan at Ann
Arbor, Dr. Vaughn, who knew Percy,
readily agreed to perform the autopsy.
Next contacting the local authorities,
young Peck arranged to have his father’s
body disinterred and removed to the city
morgue. There, on March 19, Dr.
Vaughn and Dr. Perry Shurtz, the Peck
family physician, opened the dead mil-
lionaire’s stomach and performed an
analysis of its contents. Percy Peck
anxiously awaited their report.
Shortly Dr, Vaughn sent for Percy.
Placing his hands on the young man’s
shoulders, the dean looked compassion-
ly at him.
weCan you take it, son?” he asked.
Percy nodded, Vaughn continued bit-
terly: “There’s enough arsenic in your
father’s stomach to kill two’ men! :
“Then—it was murder! My mother’s
death, too!” ae ae
Vaughn nodded sadly. “I'm afraid it
looks that way. I hope you know what
ion to take.”
a ors knew. Shocked and angered by
the acute realization that his parents had
been made to die before their time, he
drove at once to the telegraph office.
There he sent a lengthy wire to District
Attorney Edward A. Swann of New
York, explaining the circumstances of
the two deaths and the discovery of the
arsenic. ‘
The district attorney also acted swiftly.
The statements in Percy - Peck’s wire
pointed to the possibility of two fiendish
murders, but were these really facts?
The prosecutor wanted more informa-
tion. As his first step, he called in one
of his ace men, Assistant District Attor-
ney Francis X. Mancuso, and Dr. Otto
H. Schultze, the famous medical ex-
Grand
Swann told them after they
“Find out
everything you can about this case and
ips advised immediately of devel-
aminer. :
“Take the next train for
Rapids,”
had read Peck’s telegram.
opments.”
Accompanied by Detective John Cu-
niffe of the district attorney’s staff
RRIVING in Grand Rapids, they
were met by Percy Peck and Dr.
Shurtz, the family physician, who drove
them to the Peck mansion. His sister,
Mrs. Waite, Percy told the New York
investigators, was still weak and con-
fined to her room.
While Mancuso, Dr. Shultze and De-
tective Cuniffe listened, Peck recited all
the details of the mysterious double
deaths, adding much he had been unable
to include in the wire to Swann.
“What puzzles me most,” he con-
cluded, “is, who sent the telegram to me
advising that an autopsy be performed?
Who is ‘K. Adams’ and what does he
or she know about the case?”
Mancuso studied the telegram nar-
rowly, then replied: “The signature un-
doubtedly is a pseudonym—chosen rather
appropriately, I’d say. If you'll recall,
Kate Adams was the principal victim in
the recent notorious Molineux poison-
ase.” :
Why, of course!” exclaimed Percy,
snapping his fingers. “The sender was
trying to hint that my father was
isoned.”
inne nodded. “Let me have that
telegram and I'll send it back to New
York at once. Our men may be able
to trace it to the sender. Right now,
that’s our best lead.”
Peck gave him the yellow message, but
Mancuso decided meanwhile to let De-
tective Cuniffe take it back in person the
next day, together with a report to
Swann on what he and Dr. Schultze had
learned.
That afternoon, Mancuso persuaded
Percy Peck to let him question Mrs.
Waite. Propped up on pillows in her
bed, the young bride was wan and
peaked. She gave the impression that
she had just awakened from a horrible
nightmare.
“Tell me,” asked Mancuso gently,
“just what you know about the deaths
of your father and mother.” —
In a weak, quavering voice, Mrs.
Waite began a pitiful recital as Mancuso
took notes and her brother listened with
s in his eyes.
She told of her married life with
Arthur Waite. At times, she had been
te
; eo oe
Mancuso and Dr. Shultze left at once for ‘ x.
the Michigan city.
35
RENDERED UNCONSCIOUS in aw
‘ay at
first unknown to police, Dr. Waite is seen as
he was being carried in a stretcher to
Bellevue Hospital's b h
psy 'P ward.
supremely happy with him; on other oc-
casions, they quarreled over his repeated
absences from home. -
“T had been warned several times not
to marry him,” she declared. “Some
of my girl friends told me he had made
advances to them even after our engage-
ment. Arthur always boasted that he
had been a Rhodes scholar and spent a
couple of years studying in South Africa.
But I found later that he never was a
Rhodes scholar, and from other sources,
I learned he had been in trouble with an
heiress in Cape Town.
“I tried to discount all these rumors.
After all, I knew Arthur was so good-
looking and easy-going that he must
have broken the hearts of many girls. I
told myself he was all through with that
life ;\I trusted that he would settle down.
But then——”
“Yes,” prompted Mancuso.
go on.”
“My maiden aunt, Miss Catherine
Peck of New York, who never did fully
approve of Arthur, came to me last
December with the report that my hus-
band was seeing a woman at a midtown
Manhattan hotel. I accused Arthur, but
he denied it.”
All this, Mrs. Waite continued, had
gradually killed the deep love she once
had felt for her husband. She became
so morose that Arthur sent for her
mother.
Just how all this was connected with
the sudden deaths of her parents, Mrs.
Waite could not say. Percy had told
her that Mancuso was making a routine
investigation, but neither had yet in-
formed her of the discovery of the
arsenic.
_ Mrs. Waite was too weak to be ques-
tioned further. Mancuso went down-
Stairs to the Peck library and wrote out
a detailed report of what she had said
recommending to District Attorney
“Please
«36
Swann that Dr. Waite be investi
in New York. epateaed
Later that day, Dr. Schultze com-
pleted his own autopsy on John Peck.
He fully corroborated the findings of
Dean Vaughn; in the vital organs of the
murdered millionaire were more than
three grains of white arsenic.
Early next morning, Detective Cuniffe
left for New York with the reports of
Mancuso and Dr. Schultze and the mys-
terious wire from “K. Adams” in his
pocket.
District Attorney Swann received the
documents and studied them eagerly.
Turning to Cuniffe, he directed: “Take
this telegram and track down the sender.
Meanwhile, I’m going to pull in this
young Dr. Waite for questioning,”
While the. detective set out for the
main offices of the telegraph company to
begin his search, Assistant District At-
torney J. V. Brothers and two other
sleuths sped in an official car to the
Colosseum Apartments on Riverside
Drive. ,
Dr. Waite was not at home, the
servants said. Brothers studied the
blond young maid and the bald, portly
butler narrowly, but decided they were
telling the truth. Was he at his office ?
The servants did not know.
» The investigators drove next to the
uptown professional building where Dr.
Waite was listed as a surgeon-dentist.
Slipping up-to the 20th floor on an ex.
Press elevator, they found his suite and
entered the reception room.
A crisply-clad, red-headed nurse came
out of the inner office and asked pleas-
antly: “Yes?”
“Is the doctor in?” asked Brothers,
: No,” she replied sweetly, ‘Do you
wish an appointment?” ~ °
“We want to see him on an important
matter—at once,” snapped the investi-
gator. “Where can we reach him?”
“I really don’t know,” continued the
nurse. “But I expect a call from him
later in the day. May I have your
name ?”
“Tell him,” said Brothers grimly, “to
report at once to the office of District
Attorney Swann !”
. Leaving the nurse astonished and gap-
ing, the investigators left the office and
hurried down to their waiting car.
We're going to try a long shot,”
Brothers said to his men. “Tt’s our
only chance. For if Waite is guilty of
anything—and he hears we're after him
—he’ll lam out of town.”
OTHERS had the name of the mid-
town hotel, sent to Swann by Man-
cuso, where Mrs. Waite said her hus-
band had been reported paying the bills
for another woman. ;
“We have no idea who this woman
might be,” said Brothers, “but we'll see
if ¥ aah find her.”
t the hotel, the investigators sough
out the house detective pt eyed
their mission. They described Dr. Waite
and showed his picture.
i Why, yes,” the detective replied.
I’ve seen that fellow before. But his
name is Mr. A. D. Wolters. He and his
wife have a suite on the eighth floor.”
“
The name Wolters is a phony. The
woman isn’t his wife, but his mistress.
And this man is wanted—on suspicion of
murder !”
The house detective squared his jaws
grimly. “Come on,” he said. “We'll
raid the suite right now.”
_ It was not necessary to force their way
in. The door of the suite was opened,
in response to their ring, by a statuesque
.Platinum blond in a sheer pink silk
negligee. Her face fell at the si
the officers. ii acini
“Is Dr. Waite here?”
ea ere demanded
The color drained from the blond’s
cheeks. .
“So you know. zs
a isn’t here.”
“We'd like to ask you some questions.”
et Brothers. ? ncaa
“Come in,” she said and shu
softly behind the ‘avastigaions, eueresi
The blond talked. readily. “I've been
wanting to break off with Arthur for
some time,” she admitted. “But I’ve
been afraid of what he might do, He's
been acting so strangely lately.” ;
Her name, she said, was Peggy Peters.
She had not been in love with Dr. Waite,
she confessed, but had entered into the
arrangement with him as a cold matter
of money. He always seemed to have
plenty of cash and recently had told her
he was about to inherit a fortune!
She expected him to return to the
Suite early that evening. Leaving a
guard for the dual purpose of keeping
the Peters girl under surveillance and
against the early return of Waite
Brothers and his men hurried back to
the district attorney's office.
Meanwhile, Detective Cuniffe had
Succeeded in tracing the wire to a
branch office in Greenwich Village.
Through close questioning of the girl
clerk there, he had identified the mys-
terious “K. Adams” as a petite brunette
who lived in a hotel nearby.
_Cuniffe went to the hotel and
picked up the girl, who gave her
name as_ Billie Winthrop. Cuniffe
and the Winthrop girl were wait-
ing in Swann’s private office when
she said faintly.
INSIDE DETECTIVE
“We're in luck,” said Brothers eagerly. .
Brothers arrived.
Brothers quickly related what they had
learned to the district attorney. The
Winthrop girl firmly refused to tell how
she knew the Peck or Waite families, or
why she had sent the mysterious telegram.
But at the mention of Peggy Peters’ name,
she spoke up.
“So you have Peggy!” she said. “Well,
then, there’s no use in holding out on you
any longer. I'm a close friend of Peggy’s.
She tells me everything. Maybe she hasn't
told you yet, but she suspected that Dr.
Waite had poisoned his father and mother-
in-law to inherit their money. She even
suspected that he planned to poison her
because he was always suggesting that she
take medicine he brought her. She'd pre-
tend to take it and throw it down the drain.
Then he’d ask her how she felt and would
seem puzzled that she was all right.”
Peggy was so afraid of Arthur Waite,
the Winthrop girl continued, that she dared
not tell her suspicions to the authorities.
So Billie, who knew the whole history of
the Peck-Waite menage, decided to take
matters in her own hands for the sake of
Peggy. She sent the wire to Percy Peck
and, because she had been an avid reader .
of the stories on the Molineux case, signed
the name of the poison victim, hoping Percy
would get the hint.
As District Attorney Swann and his staff
mapped their next move, Assistant District
Attorney Mancuso made a further startling
discovery in Grand Rapids.
Questioning Mrs. Waite again, he de-
cided to break the news to her that arsenic
had been found in her father’s vitals.
“Good heavens!” she shrieked. “Can it
be? I remember—Arthur made so many
visits to the kitchen just before mealtime.
I still can’t believe that he really is guilty.
It is all so sad and terrible. But——”)
Mancuso listened tensely as Mrs. Waite
now revealed to him the probable motive.
A few days after her father’s burial, Waite
reached an agreement with his wife where-
by he would will her his entire fortune,
amounting to $40,000. In return Mrs. Waite
made a will providing that Waite would
receive half of her share of the Peck for-
tune, instead of the 15 percent he normally
would receive in the event of her death.
Did this mean Dr. Waite planned to kill
his wife next, to bring the Peck money at
last into his own hands? Mrs. Waite
shuddered at the thought.
ANCUSO hurried back to New York
with this latest evidence. Meanwhile,
District Attorney Swann ordered his men
to take Waite into custody at all costs.
In addition to the hotel suite of his lady
friend, detectives were posted at Waite's
office and his Riverside Drive apartment.
At 3 o'clock on the afternoon of March
23, Waite telephoned his office and received
the message from his nurse to report to the
district attorney's office. While investiga-
tors worked feverishly to trace the call, Dr.
Waite suddenly emerged from the elevator
outside the door of his apartment and col-
lapsed into the arms of detectives. He was
in a deep stupor.
Examination by a police physician, who
rushed to the scene, showed that Waite was
under the influence of a powerful drug. He
was placed in an ambulance and hurried to
Bellevue Hospital, where he was removed
to a private room in the psychopathic ward.
Hours passed before he regained con-
sciousness. Only through the use of a
stomach pump and strong antidotes was he
kept alive.
Questioned by District Attorney Swann
and Brothers, he explained that he had
been unable to sleep lately and had taken
a large dose of an opiate. He had under-
estimated the drug’s power, he said, and it
had overtaken him before he reached home.
SEPTEMBER, 1943
Confronted with the evidence connecting
him with the deaths of his wife’s parents,
he stoutly protested his innocence.
“I have never purchased arsenic in my
life,” he vowed. .
Swann knew he must produce more evi-
dence if he were to break down the slick
shell, of this amazing and clever young pro-
fessional man.
During the next few days, Brothers,
Mancuso and their detectives worked
around the clock in an all-out effort to find
further incriminating clues.
Little by little, their determined efforts
met success. Questioning Catherine Peck,
Mrs. Waite’s aunt, they learned that Waite
took $40,000 from her on the promise to in-
vest it in gilt-edged bonds and mortgages.
Instead, he immediately deposited $30,000
of it in a speculative account with a stock
broker.. He told the broker that within a
few months, he would have “much more”
with which to play the market. This was
on December 17.
‘The other $10,000 of Miss Peck’s money,
the investigators determined, Waite sent
immediately to his brother in the Middle
West.
On top of this revelation, Swann’s investi-
gators made another clinching discovery.
Questioning Dr. Waite’s associates, they
learned that the young dentist had met
Dr. Richard W. Muller, a physician, at the
Liederkranz Club one night in January and
had casually questioned him about arsenic!
“Dr. Waite said he had been bothered
with cats at night and wanted to kill them,”
Dr. Muller declared. “I was surprised,
because I thought that he, as a dentist,
would know where to buy arsenic. I sug-
gested the use of strychnine, but he said
he felt arsenic would do the work better
and quicker. I gave him the address of a
druggist named Timmerman, whom I
ew.
Swann’s men raced to the store of
Richard H. Timmerman at 165 East 66th
Street, not far from Waite’s office.
“Yes,” Timmerman said in response to
their questions, “I sold Dr. Waite the
poison to kill cats. Like Dr. Muller, I
also suggested strychnine, but Waite in-
sisted on arsenic and I finally instructed
my clerk to give him 90 grains of it for
25 cents. Waite appeared gentlemanly and
calm and wrote his name, address and rea-
son for wanting the poison in the record
book without protest.”
This was on March 9—three days be-
fore: John Peck died!
Armed with this overwhelming evidence,
Swann hastened to Bellevue, where Waite,
still in a weakened condition, remained un-
der guard in the psychopathic ward.
“We've got enough on you now to send
you to the chair,” snapped the district at-
torney, after he had disclosed the state-
ments of Dr. Muller and the druggist. “If
you're as smart as I think you are, you'll
make a full confession.”
There was an electric pause as Swann’s
stenographer waited with pencil poised to
take down Waite’s words.
The young dentist’s eyes grew cold and
hard and his dry lips began to move. :
“Yes.” he said quietly. “I killed them
both, but not the same way. I wanted
their money.”
Swann listened astounded as Waite made
one of the most amazing murder confessions
in the annals of New York crime.
R. WAITE killed Mrs. Peck, he re-
vealed, by inoculating her with viru-
lent germ cultures placed in her food, then,
when she was in a weakened condition,
administering a heavy dose of veronal in
a glass of milk.
He gave the same germ cultures to Mr.
Peck, but when they did not take effect,
finished the job with arsenic concealed in
the old man’s food.
He attempted to kill Miss Catherine
Peck, his wife’s aunt, at first by putting
ground glass in a jar of marmalade she
kept in her room; then by bacilli, Neither
worked, and he then decided to postpone
murdering her until later. This came after _
the aunt had made lavish gifts to him and
he had robbed her at every conceivable
opportunity of sums ranging from five cents
to thousands of dollars.
His entire life, he confessed, was a record
of stealing from the time he was 13 years
old. He robbed his parents, fraternity
brothers, employers in America and South
Africa, and even his mother-in-law, from
whose purse one day he took a $10 bill.
He loved Peggy Peters, the “other
woman,” he swore, but was uncertain as to
whether he loved his wife, whom hé ad-
mitted marrying - principally for the Peck
fortune.
In conclusion, Dr. Waite avowed he never
had any idea of murdering his wife—de-
spite persuading her to change her will.
On April 10, 1916, Arthur Warren Waite
was arraigned in General Sessions Court
on a first-degree murder indictment based
on the slaying of his father-in-law. Look-
ing straight down at the floor to avoid the
eyes of newspapermen and spectators, he
solemnly pleaded not guilty. Judge Crain
ordered him held in the Tombs prison with-
out bail to await trial.
In the ensuing weeks, Governor Charles
Whitman appointed a commission of prom-
inent alienists to examine Waite on his
counsel’s claim that the suave young slayer
was insane. But the experts found Dr.
Waite rational and responsible for his acts.
Late in May, 1916, Waite was placed
' on trial before Justice Shearn and a jury
in Criminal Branch of New York Supreme
court.
Defense counsel put Waite’s own rela-
tives on the witness stand in an effort to
prove he was insane. His father testified
that Arthur was “a liar and a thief.” His
brother called him “quarrelsome and er-
ratic.” But Assistant District Attorney
Brothers, conducting the prosecution, ar-
gued that the defendant was wholly compe-
tent and introduced psychiatrists to prove
it. Among the witnesses who _ testified
against Waite was his own wife.
Mrs. Waite almost broke down on the
stand, but with a courage that surprised
those in the courtroom, she fought back
her tears and testified in.a voice that was
scarcely audible. She said that her hushand
had served oysters to her father on the
night before he was taken ill, and that
earlier that evening, she had seen him
bring home a bottle containing a whitish
substance.
Ar 2:46 P.M. on May 27, the jury re-
turned a quick verdict of guilty. Next
morning, Justice Shearn sentenced Waite
to die in the electric chair during the week.
of July 10.
Asked if he had anything to sav, the
prisoner declared in a sharp, clear voice:
“T thank the court for the very fair and
impartial manner in which it has treated
me. I also thank the jurors for the
courteous manner in which they listened
to me. I feel that their judgment was
justified.
“T ask for forgiveness,” he concluded.
“I am very glad to give my body in expia-
tion for the things I have done, and I give
my soul freely to rectify my misdeeds. I
hope it will go on forever and ever to
purge itself.”
He was led across the Bridge of Sighs,
an impeccably clad, athletic figure.
prison van was waiting in the yard and
took him at once to Grand Central Ter-
minal, where he boarded the next train
(Continued on page 55)
° 37
WAITE, Dr. Arthur Warren, wh, elec. NY (NY) July 12, 1917
d become a den-
gued him more
: faithfully and
that he needed
mpany. After a
ety of roles, he
us. He left the
.in Wall Street.
util the depres-
e jobless like so
ight of his old
lagic,
asn’t long be-
vann was recog-
aS one of the
Magicians in
‘a and was be-
ight by most of
iionable hotels
ght clubs. To-
probably makes
spearancesthan
er professional
is one thing
h you can al-
are. If you
' for enter-
you can’t go
in watching
Swann. He
da some of
stifying illu-
+t so endeared
and Thurston
vublic, but his
cs a lot more
ie average lay-
10 isn’t too in-
in the fine art
ing a floating
ish in mid-air.
sticated audi-
into gales of
‘when Swann,
towel serving
vce and tries
Phe snake
to go back
essary to call
- lilting music
ce hibernate.
ine, where he
The victim,
’S works, pro-
e Cases wants
on his great-
s readers that
e Detectives
a -
st
her pearls.
Dr. Waite’s mistress had no idea of the
price he was. paying for
THE LAUGHING KILLER
ERY rarely do the annals of -
crime tell of a deadly, fiend-
ish murder coming so close
to success as that perpetrated by
this doctor who used, besides bac-
teria grown in decaying food, dip-
* theria, influenza, pneumonia and
typhoid fever germs.
Irked when even these most
dreaded of man’s _ scourges
worked too slowly, he finished
off his victims with sulphonal
poison in one case and arsenic in
another.
Drawing as he did upon the
vast arsenal of death ina bac-
teriologist’s laboratory, and final-
ly resorting to arsenic, theemur-
derer’s favorite poison, he came
so close to the perfect crime, that
March, | 1942
By BENNETT BARLAY
it seems that only Fate could
have been the factor that defeat-
ed him.
, Blessed with every advantage,
good looking, above the average
in intelligence, gifted with every
social grace, the proud possessor
of a degree in dentistry, Dr.
Arthur Waite seemed headed ‘for
a life that would be beneficial to
the community as well as profit-
able to himself.
Waite was born on a farm in
Carousberg, Michigan. His in-
telligence and good looks helped
to ease his way out of the many
chores that make farm life so
difficult. He was his mother’s
favorite and profited by it.
His parents realized that their
29
KEYHOLE DETECTIVD, March, 1942
baby needed more schooling
than could be had in their small
town. His father pulled up
stakes and moved to Grand
Rapids where he became a com-
mission merchant. Although the
change was not too profitable,
Arthur Waite’s high school and
college courses were assured.
We find the first seeds of the
monster being spawned in Arthur
after he finished college. Seem-
ingly assured of a successful fu-
ture in Grand Rapids where he
was well-known and well-liked, .
he signed a contract to go to
South Africa.
He turned his back on what
‘might have been and went to the
Dark Continent.
niin”
coat.
Scott eyed it closely.
His hand went into his pocket. He
stepped up to the young wife and held a
green cloth button against some dangling
threads on her coat. ;
“Florence Picarello Lassandrea, I arrest
you for the murder of Constable Steve Law-
son,” he intoned.
The woman slumped to the floor.
In her closet, the officers found a crimson
tam o! shanter hat which, with a confession
she made at Lethbridge jail, helped build
up the Crown’s case.
On November 25, 1921, Florence Pica-
rello Lassandrea and her father, Emile
Picarello, went on trial for their lives at
the cattle-ranching center of Macleod, Al-
berta.
The woman wore a revealing dress of
black, trimmed with crimson—her favorite
color. She seemed calm and assured.
Her father, Emile Picarello, was nervous
and kept wiping perspiration from his fat
face. Both were defended by the best legal
talent the wealthy father could procure.
Little Pearl Lawson, daughter of the
victim, was a star witness for the Crown.
She stood and pointed a steady finger at
Florence Lassandrea,
“That’s the lady who murdered my
daddy,” the child said.
Florence’s iron nerve broke at that ac-
cusation, and she wept openly in court.
Dunwoody and Scott introduced as evi-
dence the red “tam,” the green coat and the
matching button, the murder shell and five
similar Dominion shells found in the Las-
sandrea home.
HE WOMAN’S confession was the final:
evidence offered against the pair.
“This is one of the strangest cases on
record—a murder by mistake,’ Scott told
the court. He then read Florence Lassan-
drea’s confession into the record.
“My father heard my brother, Steve, had
. been badly shot by Lawson,” the confession
related. “He drove with me to Coleman
barracks. We called Lawson outside. My
father asked where my brother was. Law-
son said he did not know. My father told
Lawson ‘You are going with me to find
him—you shot him.’ Then I heard two
shots. One grazed my leg and the other
broke the windshield. I guess I got scared
and started shooting.”
Scott told the jurors that Florence fired
the only shots.
“It was her bullets which killed Lawson
and smashed the windshield,” he testified.
“The trajectory showed that the bullets
could only have come from the gun of a
person inside the car on the front passen-
ger’s seat. When Lawson was shot, his gun
was in the barracks, hanging in his office.
He was unarmed. This was cold-blooded
~ murder.”
T. F. Brown, a Blairmore citizen, was a
surprise witness against Picarello, who was
known to many as “The Emperor Pic” be-
cause of his large holdings in Blairmore.
“I saw Pick very excited, a few hours be-
fore Lawson was murdered,” Brown testi-
fied. ‘Pick told me ‘If any constable has
shot my boy Steve I’ll kill him tonight!’
Pick took a gun from his pocket, kissed it,
then climbed in his auto and drove off.”
The trial lasted nine days. Then the jury
quickly found both Emile Picarello and his
daughter guilty of murder in the first de-
gree. They were sentenced to be hanged
February 21, 1922, at Fort Saskatchewan.
An appeal upheld the verdict.
Florence Lassandrea went to pieces.
“My father lied and lied to me,” she
they would never hang me.
Tear up my confession!”
She sent for a police matron. -
“I am about to become a mother,” the
convicted woman announced. “You can’t
take two lives.”
Doctors found no evidence to back up her
claim.
In the meantime, Steve Picarello was
fined $100 on the bootleg charge.
On sandaled feet, Father Fidelis, a priest,
went between the cells of father and daugh-
ter the night before their execution, offering
consolation.
At 5:10 a.m. Picarello was led to the
gallows. His request that his face be not
covered was refused.
“I am innocent!” he moaned, just before
the horrid clatter of the gallows trap.
Until the last moment, Florence expected
a reprieve. She shrieked and clutched her
throat at the approach of the hangman.
On the gallows, her last words were, “I
didn’t do it; my father lied... .”
As far as this writer can determine, this
is the only case in the history of modern
crime where a father and daughter were
executed together.
The Crow’s Nest Pass country today is
as peaceful as a church sewing circle.
Throughout the underworld of the west still
is whispered the menace of that distant place
where a man and his daughter “were topped
for knocking off a cop.”
He did it.
The names “Josie Wilson” and “Donald
Moore,” as used in this narrative, are not
actual but fictitious-—Epitor.
Death with
Bacilli
(Continued from page 37)
for Sing Sing. ;
A formal appeal of the conviction was
filed and his execution automatically stayed.
While awaiting a decision in the death
house, Waite tried to kill himself by slash-
ing his chest with a broken drinking glass,
but was unsuccessful. | -
Meanwhile, Mrs. Waite filed suit for
‘ divorce in Grand Rapids. On July 7, as the
Court of Appeals upheld her husband’s con-
viction, Mrs. Waite won a decree of annul-
ment.
Through a series of legal moves, Waite’s
counsel kept him out of the chair for almost
another year. - Then, late on the warm nighf
of May 25, 1917, with all hope gone, Arthur
Warren Waite was led into the death
chamber.
He walked calmly and with a firm step
from his cell, accompanied by the Rev. A.
N. Peterson, Protestant chaplain.
“Do you wish to send anyone a message
of farewell?” asked the chaplain as Waite
submitted quietly to the ordeal of being
strapped into the chair.
“No, thank you,” smiled Waite. “There
is really no one I know to whom I would
care to send such a message.”
“Not even to your mother ?”
“No, sir; to no one,” was the answer.
Three shocks convulsed Waite’s body in
four minutes. At 11:10 p.m. he was dead.
The final chapter was written in one of
America’s most macabre crimes.
The names “Peggy Peters” and “Billie
Winthrop,” as used in this narrative, are
not actual but fictitious —Eprtor.
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*
<
oy
“y LEANED an elbow against the cros of *
© BL the cell gate between us ‘and listened to
oes ~ Dr. Arthur Warren Waite, while I watched :
“the man in the adjoining cage of the old
3 a jury had
si i
ke spent most of his 30 years making a fool of the law.
= Every time he was caught he had parted the jail bars*~
as if they were putty strands.’ Now he eavesdropped
‘shamelessly“as I talked to the condemned man.» H
‘Was a speculator’s interest/ © 9 oe
“ -“Only oné thing is wrong,” Dr; Waite ‘said rue
fully. “Now that I have admitted my guilt and they
have convicted me, it is a silly formality to go through
the rigmarole‘of appealing to a higher court: Why
= don’t they: inflict the punishment immediately 2%»)
Forsbrey withdrew in dismay to the back of the cell.’
» This was an attitude irreconcilable with his code’ of -
battling the law.’ Here was'a guy eager to give in}”
unwilling to take such upsets as a slick lawyer might
produce; reluctant to try that last desperate adven.
* turé, a jailbreak, Waite, to him, was. unworthy of the
~' society in which he had placed himself; The habitua’
desperado was so discomfi
ther attention to our talk,
peak
» privacy. Of all the men with whom I have talked in»
“prison, he was the only one with completé frankness -
of expression. This day and several others before his .
emoval to the death house at Sing Sing, we discussed —
‘freely matters affecting him and society—and the
i debt he must pay. ies SUM GEL SST! ce ks
~» He probably was the most enigmatical re who
‘faced the bar. in the legal history of New-York, In
no aspect whatever did he satisfy the picture one holds
f a cold-blooded killer. That he was young was not
-unusual; most of the first-time. killers are youthful
_He was tall, slerider and handsom:
1)
FOREBODING
Mrs. Charles Becker, right, broke
a tooth in the courtroom. To
her, it was an omen foretelling
the jury's verdict for her hus-
band. City Editor Chapin, be-
low, fearsome wizard on crime
news, strayed down the murder
path he'd known so well in print.
he had exceptional esthetic gifts. He expressed himself with
fluent grace. Never did he use profanity; nor did he lapse into
slang unbecoming his social caste. Charm was manifest in every
action, every phrase. *
Yet, this man, by his own willing admission, had committed
two murders—his mother-in-law and his father-in-law. He was
operating on a third against his wife’s aunt and holding in pros-
pect the disposal of his wife when Nemesis overtook him.
He had been graduated from a Middle Western school of
dentistry but before he took up practice, married the rich heiress
of a furniture fortune in Michigan. His father-in-law was per-
suaded to bring the family to New York, where they settled in
a Riverside Drive apartment. The brilliant young dentist pur-
sued post-graduate studies.
Soon afterward, his wife’s mother died suddenly. The cer-
tificate read that demise came through natural causes. The
father-in-law began to ail and, not long afterward, he too suc-
cumbed, Then the aunt contracted a sudden illness and her sur-
vival was held precarious.
With a third death impending, an anonymous postcard came
to the district attorney of New York. Posthumous investiga-
tions were secretly made—and then Dr. Waite attempted
suicide.
His effort was unsuccessful but in his delirium of pain, he
kept murmuring of a Black Man of Egypt. The Black Man,
according ‘to the hallucinations of the patient, was supposed to
40
have induced the deaths. When Waite recovered, he was in-
dicted and tried for murder.
The State had built its case well but the evidence was wholly
circumstantial. To the bewilderment of everyone, Dr. Waite
took the stand after the State had established a dubious thesis
against him. He smilingly admitted everything, the district at-
torney had striven to prove, and many facts whith had been un-
known to the district attorney. It was a cornered man’s tricky
subterfuge. He hoped by the sheer horror of his recital to es-
tablish that he was an abnormal monster and,'consequently, en-,
titled to a verdict of guilty but insane.
LOOKING upon the jury with utter benignity he told how easy
had been the disposal of his wife’s mother ; her resistance was :
quite low. Her husband, however, proved to be a terrific prob-
lem, Although advanced in years, he was immune to practically
everything the homicidal mind of Waite could devise. He damp-
ened the old man’s overcoat before he took walks. He saturated
his shoes before he drove him in the family car, and kept the top
down on these trips.
As a last resort, he obtained a culture of tetanus germs. The
deadly tetanus germs acted upon papa-in-law merely as an
emetic.
Waite, in disgust, tossed the vial of germs from the window
of the Riverside Drive apartment. Then, while his intended
victim was racked in expelling the dose, the young dentist rushed
to the street, many floors below, to mop up the broken glass’
contents—lest any passing dog might lap them up and die!
By this time, he was wholly out of patience with his durable
relative so he held a pillow over his head and suffocated him.
The death certificate of the family physician put him in the clear.
Yet he was tripped by that anonymous postcard. It eventually
was proved to be a warning from a visiting
friend of his wife. The stomach analyses bore
her out.
All this Waite told on the stand, with only
so much dismay as if a cunning game had come
to nothingness. The jury found him guilty
_ in the first degree, without mitigating in-
sanity.
Before his conviction he had been difficult
to reach in the Tombs. Prisoners have the
option of seeing only those visitors they wish.
After several persuasive notes, he finally yielded
to me. .
We discussed various matters. During the
trial it had developed that he was passionately
interested in music. He and a kindred spirit
had engaged a suite at an important hotel and
indulged themselves in the classics. Efforts, dur-
ing the trial, had been made to convey a fleshly
meaning to this relationship but the compan-
ionship remained unassailed.
Then, too, he was an athlete. As a matter of
fact, he had been a runner-up in the Metropol-
itan Tennis Championships.
PROSECUTOR
After he had successfully ended the reign of Becker
and his graft mob, District Attorney Charles S. Whit-
man, in courtroom scene, left, became Governor of
New York. The old Tombs Prison and Bridge of Sighs,
below, was only one part of Reporter Hanley's beet.
RS et
OF esas
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Whitey Lewls, above, loved
his dim-witted way. Dago Fr
nee a choir boy. They, wi
id Louis, ag a
id ti as
F vethcis' room at Sing Sing,
decurred and wees Rip
“4,
mitted the ugly word of murder, is there any
theoty that killers have comenncient! Do they
e ghosts of their victims ?”
louvered that is completely absurd. If they
victims and place them in the corridor there,
and pass around them and feel not the slight-
the look of a fiend as he said that. Then we
xtraordinary phase of his viewpoint. He gave
t the cell which detained Forsbrey. |
not understand,” he said with a hint of pa-
“that I do not share the fate of these wretches.
3 do not impound me. Remember the lines of Rich-
ace t)
yi not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage;
for rest and peace, take these for a
f
ndent grandeur, hears the music 0
hony of stars by night. They have
aged, but the spirit of Arthur Warren
d reporter for a New York newspaper,
speaking with sincerity. And I was awed
previously had captured my curiosity. It
Even sagt a
recognized he
it the. ee
Si i% *-egave ime afi idea,
earnir ‘ “Within a da
earning for complete “We Ad
He other subjects, “Now. AMa melt hav
fe 3 ce & : eA
een there, but only one has given a true re-
r so,” I said, “you will be in the death house. |
action of a condemned prisoner. It was by Roland Molineaux,
later released. He was completely superficial and wholly intro-
vert. With your feeling and your power of expression, why
don't you leave a contribution to the world? You can do it!”
“It is worth thinking about,” he said as we shook hands in
He didn’t do it, but while awaiting his fate he wrote several
flawless poems. Death he accepted welcomely.
Dr. Waite is my stellar murderer, probably because there were
so many facets to his character, and mainly because I never un-
derstood him. Neither, to my knowledge, did anyone else. Does
anyone understand murderers? Or do they understand them-
selves? Ina long backward glance I am inclined to believe that
the most astonished people about murderers are the murderers
themselves. Some never realized how they got that way.
Charles Becker offers a proof. To the moment they strapped
him for the fatal current he never [Continued on page 102]
CHAPLAIN
Father William E. Cashin, right,
held the confidence of men about
to die. His keen judgment foiled
a grim plot on death row at the
eleventh hour. To regenerate a
murderer, he prescribed a garden.
EGG DOME
The stoical Jack Rose, left, broke
down when his tosspot lawyer cited
his qualifications for execution,
such gs a head already shaved by
nature for the electrodes. Rose
turned State's evidence in a rush.
had continued his
or he had first met
old her, “I’m not
vife, but I’m going
r parents die. I'll
no dollars and you
round the world.”
over the case with
“It adds up. all
ed. “I’ve got a
ow, saying Waite
fical course. He
a doctor in order
ave continued his
out of the apart-
to her that he was
keep that up in-
was next on the
.ou know why she
h him now? She's
| out there. Pains
usual symptoms of
would have been
dn’t stay there to
“I don’t know ex-
suspicious of some-
come here to New
was what.”
zood case, Frank?”
eak him, I think.
‘ed maid and she
the old folks’ soup.
know about, also
ll Medical College
Mrs. Walters that
o the Peck fortune.
shing things a little
‘o make good the
rine Peck’s money
. Waite’s good in-
the $40,000. “Why
* he asked.
wanted to keep you
e replied. “They
» vou dropped in.
o the Tombs now.”
ie telephone rang.
ok the message, he
oc; Tl tell you all
le.”
around for a good
arly morning when
Attorney came in.
:?” asked the Medi-
“T got a full con-
ned, sealed and de-
es examine drugs
der apartment
MASTER DETECTIVE
livered.” He patted his jacket pocket.
“He admitted both murders?”
“Yes, And he had started on his wife,
just as I said I thought he had.”
“Have much trouble breaking him?”
“Some. I showed him the vials of diph-
theria and typhoid bacilli we found in that
wall safe and he couldn’t explain why they
were kept secret if they were sup osed to
be legitimate. He got a little shaky then.
“TI told him the maid said she had seen
him coming from Mrs. Peck’s room the
night the old lady died. That broke him.
He thought he had been smart there, get-
ting back into bed and pretending to his
wife he had been asleep when the maid’s
scream woke her.”
“ HAT made him suspicious about the
whole thing?”
Mancuso laughed. “Remember those
four men who went to the cemetery that
night?”
“How could.I forget them?”
“Well, he saw them.”
“What!”
“Yes; he figured there was something
queer going on when he found out about
the delay in cremating Peck’s body. So,
between giving doses of arsenic to his wife,
he used to slip out to the cemetery at
nights to see what was doing.” Mancuso
stretched. “Well,” he said—and the pro-
phecy was to prove true—“Dr. Waite is
on the road to death in Sing Sing. I
don’t know about you; I’m going to hit
the hay.”
When the story broke in the news-
papers a woman over in Somerville,
New Jersey—Miss Elizabeth B. Hardwick
—read the accounts with avidity. She had
always been interested in crime, ever since
her father, Henry Hardwick, had been an
Assistant District Attorney of New York
County. She had a relative—Dr. Jacob
Cornell—who had mentioned to her about
Waite’s singular behavior when he had
called at the Riverside Drive apartment
a few hours after Mr. Peck’s death.
Elizabeth Hardwick had been rather
curious as to why Dr. Waite, whom she
had never seen, should have acted that
way. Bit by bit, she had drawn from
Cornell certain facts regarding Waite and
the Pecks. She heard of the $500,000 that
would come to Mrs. Waite when her par-
ents died.
From all this, the alert Miss Hardwick
had drawn certain conclusions. From those
conclusions, she had taken a shot in the
dark, knowing that if she missed, no
harm would be done; and that if she hit
the bull’s-eye, no harm would be done,
either.
She laid down the newspaper accounts
of Dr. Waite’s arrest and smiled. “Per-
haps,” she told herself—and she was later
to follow through on the idea—“I had bet-
ter visit this Mr. Mancuso and tell him
that I am K. Adams.”
Ogre’s Hideout
(Continued from page 13)
swamps is an ideal haven for wild animals
and poisonous snakes.
At its northern extremity, near Wood-
ville, is a large Indian reservation. Red
Goleman hid out in the Big Thicket.
A few days after his second release he
approached the home of his uncle, C. W
Jackson, at Goose Creek, and was inside
before any of the family was aware of a
visitor.
He imparted to his wary relatives a
fantastic tale of a huge cache of money,
hidden in the dark recesses of a mys-
terious Big Thicket cavern.
Before the open-mouthed Jackson and
his two small sons, Wallace and Lawson,
Goleman described his fabulous stolen
wealth and proposed that the three come
with him, offering to split the booty.
Jackson reluctantly agreed to go along.
Silently, he climbed behind the wheel of
his Chevrolet sedan, as his two sons got
in the back seat. Goleman sat at the
driver’s right and for more than fifty
miles directed his uncle over narrow dirt
roads.
On the fringe of the thicket, Goleman
whipped out his revolver, ordered his
uncle to stop the car.
Red then methodically went through
Jackson’s pockets.
A snarl of contempt and disappoint-
ment came from the bandit as he found but
$10 in cash and a watch.
Goleman, pressing his gun in the back of
his relative, ordered the latter to clasp his
hands behind him. A few moments later
he securely bound the limbs together. The
wire was so tight that the pain was ex-
cruciating. When Jackson pleaded, the
bandit laughed.
“You ain’t seen. nothing yet,” he said,
leering. ‘Wait till I get through with you
and your family.”
