Читать книгу The Mysterious Murder of Pearl Bryan, or: the Headless Horror - Unknown - Страница 15

The scene at Undertaker White's establishment, on Fourth Street, in Newport, where the body was taken to, was one of activity. All day long and up to a late hour at night the place was besieged with people anxious to get a look at the remains of the unfortunate woman. The crowd was composed mostly of men, but there was quite a number of women to be seen among them. Several persons came in and gave descriptions of missing friends, and, if they tallied in any way