Peering into the back seat at Jackson’s
two sons, now immovable with fright, he
threatened them with immediate death if
they attempted escape. Taking the car
keys, he. opened the rear trunk lid, and
ordered the two boys to climb in. Then
MARCH, 1941
he closed and locked the compartment.
Still obviously enjoying his role of ruth-
less bandit, he ordered the uncle into the
front seat and himself climbed under the
wheel. His arms now completely numb,
Jackson finally managed to get in.
“What did I ever do to you, Red?” the
older man pleaded.
“Your family done plenty,” the bandit
sneered. “That wife of yours told the
Sheriff I pulled the bank job at Hull and
tipped ’em off where I was.”
“How could she have done such a thing?
We didn’t know anything about the rob-
bery, or where you were. You’re making a
big mistake, Red.”
“That so?” Goleman snarled. “I hap-
pen to know better. I’m going back to
Goose Creek and kill her. And just to make
a good job of it, I’m going to knock off
the two boys. That’ll teach you a lesson in
keeping your mouth shut.”
A FEW miles farther along the narrow
dirt road, Goleman drew up in front
of the small home of another relative, his
cousin, Dan Brown, and got out of the
car.
Waving his gun, he warned Jackson that
he would kill him on the spot, if he at-
tempted to get free.
“There’s another rat in here who’s going
on this party,” he said. “I’m going to take
him along and knock him off, too. Just
wait here.”
Jackson watched the bandit enter the
small ranch house and sat quietly in the
dead stillness of the night, trying to de-
vise a plan of escape.
Suddenly, he heard furtive scratches
through the rear wall of the automobile.
He felt the car bounce slightly on its
springs frorn*somé unseen movement. His
heart raced as he hoped against hope that
his two sons had discovered some method
of gaining their freedom.
Almost noiselessly, the door of the car
opened, and Jackson saw the dim outline
of one of -the boys.
“Hurry up, Dad, get out,” the boy whis-
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77
n trailed to a drug
one to “get out at
‘arned that it was
Hotel. When the
at the woman had
| run up against a
race the mysteri-
ad vanished soon
e call had advised
ice."' But as the
n effort to secure
other detectives
ior Waite so that
y reports on the
ities,
bereavement re- ©
ired to his apart-
| the same Satur-
“he telephoned to |
nent in the Parke ©
lunch with him,
sot the call and,
s Peck, they were
\ fact, that when |
or luncheon and |
¢ within hearing —
any carelessly —
‘ some part of |
Peck case.
tor Waite’s
vhose sym-
a
pathy had gone out to his grieving wife. He told Miss Peck of
his sorrow at the grief of Clara and of his great affection for
bis deceased father-in-law and mother-in-law. As the con-
wersation progressed gloom settled on the handsome face of
the charming Doctor Waite. He told Miss Peck of his
troubles, for he had troubles, he said, other than the deaths
which had come into his wife's family.
“Iam not a Practicing dentist, you know,” he said
t Miss Peck. “I never have bothered to secure a
feense to practice since I returned from Africa;
bat I have been intensely interested in some phases
ad my profession, particularly oral surgery. Really,
face I have come to New York I have made quite
reputation as a surgeon—but so many are jealous
ed me.
“THAVE made enemies, bitter enemies. Why
even today before I got back from Grand Rapids,
@ group of men from the Department of Health went
® my apartment and tried to find out from the
¢oorman whether I had a license to practice den-
tstry!"’
The doorman of the Colosseum Apartments,
son to secrecy by Mancuso, already had told a
Part, at least, of what had happened there during
the early morning hours!
“And, Aunt Catherine," Waite went on, “‘if any-
asks you whether I am a licensed dentist, don’t
Featell them. Just keep quiet, for they are jealous
@f my success.”
But those were not all of Doctor Waite’s troubles.
The listening detectives were hearing more of the
#Y young athlete's difficulties.
“I'm awfully hard up,"” Waite confided to his
companion. “With the trip to Grand
The Great Riverside Drive Poison Mystery
yabes) Mrs. Clara Peck Waite
right), daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. Peck and wife of the suave
Doctor Waite, photographed
with a friend at the time of the
investigation. Was Mrs. Waite
also in the shadow of dea th?
You'll find the answer in this
enthralling fact story. (Left)
View of one of the bedrooms of
. the luxurious Waite apartment
on Riverside Drive—as it looked
after detectives had turned it
inside out in a search for clues
Rapids for the funeral and my
not earning anything now, I
have very little money.”
“Poor boy,” sympathized Miss
Peck, “why, I can let you have
all you. want. How much do
you need, Arthur?” ’
ARTHUR thought ten thou-
sand dollars would do, for
the present at least. .
“T’ll soon be making so much
from’ my operations,” he con-
fided, ‘‘that they’II be fighting to
pay me for my services;”’
So, as the detectives listened,
Miss Peck gave Doctor Waite a
key to a safety deposit box and
told him to take from it sufficient
bonds to provide the ten thou-
sand dollars he needed.
By that night, Assistant Dis-
trict Attorney Mancuso had
gathered up the loose ends of
the investigation so far as it had
gone, had arranged for detectives
63
PHIA’S | Tne GREAT RIversiIpe
LAR} Porson
Yilliam J. Burns
months we find that
itly some connection
d W. M. Jacobs and
‘ominent cigar manu-
caster, Pennsylvania,
‘cobs and Kendig and
* apparently cheating
out of huge sums of
nterfeit Internal
eir products. a
----- ance to the Phila-
plant, after having
te of the key to the
sé pulled on Johnny,
im in the midst of my
n suddenly I see a
1 the corner of the _
I move toward it to
3 man is awake or
lose to the form, it
3:
‘ONCLUSION 4
racks. Momentarily —
‘ spurt of flame and
rning sensation that _
n hit by a bullet.
happened. I heard
he shadowy form
nd moved through
h it rested on what
inued on page 114)
‘retary to Presi-
> played an irn-
2us—part in the
ounterfeiters
Here is a group of detectives, photographed in the New York apartment of Doctor Arthur
Warren Waite (shown in circle); making a thorough examination of certain drugs found
im the place. This photograph was taken not long,after the mysterious deaths of Doctor
Waite's father-in-law and mother-in-law—Mr. and Mrs. John E. Peck, wealthy residents
of Grand Rapids, Michigan. The Pecks died while visiting Doctor Waite
‘y, Inc. FRANCIS X. MANCUSO, assistant District Attorney at
the time of the story, was summoned from a banquet York.
t of Justice ea the night of March 17th, 1916, by Doctor Otto H. Schultze,
/\J
A corpse spirited
from a cemetery
vault under cover of
darkness ...a secret
post mortem in an
undertaking parlor
in the eerie hours
before dawn. . . .
What part did this
dramatic episode
play in the solution
of this infamous
double horror ?
Medical Examiner of the Dis-
' trict Attorney’s office.
At a midnight conférence he
was told by Doctor Perry
Schuritz, a physician of Grand
Rapids, Michigan, and: Doc-
tor A. W. Wishart, pastor of a
Grand Rapids church, that
Mrs. Hannah Peck, wife of
- John E. Peck, millionaire drug
manufacturer of Grand Rapids,
Michigan, had died on Janu-
ary 30th, 1916, after a short
illness while visiting her daugh-
ter, Mrs. Clara Louise Peck
Waite at the latter's apartment on Riverside Drive, New
Doctor Arthur Warren Waite, son-in-law of Mrs.
Peck, sent the body to Grand Rapids for cremation.
61
Der 7 (93 /
62
1 Aba ed Rm CL os
True Detective Mysteries
returned from Grand Rapids and had been trailed to ad
store telephone booth. He warned someone to ‘get out
once." Tracing the call the detectives learned that it
made to a ‘‘Mrs. Walters” at the Plaza Hotel. When ¢
detectives arrived there they discovered that the woman
checked out and disappeared.
Part Two
HE detectives apparently had run up against
stone wall in their efforts to trace the mystes
ous “Mrs. Walters," who had vanished s
after Doctor Waite’s telephone call had advis
her to “pack up and get out at once.” But as th
sleuths doubled and redoubled in an effort to s
some trace of ‘‘Mrs. Walters’ other detective
watched every move made by Doctor Waite so thal
Mancuso was getting almost hourly reports on te
young and handsome dentist’s activities.
As befitting one in whose family bereavement
cently had come, the dentist had retired to his ap
ment. But early that afternoon—on the same Sat
day he returned from Grand Rapids—he telephoned
Miss Catherine Peck at her apartment in the Pat
Avenue Hotel and asked her to have lunch with hi
Detectives, tapping the wires, also got the call
when Doctor Waite went to meet Miss Peck, they werd
not far behind; they were so close, in fact, that whe
the doctor and Miss Peck sat down for luncheon ai
an intimate talk, the detectives were within heari
distance, their ears ready to catch any carelessh’
dropped phrases which might Pierce some part
the veil of mystery surrounding the Peck case.
In his conversation with Miss Peck, Doctor Waites
(Above) The ravishingly beau-
tiful ‘“Mrs. Walters”—the mys-
tery woman in this great poison
mystery—is shown in the center
of the photo, as she appeared
while arriving at the D. A.’s
office for questioning. (Right)
Four men who were vitally in-
terested in the solution of the
death riddle: (Left to right):
Andrew M. Taylor; Doctor
Perry Schuritz, Grand Rapids
‘physician; Percy S. Peck, son of
the dead man, and Francia X.
Mancuso, one of the kingpins of
the investigation
Mr. Peck then visited the same
apartment and while there was
taken ill and died shortly after-
ward. His body was also sent
back to Grand Rapids and was
about to be cremated when
Percy S. Peck, son of the dead
man, received a mysterious wire
from New York: signed “K,
Adams” advising him to demand
an autopsy. The autopsy showed
traces of arsenic in the body.
MANcuso and his | staff
searched the Waite apart-
ment and found two atomizers,
a book containing phone num-
bersanda medical volume marked
at a chapter on arsenic poisoning.
Then they set out to question the
man who embalmed Peck's body
concerning the use of arsenic in
the embalming fluid.
Meanwhile Doctor Waite had
attitude was that of a devoted husband whose sym
oh
his sorrov
his decea:
versation
the char:
troubles, :
which hac
“[Tamr
to Miss |
license to
but I hav
of my pre
since I ha
a reputati
of me.
a | HAVE
even t:
tistry!"’
e The do
“sworn to
part, at |.
the early :
**And, .\
body asks
you tell th
of my succ
But tho:
The listen
gay young
“I'm av
luncheon
4 :
ae ae
_rapher who had helped
64 True Detective Mysteries
to quiz the undertaker, Potter, on the ingredients in his em-
balming fluid; had scen that the detectives on Doctor Waite's
trail were covering every move of that young man; and had
discussed again with Doctors Wishart and Schuritz the pos-
sibility of uncovering other information in Grand Rapids.
But not a trace had been found of the mysterious ‘“‘K. Adams.”
-whose telegram to Percy Peck had opened up the investi-
gation.
One important person—whose presence arose frequently in
every line of reasoning in the Peck mystery—was in Grand
Rapids, and Mancuso wanted to talk to that person. It was
Mrs. Clara Louise Peck Waite, the daughter whose parents
had passed away within the tragic six weeks. So, on the
following morning—Sunday, March 19th—Assistant Dis-
trict Attorney Mancuso went to the home of his chief, Dis-
trict Attorney Edward Swann, on Tenth Street, New York
City. ;
Mancuso took with him
Nat Burchill, the stenog-
slot. Then, he turned west on 114th Street, walked to
side Drive and turned north to the Colosseum, re-enter
the apartment about fifteen minutes after he had left it.
A short time later the detective who had trailed War °
on his brief walk telephoned Assistant District Attormg. ,
Mancuso. ,
“Get right back to that mail box,” ordered Mancusos
the detective. ‘‘Follow the mail man who collects the mai,
from the box until he reaches the post-office and hold ha!
there until I arrive. By no means, allow that letter to gr”
away!” i
Mancuso and other detectives hurried to the branch pot),
office where the mail collector was due to turn in the mij
matter he had collected from the mail route on that partd
upper Broadway which included 114th Street. As the-mi_
collector was entering the post-office, Mancuso, cautioning
the superintendent of the office to secrecy, explained te,
urgent necessity of bs
either stopping, or exam
him all through the inves-
tigation. Mancuso out-
chief. He went over all
the evidence thus far ob-
tained, told of the myster-
ious. elements yet to be
uncovered and after a
long discussion Mr. Swann
assigned Mancuso, and
Doctor Otto Schultze, the
medical examiner, to go
to Grand Rapids, perform
another autopsy on
Peck's body, if necessary,
and cooperate with Percy
Peck and the authorities
there in an effort to clear
up the case.
$3 to the third.
March 29th; 1931.
FTER his conference
with District Attor-
ney Swann, Mancuso
again got in touch with,
Percy Peck in Grand
Rapids.
“Under no circum-
stances,"’ he wired, ‘‘allow
any person to communi-
cate with your sister, Mrs.
Waite. Tell her nothing
of what we have been
doing or have learned
and, above all do not no-
tify anyone, police or any
Second Prize $5
Alvin Spaugh
4225 Fair St.
Dallas, Texas
CASH FOR OPINIONS
lined the entire case to his WHEN you have read this issue of TRUE
DETECTIVE MYSTERIES Magazine, let us
know what you think of the stories it contains.
Which story is best? Which do you like the
least? Why? Have you any suggestions in mind.
Ten dollars will be paid to the person whose
letter, in the opinion of judges in charge.of these
awards, offers the most intelligent, constructive
criticism; $5 to the letter considered second best;
Address your opinions to the Judges of Award,
c/o TRUE DETECTIVE MYSTERIES, 1926 Broad-
way, New. York, N. Y. This contest closes
The three awards will be made promptly.
No letters will be returned.
ce Te
PRIZES
for opinions on the
December TRUE DETECTIVE MYSTERIES
were awarded as follows: office. Mancuso was
First Prize $10
Louis Sundeen
Box 132
Kerkhoven, Minn.
ining, a letter, prob
addressed to Grand Ra
ids, Michigan, which bal
been mailed at a x
box, The superinte
ent, declaring that he
sorry he could not
commodate the Aseistat,
District Attorney, said,
had no authority to mé>
dle with such postal may
ter and was obdu
when Mancuso _insis
that the situation ju
fied an infraction of ru
“No one but P
master Morgan can
thorize that,” replied te
superintendent. “If
orders it, I'll be glad w
cooperate with you.” §—
As they talked, tee.
letter lay between they”
on the desk in the po
termined to learn its cay
tents—and he feared thal
red tape might pe
vent such an examinatia”
Third Prize $3 “TLL tell you what :
Charles Senior
433 North I St.
Bedford, Ind.
superintendent. “Yougi
to a telephone and al),
Postmaster Morgan am”
explain to him how am)
other authorities, that I
am going to Grand Rap-
ids. Keep everything in absolute secrecy until we arrive."
On that Sunday night, Doctor Waite called for Miss
Catherine Peck with his automobile and took her for a ride
through Westchester County. They returned at an early
hour and Doctor Waite left Miss Peck at her hotel and went
back to his apartment on Riverside Drive. All of this time
he was trailed closely by detectives who had not rested since
Waite’s return from Grand Rapids on the Wolverine the
previous morning. When the dentist entered his apartment
the trailing detectives took up their vigil in the vicinity of the
apartment house and their watch was rewarded shortly
before 10 o'clock, when Doctor Waite left the building,
walked around the corner to 116th Street and continued over
to Broadway.
Turning South on Broadway, Doctor Waite swung rapidly
along the pavement until he reached 114th Street, where he
stepped up to a mail box and dropped a letter into the mailing
ious I am_ to see they
letter. It's the letter t)
want. See, it is addressed to Mrs. Clara Peck Waite, Grast) .
Rapids, Michigan. I think the Postmaster will authora)
you to let me see it.” :
The government official agreed, and when he left the dedi
Mancuso was fingering the much-desired letter. The supe,
intendent was gone some time, having difficulty in reachiag?
the Postmaster by telephone, and while he was gone Mar”
cuso rolled a lead pencil underneath the flap of the envelope ©
forced it open, spread the letter before him, and quickh
copied the contents! j
The letter, which had been mailed in a plain envelope, wa
written on the embossed stationery of Doctor Waite and sat
Dear Clara Louise—
I arrived in New York Saturday morning and am awful
lonesome without you. I wish that I were back in Grant
Rapids so I could be with you again. When I left vou sai
you were not feeling well. I do hope (Continued on page 10
oO.
And the stylus maintained its even
plane.
Eleven questions in all. But the
result was the same. To all questions
he answered no. He must have been
made of marble, District Attorney
Munder was thinking.
Among those officers present was
Inspector Howard Nugent, in charge
of the barracks at Hawthorne, and
Trooper Lotito’s superior. When the
instrument was detached from the
prisoner, Nugent beckoned for him to
step into an adjoining room.
Myslivec complied.
Alone with the amazing suspcct,
Nugent put his arm around his shoul-
ders and gat down with him.
Then he said in Bohemian, “Look,
Anton, why don’t you tell me the true
story? Why don’t you get it off your
chest?”
Myslivec burst into tears. Then he
straightened up.
“I shot Willic Dobitz,” he said. “I
did it.”
Inspector Nugent stepped to the
door, summoned the other officers and
a stenographer.
“All right, Anton. Now tell us
your story, in your own words.”
There was a sudden change in the
man. His face froze.
“It was an accident; that’s what it
was,” he said.
Then he unreeled a strange tale.
ON the afternoon of November 21,
he had bought the shotgun, all
right. But it was to have been a
present for his friend, Willie Dobitz.
He had remembered that his friend
had always wanted one. Later that
evening he had taken a train out to
Long Island to present Dobitz with
the gun. Just as he was about to
knock, the door flew open, hit the
barrel of the gun and it was dis-
charged. And Willie Dobitz went
down, struck jn the back.
“I became frightened at what I had
done—by accident. I saw him lying
there. And I ran away.”
That was how his amazing story
concluded.
It was Nugent who wanted to know,
somewhat sarcastically, how it hap-
pened that a shell was in the gun.
“J put it there,” Myslivec answered.
“I wanted to give Willie Dobitz my
present already for use, loaded.”
Nor could anyone break his story.
The new turn of events impressed
on District Attorney Munder his con-
clusion, long-since formed, that An-
ton Myslivec was the wiliest mur-
derer he had ever encountered. At
his suggestion, the party returned to
Brookhaven where the prisoner was
charged with murder and placed in
the local jail under heavy guard.
It was now up to Munder to make
a case. So far, he had on hand a
statement from the murderer that at
least placed him at the scene of the
crime and in possession of the mur-
der gun.
But what if Myslivec was later to
change his story, claim that he was
forced into making the statement
which he had, true enough, signed?
It was up to the State to forge a case
without Myslivee’s help.
But how?
On the following morning, he tele-
phoned chemist Manning. Was there
any news from the laboratory?
There was. The spectograph report
was ready. And it was damning—to
Myslivec.
The spectograph placed Myslivec
46
COMPLETE DETECTIVE CASES
on the scene by virtue of the fact
that the mineral content of the mud
that clung to his shoes and the soil
where he had left his footprints on
the lawn was identical. Manning had
tested the soil from the very print
which Munder had marked, the one
discovered by Officer Wallace Jay.
So minute was the analysis that
traces of gold, not to mention silver,
copper, nickel and almost 40 other
elements were brought to light in
such precise ratios that nowhere else
except on that very spot where he
had left his footprint would the same
results be forthcoming.
The news was cheering. Particu-
larly when it became apparent that
Myslivec was to swear later that he
had been knocked around, kicked in
the shins and “beaten up” by the of-
ficers.
There remained now only a single
hole to plug up. Evidence must be
secured which would blast Myslivec’s
contention that a bang of the door
had discharged the gun he was taking,
fully loaded, as a gift to his friend.
Toward this end, Munder communi-
cated with the Winchester Arms Co.,
explaining the hypothetical’ situation,
asking whether it could happen, con-
ceivably. For an answer, the firm
dispatched to Riverhead, the county
seat, its famous ballistic expert, Mer-
ton A. Robinson.
Robinson heard the story in detail.
Then he made his pronouncement:
It would be virtually impossible, he
declared, for the gun to have been
discharged accidentally by being
struck on the barrel. To say the
least, such a miracle would have re-
sulted in the charge striking the door
and not the man now dead.
Th elast link in the chain was now
forged.
S° it was that the sensational case
came to trial before Judge Bar-
ron Hill, April 10, 1939.
A jury of ten men and two women
heard the evidence. Relentlessly, the
State paraded its facts. Beginning
with Mrs. Dobitz, who had been held
in jail all these months as a material
witness, the prosecution rolled ahead
like a juggernaut.
The climax was the testimony of
chemist Manning who explained the
ingenious working of the spectograph
which records the composition of any
material which is burned, then trans-
mits a light to a photographic plate.
The jury listened intently.
Anton Myslivec never took the
stand. He sat there, a sphinx of a
man, a study in disinterest.
After five days of deliberation, the
case went to the jury. But not be-
fore the defense counsel tried desper-
ately to show that the man before
the bar had been beaten, and that
he had signed the statement that he
had killed his friend under coercion.
When ten hours had passed with-
out a verdict, court attaches were
- unanimous in feeling that a first-de-
gree conviction was out of the ques-
tion. After all, they recalled, there
were two women on the jury.
In the morning, Foreman Jon
Spurga announced that the jury was
ready with a verdict.
«". guilty in the first degree,” he
indited coldly.
Judge Hill summoned the defend-
ant to the bar, and, after comment-
ing on his crime career, sentenced
him to be electrocuted at Sing Sing.
Myslivee’s expression did not change.
Then Judge Hill ordered the re-
lease of Mrs. Dobitz from custody.
Wan and a ghost of her former self,
she seemed to flee from the court
room where a few days before she
had relived -her illicit relationship
with a man about to die for a murder.
So there came to a close the strange
case of crime and punishment in
which a good citizen, a fine neighbor,
came out on a dark night to whistle
for his faithful dog, Rex, now left
without a master, and was shot down
by a man he befriended.
There is something more than
ironic in the fact that his doom was
sealed by the marvelous instrument,
the spectograph, which made his own
shoes the most eloquent witness the
state was able to present against him.
Myslivec forfeited his life to the
electric chair in Sing Sing, Decem-
ber .21, 1939.
MURDERING
CONNIVER
(Continued from page 31)
grasped her daughter’s arm as the car
swung out from the curb and merged
into the dense city traffic.
“He’s a wonderful man, Clara,” she
whispered. “I’m so happy you mar-
ried such a fine person.” ,
But suddenly, within a few days,
the happiness of the three was
abruptly shattered when Mrs. Peck
was taken ill, Whether the excite-
ment of the trip had weakened her.
Dr. Perry Schuritz played an important part
in tricking the murdering conniver of River-
side Drive.
or whether her advanced age was
responsible for the unexpected at-
tack, neither her son-in-law nor her
daughter could tell.
January 30, after an illness of only
a few days, Mrs. Hannah Peck died.
Dr. Waite and his wife were pros-
trated with grief. Dazedly they lis-
tened as the physician who had been
called in when Mrs. Peck was first
taken ill diagnosed the cause of her
death as kidney
by old age.
Following Mr
body was sent t
tion. And a fev
rowful family w
silence as the ur:
was placed in t
in Grand Rapid
When they re
Dr. Waite noted
the sadness wh
once joyous Ss}
bride’s eyes.
mind was the n
his grief-stricke
during the func
“Why don’t y
and pay us a vi
suggested a fev
turn to the cit
probably do bc
with each othe:
For the first ©
crept over Cla
“You’re so
said quietly. ‘
EBRUARY
in New Y:
daughter and
haired, his rud:
with. grief ove:
man whose lif:
many years,
tried hard to
But one afte:
with her fathe:
apartment, Cl:
his ordinarily
suddenly beca
could leap t
elderly man t
floor in a deac
Mrs. Waite
carried the ag
summoned a ¢
examination,
that the fai
caused by inte
tations, comp!
That evenin
turned: home,
him about her
The young de
“Perhaps 1+
doesn’t agree
“The weather
cently. I thin
our throats wi
colds and pne
The young
izers and inst)
father in the
Mr. Peck ar
much better.
he said, and t
further worry
the week tha‘
attended to h
gence of a re
Early Satur
she went into
he was. On:
drawn and pa
that he had
previous nig)
again during
a remedy. ¢
Clara Waite,
ous activities
went to bed.
“Don’t wor)
said reassurir
sofa near fat!
hear him if he
About 1:30
young bride s
in bed. A di
beside her. St
she saw that
a custody.
mer self,
the court
vefore she
elationship
-a murder.
the strange
shment in
2 neighbor,
to whistle
, now left
shot down
nore than
doom was
instrument,
ide his own
witness the
iainst him.
life to the
ng, Decem-
ge 31)
end
m as the car
and merged
Clara,” she
ry you mar-
a few days,
three was
. Mrs. Peck
the excite-
»akened her.
n important part
onniver of River-
aced age was
nexpected at-
n-law nor her
illness of only
1ah Peck died.
ife were pros-
zedly they lis-
who had been
Peck was first
e cause of her
death as kidney trouble, accentuated
by old age.
Following Mrs. Peck’s wishes, her
body was sent to Detroit for crema-
tion. And a few days later, the sor-
rowful family watched in heartbroken
silence as the urn containing her ashes
was placed in the Peck family vault |
in Grand Rapids.
When they returned to New York,
Dr. Waite noted with growing anxiety
the sadness which had replaced the
once joyous sparkle in his young
bride’s eyes.
mind was the memory of the look on
his grief-stricken, father-in-law’s face
during the funeral.
“Why don’t you ask father to come
and pay us a visit?” the young dentist
suggested a few days after their re-
turn to the city. “I think it would
probably do both of you good to .be
with each other for a while.”
For the first time in weeks, a smile
crept over Clara Waite’s face.
“You're so thoughtful, dear,” she
said quietly. ‘ “I’ll write him today.”
Peary 5. John Peck arrived
in New York to stay with his
daughter and son-in-law. White-
haired, his ruddy face lined tragically
with grief over the death of the wo-
man whose life he had shared for so
many years, the 72-year-old man
tried hard to hide his deep sorrow:
But one afternoon, as she chatted
with her father in the Riverside Drive
apartment, Clara Waite noticed that
his ordinarily sanguine complexion
suddenly became ashen. Before she
could leap to his assistance, the
elderly man toppled forward on the
floor in a dead faint.
Mrs. Waite and Dora, the maid,
carried the aging man to his’ bed and
summoned a doctor. After a careful
examination, the physician declare
that the fainting spell had_ been
caused by intestinal and ‘stomach irri-
tations, complicated by a heavy cold.
That evening, when Dr. Waite re-
turned home, his wife excitedly told
him about her father’s sudden illness.
The young dentist was alarmed.
“Perhaps this climate of ours
doesn’t agree with him,” he saidé
“The weather has been wretched re-
cently. I think all of us should spray
our throats with a solution to prevent
colds and pneumonia.”
The young dentist procured atom-
izers and instructed his wife and her
father in their use. The next day,
Mr. Peck announced that he felt
much better. His dizziness was gone,
he said, and there was no reason for
further worry. Nevertheless, during
the week that followed, Clara Waite
attended to her father with the dili-
gence of_a re istered nurse.
Early Saturday morning, March 11l,
she went into his bedroom to see how
he was. Once again his face was
drawn and pale. eebly he explained
that he had hardly slept at all the
previous night. ‘The doctor called
again during the day and prescribed
a remedy. And at 10:30 that night
Clara Waite, worn out by her strenu-
ous activities of the past few weeks,
went to bed.
“Don’t worry, darling,” her husband
said reassuringly. “P]] sleep on the
sofa near father’s room so that I can
hear him if he calls during the night.”
About 1:30 the next morning the
young bride suddenly sat bolt upright
in bed. A dark figure was standing
beside her. Straining sleep-filled eyes
she saw that it was her husband.
FACTS FROM OFFICIAL FILES
“What’s the matter, Arthur?” she
asked.
“Father had a very bad night,” Dr.
Waite replied softly.
Completely awake now, Clara threw
back the bed clothes.
“Pl go to him,” she said, reaching
for her wrapper.
“No, darling,” she heard her hus-
band say. “He—he wouldn’t recog-
nize you.”
“You—you don’t mean—” she whis-
pered tremulously.
x: r
Vs
Pg fh
De a
tor, had considered trivial, the pain
was unendurable.
In Grand Rapids, Clara Waite’s
brother, Percy Peck, informed by
wire of his father’s death, waited with
heavy heart for the train which was
bringing from New York his sister,
his brother-in-law and the casket
containing the body of John Peck. A
servant softly entered the room where
he sat alone. ;
“Here’s a telegram for you, Mr.
Peck. It just came.”
ss rats - RLS
: i ‘ ¥
: Tee Re Ae
‘ w. thee er eat
a,
te srungisted at reac, the Daiortnent of Health if she
aie dermity Be t0 Seth on ane
Dek provided far by lew.
‘Atatemanta: mode, sharven, aa ne tequiry
This is the official death certificate of John Edward Peck. There was no hint of a dastardly
crime in this document. Subsequent investigation was to show this death certificate did not
give all the facts in the matter.
“yes, Clara. He’s gone.”
The lovely young bride stared, un-
believing, at her husband. Then, sud-
denly, she fell bac in a faint.
During the hectic early morning
and day that followed, she seemed
almost in a coma. Dumbly, heart-
brokenly, she tried to comprehend the
double tragedy which had descended
so swiftly and so unexpectedly within
six short wecks, turning a joyous
marriage into a_ nightmare of grief
and suffering. The sudden death of
her mother had been almost too much
to bear. But now, with her father
snatched from life by an ailment
which all of them, including the doc-
Slowly the grief-stricken man tore
open the yellow envelope. Then his
eyes opened with in amazement, for
the message read:
“SUSPICION AROUSED STOP
DEMAND AUTOPSY STOP
KEEP TELEGRAM SECRET
STOP K. ADAMS.”
“Suspicion aroused. Demand
autopsy.”
The words raced madly in Percy
Peck’s brain. What did they mean?
And who was the “K. Adams” who
had signed the telegram’? It had been
sent from New York City. But neither
Perey Peck nor any other member
of his family knew anyone by that
47
name, either in New York or in Grand
Rapids.
Stunned by the mysterious mes-
sage, Percy Peck called in two old
friends, Dr. Perry Schuritz, the family
physician, and Dr. A. W. Wishart, the
clergyman who had officiated at the
brilliant wedding of Clare Louise
Peck and Dr. Waite.
“What shall I do?” he asked anx-
iously after they had both read the
cryptic message. “It might have been
sent by a crank. I know no one by
the name of K. Adams. Shall I ignore
it? Or shall I do as the sender
directs?”
Dr. Schuritz’ reply was prompt and
decisive.
“J think that under the circum-
stances an autopsy is imperative,” he
said. “But we must keep it secret.”
A FEW hours later, when the train
from New York arrived in Grand
Rapids, Percy Peck was at the station
A news photographer snapped this court-
room picture of Dr. Arthur Warren Waite.
to meet his grief-stricken sister and
brother-in-law. ‘The three drove
away in a cab for the hotel where
-rooms had been reserved for Dr. and
Mrs. Waite. And a few minutes later,
baggagemen loaded the casket con-
taining John E. Peck’s body into a
truck which sped off toward the
downtown section of the city.
Opening the casket when it arrived
at the undertaking establishment, Dr.
Schuritz swiftly and expertly removed
vital organs, scaled them in bottles
and sent them immediately to Pro-
fessor Victor M. Vaughan of the Uni-
versity of Michigan, with the request
48
COMPLETE DETECTIVE CASES
to inform him what, if anything, his
analysis revealed.
Shortly after John Peck’s funeral,
two men unobtrusively boarded a
New York bound train in Grand
Rapids. They were Dr. Schuritz and
Dr. Wishart. Armed with startling
information, they were off to confer
with New York officials. Arriving in
the city the evening of March 17, the
two men went immediately to Assist-
ant District’ Attorney Francis
Mancuso. ;
“Mr. Mancuso,” the Grand Rapids
physician concluded, “the autopsy
showed that Mr. Peck didn’t die a
natural death. He was deliberately
murdered!”
The prosecutor frowned thought-
fully.
“Do you have any suspicions as to
the murderer?” he asked.
“Yes,” Dr. Schuritz replied quietly,
“J have. He is arriving in New York
tomorrow morning. If you will ar-
range for detectives to trail him from
the moment he arrives, we may be
able to obtain definite proof.”
Early the following morning, detec-
tives were stationed inconspicuously
among the crowd when passengers
from an incoming train surged up the
ramp and into the main waiting room
of the Grand Central Station. At a
secret signal from Dr. Schuritz, one
of the plainclothes men sauntered
casually across the waiting room,
then quickened his pace to follow a
tall, handsome young man carrying
a suitcase. The man was dressed in
expensive, well-tailored clothes and
walked with the lithe grace of an
athlete. As the detective followed
him, he walked swiftly toward a row
of telephone booths, entered one and
closed the door behind him.
The detective went in the adjoining
booth a few seconds later. Pressing
his ear against the partition he heard
the young man say:
“Check out at once. They’re follow-
ing me. ‘T’ll get in touch with you as
soon as I can.”
Signaling to another detective to
follow the young man when he left
the phone booth, the officer quickly
traced the call. It had been made to
a Mrs. Walters at the fashionable
Plaza Hotel.
The detective hurried to a cab and
raced across town. But by the time
he arrived at the Plaza, the mysteri-
ous Mrs. Walters had checked out.
Questioning hotel employes, the de-
tective learned that a Dr. and Mrs.
A. W. Walters, registering from New
Rochelle, N. Y., had taken a small
suite of rooms, February 22. They
had brought with them two trunks,
two satchels, several oil paintings and
a piano. And yet, within ten minutes
of receiving the telephone call, not
only had Mrs. Walters disappeared,
but with her had gone every bit of
personal property in the suite. The
only clue the detective could uncover
‘was a fairly complete description of
her. Hotel employes remembered
Mrs. Walters well. All who had seen
her agreed she was ravishingly beau-
tiful.
Leaving instructions with his men
to continue the search for the missing
Mrs. Walters, and to trail the young
man who had telephoned her, Assist-
ant District Attorney Mancuso took a
train for Grand Rapids on the after-
noon of March 20. With him went
Dr. Otto Schultze, medical examiner
for the district attorney’s office; Dr.
Schuritz and Dr. Wishart. When they
arrived in the Michigan city the fol-
lowing morning, they learned that
Mrs. Waite was still confined to her
bed. Dr. Waite, she explained, had
already returned to.New_ York.
There was little that Mrs. Waite,
prostrate with grief over the death
Francis Manusco, as assistant district at-
torney, worked on the infamous Peck deaths.
of both her parents, could tell Mr.
Mancuso. As gently as possible, with-
out letting her know why he was
questioning her, he quizzed the young
wife about events leading up to her
father’s death. ‘
But one thing which Mrs. Waite told
him struck the prosecuting attorney
as being of vital significance. Dora,
the maid employed by the Waites
when John Peck visited them in New
York, had been discharged at the
elderly man’s request shortly before
he died. And the reason Mr. Peck
gave for wanting her discharged was
that the broth served to him “had a
peculiar taste.”
Mr. Mancuso had no sooner left
Mrs. Waite’s bedroom than he sent a
wire to New York requesting police
to find the maid.
At a conference that afternoon, the
New York attorney, Dr. Schultze and
Dr. Schuritz discussed their progress
in the case. They decided that there
still remained one important question
to be answered before Mancuso could
return to the East. That question was:
How was the murder done? The first
autopsy had revealed only the fact
it was murder. Another and more
searching post-mortem was necessary
to bring out certain details.
y : Sins so, still conducting their in-
vestigation with the utmost
secrecy, the men decided to remove
the millionaire’s body from the vault
in Oak Hill Cemetery under cover of
night, take it to an undertaking estab-
lishment for a second autopsy, and
then return it to its marble resting
place. When, a few hours after that
eerie mission on the early morning of
March 22, the report of the autopsy
came back, it revealed definitely how
John Peck had died.
The report, coupled with other in-
formation which Mancuso had gath-
ered in Grand Rapids, prompted him
to telegraph his chief, District Attor-
ney Edward Swann, a lengthy mes-
sage, the fi
were: ARR}I
Within ha!
tectives wer
the apartme:
—the hands:
An undertake:
info:
registered :
A. W. Walt
was Dr. Ai
Receiving
summoned
luxurious ;
him their v
with a pas:
The magn’
were silent
opening th«
room a det
figure lying
wiridow. }
Hollow-«
drawn up
on his bac
detectives
was no re
was summ:
apartment.
“This m
physician
after exan
Waite. “T
must not |
’ Two da
had recov
self-admir
potions,
walked ini
“Dr. W
definite e&
a large «
days befo
E. Peck, «
plain that
“Yes, |
coolly. “I
me, but I
Peck’s re
buy it. HE
Peck, life
said he v
Quietly
torney tc
already «
who had
Waites’
quently |
Mancuso’:
“Dora
Swann sa
ae
]
t
.e death
district at-
2ck deaths.
tell Mr.
dle, with-
he was
he young
ip to her
Vaite told
attorney
-e. Dora,
e Waites
n in New
d at the
ly before
Mr. Peck
urged was
m “had a
oner left
he sent a
ing police
cnoon, the
vultze and
c progress
that there
it question
cuso could
‘stion was:
’ The first
y the fact
and more
; necessary
>
s their in-
e utmost
to remove
a the vault
er cover of
king estab-
itopsy, and
ble resting
3 after that
morning of
he autopsy
initely how
h other in-
had gath-
ympted him
trict Attor-
ngthy mes-
sage, the first two words of which
were: ARREST SUSPECT.
Within half an hour, New York de-
tectives were rapping on the door of
the apartment leased by the “suspect”
—the handsome young man who had
An undertaker, John S. Potter, gave important
information to detectives.
registered at the Plaza Hotel as Dr.
A. W. Walters—but whose real name
was Dr. Arthur Warren Waite!
Receiving no answer, the detectives
summoned the superintendent of the
luxurious apartment house, showed
him their warrant and were admitted
with a pass key to Dr. Waite’s suite.
The magnificently furnished rooms
were silent, apparently empty. But
opening the door to the master’s bed-
room a detective saw the outline of a
figure lying in a single bed beside the
window. He snapped on the light.
Hollow-eyed, pallid, a comforter
drawn up to his chin, Dr. Waite lay
on his back as if dead. One of the
detectives shook him gently; there
was no response. Hastily a doctor
was summoned to the Riverside Drive
apartment.
“This man has been drugged!” the
physician said as he straightened up
after examining the unconscious Dr.
Waite. “He is not in danger, but he
must not be moved for several days.”
Two days later, when Dr. Waite
had recovered sufficiently from the
self-administered overdose of sleeping
potions, District Attorney Swann
walked into the young dentist’s room.
“Dr, Waite,” he said, “I have
definite evidence that you purchased
a large quantity of arsenic several
days before your father-in-law, John
E. Peck, died. Perhaps you can ex-
plain that purchase.”
“Yes, I can,” Dr. Waite replied
coolly. “I don’t expect you to believe
me, but I bought that arsenic at Mr.
Peck’s request. He insisted that I
buy it. He told me that without Mrs.
Peck, life meant nothing to him. He
said he wanted to kill himself.”
Quietly and directly, the district at-
torney told Dr. Waite that he had
already questioned Dora, the maid
who had been discharged from _ the
Waites’ employ. She had_ subse-
quently been found by detectives on
Mancuso’s request.
“Dora told me,” District Attorney
Swann said, “that, March 10, two days
FACTS FROM OFFICIAL FILES
before Mr. Peck died, you came out
to the kitchen and put some ‘medi-
cine’ in his soup. And when he ic-
fused to drink it because of its strange
taste, you told the maid that you
were going to put the ‘medicine’ in
his_tea.” ;
Dr. Waite flushed but said nothing
in rebuttal. That night he was taken
under guard to the Bellevue Hospital
prison ward. And there, two days
later, he offered District Attorney
Swann and his aides an amazing Cx~
planation of why he had poisoned
John Peck.
“Yes,” the young dentist said, “I did
it. But I couldn't help myself. He
made me do it. He has always made
me do things against my will. Ter-
rible things. Ever since I was a boy.”
“Who is this person who makes you
do things against your will?” District
Attorney Swann asked.
An expression of horror came into
Dr. Waite’s eyes.
“The Man From Egypt!” he whis-
pered hoarsely.
“He made me do those things. He
commanded me to kill Mr. Peck.
tried to run away from him but I
couldn’t.”
Day after day, the young dentist
insisted that the mysterious “Man
From Egypt,” whom he had never
seen but whose “influence was all-
powerful,” had prompted the crime.
It was the start of a desperate attempt
be lay the foundation of an insanity
plea.
NEWS of Dr. Waite’s confession
and his bizarre alibi of the “Man
From Egypt” caused a tremendous
sensation in New York. The news-
papers devoted column after column
to the story, giving it equal promi-
nence on the first page with news of
the fighting in war-torn Europe.
Speculation was rife as to the identity
of the “ravishingly beautiful Mrs.
Walters” with whom Dr. Waite had
shared a hotel suite, and the “K.
Adams” whose cryptic telegram had
opened the investigation.
Detectives traced the mysterious
“Mrs. Walters.” They found her to
be attractive, 22-year-old Mrs. Mar-
garet Horton. She told District At-
torney Swann that she had met Dr.
Waite through their mutual interest
in music. They had leased the Plaza
Hotel apartment as a studio and used
it only during the afternoons. She
explained that she left the hotel hur-
riedly when Dr. Waite telephoned
She, of course, had nothing to do with
the crime.
But it was not until the third day
of the trial, which opened May 22,
1916, that the feverish speculation as
to the identity of “K. Adams” was
quenched. The name itself had ex-
cited public curiosity, for it stirred
memories of the infamous Roland B.
Molineux who, in 1898, had poisoned
a Mrs. Kate Adams.
The “K, Adams” who took the wit-
ness stand, May 22, was a Slim, at-
tractive girl of 21, Miss Elizabeth
Hardwicke.
She lived in Somerville, N. J., and
taught in a New York City high
school. And she had sent the tele-
gram, signing it with the first name
that occurred to her, purely on a
hunch.
She, her uncle, Dr. Jacob Cornell,
and a cousin had called at the Waites’
apartment the day of Mr. Peck’s death
to express their condolences. Dr.
Waite had been frigid in receiving
them, Miss Hardwicke explained, and,
when she thought it over later, she
became suspicious. The next morn-
ning, on her way to school, she sent
the cryptic telegram which prevented
what otherwise would have been the
perfect murder.
Electrified though they were by the
fast developments in the case against
Dr. Waite, New Yorkers were unpre-
pared for the shock which awaited
them, May 26, when the young de-
fendant took the stand to tell in his
own words a monstrous tale almost
unparalleled in the annals of crime.
From childhood, he admitted al-
most boastingly, his life had been one
tremendous sham. He had cheated to
pass his examinations in school and
college, even while he was president
of the Young People’s Christian En-
deavor Society, and had consistently
stolen money and other belongings
from classmates. He obtained the
South African appointment by doc-
Mrs. Clara Waite, whose parents were taken
by mysterious illnesses.
toring his University of Michigan
credentials. And while he was in
Africa, he had made money by il-
legally smuggling ostrich feathers to
America, had stolen an automobile,
and was on the verge of being re-
vealed as a cheat and swindler when
his five-year appointment expired.
As for his role as a_ successful
dentist, Dr. Waite calmly admitted,
that too was a complete sham. He had
no license to practise dentistry in
New York State.
To impress friends and relatives, he
said with a broad smile, he often
stopped his car outside a hospital and
49
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around the prison was a guarantee that
the fugitives could not get far.
Eight years ago Massachusetts opened
a huge prison colony plant at Norfolk,
thirty miles out in the country from
Boston. Norfolk is one of the best
prisons in the world. To it are com-
mitted, after a brief stay in Charlestown,
the less hardened offenders. In Charles-
town remain the really desperate crimi-
nals, the murderers who are innately
vicious, and the gunmen. Charlestown
is a bad place. Its sanitary conveniences
consist of a bucket in each cell, and it
has often been described as a fire trap.
Prison reformers have been trying to
row,’ Sager suggested. ‘That child
vanished somewhere between the gro-
cery and Basic creek, and by a process
of elimination we’ll find out where.”
Two theories, meanwhile, were under
consideration.
It was suggested first that the Rev-
erend Mr. Glenn might have had enemies
who would seek revenge by kidnaping
or killing the girl; second, that some
moron, accidentally meeting the child,
had attacked her and then committed
murder to keep her from exposing his
wrong.
The first possibility had many loop-
holes, but the second was more plausi-
ble, and it was with this thought in
mind that the state troopers took up
the trail the following morning.
Find Suspicious Evidence .
ATER in the day, after hours of
patient investigation and question-
ing of Greenville citizens, Lieutenant
Sager and his men were confronted with
these startling facts:
1, Helen Glenn had purchased
some candy in a village con-
fectionery.
2. Wolckmann’s grocery store,
shoppers reported, was closed
between the hours of six and
seven, an unusual occurence.
Therefore, the investigators reasoned,
Volckmann had lied!
If Helen Glenn had bought candy in
one store, she would not have made a
similar purchase at Volckmann’s. And
if the store was closed, how could Volck-
mann have talked to her in the shop at
6:30 p. m., as he said? Lieutenant Sager
and Sergeant Wheeler exchanged signifi-
cant glances. ©
“You know, Garry,” Wheeler said, “I
think we'd better find out a little bit
more about this young fellow.”
“Yes,” Sager agreed, “I’m very curi-
ous, very...”
.But if they expected anything sensa-
tional in their investigation of the mild-
mannered youth, the two officers were
vaguely disappointed. They learned that
he was the son of a wealthy New York
business man whose home was formerly
in Greenville. Residents of the village
spoke highly of the youth, mentioned
his fine education, his ability to play
four or five musical instruments, his
politeness,
“Well,” one citizen said, “I suppose
have the Charlestown prison torn down
Back in the 1880s they almost succeeded.
Naturally, no one was surprised when,
on the very afternoon of the break, Gov-
ernor James M. Curley declared he
would ask an appropriation of $2,000,000
for the construction of a new prison.
But Massachusetts penal authorities
are not sure they have heard the end of
Charlestown and its inmates. <A few
days after this unsuccessful break they
had to transfer Bill McDonald, the
trusty, to the Norfolk prison colony.
Because of the fact that he had helped
the guards, his life was no longer safe
from his infuriated fellow inmates.
he’s a little quiet, and different from
most fellows his age. But he comes
from a fine family. I know he’s never
been in trouble before and it’s pretty far-
fetched to think he knows anything
about this.”
The man’s argument had logic but
Sager and his troopers were strangely
unconvinced. They were familiar with
the foibles of human nature, the twisted
channels sometimes followed by the
brain. Regardless of the reason, the
youth had lied; yet, despite their sus-
picions, they must proceed with caution.
On Friday morning Lieutenant Sager
went to the grocery, accompanied by
Sergeants Wheeler and William Flu-
bacher and Trooper Fred Knight. Young
Volckmann greeted them pleasantly.
“Any news yet?”
Lieutenant Sager shook his head.
“No... not a thing. We thought
perhaps you might have some ideas.”
Volckmann flushed.
“Well...1... Ihave. But I’m only
an amateur detective anyway...”
The investigator’s eyes narrowed.
“You .. . you're a detective?” he
echoed. “Well, that’s fine. Maybe you'd
like to come along and help us on this
thing.”
The twenty-year-old grocer beamed.
“Why, say, that'll be fine! Wait just a
minute. I’ll close up the shop.”
He took off his apron, locked the door,
and went out with the four men. They
headed for the swamp and Volckmanh,
his nostrils aflare like a bloodhound
scenting the trail, chattered gaily, offer-
ing his theories about the crime. Lieu-
tenant Sager encouraged the youth to
talk, flattered him, gradually led him to
the spot where crime had been un-
covered.
“Look!” Sager shouted suddenly.
“That’s where we found the girl!”
Suspect Keeps Cool
ViP-CKMANNS eyes went wide as
he stared at the ground. But there
was no other emotion on his sallow face,
and Sager, watching the youth’s placid
muscles, felt a pang of disappointment.
He had somehow expected a more strik-
.ing reaction, a flusi of guilt perhaps, an
involuntary cry. Yet there had been
nothing. And now Volckmann, on his
knees, was examining the creek bed with
the studied nonchalance of the profes-
sional sleuth.
“Well, I think...” he began.
78 THank You For MEennNONING StarTLING DerectivE ADVENTURES
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i) THANK You For MENTIONING STARTLING DETECTIVE
could create beautiful songs on his violin
one night and could murder a helpless
child with fiendish thoroughness the
sext. It was a macabre coincidence
that he had often played in the very
church where Helen Glenn’s father
preached. In fact, not long after he was
lodged in a cell at the county jail, the
slayer asked for a radio set.
“There’s a church program I always
tune in,” he said blandly.
Perhaps his seeming unconcern was 4
sham, a cloak he wore to shield the
writhings of his soul. For Alfred Volck-
mann cracked when he was visited by
District Attorney Donald Grant of
Otsego county, a family friend.
“Why did you do it?” Grant asked.
“Oh, I don’t know... I don't know...”
Volckmann sobbed.
Still, there was a certain amount of cold
reasoning behind his dubious remorse,
because during the night Volckmann
turned to his guard, Trooper Claude Bul-
son, and asked:
“Eow much can they give me for this?”
“Oh, possibly from 20 to 35 years,” Bul-
son replied, softening the blow.
The youth, trembling, stared dully at
the white jail wall and pushed away a
plate of food that had been brought to
him not long before. And so it went, a
long succession of hours in which, chame-
leon-like, he was alternately a sniveling
repentant and unemotional image.
In the days that followed Volckmann
was taken to the Catskill General Hos-
pital where, under the care of Dr. Honey-
ford, he soon recovered from whatever
ill effects were caused by the poison.
There were, meanwhile, faint whispers of
lynch law that might bring a swift and
violent climax to the case, but the wild
talk died down when the Reverend Mr.
Glenn, with the dignity and pride of his
calling, said:
“The Scripture says: ‘An eye for an
eye, a tooth for tooth.’ If justice is al-
lowed to take its course, amends will be
made without public demonstration. The
spirit among the people here is strong and
I implore them to be quiet. I'll do my
part toward this end.”
And that is the story of the horror in
the hills.
Preparations For Trial
HERE is only one more event to
record... the arraignment of Alfred
Volckmann before Justice Laverne Smith
in Catskill. ..a dramatic moment when,
confronted with the inexorable processes
of the law, he cried:
“T want to plead guilty... I did it! [
did it and I ought to hang! Turn me
loose, let the people of Greenville do what
they want with me... I deserve it!”
“The law,” District Attorney Welch
said acidly, “does not allow such a plea
now.”
Volckmann flared into sudden anger.
“Well, I want to plead that way,” he
said stubbornly.
They led him away, mouthing fury. In
the days that followed, Volckmann led
his inquisitors back to the store, showed
them where he had bound Helen Glenn.
gave them the knife, re-enacted the crime
step by step—and went back to jail to
forget himself in music.
With the presentation of the evidence
amassed by investigators a grand jury in-
dicted Vockmann for the murder of Helen
Glenn and he was held in the Greene
county jail at Catskill to await trial.
Volekmann jater repudiated his earlier
stories—apparently regretted his impul-
sive confession of guilt. But it was too
late. He could not turn back the clock
of time; could not nullify his own words,
As District Attorney Welch observed
sagely:
“The written confession is a difficult
thing to forget-—or to banish from exis-
tence.”
The Chief’s Chair
much. I have been a reader of
STARTLING DETECTIVE ADVENTURES
for a long time and think it is one of
the best detective magazines pub-
lished. For the price of fifteen cents
I get a detective magazine equal to
any that I can buy for twenty-five
cents. I like “The Chief's Chair”
and think that your anti-crime plat-
form is the very thing needed. I am
a constant reader of STARTLING
DETECTIVE and always expect to be.
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Thank you, Mr. Andrews! And rest
assured that future issues of STARTLING
Detective ApveNTURES will be even
more interesting and informative than in
the past.
Unlucky Days—
bs Beatel coast papers recently carried
a curious story—the criminal saga
of Arthur D. West, who killed a fellow
[Continued from page 5]
soldier, Raymond V. Lockwood, on Fri-
day, October 5, 1934.
He was convicted of murder on Fri-
day, January 25, 1935; and on the follow-
ing Friday, February 1, the date was set
for his hanging—Friday, April 19. His
appeal to the State Supreme Court was
rejected on Friday, September 27.
About three months later, on Friday,
December 13, he mounted the thirteen
steps to the gallows, plunged through the
trap and was pronounced dead thirteen
minutes later.
Superstitious folk may read an ulterior
significance into this curious coincidence
of days and numbers. It strikes us that
every day is an unlucky day for the in-
dividual who tries to beat the law.
More About De Aoun—
OMMENTING upon our story,
“Blasting New Jersey's Boudoir
Bandit” (Nov. SDA), an interested
reader has the following sidelights to
ADVENTURES
throw
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Alas
“Oh, never mind,” Lieutenant Sager
said lightly. “Let’s go back.”
They started walking slowly away in
thoughtful silence. Sager, behind the
youth, suddenly found voice.
“Say, young fellow,” he said, “I
thought you said Helen Glenn came to
your store about half-past six and bought
some candy?”
Volckmann, running a thin hand
through his long, black hair, looked up.
“Sure, that’s right.”
Sager frowned.
“Then how do you account for the
fact that half a dozen neighbors said
your store was closed at that hour?”
Volckmann raised his eyebrows.
“Oh, well,” he drawled. “I guess it
must have been later then.”
Sager was nettled, but masked his
exasperation with a tolerant smile. But
he was more convinced than ever that the
aesthetic youth with the delicately carved
lips, the high brow, the nervous, femi-
nine fingers, was concealing something.
“Listen, young man,” he said crisply,
“J want you to come along with us and
answer a few more questions.”
Volckmann went willingly and for two
hours Sager and Wheeler prodded him
with questions until finally they were
boldly accusing him of the crime. But
Volckmann, a study in indifference, par-
ried their verbal thrusts and denied any
connection with the vicious killing. It
was, apparently, a futile proceeding. But
Sergeant Flubacher, an artist at inter-
rogation, a man who had once obtained
confessions from Anna Antonio, Sam
Faracci, and Vincent Saetta that sent
them to the electric chair in a previous
New York murder case, was persistent.
He took Lieutenant Sager aside and
whispered:
“Let me have him alone for twenty
minutes,” he pleaded. “I'll find out
what he knows.”
Volekmann’s Nerve Breaks
ERGEANT FLUBACHER led the
youth into another room of the
troopers’ headquarters at Jefferson
Heights, near the county seat. Twenty
minutes later he emerged, leading a
strangely changed Volckmann—a white-
faced, shaking youth biting his lips.
“He did it, all right!” .Flubacher
srapped. ‘He’s confessed!”
“He did?” Sager exploded. ‘Well,
let's get him down to the district at-
torney’s office right away!”
“Wait a minute,” Flubacher broke in.
“He'd better see a doctor first... he
said he’s taken poison!”
“Poison, eh?” Sager said, unimpressed.
“He looks all right to me... well, it
won't take long to find out.”
They bundled the youth into a car
and rushed to District Attorney Welch’s
office at Catskill Welch, listening to
the troopers’ sensational revelations, lost
no time in calling Dr. Lyle B. Honey-
ford, former county coroner and leading
physician of the district, and Dr. William
M. Rapp.
“I wish you and Coroner Atkinson
would examine the boy,” Welch told
them, ‘and find out just how serious his
condition really is.”
“All right, John,” Dr. Honeyford said,
“we'll have a talk with him and make an
examination.”
A few minutes later the three doctors
returned and reported that Volckmann
was not suffering and that they had
given him an antidote.
THanxk You
“Well, doc,” Welch asked Dr. Honey
ford, ‘ ‘do you think it’s safe to have
him talk?”
The physician grinned.
“Certainly. He’s all right now.”
Thus, surrounded by troopers, phy-
sicians, and other awed listeners, Alfred
Volckmann began his amazing, sicken-
ing tale—the most revolting story of lust
and violence ever unfolded in the staid
halls of the Greene county courthouse.
The Youth’s Confession
oe | ... I’ve just got to get this off my
mind,” the boy said in a monotone,
“Anyway, Helen Glenn came into my
store about six o’clock and asked to buy
a lollypop. I said I’d show her some-
thing if she would come upstairs with
me.
“She started up the stairs and I locked
the front door. When I got up there,
I gagged her with a piece of cloth I tore
from a hanging in the store and tied her
to the bed with arope. Then I... well,
you know what I did. She became un-
conscious and just then I looked out the
window and saw someone coming up the
street. I ran downstairs, unlocked the
door.
“Several customers came in during
that time and it was about 9 o’clock
when I closed .up. I went home, sneaked
out and came back to the store. She was
still unconscious. I carried her down-
stairs, lifted her into my car, and drove
off toward Cairo.”
“Did anyone see you?” Welch broke
in.
The youth shook his head.
“No... I don’t think so. Well, I
drove down to the creek, carried Helen
down the old road, and laid her in the
water. She was nearly dead anyway, I
guess, and I decided it would be best to
kill her. I put a flashlight on a nearby
rock so I could see, took out a long
butcher knife and shoved it into her
breast. She... she gave a loud ‘gasp
and blood spurted out. I placed the
knife handle against the hollow of my
hand and gave another push until it was
down deep.”
Volckmann paused a moment and
licked his dry lips while Welch and the
others perspired with the cold horror of
the crime.
“Well,” he went on calmly, “I pulled
the knife out, drove back to the store
and burned the rope and the gag in a
stove.”
“Wait a minute,” the district attorney
said, “what did you do with the knife?”
“Oh, that?” Volckmann answered.
“Tt’s still down at the store. I left it
there and went home to bed, but I guess
I didn’t sleep very well. The next morn-
ing I bought some iodine in a drug store
at Cairo and mixed it with some lysol I
had. I diluted the stuff with water and
drank it. It made me sick for awhile
but I wanted to do away with myself.
“Later on I started to jump out the
window at the store, but I... I didn’t
think it was high enough to kill me.”
Welch was unimpressed.
“You lost your nerve, didn’t you?” he
said.
Volckmann hung his head. “I guess
go
From Music To Murder
NE wonders, in sober reflection,
what thoughts raced through the
warped mind of the slender youth who
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For MEentioninc Startiinc Detective ADVENTURES 79
&
by Frank Doyle
RAVELY, without a trace of fear in her youthful heart,
little Helen Glenn, honor student at Greenville, New
York, waved goodbye to her parents that late Spring
afternoon of June 26, 1935. It was four o’clock just as the
sun began to set behind the distant purple hills.
Four hours later she was to become the object of one
of the most intensive hunts ever conducted in the foothills
of New York State’s Catskill Mountains. But not before a
cruel fate diabolically plotted the sordid crushing out of life
from this little girlish blossom.
Helen’s parents were justly proud of her. At nine she
was to be honored that fateful evening by the local school
board for perfect attendance in classes. She had been voted
“Greenville’s most perfect school girl,” too. And, of course,
she was the daughter of the town’s minister, the Reverend
Ernest G. Glenn, which gave her that little, ladylike air
to make her outstanding, but not snobbish, with her play-
mates.
Fate, it seemed, had plarfned everything for the unhappy
Glenn family that day.
24
Glenn, who became pastor of Greenville’s First Methodist
Church shortly after he arrived in the little upstate farming
community several years ago from his native Canada, was
asked to address the opening session of the Annual Conven-
tion of the New York State Minister’s Association, in Kings-
ton, that evening.
rig FIRST HE WANTED to refuse. This was his daughter's
night, he reasoned. He should be with her. But he
couldn’t pass up this opportunity. His parishioners in Green-
ville would benefit tremendously, he knew, if he went to
Kingston and represented them. And then again Mrs. Glenn
would be with Helen. And so would her two brothers,
Ernest, eleven, and Donald, three.
But fate stepped in here again.
When Glenn told his wife he was going to Kingston, she
felt disappointed as she knew Helen would be.
“But as long as you must go,” she said, “Pll drive down
part of the way to Catskill and buy Helen a new dress.
That ought to appease her a little, anyway.”
Glenn was sure it would.
Mrs. Glenn returned home from Catskill shortly be-
fore six o’clock. Under her arm she carried the box con-
CATSKILLS
DR. ARTHUR WB. WAITE
PAYS THE PENALTY
rem
Young Dentist Facing Death|
Seemed To Look Upon It as
a Wonderful Adventure
ee
\By The Associated Preas,)
Onsinig, N,
Sing prison at 11:10 o'clock tonight for
the murder of. his father-in-law, John }
hi, Peck, of Grand Rapids, Mich.
The young dentist walked calmly and.
with a firm step from hin cell to the
death “chamber, accompanied by. the
Rev. A. N, Peterson, Protestant chap-
tain of the prison, | He. faltered; how
} ever, an he meared the electric chair, but
i recovered quickly and nooded’ to the
1 group of physicians, prison officials and
others who had assembled as witnesses.
Waite submitted quietly to the ordeal f
of being strapped into the chair and |
went to his death without a word of
protest or good-bye... Three shocks were |
administered within four minutes.
The two hours before his death Waite
spent in prayer with his spiritual ad-
vieer. Just before cleven o'clock the
clergyman asked the condemned man
if there was any one to whom he wish-
ed to eend a message of farewell, |
“No, thank you, doetor,” Waite re
piled, with eo mmile, “there really is ao
one I know to whom I care to send a
} farewell message.”
| “Not even to your own. mother?”
queried Mr, Peterson.
“No sir, to no one” was the answer,
The chaplain declared that. Waite,
who confessed that he had poisoned bis
wealthy: father-in-law in the expectation
that his wife would obtain a large share
of the wealthy Mr, Peck’s estate, seemed
} to’ look. upon his approaching doom as
a wonderful adventure, Not once dar-
ing the day did Dr, Waite loes his com-
posure. He maintained the same smil-
ing’ Indifference that hus marked: his
stay «f almost a year in teh death
hotiae : .
tom ariite
Y., May 24.—Dr. Arthus}
Warren Waite waa executed at Sing |
" Wuite said. fatewell to his brother,
Frank A. Waite, at 6 o'clock. The broth-
ere hal spent nearly the entire after-
neon together talking over: family mat-
ters.
All that Dr. Waite said
was. es
“Well, good-bye, Prank:
They clasped. hands for a moment,
at parting
i Tearac sprang: to. the brother's eyee but}
Waites vves “ere dry and there was
on his lips : ;
Frank Waite returhe! to New York
after making atrangemente with an on
dertaker 10 Ossining {0 take Dr, Waite’s
hedv after the execution
Lr. Amos (. Squire, the prison physi
cian, examined White in ‘the afternoon |
and was astonished to find hie tempera
tute and pulee’ eratiy normat ¢ Dr.
Squire aaidothis wag the most remark
able instances of “nerve” he had ever
condemned man, and he hee
than forty on ithe day
rh
agen in &
etamined anor
hefare they went to the
Warte was awakened at f
morning after ® night of soa
Daring the day be ate three hearty |
moala At supper time the principal
keeper asked him if he> desired any |
epecial dish in yew of the fact that
it. was to be his last meal
“No, 1 think not,” Waite replied after!
some deliberation.
Ralé@égh News May 25, 1917
odin
9 Arthur Ww arren, white, elec, sing Ying (New York)
te eae . hm VY, om 6 : ;
‘| ‘
tt
sly 1% 9 1¢ ag
72 July he > 19 2 i a e@¢ ow
+
OHN E. PECK, wealthy retired pharmaceutical manu~
facturer of Grand Rapids, Michigan, died at the home
of his daughter and son-in-law at 435 Riverside
Drive, New York City, early the morning of March
12, 1916.
At that time Pershing was chasing Villa around Mex-
ico; the Allies and the Central Powers were scrapping
at Verdun and along the Meuse; America was protest-
ing the “frightfulness” of German submarine warfare.
On Broadway, names in lights included those of Al
Jolson, Mary Boland, Lou Tellegen, Mrs. Fiske and
Jeanne Eagels. Sweeping the country was a new tune
which ran:
“Oh, the Bowery, the Bowery,
Yl never go there any more.”
Stirring as were the events in Mexico and Europe, and:
entertaining the happenings of the amusement world,
they were to be eclipsed in newspaper headlines by the
death of old John Peck. From the investigation into that
death emerged a character who attracted more public
t together.
interest than all the Broadway luminaries pu
John E. Peck, wealthy retired
manufacturer of Grand Rap-
ids, Michigan, withstood ty-
phoid, diphtheria and pneu-
monia germs, but not polson.
- as
. * .
ia ee ; <i Nae ’ ;
Meee. es, " 4
t s
¢
‘
eee } s
rie . ; bi
. “7 4
;
* ; La
OS aca cin ‘ :
= en, Pot. of
a
|THE WEALTHY BRIDE, THE PLAYBOY HUSBAND AND THE
) DATE WI
oe
News of the Peck mystery, like the lyrics of the Bowery
song, raced from coast to coast.
For John E. Peck was a millionaire—and he had been
murdered in one of the most diabolical poison plots in
the annals of American crime.
About a year before, in the Spring of 1915, the city
of Grand Rapids was treated to the spectacle of a home —
town boy who had made good. ;
Dr. Arthur Warren Waite had returned home for a
visit. Only twenty-eight, he had recently ended five years
of dental practice in South Africa, and now was estab-
lished in New York with, as he said, one of the most
flourishing practices in oral surgery in the city.
Waite was a. handsome, romantic figure. He was six
feet tall, well proportioned, with regular features, black
hair, and compelling dark eyes. Around him was the en-
chantment ‘of ‘far-off countries. He had spent years in
Dr. Arthur Warren Waite, handsome and romantic
playboy. At his luxurious Riverside home in New
York his aged parents-in-law died strange deaths.
Why was he so kind to them?
De. Acti Ulanvbes (Waite. Nor York 1917
PE ty Reale
- riously:
73
By WEST F. PETERSON
Special Investigator For
FRONT PAGE DETECTIVE
Capetown—and most’ ‘of the folks in Grand Rapids had
_ never so much as seerkthe Atlantic Ocean!
He had’ plenty of money, too, and did not hesitate to
display ,it. When he told intimates that he had “cleaned
up” $20,000 in South Africa and went into lavish de-
scription‘ of his expensive car and luxurious living quar-
ters in‘Manhattan, they were ready to believe him.
One of-his friends remarked that $20,000 seemed like
a lot of money for a dentist to save in five years, even in
South Africa. The smiling Dr. Waite replied, myste-
“Well, Africa’s ‘great place for opportunities, you
know—all kinds of Opportunities.”
Of course! In Grand Rapids they had: heard of the
diamond mines, of the profits to be made‘in ivory and
even in the ostrich feathers which were then so popular,
as adornments for women’s hats. Art Waite had always
Mrs. Clara Peck Waite, generous Belowt Percy Peck, the
and wealthy bride of the young _ bride’s brother, He received .,
dentist as she then appeared on a mysterious telegram hint-
Riverside. Drive. Was she se- ing that his parents had
lected to have the final date with been murdered. An autopsy
death? Read her tragic story. at Grand Rapids, Michigan,
led to a sensational murder
trial in New York City,
where the defendant in-
troduced an unseen “man
from Egypt,” as a defense.
“
Soaalnat cai Silber ante ee
interested a number of persons in financ-
ing a company to produce dental equip-
ment, and they had put more than $20,000
in the venture. With the money in hand,
Waite had absconded. Schindler did not é
need to speculate on the source of the
money Waite had deposited in the bank
on his return to Grand Rapids.
Schindler hurried over to the district at-
torney’s office. But just as he arrived, a
Phone call to Mancuso sent both men
scurrying to the Hotel Plaza.
The call was from the desk clerk: “A
hackman has just come in for that lug-
gage that was left by Mrs. Walters in
Room 1105. I’ll stall him until you get
here.”
At the hotel, they gave the clerk the
nod, and a few minutes later, the cab
driver placed the three bags in his vehicle
and started uptown. Schindler and Man-
cuso followed. The trail led to an apart-
ment occupied by a Mrs. Palmenburg, at
105 West 72nd Street, and immediately
after the luggage was deposited there, the
investigators knocked at the door.
Mrs. Palmenburg, a pleasant-faced,
middle-aged woman, admitted the in-
vestigators, and answered their questions
readily.
“No,” she said, “the bags aren’t mine. I
had them brought here as a favor to a
friend, Margaret Horton. But I don’t see
why anyone from the district attorney’s
office is concerned about getting evidence
in a divorce matter.”
“Divorce?” Mancuso said. “Madame,
I’m not concerned about any divorce. I’m
interested in a possible murder.”
The woman paled, then abruptly got up
and headed toward the back of the apart-
ment. A moment later, she reappeared
with a stunning girl, who was obviously
the “Mrs. Walters” of Room 1105.
The girl readily admitted her identity
and gave a candid, forthright account of
herself and of her relations with Dr.
Arthur Warren Waite. She was a bride
of six months, she. said, and lived with
her husband, Harry Horton, an engineer,
at 56 West 11th Street. She herself was
an actress and singer and had recently
completed a two-weeks engagement at
the Strand. A couple of months ago she
had given a concert in a small recital hall,
and after the performance, Dr. Waite had
introduced himself to her as a fellow
music lover. Their friendship had grown,
and the two had enrolled together in a
French class at the Berlitz School. Waite
had then proposed that they take the
room at the Plaza as a studio in which he
might accompany her singing on the
piano,
“Our relationship was perfectly proper,”
she maintained. “We never stayed there
overnight. I’m a serious musician, and if
Dr. Waite was not so wrapped up in his
research work, he might do very well as
an actor. He plays beautifully, and I’ve
heard Broadway professionals read
Shakespeare a lot less effectively.”
Margaret Horton disclaimed any
knowledge concerning the recent deaths
in the Peck family. “He never discussed
his home life,” she said. “All he ever
talked about was his work. I often used to
wait in his car when he went into hos-
pitals to operate. And a couple of times
I went with him to the Cornell Medical
School on 28th Street, when he was get-
ting bacilli for his experiments.”
Schindler and Mancuso made a flying
tour of the hospitals Margaret Horton
had named as the scenes of the operations
Waite had allegedly performed. They
found that the man was completely un-
known in all of them. Obviously, Waite
had’ wanted to impress Margaret, and,
80 A
while she stayed in his car, he had prob-
ably wandered about corridors killing
time,
But the situation was different at the
Cornell Medical School. There Dr. Waite
was well known to laboratory personnel.
“He was interested in bacilli experiments
in the field of communicable diseases,”
the investigators were told. “We supplied
him with: typhoid, anthrax, tuberculosis,
and diphtheria cultures.”
This information opened up new areas
of deviltry connected with Dr. Waite. Al-
ready he was under strong suspicion of
causing John Peck’s death by adminis-
tering arsenic. Now a cause of Hannah
Peck’s demise suggested itself in the form
of deadly bacilli. But, since she had been
cremated, it would never be possible to
prove it. It was therefore imperative to
stop John Peck’s body from being
burned.
That night, Mancuso and Coroner's
Physician Dr. Otto Schultze left New
York for Grand Rapids, and an interview
with Percy Peck. The next morning, they
had a talk with him, and in the strongest
terms described what had been uncovered,
and its criminal implications. Percy con-
sented, and Dr. Otto Schultze im-
mediately performed the post-mortem.
He removed the heart, lungs, and brain,
and took them to Dr. Vaughan’s labora-
tory in Ann Arbor for toxicological ex-
amination. °
By Wednesday, March 22, Dr. Vaughan
had completed his work. Peck’s vital
organs,’he declared, contained more than
enough arsenic. to kill ten men, and there
was no doubt that it had been adminis-
tered prior to death.
In Grand Rapids, Mancuso talked with
Clara Louise Waite and informed her that
her father had been murdered—and un-
doubtedly at her husband’s hands. She
was stunned, of course, but able to an-
swer the few questions put to her. The
most important one Mancuso asked was:
“During your father’s last illness, who
gave him his medicine?”
“Why Arthur did,” Clara Louise said,
“He was very particular about it.”
The next morning, Thursday, Mancuso
was back in New York. He met with
Schindler, briefed him on the results of
the Grand Rapids trip, and then, with the
private detective, went to interview an-
other witness. This was the Waites’ for-
mer cook, Dora Hillier, who had been let
go when the Waites accompanied John
Peck’s body back to Michigan.
“I saw Dr. Waite put white powders
in Mr. Peck’s soup and tea a number of
times,” Dora said. “If the old man
wouldn’t swallow it in one thing the doc-
tor would put it in another. He said it
was good for the old man, but I wasn’t so
sure. Seemed to me he kept getting
sicker and sicker.”
On Friday, March 24, the last link in
the chain of evidence against Waite was
forged by the reports of two of Schind-
ler’s operatives, who, for the Past several’
days, had been attempting to trace the
source of the lethal arsenic. Their in-
vestigations had centered in two areas:
the neighborhoods of the Hotel Plaza
and the Waite apartment house, and in
each they had uncovered valuable infor-
mation. In early March, they learned,
Waite had bought 1% grams of arsenic
from a drugstore at Lexington Avenue
and 59th Street. A little later he had
purchased a large quantity of veronal
from a pharmacy at Broadway and 115th
Street.
It was time, the investigators agreed,
to move in on Waite. There was no prob-
lem finding him. The men assigned to tail
him knew he had not stirred from his
apartment in three days. But when an
arrest party, headed by Schindler and
Mancuso, rang Waite’s doorbell, there
was no response. A passkey, however,
quickly did the trick.
Apparently Waite had decided to flee
with his belongings and then had changed
his mind. His furniture was packed and
ready for quick shipments. But the fugi-
tive had not left the apartment. The
officers found him sprawled across a bed.
and beside him lay an empty bottle of
veronal. For forty-eight hours, he re-
mained unconscious, and then, perhaps
unluckily for himself, he was revived and
was formally charged with John Peck’s
murder,
Arthur Warren Waite had this much
in his favor: he did not impede the sub-
sequent prosecution by concocting de-
nials, He was a very model of frankness
and obliged the authorities by confessing
his crimes in detail. ‘
From the moment of his return to
Grand Rapids, he said, he had resolved to
marry Clara Louise and kill. off her
parents. Both of them, he continued, had
presented certain obstacles, In Hannah
Peck’s case, he had done his best to have
her contract a disease “naturally.” He had
taken her driving in the rain, and had
exposed her to draughts. He had placed
ground glass in her marmalade, which
she apparently absorbed with relish. In
desperation, he had seized on her sneeze
as the opportunity to spray her nose and
throat with a mixture of deadly bacilli.
The spray had served the purpose.
- Nor had John Peck provided an easier
subject. Here the initial technique varied,
but it was intended for a similar end.
Waite had poured water into the old
man’s overshoes. He had dampened his
bed sheets and then opened the windows
so that the icy March blasts blew over
him while he slept. But Peck’s constitu-
tion withstood the assault. The ground
glass treatment had no effect. Finally,
frustrated and annoyed, Waite had re.
sorted to the use of arsenic. He had a
similar destiny in mind for Clara Louise.
he said, and had looked forward to en-
joying her million dollars.
The confession cleared up all the
obscurities in the case—save one. Who
was “K. Adams,” the sender of the warn-
ing telegram? The explanation emerged
after the newspapers carried stories of
Waite’s arrest. Then a woman named
Elizabeth C. Harwick, a New Jersey
schoolteacher, came forward. She was a
friend of the Pecks and had met Dr.
Waite soon after his arrival in New
York with Clara Louise. Miss Harwick
had been grieved to hear of Hannah
Peck’s death.
A few weeks after she learned of it
she had been dining at the Hotel Plaza
and there’ had seen Dr. Waite in the
company of a stunning brunette, who was
not his wife. Waite introduced the girl
as his nurse, but Miss Harwick doubted
it. Then came the news of John Peck’s
unexpected death, and Miss Harwick be-
gan to think hard. Waite, in her opinion,
was obviously cheating on his wife, and
to her, a man capable of doing that was
capable of almost anything. She deter-
mined to send Percy a warning. But
since she had no concrete grounds for
such an accusation, she did not wish to
reveal her name. So she chose one at
random, and it happened to be K. Adams.
At his trial, Arthur Waite took the
stand and in great detail painted a pic-
ture of his own villainy. A verdict of
guilty was a forgone conclusion and he
was sentenced to die. On May 27 he was
electrocuted at Sing Sing.
So tte Ss awe me ar
in Grand Rapids. The bridegroom made
it known that his best interests required
his presence in New York, where he
would be near the large hospitals and
important medical research centers.
There a rising young surgeon could best
make his mark.
To New York they went. Waite leased
a lavish ten-room apartment on Riverside
Drive. He hired a cook and other serv-
ants, and the honeymooners settled down
to a fashionable urban living.
The letters Clara Louise wrote to her
family in Grand Rapids were glowing
with love for Arthur. He was such a good
husband. The Pecks already knew Arthur
neither drank nor smoked, and the young
bride said he showed kindness, considera-
tion and great generosity in providing
for her.
Early in the year 1916, one of Clara’s
letters conveyed an _ invitation. The
Waites’ apartment was now completely
furnished, and Arthur insisted that his
mother-in-law pay them:’a visit. Hannah
Peck, pleased and flattered at such affec-
tionate attention by her son-in-law,
packed a trunk and came East. With
much solicitude, Clara Louise and Arthur
—especially Arthur—welcomed her to
their home.
Mrs. Peck, although elderly, was a
robust woman, seemingly in the best of
health, and she stood up well under the
rigorous round of entertainment her son-
in-law provided for her. There was the
theater, dinner at smart restaurants and
carriage rides. Throughout all this,
Arthur Waite showed a deep concern for
Mrs. Peck’s health.
Then, when her visit was about ten
days old, Mrs. Peck, while seated in the
living room of the Waite apartment, hap-
pened to sneeze. “Dear me!” Dr. Waite
exclaimed, springing to his feet. “That
doesn’t sound good. Just a minute, I'll
get you something to stop that sneeze.” A
moment later he appeared with an atom-
izer, which he used liberally to spray the
elderly woman’s nose and throat.
This single sneeze apparently was a
harbinger of serious and galloping illness.
Within forty-eight hours, Mrs. Peck was
put to bed, while Dr. Waite provided
assiduous attendance. And when Mrs.
Peck’s condition failed to improve, he
called in Dr. William H. Porter for con-
sultation. Dr. Porter did his best but
nothing seemed to work. During the night
of January 30, with Clara Louise and
Waite at her bedside, Mrs. Peck died. Dr.
Porter was immediately summoned, and
when he saw that the patient was beyond
help, he signed a death certificate, ascrib-
ing cause of death to a “kidney com-
plaint.”
Clara Louise, of course, was devas-
tated, and relied entirely on her husband,
who proved to be a tower of strength. He
notified the survivors in Grand Rapids,
saw that Mrs. Peck’s body was im-
mediately embalmed by a New York
undertaker, and arranged for its shipment
back to Michigan, escorted by himself
and the bereaved daughter,
Soon after their arrival, the Rev. Dr.
Wishart stopped by the Peck home to
discuss funeral plans. In the course of
the conversation the son-in-law put in a
word. “Just before Mrs. Peck died,”
Waite said, “she whispered to me that she
wished to be cremated. I’ve made in-
quiries and I find that the nearest crema-
torium is in Detroit. I’ll be glad to look
after the whole matter.”
And so it was arranged. After the
funeral, Waite left Grand Rapids on his
doleful errand. He returned the next day
with an urn containing the ashes. of
78 A
Hannah Peck, which were deposited in
the family vault.
His wife’s death was a severe blow to
John Peck, but he was still a practical
man. A few days after the funeral he saw
to it that his will was changed. Hannah
had been sole legatee of Mr. Peck’s
estate, but now this had to be revised.
Under the new document, Clara Louise
and her brother, Percy, were to share
equally in their father’s fortune, totalling
$2,000,000.
Explaining regretfully that Arthur’s
medical commitments required his pres-
ence in New York, the Waites soon left
Grand Rapids. But presently John Peck
heard from the doctor. Why not come
East for a visit, Waite asked? It would
be good to be in new surroundings and to
be near Clara Louise.
The idea appealed to Mr. Peck and to
New York he came—on March 1. While
he had no wish to embark on a round of
merriment, he nevertheless was glad for
the diversions his son-in-law provided.
But on March 10, Mr. Peck suddenly fell
ill with a stomach complaint. Expressing
considerable concern, Dr. Waite, as he
had for his mother-in-law, called in an-
other physician—in this case Dr. Albertus
A. Moore—for consultation.
Dr. Moore stroked his beard, shook his
head and prescribed palliatives. But Dr.
Moore’s skills were no match for Mr.
Peck’s illness—for on March 12, the old
man died. ays 05
As attending physician, Dr. Moore
signed a death certificate, citing the
terminal illness as “cardiac anaemia sec-
ondary to entero-colitis.”
Once again, Clara Louise leaned on her
husband in her hour of sorrow. And once
again, Waite had the body embalmed in
New York, and then, with Clara Louise,
accompanied it back to Grand Rapids for
burial. Prior to the funeral, he informed
Clara Louise and her brother, Percy, of
their father’s last wish. “Your father told
me just before he died,” Waite said “that
he wanted to be cremated and have his
ashes placed beside those of your dear
mother. Let me spare you this unhappy
task I’ll see that the matter is taken care
of in Detroit.”
The last rites for John Peck were con-
ducted by the Rev. Dr. Wishart in a
Grand Rapids funeral chapel. As_ the
coffin was about to be closed, Dr. Waite
stepped up to it and placed a picture of
Clara Louise on the dead man’s breast
and a white carnation in a waxen hand.
The devoted son-in-law, was not to
entrain for Detroit until the following
morning, and over night the body was to
remain in the chapel. But within an hour
after the funeral, Percy Peck, received a
cryptic and startling telegram. The wire,
sent from New York, read: '
SUSPICION AROUSED STOP DE
MAND AUTOPSY STOP KEEP
TELEGRAM SECRET STOP K-
ADAMS STOP
The wire troubled Percy deeply. He
knew no one by the name of ““K. Adams,”
although he recalled vaguely that Kath-
arine Adams was the name of one of the
victims in a. gruesome murder case. Was
this message, then, some hit of grisly
humor, or did it have some basis of fact?
Alarmed, Percy sought the advice of
the Rev. Dr. Wishart and Dr. Perry
Shuritz, the family physician. The three
considered the problem long and thought-
fully and reached some tentative con-
clusions. It would be unthinkable, they
agreed, to go to the police, for if the wire
turned out to be a hoax, a scandal would
result. On the other hand, there was an
obligation to: explore the implications of
the telegram—but quietly and discreetly.
As a-result, Percy informed his brother-
in-law the next morning that the crema-
tion would have to be held off for a few
days because of “certain complications
having to do with the family burial plot.”
Then he ordered the body removed from
the chapel to a private mortuary. There
Dr. Shuritz removed certain visceral
specimens from the corpse, and these he
took to the laboratory of Dr. Victor C.
Vaughan, who was Dean of the Uni-
versity of Michigan Medical School in
Ann Arbor.
That day Mrs. Waite made her husband
legatee to a million dollars in the event
of her death.
The next morning—Thursday, March
16—Dr. Shuritz returned from Ann
Arbor with. some alarming news, “Dr.
Vaughan’s analysis of the specimens I
brought him,” Shuritz said, “shows that
the body contains large quantities of
arsenic.
“But in itself, this proves nothing.
Arsenic might have been a component of
the embalming fluid used. The only way
to determine if the poison was taken be-
fore death is to subject the vital organs—
the heart, lungs, and brain—to toxi-
cological tests. To get these organs of
course, it will be necessary to perform
an autopsy.”
Percy Peck was shocked. “If it turned
out that nothing was wrong, I could never
explain it to my sister. Before taking such
a step I must have more reasonable
grounds. I have already imposed an awful
responsibility on you and now I must ask
that you accept another one, Will you go
to New York and do what you can to get
to the bottom of this thing? I will gladly
pay all your expenses.”
Wishart and Shuritz agreed. The next
day they arrived at the Manhattan Hotel,
New York, and launched their task of
amateur detecting. They learned from
Western Union that the mysterious tele-
gram had been sent from Grand Central
Station, but when they attempted to track
down “K. Adams,” they got nowhere.
They consulted city directories and called
every K. Adams in the phone book, but
nobody admitted knowledge of the wire.
After making a number of discreet in-
quiries, they satisfied themselves that one
of the best private detectives in the busi-
ness was Raymond Schindler, who had
offices at 149 Broadway.
At their invitation, Schindler called on
them at the Manhattan Hotel. The private
detective heard their story, considered it
thoughtfully, and then made a suggestion.
“Tf there’s anything to this,” he said, “it
means murder. And if that’s the case, the
district attorney’s office ought to be in-
formed. I recommend we get in touch
with them.”
The Grand Rapids men agreed, and
thus Assistant District Attorney Francis
X. Mancuso entered the case. After the
four had threshed over the situation,
Mancuso and Schindler agreed on two
steps: to talk with the undertaker who
had embalmed John Peck’s body, and to
search the Waite apartment thoroughly.
City Hall records easily unearthed the
information that John S. Potter, of West
57th Street, was the undertaker in ques-
tion. When interrogated, he made it
abundantly clear that arsenic was never
a part, of any embalming fluid used by
him. After hearing this statement, the in-
vestigators realized that the only ex-
planation for the considerable quantity of
arsenic found in Peck’s body was that he
had ingested it while alive. It was, there-
fore, with sharply heightened interest
that Mancuso obtainec
and with the three othe
lavish seventh-floor ap
The contents of ™
closet gave some r
sartorial elegance,
dred hand-tailored, _.
suits hung there. The
books on the library s)
ticular caught the se:
This was Volume II
peutics and Pharmacol
a bookmark inserted |
and 325. The subject
pages was “Arsenic,”
under it read: “Slow P.
on the System,” and “]
As legal evidence, t
Dr. Waite had been rea
had no value whatsoe
physician, he would na
to have an interest in
furthermore, there wa
to when the bookmar
there. This was the le
other hand, in the
stances, Waite’s study
highly provocative.
The four men retu
hattan Hotel, with the
wire to Percy Peck in
day’s developments. |
and Shuritz stopped
they found that Perc
them. A wire had arr:
Back in Grand Rapi
having a hard time inv
to his sister and broth:
it was necessary to cc
the cremation. Then
lieved part of the embz
wire read:
WAITE ON WOLV
FOR NEW YORK
ULED TO ARE
ELEVEN A M TO}
GAVE NO EXPL.
SUDDEN DEPART
In the opinion of S:
cuso, Waite’s move w:
the wind. Had his susp:
by the cremation d
suspect that inqui
into John Peck’s de
Warned by Percy 5
York investigators wi
for Dr. Waite’s arriva
verin pulled into Gran
morning, Saturday, M
hart and Raymond S:
hind a pillar, watched 1
embark. Waite, seeme
hurry. As soon as |}
Wishart pointed him o
The private detectiy
to a phone booth and tl
one adjoining. Throug!
Schindler heard Waite
and, when the connecti
“Mrs. Walters, please.’
ment’s pause, then Wa
voice, said: “Margaret '
haven't got time to
you’ ve got to clear out
get in touch with yor
But Please do as I 5
leave.
When Waite eme
signalled one of his me:
the private detective
booth Waite had vaca:
speak with an official
company. Fifteen mim
the information he we
called the Hotel Plaza.
After phoning Manci
into a cab and sped to
to speak to Mrs. Wal
desk clerk.
> implications of
y and discreetly.
med his brother-
that the crema-
eld off for a few
n complications
nily burial plot.”
iy removed from
mortuary. There
certain visceral
se, and these he
of Dr. Victor C.
‘an of the Uni-
edical School in
vade her husband
lars in the event
‘hursday, March
ned from Ann
ning news, “Dr.
the specimens I
aid, “shows that
ze quantities of
proves nothing.
1 a component of
d. The only way
on was taken be-
he vital organs—
brain—to toxi-
these organs of
ssary to perform
ked. “If it turned
z, | could never
ore taking such
ore reasonable
uuposed an awful
d now I must ask
one. Will you go
lat you can to get
ing? I will gladly
- agreed. The next
Manhattan Hotel,
hed their task of
iey learned from
e mysterious tele-
ym Grand Central
attempted to track
1ey got nowhere.
ectories and called
» phone book, but
ledge of the wire.
ber of discreet in-
vemselves that one
‘ctives in the busi-
chindler, who had
schindler called on
Hotel. The private
tory, considered it
made a suggestion.
this,” he said, “it
that’s the case, the
-e ought to be in-
we get in touch
men agreed, and
Attorney Francis
he case. After the
ver the situation,
er agreed on two
ie undertaker who
'eck’s body, and to
‘tment thoroughly.
isily unearthed the
S. Potter, of West
ndertaker in ques-
ated, he made it
arsenic was never
ning fluid used by
tatement, the in-
t the only ex-
rable quantity of
s pody was that he
ilive. It was, there-
ieightened interest
that Mancuso obtained a search warrant,
and with the three others, entered Waite’s
lavish seventh-floor apartment.
The contents of Dr. Waite’s clothes
closet gave some reflection of the man’s
sartorial elegance, for exactly one hun-
dred hand-tailored, obviously expensive
suits hung there. Then, in scanning the
books on the library shelves, one in par-
ticular caught the searchers’ attention.
This was Volume II of Wood’s Thera-
peutics and Pharmacology, which yielded
a bookmark inserted between pages 324
and 325. The subject treated on these
pages was “Arsenic,” and the subheads
under it read: “Slow Poisoning,” “Effects
on the System,” and “Poisonous Effects.”
As legal evidence, this indication that
Dr. Waite had been reading about arsenic,
had no value whatsoever by itself. As a
physician, he would naturally be expected
to have an interest in such matters, and
furthermore, there was no indication as
to when the bookmark had been placed
there. This was the legal aspect. On the
other hand, in the prevailing circum-
stances, Waite’s study of the poison was
highly provécative.
The four men returned to the Man-
hattan Hotel, with the idea of sending a
wire to Percy Peck informing him of the
day’s developments. But when Wishart
and Shuritz stopped at the hotel desk,
they found that Percy had anticipated
them. A wire had arrived from him.
Back in Grand Rapids, Percy had been
having a hard time inventing new excuses
to his sister and brother-in-law as to why
it was necessary to continue postponing
the cremation. Then Waite himself re-
lieved part of the embarrassment. Percy’s
wire read:
WAITE ON WOLVERINE BOUND
FOR NEW YORK STOP SCHED-
ULED TO ARRIVE THERE
ELEVEN A M TOMORROW STOP
GAVE NO EXPLANATION FOR
SUDDEN DEPARTURE.
In the opinion of Schindler and Man-
cuso, Waite’s move was another. straw in
the wind. Had his suspicions been aroused
by the cremation delay? Did he know, or
suspect that inquiries were being made
into John Peck’s death?
Warned by Percy’s telegram, the New
York investigators were quite prepared
for Dr. Waite’s arrival. When the Wol-
verin pulled into Grand Central the next
morning, Saturday, March 18, Dr. Wis-
hart and Raymond Schindler, from be-
hind a pillar, watched the passengers dis-
embark. Waite, seemed to be in a great
hurry. As soon as he spotted Waite,
Wishart pointed him out to Schindler.
The private detective followed Waite
to a phone booth and then slipped into the
one adjoining. Through the thin partition,
Schindler heard Waite ask for a number,
and, when the connection was made, say:
“Mrs. Walters, please.” There was a mo-
ment’s pause, then Waite, in an agitated
voice, said: ‘Margaret? This is Arthur. I
haven’t got time to. explain now, but
you've got to clear out at once. I'll try to
get in touch with you sometime later.
But please do as I say. Pack up and
leave.”
When Waite emerged, Schindler
signalled one of his men to tail him. Then
the private detective ducked into the
booth Waite had vacated, and asked to
speak with an official of the telephone.
company. Fifteen minutes later, he had
the information he wanted: Waite had
called the Hotel Plaza.
_ After phoning Mancuso; Schindler got
into a cab and sped to the hotel. “I want
to speak to Mrs. Walters,” he told the
desk clerk.
i nssthsnch iv Livin silent ne
“I’m sorry,” the clerk replied, “Mrs.
Walters checked out five minutes ago.’
As Schindler turned from the desk, As-
sistant District Attorney Mancuso ‘hur-
ried into the lobby. Together. they pro-
ceeded to interview the hotel personnel
and piece together an intriguing story.
Room 1105, they learned, had been rented
about a month before by a “Dr. and Mrs.
Walters” and from the description of
“Dr. Walters” it was clear that he was
‘none other than Arthur Warren Waite.
On renting the room, the doctor had de-
posited $300 at the hotel desk, with in-
structions to take all charges out of the
money.
From the description offered of the
doctor’s “wife,” she was obviously quite
a dish. She was, they said, around 20,
beautiful and friendly. When the couple
moved into the hotel, they brought with
them several large oil paintings and a
grand piano. Moreover, so far as could be
established, they never occupied the room
overnight—but always in the afternoon.
Attendants of the floor recalled often
hearing the sounds of the piano and of
singing coming from 1105.
An inspection of the eleventh-floor
room showed that Margaret’ Walters had
wasted no time in clearing out. She had
been in such a hurry that she left behind
her luggage. This consisted of three bags,
full of women’s wear, each garment bear-
ing the initial ‘“H.”
Strangely, the beauteous young woman
had given no instructions about having
the luggage forwarded, nor had she pro-
vided an address at which she might be
reached.
But Mancuso and Schindler were hope-
ful. On the chance that she might return
for her bags, or send someone for them,
they left word to be notified immediately
in either event.
Over the weekend, the operatives as-
signed by Schindler to tail Dr. Waite had
a busy time of it. He was in and out: of
the apartment on.a variety of errands,
but the excursion which interested the
private detectives most was a visit he
paid to a mid-town house, where he
called for an elderly lady, whom he took
out to dinner. The lady’s name, it was
easy to determine, was Katherine A.
Peck.
Schindler speculated at once concern-
ing whether Katherine A. Peck had any
connection wtih “K. Adams.” He called
on the lady, and with consumate skill
learned enough to dismiss the theory.
He found in Miss Peck, a relative of the
Grand Rapids family, a staunch admirer
of Waite. “In fact,” the lady said, “I’m
letting him handle my investments. Why
just today, I turned over $40,000 to him.
He says he can make me a handsome
profit in South African securities.”
But by early Monday morning, when
Schindler had received replies from in-
quiries he had initiated both in New York
and abroad, he was prepared to assert
that Waite was hardly deserving of such
confidence. Schindler’s information in-
dicated Arthur was an accomplished
fraud.
Although Waite’s graduation from the
University of Michigan School of Den-
tistry was bona fide, he had never even at-
tended the University of Glasgow, much
less received a medical degree from it. In
London;*he was unknown and certainly
could never have practiced there.
The story was a little different in Cape
Town, South Africa, where the authori-
ties knew him, but too well. Waite, they
cabled, had practiced dentistry in the city,
but toward the end of his stay had
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¥ ll :
HE HANDSOME young man with
the honest, open features tilted the
medicine glass to the purple lips of
the aged woman in the bed and
murmured softly, “Here, Mother, take
this.”
The old lady made a wry face as she
gulped the concoction, then sank back on
the pillow again. In the doorway of the
ornately furnished bedroom stood a
small, fragile woman in her late twen-
ties; her aristocratic face was dark and
brooding.
The young man looked up and re-
garded her. He tiptoed toward her and
closed the door gently behind him, shak-
ing his head. “She’s sinking,” he said.
“I’m going to call in another doctor.”
On his way to the telephone, Dr.
Arthur Warren Waite dropped and broke
the glass that had contained the medicine
14
Two persons died suddenly during the night when
attended by the suave, gentle-voiced Dr. Arthur
Warren Waite (above)
By ALAN HYND
he had just given to his mother-in-law,
Mrs. John E. Peck, wife of a millionaire
drug manufacturer of Grand Rapids,
Michigan. “How stupid of me, Clara,”
he said to his wife. “Have the maid clean
it up.”
Within the hour, Dr. William H. Por-
ter, a man of brisk professional mien, was
standing at the bedside of Mrs. Peck, in
a sumptuous fourth-floor suite of the
Colosseum Apartments, overlooking the
glistening Hudson River at 435 Riverside
Drive. It was a howling, marrow-chill-
ing day in mid-January, 1916. The old
lady haltingly told the consultant of
severe stomach and back pains that had
gradually come on her ten days pre-
viously, shortly after she had arrived
from the Midwest for a post-holiday visit
with her daughter and son-in-law. Porter
sniffed at several medicine bottles, pre-
MASTER DETECTIVE MAGAZINE,
March, 1941
scriptions of Dr. Waite. Then he turned
and indicated with a jerk of his head that
he wished Waite and his wife to follow
him out of the room.
“Your diagnosis is correct, Doctor,”
Porter said. “A severe kidney disorder.
By the way, how long have you been
practising in New York?”
Waite hesitated and cleared his throat
before answering. “Er—only a few
months.”
A gale was howling up Riverside Drive
not long before dawn, when the door of
the sick room opened slowly. A figure
holding a glass moved stealthily toward
the bed and bent over the all but lifeless
form of Mrs. Peck. “Here,” said the fig-
ure, whom the old lady could not make
out in the darkness, “drink this.” Almost
mechanically, she complied, then dropped
back as the form moved slowly away.
MASTER DETECTIVE
i il
SMES
A moment a
the hallway our
made by some
piece of furnit
those occupied
the master an:
Dora Hilhard
opened onto thi
Dora Hilha
Mrs. Waite ¢:
occupied a tw)
switched on
beds. “What-
asked.
The Waites \
“Burglars,’ sc
heard one in tl
Her employ:
no sound and
imagining thins
see Mrs. Peck
MARCH, 1941
oat | Riverside Drive Poison
srimes—
cunning
even
ent at 435 Riverside
in six weeks of each
clues in the dim hours
; official business and,
yu’ll probably be up
-t into your working
een in the Manhattan
yon as possible. I'll
at night, March 17th,
the telephone booth,
and sped to his home
| hes for a business suit,
, entered the taxicab
ioor and reached the
and 1 o'clock in the
y16
entered an elevator and
1, of Room 616 opened
Doctor Schultze, who
.eccupants of the room.
"er?
:
a
per es ie
planned and executed with
that suspicion was not
aroused. ...
intercepted.a
the crematory—and the
great Waite poisoning case!
?
eg
be
Drive, New York City, where Mr. and Mrs. Peck died
other. This photo was taken after investigators had
before dawn on the morning of March 18th, 1916
“Mr. Mancuso,” said the physician, ‘‘these gentlemen
are Doctor Perry Schuritz, a physician of Grand Rapids,
Michigan, and Doctor A. W. Wishart, pastor of a Grand
Rapids church. They have come to us on an extraor-
7 dinary mission—a mission which I feel justifies my
calling you to a conference at this hour of the morning. I
have heard their story and they are prepared to repeat it
to you, as a representative of the Homicide Bureau.”’
There was an air of solemnity and tenseness as the four
men pulled their chairs close together in the quietness of
that early hour in the hotel room.
“Mr. Mancuso,”’ said one of the visitors, ‘‘we are here
in the belief that we have a duty to perform and to per-
form that duty we need your cooperation. We believe
that a prominent citizen of Grand Rapids, a friend of
both of us, came to his death in New York City by other
than natural causes.”’
At this point a knock came at the door and Nat Burchill,
a stenographer in the District Attorney’s office, previously
Mystery
summoned by phone by
Mancuso, entered. He was
told to take the statements
made to Mancuso, and the
visitors from Grand Rapids
began the story which they
had made their long trip
to tell.
T was 1 o'clock that Sat-
urday morning when
Doctor Schuritz and Doc-
tor Wishart began their
recital. On the previous
January 30th, (1916) they
said, Mrs. Hannah Peck,
widely respected wife of
John E. Peck, a millionaire
drug manufacturer of
Grand Rapids, had died
after a short illness in the
home of her married daugh-
ter in New York City. She
had been taken ill shortly
after her arrival at the
home of her daughter, Mrs.
Arthur Warren Waite, in
the Colosseum Apart-
ments, at 435 Riverside
Drive, and death soon fol-
lowed from a kidney com-
plaint, according to the at-
tending pliysician’s certifi-
cate.
Mrs. Peck’s body had
been sent to Detroit, Mich-
igan, for cremation, they
continued, and her ashes
now reposed in a vault in
Oak Hill Cemetery in
Grand Rapids.
Six weeks later, they ex-
plained, John E. Peck,
father of the grieving Mrs.
Waite, had died in the same
apartment, while visiting
his daughter to console her
in her grief over her moth-
er’s death. His death, they
WHAT DID HE KNOW?
Doctor Arthur Warren Waite
—the suave gentleman with
one hundred suits of clothes
—and son-in-law of the mur-
der victims. It was in
Doctor Waite’s apartment
that his father-in-law and
mother-in-law died
39
vy
40 True Detective Mysteries
THE VICTIMS!
Mrs. Peck (above) and.
Mr. Peck (right)
said, had been ascribed
to complications follow-
ing a heavy cold. His
end came despite his
efforts to take good care
of himself in his ad-
vanced age. (He was
seventy-two years old.)
Evidence of his care had
come in a letter Mr.
Peck had written to
George M. Matthews,
a Grand Rapids drug-
gist, on February 23rd,
which said, in part:
“I am quite well, and not only that, I am taking good
care of my physical body. The weather here is not as severe
as that in Michigan. It lacks the vicious tendencies to
pneumonia ‘that belong to the Lake Regions.”
UT, late in the night of March 11th, less than a week
previous to the strange recital in that room in the
Manhattan Hotel, Mr. Peck had been taken strangely ill with
severe pains in the stomach. Doctor Albertus Adair Moore,
a physician of 121 Madison Avenue, was called to the Waite
apartment, and administered to the aged man. He had left
simple remedies, stating his belief that Mr. Peck’s illness
was not serious, and had returned to his home.
Doctor Moore said he was surprised to learn the next
day, March 12th, that Mr. Peck had died at three o’clock
that morning. The body was prepared for burial by a NewYork
undertaker and was sent to Grand Rapids for interment,
accompanied by his daughter, Mrs. Clara Louise Peck Waite,
and her husband, Doctor Arthur Warren Waite. On their
arrival in Grand Rapids, relatives were told that Mr. Peck’s
death had come from complications which followed a heavy
cold. After the funeral and the placing of Mr. Peck’s body
in a vault in Oak Hill Cemetery in Grand Rapids, preparatory
to cremation, the Peck will was read, leaving his estate in
excess of a million dollars to his son, Percy S. Peck, and his
daughter, Mrs. Waite. There were a few other bequests,
one of two thousand dollars to Warren W. Waite, father of
Doctor Waite, having: been added in a codicil.
At this point of their recital the visitors from Grand Rapids
paused at a question from Mr. Mancuso.
“Has Mr. Peck’s body been cremated?” the Assistant
District Attorney asked.
“N°” was the response, ‘but it would have been had it
“not been for a development which eventually brought
us to” New York.”
“What was that development?” asked the lawyer.
“A telegram—sent from New York,” was the reply. And
with the answer Doctor Schuritz pulled from his pocket a
copy of the telegram. This is what it said:
PERCY S. PECK
GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN
SUSPICION AROUSED STOP DEMAND AUTOPSY STOP
KEEP TELEGRAM SECRET K. ADAMS
The telegram had
been sent from a
Western Union tele-
graph office in Grand
Central Terminal, in
New York City, and
had arrived at its desti-
nation just in time to
avert the cremation of
Mr. Peck’s body! The
cremation had been or-
dered, for Mr. Peck had
expressed the wish that
disposal of his body in
event of his death follow
the means used in the
death of Mrs. Peck, his
life-long companion. As
to the identity of ‘“‘K.
Adams,”’ no member of
the Peck family could
recall anyone of that
name.
learned of the steps
which followed receipt
of the telegram. His
visitors explained that
the telegram had
shocked Percy Peck,
who had no suspicion
that his second bereavement had come through any except |
natural causes, but he had determined to follow out the
mysterious hint contained in the telegram. He called}
Doctor Schuritz and Doctor Wishart, the latter a close)
friend of the family and officiating pastor at the brilliant
wedding of Clara Peck and Doctor Waite, and asked their
advice. Doctor Schuritz deemed an autopsy essential under
the circumstances and offered to perform it.
Mr. Peck's body was removed from the vault in Oak Hill
Cemetery and sent to a mortuary, where Doctor Schuritz
removed vital organs from the body and had them sent to
Dean Victor C. Vaughan, of the Medical School of the.
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Michigan, for analysis.
The specimens were, at that time, in Dean Vaughan’s hands,
Mancuso was told.
“We took that step,”’ said one of the Grand Rapids visitors
to the Assistant District Attorney, ‘‘and then came to New
York in the belief that the New York authorities can aid us in
protecting the Peck millions and determining whether John
E. Peck and his wife came to their deaths naturally.”
“What organs were removed from Mr. Peck’s body?”
Mr. Mancuso then |
asked
“TI
“yyy
prosec
“At
home
nearly
“Tl
Dean
there ;
telegra
asking
tion of
The
awaitir
from h
Peck f.
niche i
Rapids
born in
had gC
years b
who op
his br«
Peck.
HE
and
their
saved
into dr
up a bi
Pproport)
Thomas
E. Pech
Married
into his
grew an
came
large fu
Percy
footstep:
grow.
on asa
had mar
Waite, a
to his ho
that she
dentistry
received
with W
ganizatio
the Univ
Was sent
he spent
On his
given pro
of his ad.
said he h
the owne:
Africa.
Doctor
years old,
skilled te
mannerisn
with Clar
return an:
short dura
Peck to th
was one o!
in Grand
Doctor W
tant Distr
the ceremc
I mu
oe Do =
ERP dis
74 REAL DETECTIVE TALES and MYSTERY STORIES
Waite was permitted to leave the stand for the after-
noon, but was recalled at a night session.
Beginning then at Waite’s boyhood, his attorney be-
gan drawing from him that he always had been a work
shirker and a thief. He stole from his father to get
spending money. He stole examination papers and
other things that would enable him to pass in school.
Wherever he got a job he stole, not only money but any-
thing valuable that could be turned into money. He
even had stolen from a church where he had been an or-
ganist for a brief period. He paid his way through
dental college by theft and by cheating at cards and bil-
liards. He stole when in South Africa from his em-
ployers and friends, money, jewels, gold, anything that
had value.
Returning to the United States and to Grand Rapids,
he saw Miss Peck and determined to marry her, with an
eye upon the fortune she would inherit.
Her aunt, elderly Miss Catherine Peck, had taken a
liking to him and had entrusted him with stocks and
bonds and money which he was supposed to invest. So
had his father-in-law, From the latter he had obtained
about $100,000; from Miss Peck, $40,000.
He had persuaded the latter to let him take a diamond
ring she seldom wore, and that ring, made over, was the
engagement ring he gave the woman he was to marry.
“Did you ever try to kill Miss Peck ?” Attorney Duell
suddenly interrupted.
“Oh, yes,” said Waite. “I put ground glass in mar-
malade, of which she was fond, and germ cultures in a
can of fish I gave her.”
“Did you try to kill your wife?”
“I wasn’t in any hurry to do that until she had
inherited all the money,” was the cool reply. ‘You see,
if all the others were gone, Mrs. Waite would get her
aunt’s fortune, too. So I planned to put her death off
six months, perhaps a year, but I was anxious to make
it look natural, so I tried to infect her by giving her dis-
ease germs through a nasal spray I fixed up for her,”
(It may be mentioned parenthetically that Mrs, Waite
actually was found to have been inoculated with typhus
and anthrax germs and only her strc ng physical system
enabled her to throw off the diseases during a long
sojourn in a sanitarium. )
The purpose of the defense became apparent when
Waite was turned over to the prosecution for cross-ex-
amination.
Having somewhat recovered from the shock of the
defendant’s amazing public confession, the district attor-
ney demanded why Waite had made it, since it seemed
certain to send him to the chair,
“When I play a game and lose I pay,” Waite said suc-
cinctly. “My only desire is to be put to death as speedily
as possible.”
“But,” suggested his inquisitor, “you have purposely
made yourself out a black-hearted, despicable creature,
worse than you really are, so that it may be argued to
the jury that one so brazen about his guilt can be nothing
but insane.”
Waite denied it. “It is all true,” he said. “I want
only to go to the electric chair, and I am not insane, no
matter what my attorney or the alienists retained in my
behalf may say.”
Apparently the jury believed him and discounted the
alienists, for it found him guilty in 58 minutes.
Waite received the verdict with, if anything, an air of
boredom. When the court mentioned an appeal, he broke
in upon his attorney:
“There will be no appeal so far as I am concerned.”
Nevertheless one was taken and failed, just as did a
new effort to prove him insane.
Waite continued with seeming sincerity to urge that
his execution be hurried up.
His wife divorced him and he remarked: “What else
could she be expected to do?”
On an April night in 1917 he went to the chair in Sing
Sing and died without a tremor—paying gamely the
penalty for that one unguarded moment. when he
dropped the mask which habitually concealed his emo-
tions and permitted a keen psychologist to peer behind it
at his naked soul and so launch the investigation that
was to send him to his death,
The next article in this series—‘Solving Poison Murders?—will appear in the June
issue of REAL DETECTIVE TALES.
(Continued from page 17)
The Vampire
citedly, as newspaper men sprang toward went about their work—and lost weight which, heretofore, had not been located
her, “there was something to what the consistently.
papers said about this here Jali and his
“The bank!” they said, to a man. But
a ’
was in her possession,
The ballistics expert at the detective
sister reading each other’s minds. I set not one of them but what found his diges- bureau declared, without reservation, that
the clock ahead to fool her; and suddenly tion to some extent impaired, it was the weapon which had fired the bul-
she got up and started to go. I says: ‘Hey,
what’s the matter, where you going?’ And
she says to me: ‘I only Stayed because
I thought there might be a reprieve or
something at the last minute; but my
brother is dead now.’ And I says back to
her, pointing to the clock on the desk, that
I had set forward to fool her: ‘Lookit,
he hasn’t been executed yet; it isn’t time.’
And she says back to me, calm as you
please: ‘Your clock must be wrong. My
brother is dead.’”
CHAPTER FIVE
THE CrysTAL
ONCE more the newspapers, almost
prayerfully grateful to Jali, made
whoopee with mysticism, that curious ele-
ment in life so able to-upset the minds of
even the most logical individuals.
Much was made of the matron’s report
of Marlyn’s strange knowledge of her
brother’s death, despite the misleading
timepiece. The twelve jurors read these
things, laughed loudly, whistled as they
Big as the story was, it had already
been well exploited. On the day of the
execution it was all over the front pages
of the papers. On the next day it was on
inside sheets. The feature sections han-
dled it the following Sunday; and then it
gradually died. But the second week it
broke out as it had never flared before:
JALI BOGARDUS INNOCENT
Woman confesses to murder for which
mystic was electrocuted.
And it was true. Damnably true. There
was not the slightest question about it.
The woman. taken to the scene of the
crime, enacted every detail perfectly. And
€r motive was so conventional that no-
body could doubt it. She had been in
love with Jali Jali, a lover of beauty, -
had not returned her affection. She was
middle aged and not particularly appeal-
ing. Jali had preferred the younger gir]
who had been murdered. She had been a
very beautiful girl, The woman found
out about this. Mad with love and
jealousy, she killed the girl. The weapon,
let found in the girl’s body. The tortur-
ing of her conscience, the woman said, had
prompted her to confess. But one of the
dailies instantly put another construction
upon this. They asked:
“Has Jali returned, as he threatened to
do? Did he prompt this woman to con-
fess her crime?’ A few days later, the
newspaper sent a clever feature writer to
see the woman in jail. She needed, it ap-
peared, funds. Without a great deal of
argument, she admitted that Jali had re-
turned to her and prompted her confes-
sion. She said, in the stuff she signed for
the paper, that she had seen him first in
her dreams, and later awoke in the middle -
of the night to find him leaning over her
bed, demanding that she confess.
This was really too bad for the twelve
jurors. One of them, in fact, went hur-
riedly south to a sanitarium to rest up
from “the strain of overwork placed upon
him through his efforts to. catch up with
back work, due to the time he had lost
during the trial.”
Those aligned against capital punish-
. (Continued on page 76)
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WHO IS SHE?
This woman was a dominant figure in the crimson macl-
strom of mystery that followed the dastardly poisoning
in 1916 of John E. Peck,. millionaire drug manufacturer,
and his wife, Hannah Peck
Astoria Hotel at Thirty-fourth Street and Fifth Avenue,
New York City, a hotel attendant:quietly made his way
between the tables of the five hundred or more diners.
-A speaker was addressing the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick at
their annual‘celebration in honor of Ireland’s patron saint;
and official New York was there.
The attendant went from table to table, searching for a
familiar face, moving quietly to avert interruption of the
speaker, but still quickly, as though his errand were urgent.
Finally, he saw the man he sought. Stepping close to a
man in dinner dress, the attendant leaned over and whispered
into the diner’s ear.
[ the shamrock-decorated dining room of the old Waldorf-
“AAR. MANCUSO,” he said, “there is a very urgent
telephone call for you. The party is waiting on the
line and says it is imperative that he speak with you at
once.”
The diner, a man of medium height, of dark complexion
and alert features, whispering his excuses to the banqueters
on either side, arose from the table and followed the hotel
attendant from the dining room. He was Francis X. Mancuso,
Assistant District Attorney of New York, in charge of the
Homicide Bureau of the District Attorney’s office, and later
to become a Judge on the New York bench.
Stepping into a telephone booth, Myr. Mancuso asked the
operator for his call. A click announced the connection
and an agitated voice said:
“Frank, this is Doctor Otto H. Schultze (Doctor Schultze
was medical examiner of’ the District Attorney’s office) and
I must see you at once. It is imperative. This is very
important, and I cannot discuss it with you over the tele-
phone.” k
“What is this, Doctor?” asked Mancuso. “Is it official
business?”
The Assistant District Attorney asked the question be-
cause, in his official capacity in the Homicide Bureau, he
always was on call, day or night.
38
ited i
Two heinous crimes—
_such diabolical cunning
even
Then someone
corpse on its way to
hunt was on in the
Interior of the luxurious apartment at 435 Riverside
under strange circumstances within six weeks of each
probed the apartment for clues in the dim hours
“Yes,” responded the physician, “‘it’s official business and,
in my opinion, highly important. You'll probably be up
all the remainder of the night, so get into your working
clothes and meet me at Room Six-Sixteen in the Manhattan
Hotel, on Forty-second Street, as soon as possible. I'll
be waiting for you there.”
i was some time after 11 o’clock that night, March 17th,
' 1916, when Mancuso stepped from the telephone booth,
hurriedly donned his overcoat and hat and sped to his home
in a taxicab. Doffing his evening clothes for a business suit,
the Assistant District Attorney again entered the taxicab
which he had kept waiting at his door and reached the
Manhattan Hotel between midnight and 1 o’clock in the
morning of Saturday, March 18th, 1916.
Without calling the room, Mancuso entered an elevator and
was taken to the sixth floor. The door of Room 616 opened
at his knock and he was greeted by Doctor Schultze, who
quickly introduced him to the other occupants of the room.
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She had known nothing of the Molineux
poisoning case and the “K. Adams” in that
case. At loss for a name to sign to the
telegram, she had thought of a girl friend
who had been married recently. The girl’s
name was Kathleen Adams, and she had
used that name.
That telegram—the fruit of an un-
expected “detective instinct” aroused in the
mind of a girl—had started the widespread
investigation which had put Doctor
Waite in the shadow of the electric
chair.
There were other features of the trial—
the testimony of Mrs. Horton, alienists who
told of Waite’s “moral insanity” and Mrs.
Doctor Arthur W. Waite (right)
leaving the Tombs after he had been
sentenced to die in the chair
Waite, who described her happy courtship
and the grief which followed it. But the
climax came at a night session on Thurs-
day, May 25th, when Doctor Waite took
the stand and smiled as he explained the
subtle working of germs and poisons which
the lawyers did not understand. He made
his story as horrible as he could make it,
for he realized that only a defense of in-
sanity could save him.
Waite admitted calmly and slowly that he
had killed both John EF, Peck and his wife
and had tried unsuccessfully to kill his
benefactress, Miss Catherine A. Peck. He
also planned the deaths of his bride and
her brother, Percy Peck, to gain control
of the Peck millions.
“What means did you use in these kill-
ings and attempted killings?” Waite was
asked.
“Germs—all kinds of deadly germs,” said
Waite, calmly, “arsenic, chloroform, pow-
dered glass, chlorine gas, burned fly paper
and overdoses of calomel and veronal.”
He accomplished the death of Mrs. Peck,
Waite said, by the use of “all death-
producing germs—typhoid, influenza, diph-
theria, anthrax, pneumonia, tuberculosis,
streptococcus and some others.”
And then, after the cremation of Mrs.
Peck’s body had removed all chance of de-
tection, he had invited his aged father-in-
law, Mr. Peck, to visit him, in order that
he might remove the second oné who stood
between him and the Peck fortune.
“Mr. Peck was a virile man, despite his
age,” Waite said, as he turned to the jury.
“I administered germs of many kinds to
him, often spraying them into his nose and
throat.” (The reader will recall that nasal
and throat sprays were found in the Waite
apartment when Mancuso and his colleagues
searched it in Waite’s absence.)
“—DMUT the old man, although weakened,
resisted the germs,” Waite went on.
“So, one day when the rain was pouring
in torrents, I filled his rubbers with water
before he put them on and got him to go
automobiling with me through the storm.
I left the windshield open, so the cold, wet
air would possibly bring on pneumonia.
“I also tried to induce pneumonia by
dampening the sheets on his bed and leav-
ing the windows of his room open on cold
nights.”
Waite told of another epoch in his poison
and innoculation plan of murder. He had
read, in the war news of the day, of dread
effects which soldiers had experienced from
inhaling large quantities of chlorine gas.
This gave him an idea, Waite said,
rather proudly, so he purchased a container
of chlorine gas and, while the aged Mr.
Peck slept, Waite opened the gas container
in his room.
“But it seemed to have no effect on him,”
Waite said, regretfully.
After two weeks of attempts on Peck’s
life with germs, he got impatient, Doctor
Waite testified, so he then began the use
of poison, feeding the arsenic to Peck in his
food. Dora Hilliar’s story of Waite’s plac-
ing “medicine” in Mr. Peck’s food had been
correct, only the “medicine” had been
strong doses ‘of arsenic.
“I put ground glass in marmalade which
Frank A. Waite and Clyde Waite,
brothers of the arch-poisoner
was served to Miss Catherine Peck in her
apartment,” Waite went on, “and germ cul-
tures in a can of fish which I sent to her.”
(Miss Peck later told of biting on some
gritty substance in the marmalade.)
“And on the night Mr. Peck died,” Waite
went on dramatically, “I slept on a couch
outside his room. When I heard him groan
I went into his room, fearing that he might
awaken someone, and gave him chloro-
form.”
“Why did you give these people germs?”
“TI wanted them to die,” he said in ap-
parent surprise at the question.
“Why 2”
“I wanted their money !”
“When did you conceive this 1'0n:
“About the time I met Miss Peck,” Waite
answered distinctly.
\
™
And ;
his two
admitted that |
dered his wife
not stopped his
With the ho:
the case took
American juri
State, as is us
to paint the ac
fense emphasi:
by his own law
a sordid recital
was encourage:
that he was a
It was the only
of “moral. idicx
ity’—to shaw
scienceless unm
HE State,
this peculiar
paint Waite in:
damn him as a
had let his cup
to gain his sel!
There was ai
June Ist, when, |
Doctor Waite r
tence in the
Supreme Court
fore Judge She:
should die in the
courteously aske
to “say a few \
consent and Doct
and speaking ea
speaker might a
“I would just
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and expeditious
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press my a i
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Mr. Broth
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the: matter. And
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I have done. I rx
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ite, from
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ig in ex-
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n moved,
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Attorney
your-
John
e District
s lawyer.
at fee
. &g ‘
His eyes swept all the other countenances
before him; then his eyes moved back to
those of the prosecutor,
“Yes,” Waite said. “The
ELaypt!”
District Attorney Swann and his staff
stood astounded before Doctor Waite.
“What man from I’gypt?” queried the
District Attorney,
“The Little Man from Egypt who domi-
nates me,” responded Doctor Waite. “He
was born in Egypt in his present life. He
has lived in the ages, but his present re-
Incarnation was in Egypt and he came to
me from there a long time ago.”
“Describe him,” demanded the District
Attorney,
“TL never saw him,” was Doctor Waite’s
amazing response. “lL have only heard him,
but he had been with me always. I felt
this influence and have tried to shake him
off, but he had Stayed with me, always
making me do as he wanted.
“I feel now that I can shake him off,”
added Waite, ‘dramatically, “Now that he
nas made me do this last act. He seemed
to leave me last night and has not re-
turned today. But, all my life I have feared
him and.sometimes I have sought to be
alone, so I could struggle with him.”
Doctor Waite, through the amazing
revelations which were to come, always
used the first person in referring to his
man fron
“better self” and the third person in speak-
ing of his “evil nature.” Tt was “I did
this,” and “He did that,” except when he
described “He” as “The Man from Egypt.”
To his brother, Frank A. Waite, of 3210
Hull Street, the Bronx, who had entered
the room, Doctor Waite turned and said:
“He made me do horrible things, the Man
from Egypt.”
“Well, what did this man from igypt
make you do?” questioned District Attor-
ney Swann. ;
“I lied when I told you the story about
the arsenic,” Waite ‘said. “Mr. Peck
did not ask me for poison. The Man from
Eqypt made me give disease germs to Mrs,
Peck and she died. He made me give germs
to Mr, Pech and when they failed to kill
True Detective M- ysteries
him, the Man from Egypt made me give
him arsenic—and he died.”
Two days later an indictment charging
Doctor Arthur Warren Waite with the
murder of his father-in-law, John E. Peck,
by means of poison was handed to Judge
Nott in General Sessions Court in New,
York City.
And shortly afterwards, on April 2nd,
Waite, facing trial for his life, calmly
admitted that he had planned to murder his
bride after she had signed a will in his
favor and already had attempted to allay
suspicion which might come with her death
by spreading news of Mrs: Waite’s ill
health. He said tersely that he had mar-
ried for money, that he was guided by
cupidity alone and that he had deliberately
planned his marriage into a rich family and
the murder of all the Pecks who stood be-
tween him and the Peck millions.
Two days later, Mrs, Waite, in Grand
Rapids, filed suit for divorce, charging Doc-
tor Waite with intimacy with Mrs. Horton
and other women, with the killing of her
parents and planning the slaying of herself
and other members of her family.
O*’ April 7th Waite was transferred
from Bellevue to the Tombs and was
arraigned before Judge Thomas T. C.,
Crain in General Sessions Court. He pleaded
not guilty to a charge of murder, asking
leave to change the plea within ten days,
Mrs. Iorton came into the picture again
on May Ist, when she told the District At-
torney that on the night before his arrest,
Doctor Waite had met her at the Berlitz
School of Languages and asked her to buy
for him sulphonal and trional tablets. She
said she had bought them for him and
had met him at the school again that night,
giving him several dozen packets of the
drugs. The dentist was incensed at her, she
said, because she had bought “so little.”
“Doctor Waite said he intended to kill
himself that night,” Mrs, Horton told de-
tectives. “He gave me one hundred dollars
and a ring and said: ‘Now kiss me and
say good-by, for good.’ We kissed and
parted. The next day I drove past the
Doctor Waite (looking through screen into camera) after he had received the
death sentence
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Day banquet in the Waldorf Hotel to spend
weeks on the mystery.
Miss Hardwick's story was told simply,
but forcefully and logically, the simple
language in which it was told increasing
its dramatic effect. She was a friend of
members of the Peck family and had
grieved with their other friends at. the
passing of Mrs. Hannah Peck, and her
husband, John E. Peck. She recalled that
she had thought seriously of the circum-
stances as she sat in a big arm chair in
her Somerville home, a day or two after
Mr. Peck’s funeral. A sort of “detective
instinct” had overcome her as she sat there.
First she recalled that immediately after
Mr, Peck’s death, her uncle, Doctor Jacob
Cornell, and her cousin, Arthur Swinton,
both’ friends of the Peck family, had called
at the Waite apartment in the Colosseum
to extend their condolences to the stricken
family.
ON their return to Somerville, they had
told her of Doctor Waite’s peculiar
manner toward them. The Doctor, they
said, apparently did not want them to enter
True Detective Mysteries
But Mrs. Horton had not looked the
part of a trained nurse, she was not dressed
for the part, but as one would expect to
see a woman dressed for entertaining at
the Plaza. Her cousin, Swinton, also was
at the meeting in the Plaza, and Doctor
Waite’s explanation was sufficiently satis-
fying to him—but Miss Hardwick filed the
incident away in her mind for reference.
She didn’t think Doctor Waite was quite
the adoring husband that Clara Waite
thought him,
O, when Doctor Cornell and Swinton
returned from the Waite apartment
with the story of the cold reception they
had received, Miss Hardwick began to em-
ploy that suddenly acquired “detective in-
stinct.” She led the conversation to affairs
of the Peck family and someone remarked,
apropos of the bereavement that had come
to Clara Waite:
“Just think cf it. In only a few months
after his marriage, death had made Doctor
Waite practically master of a half million
dollars which his wife will inherit.”
Miss Hardwick sat back in the big
arm chair and built, in her fancy, a chain
of circumstances which pointed to Arthur
Waite as an unfaithful husband, a man
obviously in a hurry to have cremated or
buried the body of possibly a vicitm; and
a man who, through two deaths only six
weeks apart, had become master of a half
million dollars.
The young school teacher said she told
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AMMEN
her suspicions to no one, but she decided
i SAL Platin’
that Percy Peck was entitled to know of SSE ment,
Siig, - Bye dsl. Send tor 12 large Bottles
uar,
them. She left her home in Somerville, MY in) nelat 259\each (se af Botte <i
° ee 1c . e
the went to New York City and to the Western Ce . Novelties tobe siven Free with San
Union telegraph office in the Grand Cen- "6 BY [ane for, pbtainiaue Wrint Watch,
tral Terminal. To a clerk who offered to FREVAUX PERFUME Co.
at the wait on her she had said: =
“I want to send a telegram, please. Will To BE DEAF
was you write it as I dictate it?” The clerk ~—Eve Way mate neat tae oe hat
» aged wrote as the girl dictated and the mes- oy
ith so sage was: tn
— Bi senenan 5 nig Demand autopsy. thee W rts table. Noone o
1xcc eep telegram secret. Myselt. Fen ie oni
culate Then she said to the telegraph office Mi/\, 00 Deafness. Addrese Artifietal Ear Drum
n told Another pose of Mr. Mancuso clerk: AD Seen? miter tab aceree, ican tee ee
urder “Just sign it K, Adams.”
There the house. He had ‘said: “It wasn’t neces- EARN MON EY
oO sex sary for you to come, as we are hurrying
othing arrangements to take Mr. Peck’s body to , AT HOME
y.” Grand Rapids for burial.” Doctor Cornell YOU can make $15 to $50 weekly in spare
much and Swinton had thought nothing of the pF gandle n B iondeds Ie eatitenien "ne
until conversation, other than that Doctor Waite instruct you by our new simple Photo-Color
istrict probably was upset by the death in the fam- aces me hap 9M bl os Write
trial ily, but that odd manner of Doctor Waite The IRVING-VANCE COMPANY Ltd.
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1 wit- Her imagination, Miss Hardwick said, LOVER’S KNOT
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torney Waite, coupled with the fact that on the otrandy or olla of gonsing aie
: previous Iebruary 22nd, while she was din- Fue Lover's Riot that fn nyme
tion 2” ing at the Plaza Hotel with friends, she feiendahip between fiends. “it
. had seen Doctor W aite, m intimate con- Horpuae wee
e said. versation with a beautiful brunette, walk of male lay eg UY
Jersey, into the dining room—and attempt to avoid 50c postpaid, lv
k City being recognised by Miss Hardwick. SKULL AND » Tor Me
The doctor, seeing that a meeting with 4 aH
tly, an Miss Hardwick—a friend of Mrs. Waite— CROSS BONES
spread- was unavoidable—had Presented his com- Soarmen riage, Skull and Crossbones
panion to Miss Hardwick and her friends. syen, Sal fo brine ot foutof the
ed, the The woman with Doctor Waite, Miss Postpaid Amish. PRICE 25¢ f
"story, Hardwick said, was Mrs. Margaret Hor- COMICAL MOTTO
1 in ton A Lots of harmless fun and amusement
vet ; R] Roi infant remem le" platinom) with
ver “T’ve just performed an operation here,” ring au emamolotd, a Hlustrated.
cusa Doctor Waite had said to Miss Hardwick oo catalog of hove ttios
. ick’s . “c : ‘ tricks, puzzies, etc. free with every
atrick > and her friends. Mrs. Horton is my Warren W. Waite, father of the order. Postage Stamps accepted.
nurse, We are going back to the hospital.”
poisoner of Riverside Drive
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Doctor's apartment and saw that the blinds
in the apartment were drawn. | turned
to a friend who was with me and said:
‘Well, I guess he must be dead.’”
T was through Mrs. Horton, and from
other sources that the District Attor-
ney’s office learned at this time that Doctor
Waite, in addition to getting virulent bacilli
from the Cornell laboratory, had procured
them also from the Rockefeller Institute,
the Willard Parker Hospital, Bellevue Hos-
pital and from Parke, Davis & Company
in Detroit.
It was late in May, 1916, when it be-
came known that Doctor Waite’s defense
at the trial would be “compulsive insanity,”
a novel form of aberration, which alienists
said exists when a patient’s actions are con-
trolled by outside influences, such as “The
Man from Egypt.”
And all this time, a strong link in the
District Attorney’s case—the Nemesis of
Doctor Waite, the mysterious person who
had sent the “K. Adams” telegram to Percy
Peck, thus precipitating the investigation—
still was missing. “K. Adams” still was in
the background, unknown to any member
of the Peck family. His or her identity
still was a mystery when on Monday, May
22nd, 1916, Doctor Waite walked into the
Criminal Division of the New York Court
and heard District Attorney Swann, before
Judge Shearn, briefly and coldly outline
the case against him.
Waite was his debonair self again. When
one prospective juror was asked whether
he was opposed to capital punishment, he
replied, “Not in this case!” And Doctor
Doctor Waite (left) supported by a detective while leaving Bellevue Hospital for the
Tombs
Waite laughed heartily and audibly at the
reply.
In contrast to Waite’s demeanor was
that of Percy Peck, son of the two aged
persons who had been done to death so
cruelly. Never did the look of hatred leave
Peck’s face. He never moved his fixed
stare from the face of the immaculate
Waite while District Attorney Swann told
the court that “the cause of this murder
was solely Waite’s desire for money. There
were no angry passions involved, no sex
relation, no envy, hatred or malice, nothing
but the purpose of obtaining money.”
Routine development of testimony, much
as had been outlined, followed until
Wednesday, May 24th, when the District
Attorney, after a short lull in the trial
proceedings, called to the stand a young,
becomingly gowned woman with pretty
features who had been an interested wit-
ness of the day’s progress of the trial.
At the invitation of District Attorney
Swann, she took the witness stand.
“What is your name and occupation?”
she was asked.
“Miss Elizabeth C. Hardwick,” she said.
“My home is in Somerville, New Jersey,
but I am a teacher in the New York City
schools.”
Doctor Waite looked at her intently, an
expression indicating recognition spread-
ing over his face.
And as the accused man watched, the
young woman told an extraordinary story,
a story for which all persons concerned in
the poison trial mystery had waited ever
since Assistant District Attorney Mancuso
had been called away from the St. Patrick's
Day san
weeks on the 1
Miss Hardy
but forcefully
language in w
its dramatic ¢
members of
gricved with
passing of M
husband, John
she had thoug
stances as, she
her Somervilk
Mr. Peck’s fur
instinct” had o
First she reca
Mr. Peck’s de:
Cornell, and h
both’ friends of
at the Waite ;
to extend their
family.
N their ret:
told her «
manner toward
said, apparently
Another p
the house. He |
sary for you to
arrangements to
Grand Rapids f:
and Swinton hac
conversation, oth:
probably was ups:
ily, but that odd
was the first ste
that everything \
Her imaginatic
was stimulated b
Waite, coupled
previous February
ing at the Plaza
had seen Doctor
versation with a
into the dining ro.
being recognised
The doctor, sec
Miss Hardwick—;
was unavoidable—
panion to Miss H
The woman wit!
Hardwick said,
ton.
“T’ve just perfor
Doctor Waite hac
and her friends.
nurse. We are goi
- Dr, Arthur Waite had a bright and prosperous future ahead! of hin
; ee
Site of Peck’s Drug Store InGrand +2
Rapids. Today it is part of a dis.”
|
:
|
i
Arthur Waite’s family home — on
the ‘wrong side of town’ — has
since disappeared In the wake o
~-
a freeway.
haw 00 follow
: . We are
‘5 dee Fe corey || AIALCUP vlowties
3 ‘ fi Dow to prdvend”
rr
7
Maybe he knew her as a fellow student in | eS ids
school. Perhaps he would join the other %, pee : SA | octr onee oote eam
young people for a sarsparilla or some j Maa © m9 eee | i geies Bas
fizzy water after school as they gathered Fie ai
at the soda fountain in Peck’s Drug Store,
a short distance down the street from the
high school. Maybe they met at a party
when they were both home from college
for the Christmas holidays, when Clara
came back from Columbia University and
Arthur returned from the University of
Michigan at Ann Arbor.
Arthur Waite, aged 19, was what must
have been known as the Big Man On
Campus of his day at Grand Rapids High
School. The yearbook of the Class of
1905 shows that at 180 Ibs. and standing
6-feet-1, Arthur had played football and class, and a two-year member of the
baseball, had been manager of the senior school's literary society.
baseball team, was a four-year man in the All in all, you'd say that young Arthur
Athletic Association. He had chalked up Waite was happy, popular with his peers,
such popular honors as beinga member of anactive ‘‘jock’’as it were. The next year
the senior memorial committee, anusher after graduation, he enrolled at the Uni-
for the commencement day exercises for versity of Michigan, from which he even-
the Class of '04, a member of the senior tually completed a course of training in
class nominating committee, chairman of . the Dental School. On graduation, he =
the entertainment committee of his junior could now be knownas Doctor Arthur W.
bi anata
Waite, DDS, and he could, if necessary, |
drop the DDS when it would become?
convenient. ;
In another, more affluent part of Grand |
Rapids lived John A. Peck, promineti
businessman, and his wife, Hannah, int 4
virtual enclave of bankers, lawyers, lum”
bermen, furniture company executives,”
and others of apparently unlimited
, wealth, Ms
ae
Age
ae
Me
Tall, debonair and handsome, he was considered a prize catch.
But as his wife and in-laws were to find out, it isn’t always
advantageous to have a doctor in the house.
: with him.
ve.
‘
~ Coming to Grand Rapids immediately
after the Civil War, John Peck had been
bornand raised in Newburgh, New York...
7} Hisfather’s family had come from Eng-,,
land at least two hundred years previ-
ously to become part of the Mas-
sachusetts Bay Colony in the mid-1600s.
Doctor Elias Peck, John Peck’s father,
had been born in Utica, New York, and
- eventually graduated from that city’s Col-
lege of Surgeons. As a practicing physi-
- cian and surgeon, Doctor Peck undoub-
tedly ran into such a shortage of drugs and
medicines for treating his patients that he
eventually started to concoct and man-
ufacture his own.
Doctor Peck’s eldest son, Thomas (as
the story unfolds), who had become a
druggist and manufacturing pharmacist in
his father’s shadow, had moved to Grand
Rapids and, when his younger brother
John came out of the Union Army, in-
‘Yited him to join him in business.
' Concurrent with the move to Grand
Rapids, John had married Miss Hannah
Carpenter and brought his bride west
* Thomas
store on the corner of Monroe and Divi-
‘ ion A venues in downtownGrand Rapids
at the crossroads of the north-south,
tast-west arteries through town. To this
day there’s still avdrug store at the same,
location (now palt of the Revco chain),
but to the old-timers of the city, the store
is still known as ‘‘Peck’s.”’
=: Thomas,and John Peck, in the wake of
the tremendous expansion of the lumber-
ing and furniture business in Grand
Rapids, prospered. Thomas, however,
died early, leaving the business and its
potential of wealth to his brother.
Times were good to John and Hannah
Peck, as they moved in the affluent circle
of the city’s elite, and as they brought
forth their two children, a son, Percy, and
a daughter, Clara.
John Peck had worked hard, saved his
Money, invested wisely, and eventually
became a director of a bank in the city and
was elected to the board of directors to
Several furniture factories.
Clara Peck grew up with all the gold-
spoon advantages of the wealthy... pri-
vate tutors, beautiful home and eventu-
ally going away to’ the Chevy Chase
finishing school for girls in Washington,
D.C. After that, she went to New York to
attend Columbia University, and proba-
bly lived at the Park Avenue Hotel with
After undergoing two autopsies,
the body of John Peck today lies
peacefully between the ashes of
his wife, Hannah, and a daughter
who died in early childhood.
Peck had opened his drug
Aunt Catherine Peck, her father’s unmar-
ried sister who also shared in the wealth
of the Peck family. ;
In the meantime, on getting his diploma
in dentistry from the University of
Michigan, Arthur Waite left the country,
and spent the next five years in Cape
Town, South Africa. Word trickled back
to his home town that he had studied with
two physicians in London, had taken a
post graduate medical course at the Royal
College of Physicians and Surgeons at the
University of Edinburgh, had established
a medical practice in Cape Town, and had
bought two huge farms in British East
Africa. :
About the start of World War in 1914,.
he returned to Grand Rapids — sup-
posedly. with $25,000 in bank drafts from
his New York bank — and renewed his
acquaintance with Clara Peck.
7
. Clara, for all her money and social ad-.
vantages, wasn’t widely acclaimed for
her beauty. Arthur Waite must have.
zeroed in on her advantages and her
father’s money, while she was busy at the
time in her good work at the local
Humane Society and what is known as:
the Mary Free Bed Guild. The Guild
today is known as Mary Free Bed Hospi-
tal and is presently acclaimed for its work
with the physically handicapped.
After a propitious meeting with Clara,
and a respectable time for courtship, Ar-
thur proposed marriage, was accepted by
her and approved by her father as a man
of substance. Two farms in British East
Africa, and $25,000 in bank drafts were
certainly not to be overlooked. Arthur
‘Waite, handsome, athletic, and suave,
(continued on next page) ~
. .No trace of foul play remained after Hannah Peck’s body was cre-
. mated. But autopsies on John Peck’s body turned up enough arse-
‘ nic ‘to kill 10 human beings.’
RS Ae ES ee
wl
Pam tag
was the catch of the town. Clara Peck,
preened to a rich, genteel edge, was the
true WASP prize.
Their marriage at the Fountain Street
Baptist Church, performed by one Doc-
tor Alfred Wishart, made the headlines of
both Grand Rapids papers of September
9, 1915. The stories described the bevies
of bridesmaids and the cadre of grooms-
men, all of the town’s elite, and listing one
young man by name of John Caulfield,
and of course, the bride’s brother, Percy
Peck.
According to the news reporters who
had gone into rapture and ecstasy de-
scribing the wedding, the newly-married
couple were going to live at 435 Riverside
Drive in New York City, where young
Doctor Waite, a specialist in head
surgery, was to be connected with Bel-
levue Hospital.
The stage was now set. Shortly after
Christmas of 1915, John and Hannah
Peck, having waited a decent period after
the wedding, took off for New York to
visit their daughter and their debonair
new son-in-law. They also planned to
spend some time with Catherine Peck,
John’s sister who had the Park Avenue
Hotel apartment.
. Hannah Peck, age 66, who had always
been in robust health, was suddenly
seized with what her son-in-law, the
physician, had diagnosed as kidney trou-
ble. Before successful treatment could be
effected, on January 30, 1916, she died at
the Waite apartment.
Clara and her father were devastated.
They, along with Arthur Waite, accom-
panied the body on the sad trip back to
Grand Rapids for the funeral. Following
that, and according to what the family’s
resident physician, Doctor Arthur Waite,
announced, Hannah's body was cre-
mated at her request. To spare Clara and
her father the ordeal, Arthur had volun-
teered to accompany the casket to. the
24
nearest crematorium, located in Detroit.
On return from Detroit, with the ashes
of his mother-in-law, Arthur Waite was
the soul of compassion, as the urn was
buried in the Peck family plot in Oak Hill
cemetery a couple of miles from the Peck
mansion. Soon after the final obsequies,
the sad couple returned to their apart-
ment in New York so that Arthur Waite
could continue his medical practice at
Bellevue Hospital, his social life at the
town’s tennis courts, and his apparent
hobby of amassing over 100 suits of cio-
thing to hang in his closet.
Clara languished at home in the apart-
ment in deep mourning, visited only by ‘
her Aunt Catherine who by this time had
become a family confidante and the favo-
rite relative for the young couple and
especially with her new nephew, the ris-
ing young doctor.
Several times when he would tell her of
need for temporary funds to tide him over
for his real estate investments, she volun-
teered to give him the key to her deposit
box, telling him to take what he needed.
She also gave him a diamond necklace
which Clara had wanted and eventually
loaned him the total of $40,000.
Knowing of his daughter’s distress at
her mother’s death, Clara’s father in a
week or so decided to come back to New
York to visit and to cheer her up. At 72,
he was apparently in the best of health,
still active in the drug business, and
deeply concemed with his daughter's un-
happiness. Like all men of his age, he did
have an occasional twinge, and maybe
minor dyspepsia, but little else to com-
plain about. The family doctor in Grand
Rapids, Perry W. Schurtz, was keeping
him in good trim.
Once ensconced in the Waite apart-
ment in early March of 1916, however, he
began to languish. On the night of March
11, 1916, he was taken with such discom-
fort that Clara and Arthur called in a doc-
body, Percy Peck received a telegram. ©
The palatial mansion of the Pecks |
has since been transformed into rs :
a multi-family residence. ..-
aux
3 i
tor, who left a simple remedy, told him
there was nothing to worry about, and>
left. The doctor was later to say that he}
was extremely distressed to learn that
John Peck was found dead in bed at 3 a.m:
the following morning. a
Arthur, as the attending physician}!
signed the death certificate and arranged |
for the body to be embalmed at a Manhat- -
tan mortuary. a
Once again, Clara and Arthur Waite.
had the ordeal of accompanying another.”
family casket back toGrand Rapids, tak- *
ing a compartment on the old Wolverine’
Limited direct from New York, while the 4
body reposed in the baggage car. a
Percy Peck, Clara’s brothér, met the»
grieving party at the Grand Parks Unions
Station, and together, the three retired to *
the Peck mansion to make arrangements”
for the funeral service. As he had for all
the other Peck joys and tribulations, their
pastor, Doctor Alfred Wishart, was an.
early caller, paying his respects and help-}
ing the family complete the final ar-;
rangements. Another early caller proba-»
bly was the family’s physician and friend,
Doctor Perry Schurtz.
i
A
As had been the case for Hannah Peck 4
who had died two months previously, the
family decided that final arrangements
would cover a simple ceremony from the
home. The body was then to be sent: >
briefly to a holding vault at Oak Hill
Cemetery from which it was to be re-.
moved shortly to be transported to De:
troit for cremation and then back for in
terment in Grand Rapids. Arthur Waite
again volunteered to accompany his
father-in-law on that last, long trip.
John Peck’s last will and testament was
read in the privacy of the family, reveal!
ing that in excess of $1,000,000 was left in? *
equal shares to his daughter; Mrs. Waite,
and to his son, Percy. Among minor be- |.
3
quests was $2,000 noted in a codicil and’
bequeathed to Warren Waite, Arthur's
for having provided such an exemplary
son-in-law."’
Everything was going according to
plan, when early the next morning before ‘
Waite could leave for Detroit with the’
PERCY PECK GRAND RAPIDS
MICH. SUSPICION AROUSED
STOP DEMAND AUTOPSY
STOP KEEP TELEGRAM SEC-
RET STOP SIGNED K. ADAMS -
His suspicions already having beef!”
§
(ate
ba me
father, the note reading ‘tin appreciation :
:
4
\
‘
woused by the sudden deaths of both his
father and mother, and knowing that he
could trust the absolute discretion of the
family pastor and the family doctor,
Percy Peck immediately called both Doc-
tor Wishart and Doctor Schurtz.
March 15, 1916. Grand Rapids. On ad-
vice from his two mentors, his pastor.and
the physician, Percy Peck quietly and
without telling his sister or her husband,
requested an autopsy, which Doctor
Schurtz volunteered to do. Before the
funeral service, the physician had then
~ gone to the mortuary, and removed the
F spleen, lungs, and other organs which
were then sent in sealed containers to the
toxicology laboratory at the University of
Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor,
135 miles away. Doctor Wishart and Doc-
_ tor Schurtz then boarded the train and left
for New York City.
March 17, 1916. New York City.
: Celebrating at a gala St. Patrick’s Day
party, Frank Mancuso, assistant district
attorney with the homicide bureau in
Manhattan, was summoned abruptly to
Room 616, Manhattan Hotel, where he-
' was to meet Dr. Otto Schultze, medical
- examiner from the District Attorney’s of-
fice."AlSo at the hotel were Doctor
Wishart and Doctor Schurtz from Grand
_ Rapids.
After formalities of introduction, Doc-
tor Wishart said, ‘‘We are here in belief
> that we have a duty to perform, and need
your cooperation. We believe that a
prominent citizen of Grand Rapids — a
- friend of both of us —came to his death in
New York City by other than natural
causes.”"
Frank Mancuso then immediately sent
a wire to Doctor Victor Vaughan at the
University Medical School in Ann Arbor,
asking for an immediate report on John
Peck. In due time the reply. came to the
group at the Hotel:
+ ANALYSIS OF ORGANS INDI-
CATES LARGE AMOUNT OF
ARSENIC ENOUGH TO KILL 10
HUMAN BEINGS SIGNED
VAUGHAN.
March 17.Grand Rapids. Arthur Waite
abruptly left Grand Rapids to return to
New York. Clara Peck, still prostrate
with grief, remained in Grand Rapids in
bed, under care of a physician other than
Doctor Schurz who was out of town,
Otherwise occupied in New York, as it
tumed out, with Doctor Wishart.
March 18, New York City. Armed with
& search warrant, Frank Mancuso, two
Policemen, two detectives and a stenog-
fapher, and the two good men fromGrand
Rapids entered the Waite apartment at 4
4m. What they found was a lavishly fur-
Nished home, replete with paintings,
lapestries, and fine furniture of the type
that a rich man would bestow on his only
daughter,
In the library they also found a copy of
ods Therapeutics and Pharmacology
at
Volume 3 with a book marker between
the pages 324-325: ‘‘Alternatives — Ar-
senic. Effects on System. Poisonous Ef-
fects. Slow Poisoning.’’ In the bathroom
they found three nasal atomizer sprays.
On going back to the Manhattan Hotel
Room 616, Mancuso found a wire from
Percy Peck: ‘*‘W. ON WOLVERINE
BOUND FOR NEW YORK. ARRIVES
THERE 11 A.M. SATURDAY.” **W”’
obviously referred to Waite.
Frank Mancuso then arranged for both
‘ Doctor Wishart and Doctor Schurtz to be
at Grand Central Station at 11 a.m., post-
ing several detectives at the gate and sta-
tioning both Grand Rapids men behind
pillars. They were instructed to remain
out of Arthur Waite’s sight, but to estab-
lish positive identification for the benefit
of the detectives.
The Woiverine arrived on time. Waite
came into the Concourse at the station.
Wishart and Schurtz, on cue, established
positive identification, and the detectives
The career of Arthur Warren
Waite turned from one of success
and promise into cunning and de-
ceit, ieaving a trail of bodies.
then set up a 24-hour tail on Waite, who
got into 2 taxicab.
Following him in a second cab, one of
the detectives stopped just behind Waite
when he got out of the cab and went intoa
drugstore to make a phone call. The de-
tective entered an adjoining telephone
booth in time to hear Waite say... ‘‘see
you later on. Better pay your bills and
pack and get out at once.”
A subsequent trace of Waite’s call
showed that it had been made to the Plaza
Hotel, where he had talked with a Mrs.
A.M. Walters, wife of Dr. A.M. Walters
in Room 1105. ‘‘Mrs. Walters’’ im-
mediately left, and disappeared.
That noon, Arthur Waite had lunch
with Aunt Catherine Peck, again trailed
by another detective seated at the next
table, who overheard him telling her that
he needed money, that maybe $10,000
would do it, for just a short term loan.
Again, she gave him the key to her de-
posit box. :
March 19. New York City. Frank
Mancuso’s super Grand Rapids to per-
form a second autopsy on John Peck’s
body. There was an outside chance that
the embalming fluid used on the body
might have contained some arsenic as a
preservative, injected into the veins sub-
sequent to death. Or, the second autopsy
on the brain might reveal presence of the
deadly substance, indicative that the ar-
senic had been administered and injested
before death.
Arthur Waite had written a brief letter
to his wife Clara, and had posted it for
Grand Rapids, which Mancuso stealthily
intercepted from the superintendent of
the mails, and which said, ‘‘Don’t speak
to anyone about my affairs. There are
certain persons who are trying to make
trouble for me just because I am not a
licensed dentist. All my love, Arthur.”’
What he had told Clara before that isn’t
known, but for the first time, Arthur re-
vealed that he never had bothered to take
his registry exams and apply for a
dentist’s license in New York.
March 20. New York City. Mancuso,
Schultze, Wishart and Schurtz leave
Manhattan for Grand Rapids. >
March 21.Grand Rapids. On arriving in
town, the four men quietly registered at
the Pantlind Hotel, and in order to allay
any suspicions and to keep their cover,
leaked word that they were prohibition
agents who had come to town to promote
the cause of prohibition, the proposed
~ 18th Amendment to the Federal Constitu-
tion still being a hot item in the,news.
Doctor Wishart, the soul of compas-
sion, took Frank Mancuso to see Clara
Peck Waite at her family mansion. Clara
was still in bed grieving, but well enough
to talk. According to her report: ‘*‘Father
had a bad cold. Arthur had given him
medicine which he put in the clam broth
we had for lunch. The broth tasted so bad
that my father insisted 1 discharge the
servant who had prepared it. He got the
medicine in his coffee after that."
She further revealed that the servant's
name was Dora Hillier. She told the two
men of her idyllically happy marriage,
and of the solicitude of her husband for
her and her family. Then, she dropped
word that immediately after her father’s
death, when Waite broached the subject,
she had agreed to make her will leaving
him as her sole heir.
March 21. New York City. District At-
torney Ed Swann talked with Arthur
(continued on page 43)
25
|
|
IOAN EON eRe Ree.
ween
a ee
a. “fe ary
was highly respectable, serious, hard-.
working and a rotten businessman. He’s
been on the verge of bankruptcy for
years. It could be he was so shocked at
discovering a sex relationship between
his wife and his shop assistant that he
flipped out, killed everybody and took
off. He may have taken the girl with him
to kill her somewhere else.”’
Like all of the other theories, there was
neither confirmation nor disproval of this
latest one, but that same afternoon the
mystery was intensified when Markus
Isenschmid’s Volkswagen was found in
the forest to the south of Aadorf, five
miles away.
A squad of detection experts was im- '
mediately rushed to the scene from
Frauenfeld and reported no traces of
blood or any signs of a struggle in the car
and no fingerprints except Isenschmid’s.
Even the door handle on the passenger's
side of the car had only the pharmacist’s
prints.
*‘Weird!”’ said the inspector. ‘‘What in
the devil does this all mean? The lab peo-
ple are almost certain that no one was in
the car except Isenschmid, neither the
girl nor the two hippies. But where is he?
There's not even a village within a mile of
where the car is.’”
“And where’s the girl?’’ added the
sergeant. *‘And the two hippies from the
Red Rooster?”
The second question was answered
that evening when two young, bearded
Germans were taken into custody by the
border police at the frontier post of Stein
as they were preparing to cross into Ger-
many. Brought down to Aadorf, they
were quickly identified by the owner of
the Red Rooster as the two men who had
been in his tavern the night before the
murders and even more quickly released
when they were able to prove that they
had spent that night and most of the fol-
lowing day in the next town down the
road, a place called Wangi.
*‘A couple of harmless tourists ,’’ said
the inspector in disgust. *‘Anton says
there's no indication that they even use
drugs of any kind and, if they did, they're
still innocent of this Aadorf thing.”
**Still,”’ said the sergeant, ‘‘it does
make one thing clear. Isenschmid himself
must be the murderer.”’
“Yes, I think so,”’ said the inspector.
**But where is he? And what has he done
with Miss Pfeffer?’’
“I don’t know about Miss Pfeffer,”’
said the sergeant, ‘but my money says
Isenschmid’s out of Switzerland. I think
he left his car down in the woods so that it
wouldn't be traced immediately, walked
42
: ae It's Hard To Kill A Rumor =
(continued from page 41) _ as ae
+
into the nearest village, caught a bus to
Winterthur or Wil and took the train to-
wherever he went. 1 don't think we'll ever
catch him. Interpol, maybe, but not us.”*
**Well, then we'll notify Interpol,”’ said
the inspector, ‘‘but at the moment I’m
most concerned about the safety of Miss
Pfeffer. It seems to me that she’s a girl
who is probably not guilty of anything
more than making a few pornographic
pictures and who may have ended up
murdered because of nothing more than
gossip.”
“How so?”’ said the sergeant. ‘‘We
don’t know whether she was having an <
affair with Mrs. Isenschmid or not. We
know a lot of people here seemed to think
she was.”
Of course we don’t know,”” said the
inspector, ‘‘but what I now suspect hap-
pened is that this young man brought the
magazine down to Aadorf and started the
gossip. The people who saw the pictures
assumed that Miss Pfeffer was really a
lesbian and they talked about it. Mrs.
Isenschmid was young and pretty and
Miss Pfeffer worked in the same building
for her husband.”’
“If the people already had it in their
heads that she was a lesbian, very logi-
cal,’’ said the sergeant.
“And that wast’ motive for the mur-
ders,”* continued the inspector. ‘This
gossip finally came to the ears of Markus
Isenschmid. He believed it. Was shocked
and horrified to the point where he wiped
out his family and set fire to the building.
He then took off.’
“‘And where is Miss Pfeffer?”’ said the
sergeant.
“That's the catch,’’ admitted the in-
Spector. **Where’s Miss Pfeffer? I’m very
much afraid she's dead. I certainly hope
not because I don’t believe she was guilty
of what she was murdered for. The real
guilty parties are the people in the village
who spread the gossip.”
Unfortunately, inspectors of police are
like all other human beings. They can be
wrong and it soon tumed out that Inspec-
tor Eber had been very wrong. Whether
she had been killed for it or not, Doris ,
Pfeffer was, indeed, very much guilty of
what the village gossip said she was.
“Doris was AC-DC,”’ said the young
girl sitting in the inspector's office. ‘She
liked men, but she liked women too. Be-
lieve me. I know.’**
Liselotte Votzenlecker had made the
trip up to Frauenfeld to report on what
she knew of the case to the police of her
own free will: Nineteen years old with
blonde long hair and a pretty, delicate
face she had had no difficulty at all in
\“However, to get back to Miss Pfeffer
obtaining an interview with the inspector,
“‘Why do you only come forward with, -
this now?” said the inspector sharply. He
was not inhuman, but when he was on as
case, feminine charm meant nothing tow
him. ‘‘What do you know about Miss
Pfeffer’s relationship to Mr. and Mrs,
Isenschmid?”’ Zz 4
“Only what she told me,”’ said the girl,
“I didn’t come to you before because |
thought Doris died in the fire and |’.
couldn't see any point in dragging all this,
out in public. She was my friend and I
wanted her to rest in peace.” mS
‘And now you don’t care whether she _
rests in peace or not,” said the inspector,
*‘What changed your mind?”’ ae
The girl paused for a long moment be...
fore replying. ‘I don’t know,” she said_-
finally. ‘I have the funniest feeling... I i
just don’t think that.;."”
“That Miss Pfeffer is dead;-con«
cluded the inspector. : :
“Yes,” said Liselotte. ‘‘We were very.
close. I just don’t think she’s dead,
Maybe,.,.”’ ig
“You were very close,” said the ins?
spector. ‘Do you mean that you and Miss ¢
Pfeffer had a homosexual relationship?” —
“I guess that's what you'd callit,”’ said!”
the girl. “We're both the same sex, aren't ©
we? It’s nothing terrible. You'd be Sur: ©
prised how many women right in Aardort_ |
have tried it out."” ; te
“I’m sure I would,"’ said the inspector...
4
py
Fy
and Isenschmids, did she also havea rela.
tionship with Mrs. Isenschmid?” ~’ g
Liselotte nodded. ‘‘That’s what she
told me, at least.” ¥
“Did Mr. Isenschmid know?”’ said the Ky
inspector. |
**She thought he did,’’ said Liselotte.?
“She told me that once when she and’
Marie-Angela were making love in the?
bedroom, the door was open a little bit ;
and she thought that Markus was on the ‘
other side watching.” rh sige
She hesitated. : °) ae
**She thought that Marie-Angela knew.”
that he was.” : 4
“I don't understand,” said the inspect”
tor. . fe
“Some men like to watch their wife
with another girl,”’ said Liselotte. We
“In short,’’ said the inspector, ‘‘you™
think that Mrs. Iserischmid was having»
sex relations with Miss Pfeffer with the.”
.
knowledge of her husband and that she
arranged for him to watch more or less
secretly. Did Miss Pfeffer also have Sex
relations with Mr. Isenschmid?”’ es
To his astonishment, Miss Votzen-
lecker suddenly began to cry. ‘*Yes,”’ she . :
sobbed. ‘And not only with Markus. She
had sex with the son, too. Sometimes,’
they all did it together in one bed and..."
‘*But the son was only eight years old
Be
(continued on next page) *"*
ity
we
{1 BRO UNISC 0 e RReti se erRKAGH CCE emmy et RARER Cee RRER REnreatneasleDReiteemaiasineeeri,.
interrupted the inspector, shocked and
startled beyond all measure: '
“She'd do it with anybody, the’bitch!”’
wailed Liselotte, her lips trembling and
her face streaming with tears. *‘Even the
collie dog...”” i
“Wait! Wait!"’ exclaimed the inspec-
tor, holding up a hand. ‘Hans! Hans!Get
Anton over here immediately. | want him
to take a look at this girl.’’
Dr. Saukerl was notified and rushed
over to the office where he examined the
girl and then had her taken to the police
clinic.
“She's in a sort of hysterical fit as faras
I can make out,"’ he said. ‘I doubt that
you can put much faith in anything she
says. Did you put a lot of pressure on
her?"
“| didn’t put any pressure on her at
all,’ said the inspector. **She came in
here voluntarily with a story that she
knew Doris intimately, had sex relations
with her and knew all about her sex rela-
tions with the Isenschmids. She was per-
fectly logical when she started off, but
then she got wilder and wilder and ended
up claiming that the Isenschmids had reg-
ular orgies with their own son and even
the family dog. She also started to cry and
I realized there was something wrong
with her and called you.”’
“Well, there’s something wrong with
her all right,’* said the doctor. **You bet-
ter check hefout. She may not even know
Doris Pfefferor any of the other people.”
As a matter of fact, Liselotte Votzen-
lecker did know both Doris Pfeffer and
the Isenschmids, but only casually and it
turned out that she had been under treat-
ment for several years for nervous disor-
ders which manifested themselves largely
in the form of wild fantasies.
“The poor girl’s imagination was ap-
parently stimulated by all the publicity
about the case,” said the inspector, *‘and
she went off the deep end. I gather she’s
all right now.”
“But, as far as we're concerned, we
don't know any more about Miss Pfeffer
than we ever did,’’ said the sergeant.
“Has Interpol reported anything on
Isenschmid?”’
Interpol had not and for good reason.
¢ day after Miss Votzenlecker had
Made her startling testimony, Markus
Isenschmid came out of the forest to the
south of Aadorf and gave himself up.
“I meant to kill myself, too,”’ he said.
“Thad a gun and I went to the woods and
Parked the car and was going to shoot
myself, but I didn't have the nerve. I just
couldn't do it. I've been wandering
4round in the woods ever since.””
Questioned as to the events of the night
the murders, Isenschmid stated that he
had begun by clapping a chloroform
souked sponge over his wife’s nose and
mouth as she sat watching television at
*Pproximately eleven o'clock in the even-
ing. Although she had lost consciousness,
he had been unable to kill her with the
chloroform and he hit her on the head
with an ashtray. This, too, had not killed
her so he got the cord from her iron and
strangled her.
He spent the night trying to decide how
to kill his children and, at six in the morn-
ing, went into his son’s room with a ham-
mer and smashed the sleeping boy's
skull. The sound of the splintering bones
and the blood unnerved him and he was
unable to repeat the deed on the baby. It
was only at ten in the morning that he
finally strangled her with his bare hands.
He set fire to the house in three differ-
ent places with his cigarette lighter and
drove away in the car.
**You wanted to hide the crimes
through the fire. Was that it?’* said the
inspector.
“*No,”' said Isenschmid. **I wanted ev-
erything to be burned up so that the cre-
ditors wouldn't get anything.”
**You were in financial difficulties?”*
said the inspector. **But you had been for
a long time.”
“‘I was at the end of my rope,”’ said’
Isenschmid. *‘! was going to have to file
bankruptcy proceedings. | couldn’t stand
the thought of the disgrace my wife and
family wouid have to suffer. I thought it
was better if we all died together."
“And Miss Pfeffer?’ said the inspec-
tor. ’ f
**She shouldn't have any trouble find-
ing another job,’ said the pharmacist.
**She’s a good shop assistant.”’
**Where is she?’” demanded the inspec-
tor. at
““At home, I
suppose,’’ said
Isenschmid in mild surprise. ‘I called her
up that morning and told her she could
take the week off."
Doris Pfeffer was not at home and none
_of her friends and relatives knew where
she was, but the following Monday she
turned up by herself. She had taken ad-
~ vantage of her week off for a trip to San
Remo in Italy and had heard nothing of
the events back in Aadorf. j
Nor had she had anything to do with
them. The Isenschmids, she maintained,
had been good employers and she had
been on friendly, informal terms with
them, but nothing more. Isenschmid cort-
firmed this fully.
Even the pictures in the porno
magazine which had gained her such a
remarkable reputation in the village
turned out to be false.
“The girl just looks like me,”’ said
Doris Pfeffer. **l never made any pornog-
raphic pictures in Munich or anywhere
else. If anybody had told me what got all
that talk started, I could have straigh-
tened it out in a hurry. I've never been to
Munich in my life!”
And with the help of the Munich police,
her statement concerning the pornog-
raphic pictures was completely con-
firmed. They had been made by a model
who closely resembled Doris Pfeffer.
On August 26, 1977, after four days of
hearings before the Criminal Court in
Frauenfeld, Markus Isenschmid was
found guilty of homicide with extenuating
circumstances and sentenced to twenty
years imprisonment, a sentence he is now
serving.
*
Michigan's Poisoning Maniac
(continued from page 25)
Waite, who told him in all candor that he
had never been a licensed physician, that
he had never practiced medicine, and that
while he had studied dentistry at the Uni-
versity of Michigan, he had never had a
license to practice as a dentist in New
York. Se cos
March 22. Grand Rapids. Under cover
of darkness, and through some fast talk-
ing, Frank Mancuso prevailed on the
town’s undertaker who had handled the
Peck arrangements to go back to Oak Hill
Cemetery, again to take John Peck’s
body from the holding vault and bring it
back to the mortuary, where Dr. Schultze
and Dr. Schurtz were waiting to perform
the second autopsy, this time to remove
the brain. If there had been poisoning,
presence of arsenic in the brain would
have been revealed. The brain having
been packed in a sterile container and
immediately rushed to the toxicology lab
at the University of Michigan, John
Peck’s body within an hour was brought
back to the vault in the cemetery, and the
investigators awaited word from Ann
Arbor.
Finally some hours later, a second tele-
gram came back from the medical school
indicating large quantities of arsenic large
enough to be picked up on the tip of an
instrument under the microscope were
found.
Frank Mancuso immediately wired his
boss, Ed Swann, the D.A.:
ARREST DEFENDANT IM-
MEDIATELY STOP OVER-
WHELMING EVIDENCE
FOUND STOP HE OBTAINED
SUBSTANTIAE AMOUNTS OF
MONEY UNDER FALSE PRE-
TENSES STOP CHECK UP ON
(continued on next page)
é
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Michigan’s Poisoning Maniac
(continued from page 43)
BANK ACCOUNTS AND HOLD
UP ALL DEPOSITS STOP
SIGNED MANCUSO
March 22. New York City. The District
Attorney and his staff on arrival at the
Waite apartment found it locked. On forc-
ing entry they discovered Arthur Waite
on his bed, in a deep coma, obviously the
victim of a self-administered overdose.
He was to remain in the coma for two
days before finally being roused.
During this time, detectives in the
apartment in searching the pockets of the
100 suits of clothing in the closet found
tubes of trional, sulphanol, and veronal
sodium.
Mrs. Margaret Horton, 22, who had
posed at the Plaza Hotel as the wife of
“Dr. A.M. Walters,’’ turned up at the
District Attorney's office. She revealed
that in pursuit of her career as a singer,
she became acquainted with Arthur
Waite, who she described as a remarka-
ble pianist and who could speak French.
With these attributes to recommend
him, he had persuaded her to share a
room with him at the Plaza which was set
up as a studio. They registered under the
names of Dr. A.M. Walters and wife.
Margaret Horton, who apparently was
not to be involved as an accomplice in the '
poisoning murders, told the District At-
torney that ‘‘he was a wonderful teacher.
We read Romeo and Juliet together, and
he was masterful.”’
During the period when Arthur Waite
was lying in the coma, detectivés had also
located Dora Hillier, the servant at the
Waite apartment, who now told the sequ-
ence of events as she watched her emp-
loyer put ‘medicine in the soup, and then
in the coffee.”’
Further sleuthing turned up that Arthur
Waite had purchased the arsenic from a
Lexington Avenue pharmacy on pretext
of wanting the poison to kill a cat.
March 22. Grand Rapids. The Peck
story broke in the Grand Rapids Press,
which took its entire front page for the
44
account. Headlines set in 72 Pt. size type,
usually reserved for declarations of war
or presidential assassinations shouted:
POISON IN JOHN A. PECK’S
BODY. WAS DRUGGIST MUR-
‘ DERED?
Story after story filled that front page,
regaling the reader with minutiae as well
as with major items of interest. General
Black Jack Pershing and Pancho Villa,
who had been getting top billing the day
previous were relegated to inner pages,
practically buried on pages 4 and 5.
March 23. Grand Rapids. The news
Stories continued to scream: WAITE
MUST FACE CHARGE OF FIRST
DEGREE MURDER. Column after col-
umn of type continued to pour from the
reporters assigned to the story, not only
in Grand Rapids but also from the wire
services in New York.
The sob-sisters on the reporting staff,
both male and female, were brought in to
supplement the factual coverage, and
readers were treated with intimate back-
grounds on both the Peck and the Waite
families.
March 24. New York City. Arthur
Waite was finally roused from the coma,
and when faced with the evidence, in-
sisted that John Peck had bought the ar-
senic, wanting to commit suicide in his
inconsolable grief over his wife’s death.
Waite further.insisted that he gave his
father-in-law the poison in a sealed en-
velope.
March 25. Grand Rapids. Clara Peck
Waite issued her first statement in a care-
fully composed public statement which
was given a four-column story in the
Grand Rapids Press, headlined:
IT LOOKS AS IF MY HUSBAND
IS GUILTY. I WILL STAND
ASIDE AND LET THE LAW
TAKE ITS COURSE.
It was no longer a story of a faithful
wife steadfastly supporting an errant
husband. Clara was obviously distraught
at not only the events of the demise of
ey
both her father and her mother, but also >
the sudden invasion of her privacy ang:
the notorious publicity. Torn between the
facts surrounding the ‘murders and the
love for a man which had soured in the:
short span of two weeks, she finally: days, prosecution for the state introduced-+
spoke out when it was revealed that not.
only was her husband involved with Man!
garet Horton in the Plaza Hotel, but thats
before her marriage to Waite the previous:
year, he was reported to have made viok
ent love to two girls simultaneously ina!
tryst in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
and shamed. Her family had been physk
cally decimated, and as it turned out sub#
sequently, she herself had been in morta
danger.
March 25. New York City. Arth
Waite was formally charged with the
Peck murders, and taken to the prisoner'y
he had bribed the Manhattan undertak
with $9,000 to say that he had prepar
the original embalming fluid used on John):
Peck with arsenic as a preservative.
The undertaker substantiated the story,
by reporting that he was so shaken whens”
he opened the pack of bills which Waite?)
had forced on him, that he buried themin
a tin can near Orient Point, Long Island, ©
rom which he subsequently retrieved the.
money and turned it over to the police.
Dora Hillier revealed that Waite hadi
tried to bribe her with $1,000 to say thal
she had never seen him put the ‘‘medicin®
in the clam broth.” f
March 27. Grand Rapids. The Granda
Rapids Press’ continuing saga reported ©
that Arthur Waite, posing as a physiciant
doing research work with virulent bacilli?
had secured typhoid and diphtheria!
bacilli from Cornell Medical School da
Jacob Cornell, a brother, of Mrs
Elizabeth Hartwick, both of whom had)
become good friends of Clara and Arthu
Waite. f
Margaret Horton, ‘*Mrs. Doctor Wak:
Manhattan which was owned by a —
ters,”’ finally confirmed that she had ace
companied her lover to the medical.
school — after hours, and that using hit
friendship he had been able to secure®.
plentiful supply of the germ cultures. |
The newspaper story further revealed?
that Arthur Waite first began to study»
disease germs in September, 1915, ju
eight days after his marriage to Clant
Peck.
March 29. New York City. Arthuf
Waite, in a burst of oratory and profes;
sing insanity, claimed that a ‘‘man from
Egypt made him do it.”’ ie
March 30. New York City. Arthuf?
Waite was indicted for the murder of Joht.
Peck. +
April 4. Grand Rapids. Clara Peck”
Waite filed for divorce from Arthul
Waite.
(continued on next page) (©
ward at Bellevue Hospital. He told how,
ee
April 7, New York City. Arthur Waite
was transferred from Bellevue Hospital
tothe: Tombs to await trial. oii
May 24. New York City. The murder’
tial having been underway for several
forthe fitst time the mystery woman, **K.
Adams,’’ who had sent the cryptic tele- ©
gam to Percy Peck suggesting the au-
tpsy on John Peck’s body. + :
A strong push from the District
Attorney’s office turned up the woman
“who had sent the telegram, a Mrs.
Clara Peck Waite had been two-timed)
Elizabeth C. Hardwick, Doctor Cornell's
wster and a self-styled clairvoyant and
teliever in ESP.
According to her testimony, she had
tecome suspicious of Arthur Waite when
Doctor Cornell (of the medical school ’
which had supplied the bacillus germs)
andacousin of hers had gone to the Waite
wartment to make a condolence call fol-
lowing Hannah Peck’s death. The two
{ men came back and reported to her that
Anhur Waite had been most curt and*
tically rude in his reception, indicat-~ >
ing that he couldn't talk with them be-
fause he was packing to take Hannah's
* body back toGrand Rapids for the funeral
and the cremation.
Subsequent to that, Elizabeth Hard-
wick told of meeting Arthur Waite at the
Plaza Hotel on February 22, 1916, in
¢ompany with a woman. Being unable to
woid the meeting, Arthur Waite intro-
duced the woman as Mrs. Horton,:his
surse, who was helping him on a surgical
tase.
Later, on learning of John Peck’s
death, she testified that she now felt obli-
fied to air her suspicions, and had sent
the telegram to Percy Peck, signing it **K.
ms.”’
May 25. New York City. Arthur Waite
took the stand in his own defense of insan-
ty. He made'a complete confession of
how he had disposed of Hannah Peck, his
_ Wife's mother, using a combination of
éeath-producing germs which he had ad-
Ministered to the woman as a nasal
ray... typhoid, influenza, diphtheria,
‘anthrax, pneumonia, tuberculosis,
Stepococcus to name a few.
_ He further testified that he had tried the
Same prescription on his father-in-law,
Who resisted the introduction of the
ferms. After that when John Peck failed
‘ocontract pneumonia, Arthur Waite had
pened a container of chlorine gas in the
older man's bedroom. That failing, arse-
§C Was put in the clam broth and coffee,
and to hurry things along, Waite had fi-
Mally introduced the coup-de-grace —
roform,
Nobody was spared in his sordid story
which he continued to tell on how he had
mixed ground glass into the marmelade
*hich Aunt Catherine was using for her
emoon tea. (She later told of biting on
something gritty with the bread and rolls.)
Wther investigation also revealed that a
germ culture had been introduced into a
can of fish Arthur had brought her as a
gift: A hardly cld soul, Aunt Catherine’
Peck was spared from death by the fast
moving events which had surrounded the
death of her brother.
In continuing his, confession, Arthur
Waite revealed that even his wife Clara
was on the list, and that once she was
dispatched, he was then going to be free -y
to marry a more beautiful woman.
June 1. New York City. Arthur Waite
was sentenced to death in the electric
chair in Sing Sing, and was transferred to
Death’s Row there. ;
May 24, 1917. Ossining, New York.
After many futile delays and exasperating
postponements, Arthur Waite jauntily
walked down the last mile, said goodbye
to the ‘‘boys’’ as he passed them, sat
down on what he had written Margaret
Horton as ‘‘la chaise,’’ and received two
two-thousand volts of electricity.
Whatever happened to the others in the
5
}
_ story? Margaret Horton disappeared into
sanonymity with nothing more than a
diamond ring which Arthur Waite had
given her. Clara Peck Waite subsequently
married John Caulfield, who had been
* one of the groomsmen at her first wed-
ding. Her brother, Percy Peck, remained
in Grand Rapids as one of the town’s
prosperous citizens.
Warten Waite, Arthur's father, died of
a broken heart at the height of the trial
investigation.
Doctor Alfred Wishart lived to become
the leading senior prelate of his down-
town liberal church. Perry Schurtz con-
tinued as one of the city’s leading family
practitioners.
Frank Mancuso was later to become a
respected judge on the New York Bench.
Elizabeth Hartwicke, the mysterious **K.
Adams,”’ whose female intuition broke
the story in the first place to assure her of
a prominent place in the annals of justice,
was never heard from again.
~~ A Hazard To Our Health
(continued from page 19)
t, .
“The federal courts in particular are
responsible for turning criminals out on
the street to rape, steal, murder and mug
again. More and more frequently, these
criminals have received suspended sen-
tences, short prison terms or simple re-
primands.
“Or, once convicted by a state court,
criminals find themselves free again
thanks to the beneficence of the federal
court system of appeals. That is wrong
and the American people know it is.”*
Congressman Dornan introduced into
the Congressional record a letter from
Judge Harry V. Peetris of California to
illustrate the ‘‘extent to which a good
judge’s hands are tied by a federal court
which tries to conform to the rulings of
the federal judiciary.”
The letter read: ‘‘Dear Bob: Our pres-
ent laws which prevent judges from se-
(continued on next page)
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VIDETOE, Stephen, white, 25, hanged at Malone, New York, on 826-1825,
"SINGULAR CIRCUMSTANCE, @ The Franklin MALONE TELEGRAPH, gives an account of the
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of holding in his right hand, when yielding up his life. = This paer he changed
from his left to his right hand, when he had hung two or three minutes, and waved
it to the multitude with apparent design.*" COURIER, Charleston, SC, 11-1-1825 —
(1/26)
_ By JARVIS. CARLTON.
V ocr,
anes
HE beer- drinking patrons of Pabst’s
Harlem Casino used to say about
Oscar Vogt, the piano-player who
banged out the nostalgic German
lieder, the noisy rondelays, and the
Viennese waltzes, that the maestro played
with feeling.
“Ach, but he’s fine,” a man-here and a
man there would say as he brushed away
a tear thinking about the old country, “he -
has-such a nice touch!”’
“Ach, ja! That he has!” a hausfrau
here ard a fraulein there would agree,
thinking less about the way he fingered
the keyboard than the way he played on a
girl’s emotions.
Oscar was a dapper little man of 35
NY ia York) on
“VD DO IT AGAINZ—
As the detectiv
the prisoner’ shouted his defiance.
2-26 “19 15 e
lefts théxcellblock...
who went in for tweeds and high collars. :
and bow-ties, the latest thing in 1912. He ~~
had Hair, that was always slickly pressed
down, clothes that were sharply pressed,,
and desires that were unsuppressed.
Among the burly butcher, delicatessen,
and beer-wagon-driver set that frequented
the Casino, Oscar stood out like a suave
and polished gentleman. And when he
tickled the ivories in the sentimental love
songs he posed and postured so artistically
that the local Brunhildes swooned.
He was probably the only hand- kisser z
that any of the women had ever en-
- countered. He put on the musician act,
with all its effusive overtones, with a flour-
ish that had his (Continued on page 52) a
UNCENSORED DETECTIVE, January, 1953.
25
trying
olice,
.» Too
nand
standing which condoned working herself
while her husband squandered his money
on other women. So then, having forced
her to work, Oscar decided that a woman
who worked as a waitress was beneath his
social standing.
Oscar began in earnest to court Agnes
Guth. For Christmas that year he blew
on her the money Theresa and he had
saved for a set of furniture for the parlor,
and in spite of plans Theresa had made,
Oscar spent the holiday with Agnes. Go-
ing out with a modiste who had the respect
of all the burghers of the German-Ameri-
can area called Yorkville made Oscar feel
pretty important. And he began to think
how much nicer it would be if she were
his wife.
But things were complicated by Theresa.
In 1912 divorces weren’t a common thing,
and he knew his religious wife would never
give him one. One thing he could do, of
course, was force her hand. And if that
failed, there were more extreme measures
he could take.
Oscar began by moving out of their
apartment in Newark. He got himself a
room in uptown New York, and began
a ruthless campaign of embarrassment
upon his wife. He would go to the
restaurant where she worked and where
he was known as Theresa’s husband, and
bring with him a gaudily painted tart or
any cheap pick-up he could find. Then he
would sit at one of the tables Theresa
served and make passes at the floozy when-
ever his wife walked by.
He did the same thing in Newark, in
their old neighborhood until at last
Theresa couldn’t stand it and moved into
a boarding house on Third Ave., in
Manhattan, where neither of them was
known. But she didn’t even consider a
divorce.
“You know I believe divorce is sinful,”
she had told Oscar when they last talked
about it. “You'll see the error of your
ways and come back—and I’ll be ‘wait-
ing.’
Oscar was glad to know she’d be wait-
ing, because he had just about made up
his mind to use desperate measures. It
fitted in nicely with these plans that she
had moved to a place where neither of
them was known, and that she had been
fired from the restaurant where he had
made life hell for her. He made it a point
not to be seen near her new place of em-
ployment and residence, for then, if worst
came to worst, there would be little to
connect him with Theresa if anything
should happen to her.
Meanwhile, his affair with Agnes was
progressing. Early in the spring he pro-
posed to her, but the winsome widow de-
cided to hold off for a while. She had
quite a few other suitors who might not be
‘as debonair and musically minded, but had
more do-re-mi of a different sort than
the musician’s. Oscar was still her most
entertaining suitor, but he began increas-
ingly to have a feeling that their popularity
had something to do with his being a
professional piano-player. Oscar was the
life of the party wherever they went, and
it did him good to see Agnes’s pride in
him. But it broke his heart to have to
play for free.
However, in July fate began to catch
up with him. He lost his job at Pabst’s
' Casino, and it was just about that time
that his. schemes against Theresa back-
fired. A number of people from Yorkville
had seen him with the floozies through
whom he had tried to shame Theresa into
divorcing him. These people told Agnes,
and the indignant modiste blew her stack.
“If ever I hear about you going out
with women like that,” she threatened him,
“you'll never set a foot in this house
again.’
Oscar was flustered, but he took it in
his stride. “Then if that’s the way you
feel, why don’t you marry me and make
sure [ don’t?” He smiled disarmingly.
If Oscar had been flustered a moment
ago, it was nothing compared to his sur-
prise at her reply. “Why, Oscar! That’s a
wonderful idea! You haven't asked me
since Spring and I’ve finally decided to
accept you!” It was a long-winded way
of saying yes, but people were very courtly
in 1913. The result was the same; Oscar
was as shocked as if he had been kicked
in the stomach. He wasn’t prepared for
marriage; he had settled for a long court-
ship during which he could continue to
borrow money from Agnes and hope for
some of the other connubial benefits.
“I think we should make it soon, too,”
she simpered sweetly.
Wildly Oscar tried to figure a way out.
“But—but, darling. We’ve got to wait
until I get another job. We can’t get mar-
ried while I’m out.of work. Let’s wait a
little while.”
Agnes agreed that she had been hasty,
so Oscar put the bite on her for $20 and
said he was going out to look for a job.
He went down to a theatrical booking
agency on 43rd Street near Broadway, told
them he wanted a piano-player’s job, and
said that he had no phone and would call
in every day to find out if any jqks turned
up. Then he went back to his rooms to
figure a way out of his dilemma.
Here he was, an unhappily married man
with a chance to marry a woman with a
good income, a handsome face and figure,
and who was a social asset besides.
Theresa wasn’t happy married to him, but
then she wouldn’t under any circumstances
give him a divorce. He would, Oscar de-
cided, put off getting a job until he had
a fool-proof scheme worked out. Theresa
was an encumbrance, and she had to be
gotten out of the way.
For the next few weeks he began to
follow her from her place of work to her
residence near Third Ave. and 22nd Street.
He soon knew her schedule—Theresa had.
always been methodical, which was one of
the reasons they hadn’t clitked—and knew
to within five minutes when she arrived
home every night, what days she had off
so that she wouldn’t be missed when she
failed to show up for work, and exactly
who her friends were. None of them were
friends of his, and he made sure he wasn’t
“seen.
Oscar’s tracking of Theresa was the one
methodical thing he had ever done. He
had it: worked out perfectly; the time, the
place, the date, and his avenue of escape.
His alibi would be a juggling of hours
spent with Agnes; she wouldn't note the
time when he was with her.
Meanwhile, in those weeks of shadowing
he continued to borrow money from
Agnes. He got an occasional job playing
—
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door stealthily. When they reached the
service porch they separated and stood,
about five feet apart, on either side of
the door. Laherty swung the door open.
“All right,” he called. “Whoever you are,
come in here with your hands up. We’ve
got the plage surrounded. You can’t get
away.”
His answer was the roar of a forty-five
in the darkness. The heavy slug bounced
off the door jamb and sang an unhappy
‘song as it passed between the two officers.
The two patrolmen started shooting simul-
taneously. Their thirty-eights roared in
unison. Laherty emptied his gun. bciesnnas
fired three times.
From his post in his own yard Cahill
watched helplessly. He saw the flash of
the bandit’s gun before he heard the shot,
but was afraid to shoot at the bandit be-
cause of the danger. to his fellow officers.
The multiple flashes from the officers’ guns
followed immediately. Then the shadow
tottered backwards. The body rolled down
fifteen steps. Cahill heard it bump over
every one of them. He produced a flash-
light and directed it toward the bottom of
the steps. The beam revealed a shapeless,
crimson splashed bundle. A few feet away
he saw the forty-five. The prowler was
obviously dead. -
“It’s okay,” Cahill called to the officers.
“You got him. Are you fellows both all ¥
right?”
“Yeah, there’s no damage here excel
to the door jamb.”.
Later that night Serpilio identified the —
gunman as the one who had robbed him
of thirty-five dollars. The money was re-
covered in full. Because the man’s descrip-
tion tallied exactly with that of the robber
who had attempted to hold up The Irisher,
Ramos and several other witnesses were
taken to the morgue the next day and
shown the body. They all identified him
as the man who had shot Ramos at The
Irisher:
The bandit was identified as Harper
Lewis of San Francisco. While officers
were investigating his past record they —
stumbled head on into one more incon-
gruous fact concerning the dead man. The
day before his wild night of crime he had
been arrested for carrying a concealed
weapon and released on bail.
The gun he had been found carrying
then had been confiscated by the police,
but guns are easy to get these days. Too
easy for men like Harper Lewis.
Eprror’s Note: The names William and
Margaret Sills are fictitious.
MURDER MAESTRO PLEASE
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 25
porky paramours sighing mountainously
with delight. “Dankeshon,” he would say
when a woman brought a stein of beer
over to his piano, “Thank you.” And he
would take her fat fingers and implant on
them a kiss of gratitude. To women whose
husbands smelled of tripe and knackwurst,
and pickles, and herring, and .beer, the
maestro with the mascaraed hair and
fragrance of bay rum was something out
of their world.
One of the women who fell for him like
an under-baked strudel was Agnes Guth, a
42 year-old widow who had a great deal
in common with him. She also had a flair
for the artistic, calling herself a modiste,
which was simply a high-flown name for
her trade of designing queen-size dresses
for fat and frumpy fraus. and frauleins
who lived in the German-American colony
in the neighborhood of her brownstone
house on West 84th Street on Manhattan
Island.
Oscar first met her when he oat for
a wedding at the Casino in the autumn of .
1911, and the tall handsome woman stood
out like a beacon in the sea of boisterous
beer-drinkers who surged over the floor in
polkas and waltzes as Oscar played his
heart out. He spotted her early, and when
the bride’s concertina- and violin-playing
friends took over the entertainment duties,
Oscar sallied out onto the floor and got
an introduction.
“I was sure you were the bride,” Oscar
said, eyeing -her elegant lace bodice and
the shimmering satin gown. “And I
thought to myself, ‘What a lucky man the
groom is!’ That’s just what I thought.”
“But I’m not the bride,” Agnes laughed,
letting the schnapps and beer do their
worst to her austere reserve. “I’m com- |
pletely unattached and fancy-free.” She
gave Oscar a devilish wink. “There, I’ve
called your bluff!”
“Just give me your address and tell me
-when you'll be home,” Oscar chortled as
he wound up a sweeping waltz glide by
hugging her slim waist, “and I'll show you
how much I’m bluffing!”
Voct soon proved to Agnes that he
wasn’t kidding any more than a
tempest is when it uproots all things from
the ground and tosses them to its winds.
He was soon a nightly visitor at, the flat a
in the brownstone building where she
lived with her two sons. The two youths
tolerated Oscar only because their mother
seemed happy when her suave suitor was :
around.
But what neither they nor Agnes knew
was that there was another woman in ©
Oscar’s life, a woman named Theresa. -
Ordiparily, Agnes might not have worried
about the competition if she had known,
but it wasn’t ordinary competition:
Theresa was Oscar’s wife.
As for Theresa, who worked as a wait-
ress while her husband stroked piano keys ~ -
and the hands of enamored women, she eS
was used to her husband’s philanderings.
She had that odd faith some women have
that as long_as her husband played the
field and didn’t\single out one special dame
-her own marriage was secure. That might —
have been logical if she’d been married
to anyone but Oscar, for Theresa had what _
it takes. She was a comely blonde of 27,
with wide blue eyes and a gentle under-
standing w
while her |
on other
her to wor
who work,
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Oscar b
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Oscar spen
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But thins
in 1912 di
and he kne
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course, Wa
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Oscar b
apartment
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He did
their old
Theresa co
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known. B
divorce.
“You ki
she had te
about it.
ways and
.ing.”
Oscar w
ing, becau
his mind
fitted in r
had mov
them was
fired from
made life
not to be 4
ployment
came to
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Meanwh
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play for f
Howeve!
up with b
Ves ene)
VAGINIUN Wi is mi + ne , , NY ™ °
AGNER, William (wilmont) Leroy, wh, elec. NY (Erie) June 21, 19
| The CRIMSON
AT LONELY
Two New York State
troopers went toa farm-
house east of the little
town of Caneadea, N. Y.
,
| They were welcomed
| with a blazing shot-gun.
| This was the beginning
of New York state’s
greatest manhunt
HERE was an ominous note in
the sharp jangling of the tele-
phone in the home of Deputy
Sheriff Monroe D. Ray on Sep-
‘tember 9th, 1927. Horror pulsed
in the voice that came over the wire.
“A terrible thing has happened at the
Wagner farm, east of Caneadea!” the
voice cried. “Come as quickly as you
can!”
Abruptly the connection was broken.
Deputy Ray juggled the receiver furi-
ously. “Hello! Hello! Who is talking?”
It was evident that whoever had done
the telephoning had no intention of dis-
closing his identity. Ray paused only
long enough to secure his revolver, then
he clambered into his car and sent the
machine careening down the highway.
It is some twenty-five miles from Ray’s
home in Scio to the farm on which Wil-
The Wagner farmhouse
liam Wagner and his family lived east of
-Caneadea. Ray made the run in record
time. He swung the car into the littered
yard and stopped. He had hardly set foot
on the ground when he started back in
horror. In the back yard lay the out-
stretched figure of a man, clad in the
gray and black uniform of a New York
State Trooper. Ray went closer, bent
over the man.
The trooper lay in a widening pool
of blood, a terrible wound in his head.
He was ‘dead. The Deputy saw at
once that he had been struck by the
charge from a shotgun. The officer
turned and hurried toward the silent
house, leaving behind him the first
victim of rural New York’s most
cold-blooded police killing.
Ray noted as he entered the door
that several members of the Wagner
32
where two New York
State troopers were mur-
dered. 1 indicates the
window from which
the killer fired and 2
is the spot where one
of the troopers fell
Corporal A. E. Nelson
who did brilliant de-
tective work in trailing
the desperate murderer
of his comrades. In this
article, he reveals the
whole story in all its
fascinating details
him in
Ve only
ckmann
I think
re, eh?”
vegan to
g. But,
to gain
\lfred?”
la pop.”
pocket,
1 to run
a bottle
3 as the
k a little
ling. con-
er asked.
ie it and
vt to act
Sergeant
ame into
“I killed
yickmann
tting the
. of it are
combined
tly after
said she
nald, and
iy each.
| I asked
the pre-
here.
uid when
nd placed
uming and@®
» lying on
» the dog.
nd feet to
this point
iaults. He
in the bed,
stairs and
store and,
>PL OM.
arms first
nbrace, he
a while at
ued, “and
vyself and
wn to the
-ned to the
I picked
shoulders
d out into
ras parked.
the street
1e way out
knives.
we passed
and mother
d to Free-
down the
k where I
lights and
I had a
v. Four or
fe into her
palm of my
ll finish the
a little. I
covered her eyes with her dress, When:
I took the knife out she lifted her hand
so it covered the wound.”
Little Helen was buried. from the little
white parsonage that adjoined the church
’ «4, 0n. July First. .She was laid in the coffin
..174 dressed in the little white gingham dress
FTER THE MURDER, Volckmatin said he |
with, the ruffles at the bottom, which she
went home to bed. Early the next, was to have worn at the graduation exer-
morning,- he said, he drove to Cairo and... cises the night she disappeared.
beyond there, near Prattsville, mixed two; |’ Services were conducted by the Revererid
poisons with some water he carried from a,
roadside drinking fountain. He. said he.
drank this in an attempt at suicide, The
poison, an antiseptic, however, was too. v
- We are morally on the skids. Here we
much diluted, and wasn’t effective. Later,
when he came home he contemplated leap-
ing from his bedroom window, but again.
lost his nerve and couldn’t'go through with
it. ‘
Volckmann said he was going to destroy
the stained trousers but forgot them in his:
endeavor to kill himself. He said he hid
the murder knife in the cellar too, and later
led the troopers to it as he reconstructed
the crime. i
Alfred E. Volckmann, the boy’s influ-
ential father, was shocked when the troop-
ers notified him his son had made a: com-
plete confession. His mother, a tall, stately
silver-haired woman, was stricken with a
nervous breakdown. So convinced was
Volckmann of the innocence of his boy
that he hired Clermont G. Tennant, one of
the ablest attorneys in upstate New York,
to defend him.
So incensed were the townfolk of Cat-
skill, Greenville, and neighboring villages,
that crowds began to ominously appear
outside the jail. Murmurs of “lynch him”
could be heard.
It was necessary to remove Volckmann
later to Catskill General Hospital, although
authorities said this was because the youth
attempted suicide again by swallowing ‘io-
dine in his cell.
HEN INFORMED OF THE confession of
Volckmann, the lad who sang in his
choir alongside his murdered child, and
played the violin, the Reverend Mr. Glenn
bowed his head in sympathy for the dis-
traught parents of the slayer.
“Tam certainly sorry for the Volckmann
family,” he said. “Our tragedy is over,
but theirs is just beginning. I feel no spirit
of revenge, and I merely ask for justice.
But we have lost our child. The Bible says
‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,’
Big murder of our child should be paid
or!”
Glenn admitted that he suspected Volck-
mann since the youth led them to the scene
of the murder, but that he refused to be-
lieve the boy guilty because “he just
couldn’t think it possible.”
COURTESAN IN JADE
George W. Noble, with other detectives
summoned to assist the coroner, questioned
the inmates of the house and began an in-
spection of Helen Jewett’s- personal be-
longings and correspondence.
From Rosena Townsend’s glorified man-
sion of vice, where, by strange coincidence,
a mysterious early-morning visitor sought
a girl who, even then lay hacked to death
in an upstairs bedroom, the scene shifts,
for the time being, to the wooded outskirts *
of Augusta, Maine,
H™ TOO, IT SHOULD be mentioned that
this exploration into Helen Jewett’s
early life—the period between adolescence
and young womanhood—was undertaken
shortly after her murder at twenty-three
years of age, by George Wilke, private in-
vestigator and criminologist.
Joseph Casey, superintendent of Kingston
istrict of the Methodist Church, who said:
“We live in a day of moral degeneration.
In the last few years we have lost ground.
are, with one of our own—a beautiful girl
—destroyed by sin.”
[ TOOK THE impanelling of nearly 500
talesmen before a jury was picked for
the trial of Volckmann, which began in the
latter part of April, 1936. It was two weeks
before the jury was chosen.
At the triat Volckmann was pictured as
a “pampered” child and his crestfallen fa-
ther admitted his boy was referred to in
school by his classmates as “a sissie.”
Several times during the trial Volckmann
swooned in court, and once in jail made
‘another unsuccessful attempt at suicide.
But like the others this one too was weak-
hearted.
After listening to the pitiful story of the
Reverend and Mrs. Glenn, who traced their
arrival in this country to establish a com-
fortable home for their little family only
to have their efforts halted by a maniacal
slayer, the jury returned a quick verdict of
guilty in first-degree murder.
Glenn had hoped that Volckmann might
be committed to an asylum, but as execu-
tion in the electric chair was mandatory
under the murder conviction the country
minister wouldn’t interfere with the meting
out of justice.
VY oLckMANN, WHO WHILED his time away
waiting execution nonchalantly in
Greene County jail by playing on his dilap-
idated violin, was sentenced to die the first
week in January, 1937. His father, how-
ever, still fought for his only child.
Although the senior Volckmann made
several pleas to Governor Herbert Leh-
man to spare his boy’s life, young Volck-
mann was finally led into the execution
chamber at Sing Sing the evening of Feb-
ruary eleventh.
Unlike the “sissie” his father tried to
label him in an effort to save his warped
life, young -Volckmann walked stoically to
the electric chair, seated himself, and was
unmoved: as the electrodes were bound to
him, Without a‘murmur he paid with his
young life at 11:01 that evening for the
murder of the “Perfect Schoolgirl.”
From page 62
Moderately well-off, Wilke was a cham-
pion of the defenseless. He was familiar
with the inhumane, often hypocritical treat-
ment accorded women in Helen Jewett’s
profession; particularly when the authori-
ties,. under pressure of © public opinion,
found it necessary to cloak incompetence
with the mantle of pious amazement.
It took more-moral courage than the
. average New Yorker of 1836 possessed, to
offer a kindly word for a prostitute. Wilke
knew it, and Helen’s slaying found him
ready. He recognized the anger: of an
outraged public—when news of the murder
spread—for what it really’ was... not
indignation at the butchery of an unlucky
girl, but sanctimonious horror to discover
that vice flourished in its midst...
Helen’s life, so far as this story is con-
cerned,: begins as a motherless littie-girl of
nine. Her true name was Dorcas Doyen.
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TT LLLLiLitiit teen an
98
=
~—
»
ory was believ-
mnsfolks as well
he troopers not
Volckmann be-
lex—it was pos-
een picked up by
» took her for a
inally assaulting
childish lips.
his immediately
igence and per-
good parents to
gers.
riff Ferris and -
ea it is just pos-
ies—”
ind kidnap, but
assault.”
nk, Lieutenant ?”
thinking until I
1 again. He may
tell us.. By the
seen Trooper
ght walked into
his arm he car-
oned Lieutenant
; the three police
ff’s office in the
| the package.
of men’s trousers,
red substance.
» it examined im-
sted. i
word. Haste is
car, Knight, and
tory in Troy and
the morning.
Ferris inquired
ether they had a
oom, Sager mo-
Sergeant @rooper
at Greenville.
my conversation,
pen your eyes.
1 on the telephone
Lieutenant Sager.
iome immediately
1 Volckmann. Try
nd when you get’
ie Trooper’s Bar-
e you there later.
want to talk to
1 were wide open.
pect young Volck-
Sheriff,” Sager
the door and into
. when Sager got
ugh time getting
uired of Sergeant
irally was worried,
ier is raising Cain
‘ed a lawyer and
up the Governor.
New York, you
Where’s the boy
said he was sick.
that didn’t agree
turned over a few
little worried. I
it us to question
So we laid off.”
t so sure this kid
this, but just the
hecking.”
in do before turn-
“Yes, Jim. Will you check Jersey City
cnthorees on Volckmann. He was born
there.”
T= SERGEANT GOT OUT A TELETYPE to
Jersey City police before excusing him-
self and going off to sleep. As all the
troopers had put in a busy day, the ‘fieu-
tenant preferred to place a guard over
tioning until the morning.
EL Oe antag ink
The following morning word was re- |
ceived from Jersey City police.
Volckmann, it was learned, was born in |
Jersey City, and at the time of his birth
was only three pounds in weight. He was
an abnormal child. He was eighteen months
old before he walked, and twenty months
old before he talked. He was sort of a
problem child. In school he-was called
“sissie” because, usually, he played with the
girls instead of boys, ;
On one occasion it was said he attempted
to maltreat a young girl playmate: and was
finally removed from the school by his
parents, ves
He left Jersey City at the age of thirteen
and his parents took him with them to
New York. After a few years in New
York City, the Volckmanns moved to
Greenville and opened the butcher store
and general shop for young Volckmann to
occupy his tind and try to bring him back
to normal.
As Sager finished reading the report the
telephone rang.
“Say, Lieutenant, these newspaper guys
threaten to blow the roof off on this story
if they’re not let in on your whereabouts
and apprised of what’s going on!”
he voice on the other end of the tele-
phone was Sheriff Ferris,
“Keep ’em happy for a while, Sheriff,”
Sager answered. “Tell them that maybe
in a short while we’ll have something for
them.” :
“But they are hep to the fact you have
young Volckmann in custody.” :
“How did they find that out?” Sager
was a little worried. :
‘T DON’T KNow. But I guess it’s Volck-
mann’s parents. Old man Volckmann
was down to see Mr. Glenn this morning,
and he made a plea with him to have the
troopers return his boy home.”
“That’s bad news, Sheriff. All we can
do is stall off the reporters for a while
and try and keep Mr. Volckmann happy.
We'll have to work fast.”
“Tl try and do it.”
After Petits hung up, Sager walked in-
to the bedroom ‘and awakened Volckmann.
“Good morning, Alfred. How are you
feeling ?”
“Not very good. I’ve got pains in my
stomach. Why are you keeping me here?”
“Well, we just want to refresh your
memory a little. You know about the night
you last saw Helen? You can be of great
help to us, Alfred.”
“Well, gee. Didn’t I help you enough in
locating the body? I thought I was going
to get a medal for that, and instead you
bring me here.”
“We're not going to keep you long. By
the way, Alfred, did you like Helen?”
Volckmann, whose face was a ghastly
gray, snickered a little as he answered.
“Sure I liked Helen. She was swell.”
The snicker turned to a wry smile that
made his long face, with high cheekbones,
look sickly in the early morning shadows,
“How well did you like Helen, Alfred ?”
Sager continued.
“TI just liked her I guess. We both sang
in the choir in her father’s church, and we
used to play together.”
“Did you ever kiss Helen?” Sager pre-
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this question and turned a reassuring ‘smile
upon Volckmann, :
“Ah, gee, no, But sometimes I wished
she would kiss me.» She was kind of swell,”
ane SUSPICIONS MOUNTED as he played
. on the abnormal mind of the gangling,
aekyass youth ‘sitting on the bed before
im. *
His questioning was interrupted by the
entrance of Trooper Knight.
Knight called the lieutenant out f the
f rium
ant the modere
Gass
———~———— —" Gry room, There he produced the trousers that
i mi bgete RO. eters ap a age =| |_were taken from the cellar of Volckmann’s
| your res Beet of tar | | butcher shop. : i :
| sect | hae blood, all right, Lieutenant,” said
| AD pW ga Momalee emedea’s o0 ee es eee | : night.
1: Rigas Ce aes Pepe ey CA | “Just as I thought,” answered Sager,
-—— confident he was going to get an early
break in the case.
Both Knight and Sager, the latter carry-
ing the trousers, went back into the room.
Sager confronted Volckmann with the
trousers.’ Een
“See these nice bloody trousers, Alfred,
with all the grease on them, they’re yours,
aren’t they?
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Sager and Knight expected the boy to
deny the ownership.
“Yes,” he replied sharply. “They are
mine.”
Astonished, Sager shot back another
question at the frightened youth.
very pair band tailored to your measure, “And the blood. Is that Helen Glenn’s
match sent FREE for your O, K. before blood ?”
pants are made, Fit guaranteed. Send if #
of cloth or vost od ay NTS COM No. Not at all,” Volckmann answered,
“T was cutting some meat in the shop the
other day and cut my finger and I wiped
the blood off on my trousers.” :
Wins then buried the trousers in the
Just put tasteless Cravex in his coffee, tea, liquor or food. cel ar. . :
Hs craving for Whiskey, Beer ot wine reecription, Tones This caught Volckmann a little off guard,
Bite’ doesn't upset stomach. | but he quickly responded after a moments
‘be given secretly if desired.
“Mailed postpaid In plain wrapper hesitation : ‘ j
for $1.00. GOD if desired. plus a few cents additional “T was going to get rid of them anyway.
f ,
And, well, I just threw them away.’
A SPECIAL , | "ROOPER KNIGHT THEN TOOK OUT another
ZO -AK TONIC FOR ME N package from a briefcase and gave it
A registered physician’s formula. Con- | to the lieutenant who unwrapped it and
tains quick-acting vegetable stimulants | almost pushed a shiny, thin-bladed knife
widely recognized by medical profession into his face.
lus adequate amounts of ESSENTIAL ree P . ‘
Vitamin Concentrates to build up health “This is one of your knives, isn’t it Al-
— strength. Belt by _ gon’ Gressints’ ed?”
ooklet by physician free, ent sealed. “ ’ ” ey
Zoak Co., Inc. 62 W. 45th St., New York. Well, I don’t know,” Volckmann an
swered, and asked the troopers to let him
; 1] look at it. After a close examination,
W O M E N Volckmann denied he ever saw it.
bd Knight left the room and presently re-
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Alfred was becoming visibly shaken
“What are you trying to do? Make me
but’ widely, known for |. 1 killed Helen or something?” He
mann. ‘This time they smiled at him in
friendly mien.
“We're your friends, Alfred. We only
want you to tell the truth.” :
“But I am telling the truth,” Volckmann
protested.
“T know that,” said Sager, “but I think
you could tell us just a little bit more, eh?”
“Well, maybe,” and Volckmann began to
grin.
ap pIDN’r JUMP at this opening. But,
instead, made another attempt to gain
the youth’s confidence.
“Ts there something you want, Alfred ?”
Sager inquired.
“Ves, I'd like a bottle of soda pop.”
Sager picked a nickel from his pocket,
handed it to Knight and told him to run
down the street and get Alfred a bottle
of orange pop.
The gawky boy licked his lips as the
trooper returned, and himself took a little
swig. He then praised the refreshing. con-
tents of the bottle.
“Are you thirsty, Alfred?” Sager asked.
“l’m dying with thirst. Give me it and
I’ll tell you everything.”
“Eyerything?” Sager tried not to act
excited.
“Yes, everything,” and just as Sergeant
Cunningham and other troopers came into
the room, Volckmann added: “I killed
Helen Glenn!”
After he finished the bottle, Volckmann
dictated a long statement admitting the
brutal slaying of Helen. Excerpts of it are
as follows:
“Helen Glenn came into my combined
grocery and butcher store shortly after
6:15 Pp. M. last Wednesday. She said she
was looking for her brother, Donald, and
bought three lollipops for a penny each.
“Her beauty attracted me and I asked
her to come upstairs with me on the pre-
text’that I had the lollipops up there.
“T Jed her into the bedroom and when
she got inside I locked the door and placed
her on the bed. She began screaming and
I gagged her. There was a rope lying on
the floor that was used to tie up the dog.
With this rope I tied her arms and feet to
the bedpost.”
1D suemge OF THE CONFESSION at this point
are unprintable.
He said he committed two assaults. He
left the unconscious child lying on the bed,
and at 7:15 Pp. M. he went downstairs and
turned with a long, broad, wooden fixture unlocked the front door of the store and,
with hooks on it, holding several knives in a short time later, his mother came in.
“With my mother we waited on some
Alfred admitted it was the knife-holder customers until shortly after nine P. M.”
Then, he admitted, with his arms first
ported in many unueadl, “Tsn’t that funny, Alfred?” Lieutenant flung about his mother in fond embrace, he
+ figicult, > | Sager seemed amused. “We took this knife drove her home.
“We listened to the radio for a while at
about ten o’clock I excused myself and
said L was going to drive down to the
drugstore to get a soda. I returned to the
store and went upstairs again.
“Helen was still unconscious. I picked
.,-her up and flung, her.. over my shoulders
QUICKERACTING | Now do you remember ever seeing it be- home,”. the confession continued, “and
; oe nie
began to cry like a baby. “I want’to £0" 254 carried her downstairs and out into
the side street where my car was parked.
“We'll take. you home, Alfred, just aS [| was sure no one saw me as the street
soon as you tell us the truth. Now what was absolutely deserted. On the way out
did you do with the knife you killed Helen | picked out one of the butcher knives.
“T saw her move once just as we passed
Miaecet reusedies inate vecmoninie, M. 1 a motte SON. tadlnosd ’ Trooper Knight had taken up the ques-. the parsonage where her father and mother
nt re: je
3 months, Menstrua ves wonderful foe”? H.W. “4 other remedies
a ved week flay.” A. F. “9 doses Telieved 7 weeks
wor!
than Lieutenant Sager.
ra) surprise and ha) piness when after missing 2 Menstrua
EE ae Mtl ui ate aed Meron
»
NOTHING BETTER THAN MENSTRUA
tioning and was.a little more to the point. lived. I. drove out on the road to Free-
hold, Half way out I turned down the
“You do say I killed Helen,” and Alfred Red Mill Road to Basic Creek where I
again cried like a baby. The troopers were parked the car, turned out the lights and
becoming a little nervous and wished they carried her down to the water, I had a
when you order MENSTRUA, we will not send literature telling, of | had just a little more,evidence besides the flashlight. I turned it down low. Four or
n
something better and o earet ior ene only one relief sompound——
the beat we can ure! In
WaT ond Sete ree srdthy adam wteteet ey fe96 | Keni awh
Sedan (led wae day eealved postpaid tn pin verlee, $7.00 | knives to confront him with..:
PURITY PRODUCTS COMPANY
6001 Harper Dept. 4P3
wwe olfer you our BEST product | bloody and greasy trousers and thin-bladed five cars passed. I put the knife into her
Beas Bir chest and drove it in with the palm of my’
Lieutenant Sager called Knight aside, hand. I thought I might as well finish the
Chicago | and presently the two returned to Volck- job. She gasped and moved a little. I
ob NAUTRS ce Rtas
covered her
I took the k
so it covered
FTER THE
went hx
morning, - he
beyond there
poisons with
roadside drit
drank this in
poison, an a
much diluted,
when he cam
ing from his
lost his nerve
it,
Volckmann
the stained tr
endeavor to |
the murder k:
led the troop
the crime.
Alfred E.
ential father,
ers notified h
plete confessic
silver-haired
nervous brea
Volckmann o
that he hired
the ablest att
to defend hin
So incense
skill, Greenvi
that crowds
outside the ja
could be hear
It was nece
later to Catsk
authorities sa)
attempted sui
dingy in his ce
HEN INF
Volckma
choir alongsi:
played the vic
bowed his he
traught paren
“T am certa
family,” he s
but theirs is ji
of revenge, a:
But we have |
‘an eye for an
The murder «
for!”
Glenn admit
mann since th:
of the murde:
lieve the bo:
couldn’t think
COURT!
George W. }
summoned to
the inmates o:
spection of |
longings and «
From Roser
sion of vice,
a mysterious «
a girl who, ev
in an upstairs:
for the time b
of Augusta, )
H® TOO, 1
this exp!
early life—th«
and young w
shortly after
years of age,
vestigator anc
“ prance e eT IE
% qa OPS EALTT a
Qala
(a oy 4
ge
cncmmerann EP
eee
M4 i
PEAR
A 3
: me pcreerenaere 2 geo na
\ i
IF my
My 2 5 me a .
pe om x a.
a . . ;
a
.T. is
[ : ‘ ‘eased ‘T |
is, f P
i Eeti
zg on
Sater tae
Nn el po
BY |\CHARLES
Two deaths seem natural enough
ry
on for
! n
telegram rais
&e
i We sean
peptisnrome mre gs ignttin
Steere
plus-a.mysterious ~
ed doubts in s
tel ey iA
ome minds
i)
|
Faae ce We we
1h Sie CA
—
so 5,
Henee 5,
angry ‘and; 1
1 of you. of IRIE
pped out of the
though all that
me. If there is.
‘t swamp is it!”
as a hearing on
iative but there
estion of charg-
‘ceau with his’: }°
her. admission
: so. In fact, the
-opped as quick-
the French did
iit the presence.
wamp yet there
tting around. §it.:
knew what had
their number—
hey blame Mar-
aptiste Marceau
‘rr remained in
na for. several: -
got’s popularity
still as beautiful
young French-
rget the picture
tearing through
rein.
ccoffed at super-
till remembered
whispered that
was no longer a
returned froin ae
she had become -
And not one
French blades
in the footsteps
Darkness.
this case is still _
ames have been
story.
air at Sing Sing!
of the day that
dead, Waite had
1 contemptuous
t, a local physi-
sed astonishment
Mr. Fort. : d
d seen Fort the
iin view of his
time, found his -
z. When Waite
go into detail
ith, he put him-
h chair. hx
used by Waite’s
ole Detectives
’ , . Ne Tit 1 ‘ i ay
a ‘
‘ conduct, Dr. Parnet sent a tele- uit
‘ gram to Wally Fort. Still unsure _ There was plenty of opportunity
of what. he suspected, he signed
| a false name to'the telegram. He
‘suggested an autopsy. Bo
Young Fort used no false name
when he telegraphed the New
York police. 4’
\£.So, two, hours before the cre-
Even-the first cursory glance of ©
“the post mortem showed arsenic. .
". Once given the scent, the police
- «quickly discovered some rather
astonishing facts.
+) ° This lovin
husband who had
madé his little wife so very, very.
happy, was keeping a woman who
called herself Mrs. A. Jones!
In a drawer in Dr. Waite’s
. library was found a small bottle.
It was half full of a white pow-
‘der. Half-filled, it held 35 grains .
“of arsenic. Three grains will kill
an adult!
The druggist’s label on'the bot-
-. tle led the police to a fashionable
- store in the sixties. The drug- .
gist, when asked, about the buyer
. of the arsenic, described Dr.
_ Waite very clearly. Of course, no
druggist will casually give out
‘arsenic like candy. He had
checked Dr. Waite’s references,
had even phoned a Dr. Schull,
_who had vouched for Waite.
Dr. Schull was the next to be.
_ questioned.. He assured the po-
lice that he knew Waite very .
well and that Waite had said he
wanted the arsenic to kill some
*. cats which had been keeping him,
’- awake nights. :
Dr. Schull talked on a while’
telling the police what a splendid
‘fellow Waite was. Then, in the
"course of conversation he told the
police how interested Waite was
in bacteriology:
“As a matter. of fact,” Dr.,
Schull said, “it was on my say-so
‘ -* that Waite took a course in bac-
7 : time in following up. |
ae March, 1942 ee
teriology. I referred him to my
’. own professor.”
HIS was a hot tip which the’
‘police, under the direction of
Detective John Cuniffe of the
District Attorney’s office, lost no.
It bore fruit.in short’ order.
in the laboratory ‘at Cornell for
‘Waite to get access to deadly germ
- culture. The professor who taught
Waite had given orders to the |
laboratory to let Waite have any-
thing he needed for his experi-
" shapleger ; yoments.*)00)
mation, the police took the body. ° ty seat
” Thelt investigation of the wom-
an that Dr. Waite had been see-
‘ing revealed that she was Mrs.
Ruth Nullen, ‘the beautiful: wife
.of: & prosperous business man.
_ | Waite!had studied foreign lan-
“ guages with her, 'goné to musi-
_cales, learned to play the piano’
and finally wooed her away from
her husband. .
This was what he had been
| doing when his — dutiful wife
thought he was “being called’ in
consultation, by New York’s lead-
ing dentists”! yeh
Private detectives called in by |
Wally Fort were the ones who
had discovered the first details
of Waite’s love life.
The private detectives were in —
conference with District Attor-
ney Swan, the day that Cuniffe
called up to tell Swan of his sin-
ister suspicions. ;
-The crime was so incredibly
horrible that Cuniffe still hadn’t ,
_ arrested Waite. He wanted to be
sure Waite was trapped so that
no éarthly power could save him. .
-Cuniffe went to see Waite and
politely told him that the District
Attorney wanted to. speak to him.
Theré was no) hint: of the real
reason.’ 0h :
The DA. told Waite that great
quantities of arsenic had been
found in Mr. Fort’s body, and the’
jaws of the trap started to tighten.
“I read somewhere,” said Dr.
Waite, “that arsenic ‘is. used) in
embalming bodies. Do you think
that, might account for it?”
“No. You see its use is illegal
in the state of New York.”
The D.A. paused and then said
‘reflectively, “As district attorney
I have a great deal of power.”
' Waite narrowed his eyes but
there was no other indication that
,. he was very much interested in
i ae
é
what Swan was saying.
“The embalmer might have
used arsenic. You know, it rests
entirely on my say-so whether or
not this investigation continues, iy
or stops right here.” - ‘
Swan waited. Would Waite
take the bait? '
Later Waite admitted that he
N almost bit. He considered offer-
ing Swan. the huge bribe for
which Swan seemed to be look-
ing. However, before he answered
he thought .of a different angle
to follow.
' Therefore it was with a com-
pletely blank and bland expres-
sion that Waite said, “I’m ex-
hausted. from all I’ye_ been
through. I’d like to get a good
night’s rest and then talk to you —
tomorrow.”
\Swan was disappointed but
concealed it. It was with mutual .
expressions of esteem that they
said goodbye. me
- A little later that day Waite
visited Henry Bane the embalmer.
This was the angle he had
thought of. abate
“T know it’s illegal to use ar-
senic for embalming,” said Waite,
.“but how much will you take to
fake some samples of embalming
fluid with arsenic in it?”
Bane, who was'a timid man,
hemmed and hawed and finally
said, “Well, I’d be taking an aw-
ful chance. I might consider it
for $10,000. In bills, mind you, |
_not a check!”
Waite had a hard time getting
the money by the next morning,
but somehow he got it together.
Early that morning, he pressed
nine of the ten thousand dollars
in Bane’s nervous hand. The last
thousand he promised after Bane
had sworn his false testimony.
Waite had the other thousand
-ready for his next step. Straight
to the druggist who had sold him
the arsenic, went our deadly doc-
tor. He was too late to bribe the
druggist to take his name off the
poison register. The District At-
torney’s men had preceded him ©
and the records were in the'D.A.’s
safe! |
OETA TREN TREE LITE NOTRE TIN mI
The bride, Clara Peck, center, was next on timetable of death.
. But a secret investigation by amateur detectives saved her, making
her the lone survivor of a murder plot that took the lives of
her smiling bridegroom, right, her mother, left, and her father.
\" orld War I guns were thundering but the United States had
not as yet entered the fray, so the most important event to most of
the folk of Grand Rapids, Mich., and certainly the high point of
the 1915 social season, was the wedding that united Clara Louise
Peck and Dr. Arthur Warren Waite.
For in addition to the wealth represented by both the bride and
groom, the church ceremony and subsequent brilliant reception
marked the peak of a rags to riches romance. It also marked the
beginning, though there was no hint of it at the festivities, of a
different and far more sombre story.
John E. Peck, Clara’s father, who was 72 at the time of his
daughter’s marriage, was a very rich man, having made a fortune
as a drug manufacturer, Arthur Warren, Waite’s father, on the
other hand, was a vegetable vendor—highly respectable but
sparsely endowed with this world’s goods.
The difference in the two stations in life seemed innocuous while
Clara Louise and Arthur toddled together to the same primary
school. Through grammar school, there was no problem. But when
they neared the end of their high school careers and were still
looking moon-eyed at each other, Father Peck thought it appro-
priate to make a few things clear. When he had finished explaining
himself, Clara Louise and Arthur understood that while the youth
was held in high esteem by Mr. Peck, it was nevertheless necessary
for his daughter, when the time came for her marriage, to enter a
union that was ‘‘advantagéous.”
The elder Peck was not the kind of a man whose wishes were
taken lightly, Reluctantly, and with a few tears, the youngsters
accepted the father’s decision and took their separate roads—
Arthur to work his way through the University of Michigan, and
Clara Louise to enter the social world.
In Clara Louise’s case, however, the ways of society did not
lead to the altar. When Arthur Waite returned to Grand Rapids
in early 1915, after an absence of more than ten years, she was
still single. Presently, she was fervently glad that one of her virtues
had been patience.
In avery subdued, and very well-bred manner, Arthur Waite’s
re-appearance among the scenes of his youth was much in the
style of the return of a conquering hero. One of his first acts
was to deposit $20,000 in cash in a local bank—the news of which
spread rapidly. Then he made a round of calls on old friends, and
modestly allowed them to draw him out on his fabulous career of
the past decade,
At the University of Michigan, he said, he had attended the
School of Dentistry and emerged with a dental degree. Following
his graduation, he took further courses at the University of Glas.
gow and wound up with a medical degree.
Then, in oblique reference to his healthy bank account, he ex-
plained that he practiced for a while in London, specializing in
surgery, and: “did not do badly, at all.” But he tired of London, and
moved on to Cape Town, South Africa. There, he continued to
prosper financially—by means of his practice, and in other ways.
These latter had to do with speculation in mining stocks and in
the purchase of extensive ranch holdings [Continued on page 77]
43
aa _—
: his victim from
struggle? If she
{ only one man
turned to a type-
ust been put on
atement of the
overed the body.
had repeated his
ord for word. He
n, had dozed off,
-slam and a man
1 the statement,
eted themselves
is Edwin Black.
d that as part of
given his place
Motor Corpora-
hird Street and
e and called the
rvice company.
omas E. Black
‘w months,” the
nes from Pine
lame?”
him ‘Eddie.’ He
orning. I don’t
him.”
e named Betty
ced.
of ours.”
her?”
always wanted
ame in. He was
boasted yes-
er into going
‘d up as an offi-
ther you ought
Black, the fel-
ody,” the officer
ment and seems
we don’t want
te killed Betty
es to go at once
rch for bloody
both Black and
ho arrived first,
tered the room.
ou saw running
night?” Fink
ver. “I’m not
might be the
broke out an-
who was with
p, and I think
what happened
but he said in
Id I have been
ping last night.
can vouch for
” Fink contra-
ur word for it
hing to connect
they can vouch
ind woke them
I can tell you
at, Black. You
nstead of going
ain soon after-
ith Betty Jane.
and your light
sught you were
out to the Hill-
*incing. Then
drove the
to some se-
... There you
[ don’t know
whether you meant to strangle her, but
you did.
“Then you became terrified. You had
just been seen with her at the Hilltop
and knew you would be suspected. Your
clothes were bloody and you didn’t dare
attempt a runout. You concocted a bold
plan. You would get yourself an alibi,
then help establish your innocence by
reporting the .-murder yourself. You
drove the car home with the dead girl
sitting in the front seat beside you. You
parked across the street from your own.
building. You went in and washed carey
fully, hid the bloody clothes somewhere
until you could dispose of them, fixed
your bed to look as though it had been
slept in, then went to Frank Wells’ room
and told them about the scream you'd
heard and the girl in the car. Betty Jane
didn’t scream in front of the house. She
couldn’t scream after you were through
with her. She was dead—murdered by
you.”
Black wet his lips. “I—I didn’t kill her,”
he cried. “I’ll admit I was with her, but
she drove me home. Later I heard her
scream and found her car still in front
of the house.”
But a few minutes later a call came in ©
from the detectives who had been search-
ing Black’s room. They had found a
blood-stained jacket, trousers, shirt,
shorts and handkerchief under a pile of
clothing in Black’s closet. Told of the
discovery, Black soon broke down and
admitted his guilt.
Black made a voluntary statement. He
said that he had kept asking Betty Jane
McCall to go out with him and she had
finally agreed. She had met him with her
car near his home and they had gone to
the Hilltop. They had spent the evening
dancing and she had seemed to enjoy his
company.
On the way home, he had driven. He
had stopped the car on a lonely road and
had put his arms around her and tried
to kiss her. She had resisted him, She
had then told him she was disappointed
in his conduct and did not intend to keep
another date she had just made with
him.
“I'd had a few drinks and her attitude
got me mad,” Black went on. “I decided
to kiss her anyway. She struggled like
a wildcat, but I was determined and I
won out. Then I guess I must have lost
my head. The kiss wasn’t enough. We
struggled some more and she finally
yielded to me entirely. I must -have had
my hands around her throat, but I don’t
remember. I know that she struck her
head on a door handle and I saw she was
bleeding pretty badly. When she went
limp on me, I thought she was uncon-
scious from her head wound.
“I was frightened and drove back to
town. I looked at her again and was afraid
she might be dead. I didn’t know what
to do, but I figured if she was still living
she ought to be taken to the hospital. If
she were dead, I knew I’d be in for it.
I went up and changed my clothes, put-
ting on pajama tops and clean pants. I
made the room look as though I'd slept
there. Then I woke the Wells. They really
thought I’d been in my room all night.
When we found Betty Jane was dead, I
agseed to report it to the police, to divert
suspicion from myself.
“That’s the whole story. But it’s not
murder. I didn’t plan to kill her. It was
an accident. I wasn’t even positive she
was dead until the coroner said so.”
“Black, we’re going to have to put that
up to the jury at your trial,” Fink said.
“You're under arrest on a charge of first
degree murder.”
During the prosecution’s preparation
of the case for trial, Black’s background
in his native city of Pine Bluffs was gone
into. It was found that in spite of his
clean-cut appearance and disarmingly
genteel manner, he already had a history
of sex offenses. Although he was married,
he had on one occasion attempted to rape
a teen-aged girl, though she had escaped
from him,
During the war, Black had gone over-
seas. In an-effort to escape front-line
duty, he had attempted to cut off several
toes. He had failed, but later had been
given a medical discharge as a psycho-
neurotic.
Some months after his arrival home,
he beat his pregnant wife so hard that
she had a miscarriage.
In view of Black’s record, the county
prosecutor anticipated that the defense
would .claim insanity. He therefore had
an exhaustive mental examination made
of him at the state hospital. Dr. George
W. Jackson, the superintendent, reported
that in his opinion Black was sane. y
Black went to trial in the Pulaski
County Circuit Court before Judge Gus
Fulk on December 6, 1948. He was con-
victed and a few months later died in
Arkansas’ electric chair. ;
ee names Raymond Dillon and Edward
Schwartz are fictitious to protect the identity of
persons innocently involved in the investigation.—
The Editors.)
Wedding Bells Tolled a Dirge
[Continued from page 43]
in British East Africa. It was easy to con-
clude from what the 28-year-old doctor
said that his cash in the Grand Rapids
bank was merely the skimming of assets
worth many times that amount. :
Inevitably, of course, word of Arthur
Waite’s return to town with impressive
financial wealth reached the ears of Clara
Louise’s father. Inevitably, too, Waite
was invited to the Peck house, where he
was given to understand that now no
parental objections stood in the way of
his friendship with Clara Louise. The
two people looked at each other, and
apparently still liked what they saw.
Their mutual reactions seemed under-
standable to everyone. Dr. Waite was tall,
slim and good looking. His manners were
.
polished and his smile was irresistible.
Clara Louise was dark and statuesque. In
speaking of her, people used the words
“striking” and “handsome.” She was
a warm hearted, captivating girl.
And so the two were married, on.Sep-
tember 9, 1915, in one of Grand Rapids’
most fashionable weddings. The Rev. Dr.
A. W. Wishart sealed the union, kissed
the bride and wished the couple a long
and happy life. Dr. Wishart, as it later
developed, was to prove himself a man
of many parts.
Among the expressions of good will
showered on the newlyweds was a most
substantial one by the father of the bride.
For a wedding present, he handed over
a check for $18,000, and accompanied it
with the announcement that every month
they would receive a check for $300.
Acknowledging that his new son-in-law
needed no financial help, Mr. Peck de-
clared: “It’s meant to be just pin money.”
Dr. and Mrs. Waite did not tarry long
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NOME Gis cs ces v6 wanes sce SPdieai odie: r
DW Addr hice iets veces sectees |
A 77
Ry ee
cr
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rt ee
pias Sint
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ORI Sy oP
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64 REAL DETECTIVE TALES ann MYSTERY STORIES
career to wheedle him out of money for further instruc-
tion in singing.
Her husband, Harry Mack Horton, said that he was
aware of his wife’s friendship for Waite and believed it
an innocent one. He likened his wife to “a dove among
the crows of the world.”
Following which they departed to sign her up for a
vaudeville engagement.
Reluctantly now there came forward the Dr. A. A.
Moore who had attended both Mr. and Mrs. Peck in
their last illnesses. He had been family physician of the
Waites and he was loth to give evidence against the
young dentist, but, after an inward struggle, had con-
vinced himself that he should report what he knew.
Dr. Waite, he said, had sought him out on the day
after his return from Mr. Peck’s funeral and had dis-
cussed with him the finding of arsenic in the aged man’s
body.
“Waite asked me if there was any discernible dif-
ference between the effect upon a body of arsenic ad-
ministered before death and that of arsenic injected in
embalming fluid,” said Dr. Moore, “I told him there
was a marked difference, and he appeared worried and
said that in that case things looked bad for him, since
he was suspected of killing his father-in-law.” __
Immediately District Attorney Swann ordered the
watch upon Waite secretly doubled and that. night his
home was surrounded by detectives,
That night, too, Waite swallowed some powerful drug,
was Found by a servant in delirium and was rushed to
Bellevue Hospital in serious condition.
ETECTIVES SCHINDLER and Cunliff now had
the opportunity for which they had been waiting—
a chance to go over Waite’s apartment thoroughly. Pre-
viously their hands had been tied by the lack of evidence
to justify a search warrant and the desire not to afford
Waite an opportunity to sue them for damages if they
entered without such a warrant and found nothing in-
criminating.
One of their first discoveries was that Waite kept
under lock and key many slides of deadly germs and
bottles of narcotics and poisons and that his library con-
tained many books on germs and poisons.
Simultaneously it was being learned that Waite had
obtained arsenic “to kill cats for experimental purposes”
from a medical friend and that, just two weeks after his
marriage he had begun an intensive study of pathology
and microscopic biology. and made purchases of germs
and cultures from various sources:
Suspicious that, but not conclusive evidence that he
had murder in his mind.
Then Dora Hillier, negro maid in the Waite home, .
gave something upon which to pin a definite accusation
of the dentist.
“A few days before Mr. Peck died,” the woman said,
“Dr, Waite came into the kitchen where I was preparing
to ladle out the soup for dinner. He took a small bottle
from his pocket and said: ‘This is father’s medicine. He
objects to taking it, so I’ll put it in his soup and he’ll
never know he has taken it.’ ete
“Mr. Peck took just one spoonful of soup, said it was
bitter and didn’t eat any niore.
“Then he asked for a cup of tea. While I was prepar-
ing it Dr. Waite came out to the kitchen again, pulled out
the same bottle and poured a little of its contents in the
tea. He said that Mr. Peck had not been fooled the first
time, but he might be now.
“Mr. Peck drank the tea, but he made a face and said
to his daughter: ‘Clara, both the soup and the tea are
abominable tonight. You ought to more careful.”
In Bellevue Hospital Dr. Waite, recovering from the
effects of the drug he had swallowed, protested he had
merely taken an overdose of sleeping powders and had
not attempted suicide.
“Why should I want to kill myself?” he demanded.
When his condition became better a day or two later
he was told that the grand jury had indicted him for
murder and that the man sitting at his bedside was De-
tective Schindler and that he was under arrest and would
be removed to the Tombs prison as soon as his condition
permitted.
Waite pondered upon this for several hours; then he
turned suddenly to the detective and said evenly: “I’ve
played a deep game, officer, and I’ve lost. I killed them
both. I killed Mrs. Peck by giving her a lot of germs
of all kinds mixed together. When it was time for her
to die I gave her a big shot of morphine.
“I tried germs on Mr. Peck. The action of the germs
was too slow. . He would not die. So I gave him arsenic,
and when that, too, proved slow I chloroformed him.
That killed him.”
Schindler at once sent for the district attorney, and in
his presence and that of two assistants Waite repeated
his confession,
He-had hoped, Waite said, that Peck’s body would-be
cremated and thus render him safe. With the discovery
of the arsenic in Peck’s body, he had rushed back to New
York, called Kane, the embalmer, and offered him
$25,000 to swear, if the need arose, that there was
_ arsenic in the erhbalming fluid used in Peck’s body.
His meeting with Kane, witnessed by Detective Cun-
liff, had been for the purpose of paying the embalmer
$9,000 as a first installment. It was to cash a check for
that amount that Cimiotti, the garage man, had gone to.
the bank and the man who came back with him from the
bank was a paying teller who wanted to assure himself
that Waite in person wanted the money. Kane, it may
be mentioned here, corroborated the payment to him
and gave up the money he had received.
“What was the motive for the murders, Waite?” the
district attorney asked.
“The Peck fortune,” was the cool reply. “I intended
to kill Percy Peck, too, and later on my wife, poor little
girl, Then all of the Peck wealth would have been
mine.”
Waite went to trial soon afterward and, step by step,
the state outlined the circumstantial evidence against him
to corroborate his confession.
Waite’s grief-stricken wife even took the stand against
him, without objection from the defense, Waite himself
appeared as little disturbed by her preserice in the wit-
ness box as he had been by that of the other witnesses.
Probably no other man in the history of New York
state displayed as little interest in a trial with his own
life at stake. Waite, it appeared, was resigned to—even
courted—the death in the electric chair for which the
prosecution asked. .
His one flicker of interest came when the state unex-
pectedly produced the mysterious sender of the telegram
signed “K. Adams” which had put the law on Waite’s
trail.
She was Miss Elizabeth B. Hardwick, of Somerville,
New Jersey, and she lived in the home of Dr. Jacob Cor-
nell, who at one time had treated Mr. Peck, but who had
not been summoned when he was seized with what was
to be his fatal illness.
Happening to be in the neighborhood of the Waite
apartment when he heard Peck was dead, Dr. Cornell
stopped in to pay his condolences. From that visit he
went home and, after thinking it over, ordered Miss
Hardwick to send the telegram to Percy: Peck. It had
been sig:
physician
picions
founded
Dr. Co
witness s
The V
himself, }
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physician
dismay a:
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“Then I
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came into
dead.”
A POE AMET EA AONE DEE SR
62 REAL DETECTIVE TALES anp-MYSTERY STORIES
her brother, Percy Peck, that the body be cremated.
On the point of consenting, Percy Peck was dum-
founded to receive from New York the following tele-
gram:
Suspicions aroused. Demand autopsy. Examine body.
K, ADAMS.
Just who, Percy Peck asked his sister and her husband,
was “K, Adams”? And just what was he, or she, driv-
ing at? Both professed surprise and neither. was able to
recall anyone named Adams among their New York
acquaintances.
“Well, I am going to ask for an autopsy,” Peck de-
cided, and Dr. and Mrs. Waite agreed.
Two days later doctors who performed a post-mortem .
upon Peck’s body reported that arsenic had been found!
At the home where the Waites and Percy Peck re-
ceived the report there was consternation. Arsenic!
What did it mean? 7
It was Waite who offered a solution. “Arsenic is used
in some embalming fluids,” he said. “Probably there was
arsenic in the fluid used by the undertaker who prepared
father’s body.”
That must be it, brother and sister agreed. In that
case, why that sinister telegram from the unknown “K.
Adams”?
“Since I’m going back to New York right away, I’ll
see the undertaker, pay his bill and ask him about the
arsenic,” Waite volunteered. “If you like, I’ll see what
I can do toward tracing down the sender. of. that
telegram,”
Percy Peck and Mrs. Waite said that would be the
very thing. They saw him off at the station, then Peck
sent his sister home, and over the telephone to New York
he held an extended conversation with the office of Dis-
trict Attorney Swann.
When Dr. Waite got off the train in New York, two
men unobtrusively “picked him up” and began shadow-
ing him discreetly. They were Detectives John Cunliff
and Raymond C. Schindler, and they were on the trail
at the request of Percy Peck. ;
“I’m probably barking up the wrong tree,” Peck had
said in his conversation with the district attorney, “but
Waite is the only person I can think of at the moment
who would have any motive in wishing my father dead.
If there was any foul play on his part I don’t want him
to-have the opportunity to cover up.”
Waite went immediately to his home, and that same
day, Sunday, an automobile drove up and a man alighted
and went in. The detectives nudged each other. They
had recognized the visitor—Eugene Oliver Kane, an em-_
balmer who had come to their notice when he had acted
in-a professional capacity upon one-of the victims in the
famous Molineux case. .
That victim had been a woman and her name had been
Kate Adams. :
Kate Adams! And the name signed to that accusing
telegram sent to Percy Peck had been “K. Adams.”
HEN, quite some time later, Kane reappeared on
the street it seemed to the detectives that he was
laboring under some great excitement. One of them
trailed him as he departed in his car, the other remained
_to keep an eye upon Waite.
When the detectives met again late that night and com-
pared notes, both were in the grip of disappointment.
Kane had gone to the undertaking shop where he was
employed, then home. Waite had left his apartment only
to go to the church he customarily attended with his
wife. ;
Cunliff was back on the job early the next morning, he
and Schindler having agreed to shadow Waite,.turn and
turn about.
Waite, as usual, emerged early and presently he was
in’a garage on Broadway where he kept his car.. He was
seen to enter the office and hold a brief conversation with
Gustave Cimiotti, the proprietor. Then he sat down at a
desk and wrote for a bit, then handed a slip of paper to
the garage. man.
The watching Cunliff saw Cimiotti make expressions
of amazement. Then, reluctantly it seemed, he left the
garage bearing what obviously was a check in his hand
and entered a branch of the Corn Exchange Bank, next
door. 2
He was back again in a few minutes with another man,
evidently an employe of the bank, and the two conferred:
with Waite, who was fussing around his car. Appar-
ently, whatever subject they discussed was settled satis-
factorily, for Cimiotti and the other man returned to the
bank. Cimiotti left.it presently, one hand shoved deep
into his pocket, and, entering the garage, was to be seen
. passing over a large roll of bills to Waite.
At once Waite got into his car and drove away, Cun-
liff following in a taxicab, to a cigar store at Fifty-ninth
Street and Ninth Avenue. And who should be awaiting
him there but Eugene Oliver Kane, the embalmer !
They went into the store together, and Cunliff, under
strict instructions not to let Waite become aware he was -
being shadowed, stood on a corner across the street and
bit his nails in vexation. When the pair appeared again
and separated he elected to continue on Waite’s trail.
“That fellow’s up to something and Kane knows what
it is,” Cunliff told Schindler when, that evening, the lat-
ter relieved him. “I’m going to arrange for a ‘tap’ on
Waite’s telephone and a record of all calls he receives.”
Meanwhile, the district attorney’s office was busy
otherwise with its under-cover investigation. Possession
was obtained of the original of the “K. Adams” tele-
gram, and it turned ‘out to be in a woman’s handwriting.
But its sender was unknown at the office where it had
been handed in.
On information received from Percy Peck, detectives
began checking up on Waite’s activities during the
months he had lived in New York following his mar-
riage. Startling discoveries rewarded them.
Waite not only had not practiced his profession, as his
wife believed, and had no “temporary office” in Bellevue
Hospital or anywhere else, but he had been studying
pathology and microscopic biology and purchased
heavily of germs and cultures from various sources!
Those studies and those purchases had begun two
weeks after his arrival in New York with his bride.
About this time the “tap” on Waite’s telephone pro-
duced its first tip.
Waite, answering its ring, cut short a woman who
spoke to him rather endearingly. ‘‘Margaret, you must
not telephone me again, I fear I am in trouble and I
don’t want you mixed up in it.”
“That telegram you sent me—”
“You must not talk to me any longer or call me again.
Goodby,” said Waite and hung up.
The woman, it developed, had called from a hotel suite
occupied at intervals by a couple registered as Mr. and
Mrs. A. W. Walters, who referred to it as their “studio.”
A. W. Walters! The same initials as those of Waite
himself !
And, several days previously, “Mrs, Walters” had re-
ceived, through the branch telegraph office in the hotel,
a telegram from Grand Rapids, Mich., which had said:
- Am being shadowed. Pack up things. Skip.
His Fa
Almost 1
gram had
But he ha
veillance i
had he wir
ing shado:
of a guilty
ISTR
SWA
Waite tha
him. At
were take:
not come
Waite,
a perfectl
eyed, sm
dressed in
“T was
Swann,” |
and Mrs.
“Why «
Waite ;
papers ha
believes I
“Waite
Peck divi
also told
naming y
“That 3
“Waite
to obtain
The su:
“How
Swann, I
for the n
Half-cc
the man 1
to Waite’
ctives
g the
mar-
as his
llevue
idying
hased
es!
a two
e.
e pro-
1 who
1 must
and I
again.
el suite
{r. and
tudio.”
Waite
had re-
> hotel,
d said:
FAMOUS POISON MURDERS
His Father-in-Law
“T thought when I marrie
been because in South Africa I
of white women who were not
furnishing included oil paintings
to his wife that he wanted to donate t
Bellevue Hospital.
Waite, however, refused to identify
as Mrs. Walters.
“Our friendship is purely p
“Jealousy could not have
woman in a position to be jealous of me.”
Half-convinced that the man w
His Wife
John E. Peck.
Almost to a certainty that tele-
gram had been sent by Waite.
But he had not been under sur-
veillance in Grand Rapids. Why
had he wired her that he was be-
ing shadowed? The prompting
of a guilty conscience?
ISTRICT ATTORNEY
SWANN sent word to
Waite that he should like to see
him. At the same time, steps
were taken to bring him if he did
not come of his own accord.
disillusion camé. I love beautiful things and mus
wife is not beautiful, hence the other women.’
He admitted that the hotel suite maintaine
Waite, however, did come—
a perfectly self-possessed, calm-
eyed, smiling young fellow Mrs. Clara Louise Peck.
dressed in the height of fashion.
“T was wondering how long it would be before I heard from you, Mr.
Swann,” he said. “Naturally, it is because you suspect me of killing Mr.
and Mrs. Peck.” ‘
“Why do you say that ?” the district attorney parried.
Waite shrugged. “No use in mincing words, is there?” he asked. “The
papers have done everything but accuse me outright. Percy Peck certainly
believes I gave his father arsenic. As for my wife—” He shrugged again.
_ “Waite,” said Swann bluntly, “I am told that the wills of Mr. and Mrs.
Peck divide their wealth equally between Percy Peck and your wife. I am
also told that some time ago you persuaded your wife to make a will
naming you as sole legatee of her estate.”
“That is correct,” Waite said.
“Waite, is it possible that you murdered both Mr. and Mrs. Peck in order
to obtain control of the estate ig ;
The suspected man threw back his head and laughed aloud.
“ow utterly ridiculous,” he exclaimed. “Of course it is untrue. Mr.
Swann, I am not a wealthy man, but I have a little money and it is sufficient
for the needs of my wife and myself until I make more.”
Half-convinced by Waite’s unruffled acceptance of the murder charge that
the man might be telling the truth, the district attorney switched the subject
to Waite’s deception of his wife regarding his practice of his profession and
63
to the “Mrs, Walters” to whom he had sent that warning telegram.
Waite frankly admitted that he had been leading a double life.
d her that I loved my wife,” he said. “It must have
was somewhat starved for the companionship
already married. Then, when I was married,
t have them around me. My
dasa “studio” was his, that its
and the like taken from his home on the plea
hem to the mythical lounge room in
the woman who was known at the hotel
Jatonic and based on our mutual love of music,
art and literature,” he said. “Her husband knows all about it.”
He insisted that he could not guess at t
Adams” who had sent the warning telegram to Percy Peck.
been the motive behind it,” he said. “There is no
he identity of the mysterious “K.
as telling the truth, the district attorney per-
mitted him to depart with the
promise that he would return
two days later for further ques-
tioning if wanted.
Those two days were pro-
ductive of further developments.
Waite’s talk with the district at-
torney had been duly chronicled
in the newspapers and it brought
the usual number of volunteer
informants.
For one thing it brought the
unidentified “Mrs. Walters.”
She proved to be a Mrs. Mar-
garet Horton, comely young mar-
ried singer in moving picture
houses, who promptly started in
to get all the publicity possible
for herself out of the situation.
She said that she believed Waite
a wealthy man and hoped to in-
terest him sufficiently in her
His Mother-in-Law
Mrs. John E. Peck.
eS Re a a | -
n he
‘T’ve
them
erms
c her
erms
enic,
him.
nd in
eated
Id-be
very
New
him
was
Cun-
almer
k for
me to.
m the
mself
t may
) him
>” the
ended
- little
been
7 step,
st him
gainst
imself
e wit-
3SeS.
York
.§ own
—even
ch the
unex-
legram
Vaite’s
erville,
»b Cor-
ho had
1at Was
Waite
Cornell
visit he
d Miss
It had
FAMOUS POISON MURDERS 65
been signed with a chance fictitious name because the
physician did not want to be made ridiculous if his sus-
picions were ill-founded. For that suspicion was
founded only on a hunch,
Dr. Cornell told all about it when he was called to the
witness stand.
The Waite door was thrown open to him by Waite
himself, he said, and a sudden guilty flush crept into the
dentist’s face when he recognized his visitor. For a long
moment he stared at Dr. Cornell, and in that moment the
physician saw what he interpreted as surprise, confusion,
dismay and terror chase each other across Waite’s nor-
mally serene face.
Puzzled, Dr. Cornell stepped inside, as Waite, recov-
ering his composure, swung open the door. It was when
Waite mentioned that Dr. Moore had given heart disease
as the cause of death that Dr. Cornell’s suspicions burst
into full flame.
“No one knew better than I that there was nothing
wrong with Mr. Peck’s heart,” he said.
An hour later the telegram to Percy Peck was on its
way.
UST what line Waite’s defense would take was not
_emade apparent in the cross-examination of the state’s
witnesses by the accused man’s attorney, Walter_R.
Duell. :
Turning to the death of John E. Peck, for which
Waite was on trial, his attorney drew from him that he
had tried various ways to bring about the old man’s
death by natural causes.
First, Waite said, he had administered to Peck several
doses of germs—“about everything I had—diphtheria,
pneumonia, typhoid, influenza—but they did not affect
-him at all.
“T administered large quantities of calomel to him in
an effort to so weaken him that the germs would get in
their work. He recovered every time. I put tuberculosis
germs in a nasal spray and induced him to use the spray,
but he beat-me there, too.
“I would get him to go out into the cold and sit in
drafts and dampen his sheets with water, and I put
hydrochloric acid on the radiator in his room, hoping the
gas fumes would kill him.
“T took him out in the car with me and tried to get my
nerve up to running it over a cliff and letting him go with
it, while I jumped out, but I just couldn't do that.
“T turned on the gas in his room one night when he was
asleep and went out, leaving windows and door closed,
but the janitor smelled the gas, and that attempt was a
failure, too.”
“Did you give Mr. Peck arsenic?” asked Duell.
“Oh, yes; I gave him all I had in large doses, a total
of ninety grains, which I had obtained from a druggist
SS Caneel erect
“Solving Poison Murders’
What are the favorite methods of poisoners? How do master detectives clear up
the mystery surrounding poison murders?) What medicines mask the effects of
poison, thus making it difficult to ascertain the cause of death?
These questions are answered, together with a history of murder by poison, from
Cleopatra’s time down to the present day, in a stirring true story
By HARRY VAN DeMARK
In the June REAL DETECTIVE TALES
At all newsstands May 1
eats
—————— ee
The latter, when the prosecution had concluded, hurled
a bomb into the crowded courtroom immediately. He
turned to the apathetic Waite and said quietly: “Dr.
Waite, please take the stand.”
After the usual preliminary questions, Duell took up
the subject of Mrs. Peck’s death.
“Did you give her any bacteria?” he asked.
Waite shot back his reply. “Why, certainly. I got
the contents of about six tubes of the bacilli of diph-
theria, pneumonia, and influenza and reduced them to
one tube. I slipped some of the germs into her food each
time when, as I often did, I helped bring food in to the
dining room from the kitchen. She became ill ina hurry,
but she lingered on and on, and I decided to put an end
to her.
“On the night before she died I procured several
tablets of veronal—about a dozen five-grain tablets—and
I sent the nurse home, saying I would sit up with Mrs.
Peck myself. I powdered up the veronal tablets, and
when I gave Mrs. Peck the medicine that had been left
for her I slipped the veronal into it.
“Then I lay down and went to sleep. During the night
I awoke and found that Mrs. Peck was dead. I lay back
and went to sleep again and woke up only when my wife
a into the room and cried out that her mother was
dead.’
through a physician, saying I wanted to kill cats for ex-
perimental purposes. But, you know, it wasn’t the
arsenic that killed Mr. Peck.”
While the court room rose to this startling statement,
Attorney Duell ignored it and went ahead with what
-appeared a deliberate intent, aided by the client himself,
to send Waite to the death house.
“How did you give the arsenic?”
“In his food. The maid is right in saying I put poison
in Mr. Peck’s tea and his soup. Somehow, his system
seemed fairly to shed germs and poison. But one night
he was taken very ill, and I said I would sit up with him
and give my wife, who had been at his side almost con-
stantly, a chance to rest.
“When she had retired I got a bottle of chloroform,
and put some of it on a cloth and went in and said to Mr.
Peck: ‘Here is some ether and chloroform, father ; it will
relieve your pain.’
- “T put it to his nose and he inhaled a bit of it and said:
‘All right, Arthur, that is better.’
“By then he was going to sleep, so I gave him a little
more chloroform until I was sure he was unconscious.
Then I got a pillow and placed it over his face and held
it there until he died!”
Upon that dramatic note (Continued on page 74)
ee
nS
~~
+ gh
di
In the autumn of 1914, while the attention of the entire
world was focussed on Germany’s formidable thrust toward
Paris, Dr. Waite, tall, narrow-waisted, as handsome a
Lochinvar as ever invaded Grand Rapids, suddenly returned
to his native city and entered into the social life there with
genuine leonine success.
It was no stunt for him to win an invitation to every
worthwhile social happening in town and finally, on Christ-
mas Day, 1915, he was the guest at the home of the Pecks,
where he turned on the full light of his social genius in a
manner that made the usually demure Clara Louise, of
adamantine emotions, experience those indefinable thrills
which are the heralds of deeper affection. And she was
justified in so feeling, for the young man wooed her from
the start.
“T’ye met many charming people, Miss Peck,” he said, as
they sat out a dance on the wide verandah of the Peck
home, “but, somehow, you are different, and your parents,
with their cordial welcome to me, gave me the feeling of a
conqueror returned to his native city again.”
“Perhaps you will be a conqueror, some day,’ replied the
pretty girl, coyly hiding her blushes behind her fan.
The handsome features of the young dentist became sud-
denly serious.
“There’s only one conquest I want to make in this town,”
he said. “And I'll leave it to you to guess what it is!”
She felt herself blush still deeper as, the subject suddenly
dropped, she left the verandah a moment later to dance
again with him.
Subsequent actions of the young dentist proved how sin-
cere he had been when he talked about the “conquest.”
Besides a handsome gift he gave Miss Peck on Christmas
Day, he sent her candies and flowers during the succeeding
fortnight, but did not appear again at the Peck home.
Not this astute young lover.
He had a plan and he intended
the pleasure jaunt was ended, if there ever had been any
objection to Dr. Waite on the part of his prospective
mother-in-law, it was wholly destroyed. And Clara Louise,
swept off her feet by the spectacle of what seemed to be
the gallantry of an absolutely unselfish young man, began
to build’ roseate dreams of a future as the wife of a man
who, in his youth, could find such a warm spot in his heart
for one of old age.
“Tt was kindness to mother which first aroused my love
for Warren,” she later confided to friends at Grand Rapids.
In that town the young dentist was called “Warren.” In
New York City he was called “Arthur.”
This affection for the dentist quickly ripened to the point
of love and when the unusual wooer proposed marriage, he
was accepted not alone by Clara Louise but also by her
mother and her father.
FTER AN EXTENDED bridal tour, on which the bridegroom
displayed the same rich sympathy and understanding
which had endeared him to both mother and daughter, the
newlyweds went to New York City to live. An expensive
suite was leased in the Colosseum Apartment House at No.
435 Riverside Drive just before the Christmas holidays.
A few days before Christmas, as Mrs. Waite was finishing
up her shopping, her husband again displayed his eager in-
terest in her mother.
“Honey,” he said, “I want you to do me a favor. Two
favors, in fact.”
She smiled into his eyes from her place on his lap and
cuddled to him and nodded.
“Oh, you'll grant them to me without even knowing what
they are?”
Again she nodded.
“All right then, darling. I want you to go home and spend
the Christmas holidays with
mother and father. You're alk
carrying it out and he knew
enough of feminine nature to
realize that his absence, which
his gifts would serve to em-
phasize, would not be without
his desired effect upon the
object of his affections.
Even after notice had ap-
peared in the society columns
that Mrs. Peck and her daugh-
ter were going to leave Grand
Rapids for a month’s visit
down south, Dr. Waite still re- world.
mained away. But when the
two women of the Peck house-
hold arrived at Daytona, Flor-
ida, during the closing days of
January, 1915, there, at the
railroad station, garbed in
everything the best dressed
man must wear, was Dr.
Waite, his broad smile and
warm handclasp welcoming
them the more so because of
the delight one always. feels in
them down.
FOC CC CCC CCC CCC CCC CCC CVC UNE
Trailing the Master Mind of
SAN QUENTIN’S
PRISON BREAK .. “You
Blazing gunfire, blood and death wrote finis a
few months ago to the wildest escape plot in the : ’
history of San Quentin, the largest prison in the ribly. She’s the sweetest
Four desperate convicts slugged and brutally
beat the warden, abducted four parole board
members and two prison guards and sped fifty
miles toward freedom, before the law finally cut
This daring plot was hatched in the crooked
brain of a single soft-voiced felon, an embryo
John Dillinger. How he was finally tracked down
and captured is told in full, intimate detail by
Chief of Police William J. Quinn of San Francisco,
in June REAL Detective
tired out from our long trip
and a rest will do you good.
Beside, I am burdened with
work and after you return I'll
be a little freer and we can
go out more at night. But—
it all depends on one thing !”
“And that is?”
must bring your
mother home with you when
you return. I miss her ter-
mother-in-law a man ever had
and as far as I’m concerned
she may stay as long as she
wants!”
Saying was doing in that
happy little nest and the bride,
tearfully bidding him farewell,
entrained the following day
for the West. When she re-
turned, shortly after New
Year’s in 1916, she was ac-
companied by her mother.
No natural son could have
VVV VV VV VV VT VV
finding a friend from home on
arrival at a far distant place.
Then began a courtship of a kind seldom found in the
actualities of romance. It was more like a drama enacted
for the amusement of the effete. The wooer carried on his
court by an indirect approach. It was not Clara Louise
who was wooed; it was her mother. At Nassau, at Miami,
at Palm Beach, wherever they went, he was with them.
And always it was Mrs. Peck who was the object of his
solicitude, and his thousand and one pleasantries. Before
48
greeted his mother with more
enthusiasm. During the first
days of her visit her every wish was a command and he did
things for her with light-heartedness, his winning smile
ever upon his face. One day his bride jibed at him with:
“If you pay mother any more attention, I’ll sue her for
alienating your affection, you old darling, you!”
Then, suddenly, on January tenth, Mrs. Peck became ill.
And the smile left the face of Dr. Waite, as the sunlight
vanishes when storm clouds gather. (Continued on page 87)
23
25
29 [3c
32
3e
&K
ti
47
7a
At |
that is
only h:
It «
the pu:
by the
“Dow:
on the
space ;
puzzle
ished t!
It's ;
you the
you are
Tilted bac
chair, Chief
keep awake
he could - -
in his yard,
more than «
fairly shone
ness. The |
--- (All).
--- (D40)
lustily. De:
Casey breez:
Chief was Ww
“
---- (A
hock shop,
worked lik«
a lot of time
ads to
se and
t nasal
Waite
cagues
ikened,
‘nt on.
vouring:
water
1 to go
storm.
ld, wet
mia.
nia by
d leav-
on cold
, poison
He had
f dread
‘d from
ne gas.
e said,
mtainer
red Mr.
ontainer
on him,”
1 Peck’s
Doctor
the use
ck in his
lac-
een
een
le which
Waite,
ier
ck in her
eerm cul-
to her.”
on some
le.) *
d,” Waite
1 a couch
him groan
he might
n chloro-
e germs ?”
iid in ap-
Naite
And just as calmly as he had told of
his two murders, the handsome slayer
admitted that he probably would have mur-
dered his wife, also, had -the investigation
not stopped his murderous activities.
With the horrifying testimony of Waite,
the case took a turn which was unique in
American jurisprudence. Instead of the
State, as is usual in murder trials, trying
to paint the accused as a monster, the De-
fense emphasized this angle. Questions
by his own lawyers led Doctor Waite into
a sordid recital of his terrifying deeds. He
was encouraged to show by his testimony
that he was a monster, a merciless slayer.
It was the only way to emphasize his plea
of “moral idiocy” and “compulsive insan-
ity’—to show him as an abnormal, con-
scienceless unmoral being.
THE State, on the other hand, facing
this peculiar situation, was forced to
paint Waite in milder terms, in its effort to
damn him as a normal person who simply
had let his cupidity carry him to murder
to gain his selfish ends.
There was another remarkable scene on
June Ist, when, like an after-dinner speaker,
Doctor Waite responded to the death sen-
tence in the Criminal Branch of the
Supreme Court with a brief address. Be-
fore Judge Shearn announced that Waite
should die in the electric chair, the prisoner
courteously asked if he might be permitted
to “say a few words.” The Court nodded
consent and Doctor Waite, facing the bench
and speaking casually as an accomplished
speaker might address an audience, said:
“I would just like to say that I would
like to thank the Court for the very fair
and expeditious manner that the case has
been conducted. And I would like to ex-
press my appreciation of the conscientious-
ness with which the prosecuting attorney,
Mr. Brothers, has endeavored to do his
“duty by Society and also be fair to me in
the matter, And I would like to add that
my counsel, Mr. Deuel, has been in every
respect kind and above reproach and has
been sincere in his belief in this case.
“And, then, I would like to say if I may,
that I know I cannot undo the wrong that
I have done. I realize fully what it is. To
some of the people the wrong is far be-
yond the point of possible forgiveness. It
would be humanely impossible.
“I simply would like to say that I am
ae
True Detective Mysteries
glad, very glad, to give my body in ex-
piation, if it may in any small degree make
up or rectify in their minds that hurt which
I have done them.”
Doctor Waite paused deliberately, and
then, speaking in a more confidential tone,
he went on:
“I only wish that I had more than one
body to give, and I hope that my soul may
go on and serve hereafter those whom I
have injured. If there be any whom I have
not so grievously injured, I hope that they
will forgive me. I am thoroughly sorry.
Thank you. That is all’
Then, still erect, and perfectly self-
possessed, Doctor Waite heard his death
sentence. He marched from the court
room with as much nonchalance as a
business man going to an appointment,
and when, hours later, he was escorted
into the death house at Sing Sing
Prison, Waite looked at the line of cells
in the corrider and asked politely of War-
den Thomas Mott Osborne:
“Which shall I take, please?”
W/AltE, knowing that the week of May
21st, 1917, had been set as the time
for his death, sent for Warden Osborne and
asked that the electrocution take place on
Monday, the twenty-first, the earliest date
possible under the law. — This, however,
was refused and on Thursday night, May
24, 1917, Doctor Waite, still wearing that
smile which had marked his countenance
through his manhood years, stepped from
liis cell in the death house and started his
last march. He was untouched by the grief
of his brother, Frank Waite, and the illness
of his mother, who was reported in serious
condition as a result of her grief.
The young dentist started from his cell
at 11:03 P. M., accompanied by Doctor
A. N. Peterson, Presbyterian chaplain of
the prison, and as he passed the cells of
the other condemned men in the house of
horrors, Doctor Waite waved his hands to
the others and smiling his rare smile,
called cheerily:
“Good-by, boys.”
Eight minutes later Doctor Arthur War-
ren Waite was nothing but a current-seared
body, slumping against the straps of the
electric chair.
Doctor Waite’s life—a gigantic bluff
from childhood to its tragic finale—was
ended.
after all.
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WAITE, Arthur Warren, white, elec. NYSP (New York) May 24, 1917
Oe
OISONED his
pL ( LAR
HE OUTSTANDING social event of Grand Rapids, Michigan, in the New Yo:
year 1915, was the marriage there on September 9 of Clara Louise for them
Peck, only daughter of John E. Peck, millionaire druggist, and “a c
Dr. Arthur Warren Waite, a local boy of excellent family who had Nor w:
made good in the dental profession in New York City. — the br
The bride, a prospective heir to a fortune of $2,000,000, in which she until 1908
had an equal share with her brother Percy Peck, was one of the most body like
sought-after girls of the entire community, not alone for the huge for- Michigar
tune which would some day come into her Possession, but for her beauty to catch j
and charm and pleasing personality. of teeth \
Her father—one of the old-fashioned druggists who was a genuine U, of M.
chemist and apothecary, and in whose store one could not buy a lunch, pean
an electric iron or a book on palmistry—by careful investment of the student ar
money he earned by the very sweat of his brow during the early years year he «
of his life, soon accumulated one of the biggest, if not the biggest for- He imme
tune in Grand Rapids. He was a father-in-law to be sought after, good Profession
humored, charitable, with white hair and seventy years of life by no _But the
, means dimming the luster of his eye and the buoyancy of his spirit. All his master
his life he had been known as the man with the heart of a boy and at his extrao
the time of his daughter’s marriage, there was no younger man in Grand friends bu
Rapids as far as enthusiasm was concerned, than John E. Peck. larly won
The nuptials, celebrated sumptu- handsome,
ously with a church ceremony, and thrilled th
followed by a reception where, it ing abilit:
was reported, jewels valued at over with his |
a million dollars cascaded from the graph noir
necks of society guests, produced as any pl:
bridal gifts fit for a regal wedding. he had a
The bride’s aunt, Miss Katherine much to hi:
business.
ae
DIED IN ELECTRIC CHAIR,
4 Dr. Arthur Warren Waite
| (above) posed as a loving hus-
band and devoted son-in-law,
But he plotted diabolically to
wipe out the entire family.
A. Peck of the Park Avenue Hotel,
The motive for the crimes off Dr. Arthur
a puzzling one. This formem@rand Ra;
boy had become a success.pful New Y
had married a wealthy— woman who
ample funds. He had to wait ‘but a few st
natural death of his agedgParents-in-Ic
to inherit a fortune in her ‘own right.
bolical impulse of impatience drove him
This is the inside story of howgne was trapp
chance and sent tophis doom in §
by JOSEPH HAPPELG
(Staff writer fo % eal Detectiv:
=
~_
WAITE
Wife’s Parents
|
ean, in the
lara Louise
uggist, and
y who had
1 which she
»f the most
» huge for-
her beauty
s a genuine
uy a lunch,
ment of the
early years
biggest for-
after, good
life by no
s spirit. All
» boy and at
an in Grand
ck.
ited sumptu-
remony, and
on where, it
ilued at over
led from the
sts, produced
gal wedding.
ss Katherine
.venue Hotel,
the crimes of
This former
1e a success-
a wealthy
le had to wait
of his aged
her
of impatience
e story of how
and sent to
SEPH H.
Staff writer fo
ortune in
Dr. Arthur Warren Waite is
Grand Rapids, Michigan,
ful New York dentist. He
woman who supplied him with
but a few short years for the
parents-in-law, for his wife
‘own right. Yet some dia-
drove him to turn Borgia.
he was trapped by the merest
this doom in Sing Sing.
APPELGATE
Real Detective )
2
New York City, sent a check for $6,000 to the happy couple with a note
for them to “choose whatever could be purchased with the accompanying
modest check.”
Nor was there in the entire city anyone who envied the good fortune
of the bridegroom. Dr. Waite, who was born in Grand Rapids in 1887,
until 1908 was one of the best known of the boys of the town. Every-
body liked him. His career in the local schools and the University of
Michigan was watched by more than one town girl who had set her cap
to catch just such a husband. And there had been wailing and gnashing
of teeth when, at the age of twenty-one, in 1908, he suddenly quit the
U. of M. and went to Scotland where he took a two years’ course in
dentistry at the University of Edinburgh. He was such an excellent
student and paid such strict attention to his studies that at the end ofa
year he qualified for a certificate entitling him to practice dentistry.
He immediately returned to this country and took up the practice of his
profession in New York City. His success was instantaneous.
But the tremendous business that came his way was not alone due to
his mastery of the dentist’s art. He went in strongly for social life and
his extraordinary ability as a tennis player not only made him many
friends but attracted scores of ‘his clients. Men-and “women, particu- ~-
larly women, felt it a privilege to have their teeth attended to by the
handsome, unmarried athlete who
thrilled them with his tennis play-
ing abilities and charmed them
with his personality. His photo-
graph soon became as well known
as any player before the net and
he had a following which meant
much to him, both in romance and
business.
SSS MERON ER Ra ES ECP AO EN ERE Ie IE ME
oe ee ae
DECEIVED BY HUSBAND
Mrs. Waite (above) professed
her faith in her murdering
spouse, until her brother showed
her evidence of the Doctor’s
philandering with other women.
*
VICTIMS OF POISON
Dr. Waite invited his mother-
in-law, Mrs. John E. Peck (in-
set on left page), to visit his
wife and himself in New York.
Shortly after her arrival she
was taken ill and died. Later
her husband (left) passed away
under equally mysterious cir-
cumstances in his seemingly de-
voted son-in-law’s home.
47
Oe
ee:
SEX — Waite needed two wom-
en in his life. One was his law-
ful wife whose. attraction was
her money; the other was his mis- :
tress whose attraction was sex!
reduced to powder half a dozen ver-
onal pills and. added them to the
other medicine.
This done, he returned to his own
room and went to sleep, and.when
he crept back into the old woman’s
room just before dawn, he found
with satisfaction that the pills had
done their deadly work. Later that
morning, young Mrs. Waite found
her mother dead
* * *
ay physicians who were called
said that kidney trouble had been
the ‘cause. Waite consoled his wife
as. best he could, and lost no time
in taking the body back to Grand
Rapids. He took charge of the fun-
eral arrangements, and announced
calmly that Mrs. Peck had wished
her body to be cremated.
The sorrowful wife and the dead
woman’s aged husband were too
stricken by grief to protest, even
if they had entertained the slight-
est suspicion The old husbafid more
and more leaned on his vigorous
young son-in-law, and when Waite
and his wife returned East a few
DEVOTED -- Never was a
husband more devoted to his
wife than young Dr. Waite when
Clara Louise lost her mother,
“Don't ery, dear,” he whispered.
days later, they took with them
John E. Peck, the widower.
Dr. Waite had persuaded him that
perhaps in the more lively life of
New York he could forget his grief
quicker, and the troubled old man
had eagerly accepted. the invitation.
“You are the best boy in the world,”
he told his son-in-law.
But before the old man had been
a guest at the Riverside Drive
apartment two weeks, his friends
were alarmed to hear that he, too,
was gravely ill. “Poor old man,”
they said, “the shock of his wife’s
death was-.too much for him.”
John Peck was a very sick man—
there seems no doubt of that—but
this was only brought about by
much hard work on the part of Dr.
Waite. The youth gave him huge
doses of deadly germs, at first, with-
out the slightest effect. Then he
tried arsenic, five grains ata time,
placing it in the old man’s coffee,
cereal, soup and whiskey, until
ninety grains of it had been con-
sumed. | .
Old Peck complained often that —
THE PHONEY DOCTOR LIVED A HECTIC LIFE —
TRYING TO KEEP HIS HEIRESS WIFE FROM
KNOWING WHAT HIS MISTRESS WAS DOING.
. «+ IT WAS AN UNHEALTHY SITUATION FOR ALL
22
— AND A POSITIVELY DEADLY FOR SOME!
his food tasted “nasty,” and he suf-
fered severe pains. Finally, he an-
nounced that he was going back to
Grand Rapids. The food in New
York did not agree with him, he
said. Waite protested that he was
too sick to travel, but Peck insisted
he was going the next day. His in-
sistence cost him his life.
About midnight, the old man
awoke suffering from severe cramps.
He called his son-in-law and
begged for relief. Waite knew just
the thing. He went to the medicine
chest and got a bottle of chloro-
form. The old man sighed grate-
fully as-the young man held a sat-
urated cloth over his nose.
Waite poured the rest of the
chloroform on the cloth, placed it,
with a pillow 01 top, over Peck’s
face and then went away. Death
came before the day of March 12th
was two hours old.
The‘same afternoon Waite started
West with the body. He was to
arrive in Grand Rapids at 1:05 p.m.
the following day, and in the ab- °
sence of suspicion, he planned to
cremate the body at once, and he
and his wife would be possessed of
the entire Peck fortune. Then he
had’ other plans in mind. His wife
must follow her parents....
* * *
UT at noon, with the train bear-
ing the body only an hour’s ride
from Grand Rapids, a friend of the
family received this telegram from
New York.
“Suspicions aroused. Demand au-
topsy. Do not reveal telegram.
K. ADAMS.” '
There was nothing to indicate the
sender of the message, but the sig-
nature was recognized as a name
that had figured in the famous
Molineaux poisoning case twenty
years before. The Rev. Dr. A.-Alfred
Wesley Wishart, pastor of the
Grand Rapids Church decided at
‘once that he would find out if the
contents of the telegram had any
basis in fact. .
When Dr. Waite arrived, he again
suggested cremation at once, but
Dr. Wishart changed the subject
and kept the young man engaged
while the body was being taken
away for an autopsy. When this
disclosed traces of arsenic, the: min-
ister asked the University of Mich-
igan to make a thorough examina--
tion of the stomach.
But young Waite was becoming
suspicious rapidly. At the funeral,
he attempted to place a flower and
a photograph inside the casket, but
the minister shook his head. “‘Sor-
ry,” he said deprecatingly, ‘but I’m
afraid you can’t do it.”
When Waite proposed that he ana
his wife return to New York at
once, the crafty minister again in-
tervened. He was afraid that young
Mrs. Waite would follow her aged
parents in death, so he persuaded
the husband that the young woman
should remain in Grand Rapids to
sign various documents in the estate
BEST TRUE FACT DETECTIVE
success!
i with tr
York.
In N
cover |
fore he
Station,
booth a
ment h:
its pre
quick, t
Then
in the C
ant gir)
that she
en with
wife, a
quantit:
drug st:
he coul
it appe:
old ma:
+ cide.
When
ten toh
of anot)
on Bro
automo!
to take
branch
and cas)
to a cig
appoint)
an emb:
dertakir
shippin;
Rapids.
Withi
stuffed
Kane’s
agreed -
vestigat
tain wa
an unu:
the emb
But |}
+ were or
worried
ing wit)
most be
the stor:
allegian:
and joi
chase.
ATER
to the
was smi
the jaun
“My na
Waite,”
his hanc
is all th
ing foun
The ir
remarka
BEST TRUE
é
. 4.
andenhecke caught
the fugitive said,
sand from there.
xt, he took it into
igypt and view the
g on the Nile, he
“leopatra, heroine
fe felt, must have
pet Benn Rag
ive mood, induced
urroundings, Van-
n in hand, he said,
te and dispatched
ard, addressed to
.othy J. O’Brien of
essage, which was
a notice to Law-
that Vandenhecke,
airs might permit,
‘d to return and
ible misapprehen-
what had hap-
on Water ‘Street.
have ground his
iad but Egypt
ne laiatan au-
: notified, Vanden-
ied. He was heard
Africa, but. the
seemed to vanish
fatal mistake, as
“--3 made when
' relinquished
ty of foreign
.o come back, not
tes, but to Canada.
ental America, of
cke’s picture and
een circulated. He
ecognized in Ren-
he may have been
ast, by some at-
idence with Law-
elatives.
Dick Griffin pe
robably won’t. He
O’Brien—who still
> post card from
» Renfrew and es-
tke back to Law-
‘ssachusetts justice.
* *
original wife, his
was still in Law-
orn now from toil
gh she was only
ian when Vanden-
way.
it before Vanden-
cually to the elec-
2 members of his
ind three children
forgiveness. They
é the many moves
to have the death
ed or to obtain a
. the alleged love-
* ht for his life was
wife”, who was
{ unsophisticated.
st without funds,
dlroad fare, some-
her accused “hus-
There, she ob-
rage 54)
TRUE FACT DETECTIVE
“MARRY ME, DARLING,”
NE COM 1A A AR
THE MONSTER IN
ROE WA WER TAT 8 GED TS, Wh ARRON AA
DOCTOR'S CLOTHING
WHISPERED ...... "SO
1 CAN LOVE you
ese eco (sR RENT OE IN
DEAR — TO DEATH!...
1
i
professiona $. Photos
agner and Gregg Stevens.
BEST TRUE FACT DETECTIVE
Nor /ILF
“THE BETTER
TO RILL YOU
MY DEAR!”
By CARL BATES
The locale of this story is NEW YORK CITY.
R. and Mrs. John E. Peck
were inordinately pleased
with their new son-in-law.
They were the richest per-
sons in Grand Rapids, Michigan,
and naturally they viewed with
more or less suspition the suitors
of twenty-year-old Clara Louise
Peck. But, strangely enough, the
very qualities they loathed in others
they encouraged in young Dr. Ar-
thur Warren Waite.
At the start, Waite’s path had not
been easy. When he returned to
Grand Rapids after five years in
Africa, a crop of evil-sounding ru-
mors sprouted at once. Report had
it that he had been expelled from
the dental school of the University
of Michigan for cheating, that he
had left his college fraternity in
disgrace after stealing from fellow-
students, and that he had been
mixed up in several other shady
affairs.
Mr. and Mrs. Peck heard these
stories and were troubled, but Waite
had such a charming manner, was
so polite and considerate and told,
in his recently acquired English ac-
cent, of his exploits in Ann Arbor
and in Africa so interestingly that
they were won over completely.
Early in the fall of 1915, Waite
was married to Clara Louise, and
before long the elderly couple was
sending Waite $300 a month to run
his newly established home in New
York. He was not inclined’ to work,
and they encouraged him in this. He
spent most of his time playing ten-
nis, and when he wrote his parents-
in-law that he had become metro-
politan singles champion they were
prouder than ever of him.
Just before the Christmas holi-
days of 1915, young Waite wrote
Mrs. Peck that she must come and
visit the newlyweds in their sump-
tuous apartment in the Coliseum,
435 Riverside Drive, New York. Mrs.
Peck gushed and simpered, showed
the letter to all her friends in Grand
Rapids, and, after not too strenuous
objection that she could not leave
her husband, she packed up her be-
longings and went to visit the “‘chil-
dren.”
From time to time, she wrote back
of the good times she was having
visiting her daughter. But after a
while, she wrote that she was not
feeling well. Her friends were not
alarmed, but the illness persisted.
* * *
EANTIME, young Dr. Waite was
working harder than at any
time in his life. He was trying to
kill his charming mother-in-law,
and he was not having very good
success at it.
At first, he sprinkled the sheets
of her bed: with water, hoping that
pneumonia would develop and she
would die, but he waited in vain.
Each morning, Mrs. Peck got up
with the report that she was fine.
Then he gave her the contents of
eight tubes of pneumonia, typhoid
fever, diphtheria and_ influenza
germs. This was early in January,
1916. Naturally, this brought suc-
cess where the sprinkled sheets had
failed. But at the same time, the
sixty-year-old woman showed a
surprising vitality. There was noth-
ing about her illness to indicate
that her strange sickness would nec-
essarily prove fatal.
On the night of January 29th,
Waite told his exhausted wife that
he would sit up with her mother.
When the hour came to give the
‘patient her prescribed medicine, he
21
%
a
%,-
ca
nasty,” and he suf- , :
ns. Finally, he an- of her recently deceased parents.
was going back to . So Waite returned to New York iin Sabb)! STN II MSS ae
The food in New ‘alone, but by the time he reached
zree with him, he there the University of Michigan ‘vata de bi: we ie é on ——_
ested that he was had definitely determined that Peck [Mu Ry as Rei ee VY ah 3 SEE SAO EINE | ’
, but Peck insisted had been poisoned. The minister, aN y CAN BE ‘
> next day. His in- whose detective work had been so HTT ee ae aia
1 his life. successful, communicated at once BUT ONE ‘!
ht, the old man ‘ ibe the district attorney in New. Srey CR ETERS TEER: sd
rom severe cramps. ork. ee uy .
son-in-law and In New York, Waite started to oe Wg “aie THING STILL IS |
. Waite knew just Phi me ony popedieiey- oe iS my EMC
nt to the medicine ore he had left the Gran entral § ny ie ; Of :
bottle of chloro- Station, he had gone toa telephone %& A Ba bed Beg mes CERTAIN: COP |
nan sighed grate- booth and called up a second apart- DIE
ig man held a sat- ment he was maintaining and told gett ane
: his nose. ' its pretty occupant to “beat it eG. “SEXES a
the rest of the quick, the cops are after me.” OF OLD AGE!
1e cloth, placed it, Then he went to his apartment ae
1 top, over Peck’s in the Coliseum and offered a serv- ‘
vent away. Death ant girl $1000 if she would swear
day of March 12th that she had heard old Peck, strick-
ld. en with grief over the death of his
noon Waite started wife, ask young Waite to buy a
body. He was to quantity of arsenic for him at a
Rapids at 1:05 p.m. drug store. The son-in-law thought
y, and in the ab-- he ,could clear himself by making
yn, he planned to. it appear he had simply aided the
y at once, and he old man in a plan to commit sui-
ud be possessed of cide.
fortune. Then he When the servant refused to lis-
in mind. His wife ten to his proposition, Waite thought
yarents.... of another. He went to the garage
* on Broadway where he kept his
ith the train bear- automobile and asked the proprietor
only an. hour’s ride to take a check for $9300 to the
ds, a friend of the branch of the Corn Exchange Bank
his telegram from and cash it.. Then he took the money
to a cigar store, where he met by
used. Demand au- . appointment Eugene Oliver Kane,
reveal telegram. — an embalmer, employed by the un-
: dertaking firm that had charge of
ing to indicate the shipping Peck’s body to Grand
ssage, but the sig- Rapids. + ;
mized as a name : Within a few minutes, Waite had
{ in the famous 4 stuffed the huge roll of bills into
ling case twenty . Kane’s pockets, and the other had
Rev. Dr. A.-Alfred ' agreed to swear, in case of an in-
pastor of the » vestigation which Waite felt cer-
are, vane a * tain aie Sone ng - had Pago te ngs ne
1 nd out the ? an unusua uantity of arsenic in ‘ j : Po
elegram had any ‘ff the embalming fluid. i HELPLESS — “Nurse,” the doctor said (as
Lo . But by this time, investigators je}get the Chief of Police here right away.) ° J
- arrived, he again ~ .were only a few feet behind the [#|He wants to see this man before he dies|’|; f
ion at once, but worried Waite, and they were talk- mt |
iged the subject ing with thé young embalmer al-
ing man engaged most before the murderer had left
was being taken the store. Kane quickly changed his
opsy. When this allegiance, surrendered the money
arsenic, the: min- and joined the officers. in their
i1iversity of Mich- chase. j
iorough examina-- . RSE he
h. Nee that day, Waite walked in-
te was becoming to the district attorney’s office. He
. At the funeral, was smiling and bore himself with
lace a flower and the jaunty air of an undergraduate.
ie the casket, but “My name is Dr. Arthur Warren -
« his head. Sor- Waite,” he said as he stretched out
catingly, “but I’m - his hand to the prosecutor. “What
lo it. ‘4g all this I hear about arsenic be-
posed that he and ‘ing found in Mr. Peck’s body?”
to New York at 5 The interview that followed was é
ainister again in- remarkable. Dr. Waite smiled at
afraid that young every question and answered it with
follow her aged an air of engaging frankness, He
so he persuaded admitted that he had no legal right
‘he young woman ~ to practise medicine, that he was
Grand Rapids to - an imposter, that he had been liv-
1ents in the estate (Continued on page 53)
TRUE FACT DETECTIVE BEST TRUE FACT DETECTIVE Se
é pa ° ‘ ‘ ay i pate. tts
2 é ' ‘ |
, two white-
shore patrol
~»pies, trying
res of Paul
2mories, _
anywhere,”
f last, as he
is eyes sort
if you know
vin Harris, .
inged in the
1. That ought
stroll, alert
of every pas-
is chuckled.
king for? Do
are? We're
1 West’s cor-
e’d be crazy
ranby Street,
nd they re-
slow as they
nging their
n of people
ns who out-
allow young
: with long
ust a quick
went by.
ispered.
(Tooked like
d out faster.
aught Hall's
d now, and
2fore he was
2 possibility
riley seemed
hesitated to
they tagged
ind, waiting
y to see his
alen’s drug
man drew
d, hesitated
to enter the
of the two
iis left hand
ht remained
‘ether, they
nd as they
1eir guns.
», sitting at:
ter, Patrol-
ing his be-
red-rimmed
into the big
ch counter.
i, - choked,
“fon,
, Store, Paul
vodless and
_: back over
t usky S. P.’s
aeir way in
. He knew
-t, that they
e was just
c the back
| - run,
around
‘me motion,
ACT DETECTIVE
. tho
a gun sprouted in his fist. ‘No you
don’t, wise guy,” he called. “Your
number’s up!”
A girl screamed. The soda jerker
ducked behind the counter. People
jostled each other as they scrambled.
frantically to get out of the way.
But Paul Deadwiley could only
stand, swaying uncertainly, his ban-
daged right arm dangling at his side,
and snarl in impotent fury at the
trio who closed in upon him.
The following day, in the pres-
ence of Commonwealth Attorney J.
Hume Taylor, Chief Woods and
high-ranking naval officers, Dead-
wiley signed a confession. Corrob-
orating in every detail the case that
had been built up against him, he
admitted the robberies and de-
scribed the gun battle that had
taken the lives of Davis and Dunn.
He admitted getting the gun on
false pretenses. He had planned the
robberies because, he said, he
wanted the money to get married.
Arraigned before Judge R. B.
Spindle on two murder warrants
sworn by Detective Nowitzky, he
was held for a hearing the next day.
At that time he was remanded with-
out bail by City Court Judge Jacob.
On September 1, 1943, after a
grand jury trial, Paul Deadwiley
stood up to hear the verdict. He
was sentenced to life imprisonment.
“... THE BETTER
TO KILL YOU,
MY DEAR!”
(Continued from page 23)
ing with a woman not his wife, that
there were suspicious circumstances
regarding the deaths of both his
parents-in-law, but he laughed out-
right at the suggestion he might
have had something to do with these
circumstances.
He left the office with as much
breeziness as he had entered it, but
evidently his confidence was as-
sumed, as he went directly to his
apartment and took a huge dose of
disinfectant in an effort to end his
life. He was taken to the Bellevue
Hospital and arrested on a charge
of murder. During his recovery
there, he made a full confession of
the two murders.
In the middle of May, 1916, Waite
Went on trial charged with murder,
and hour after hour he sat in the
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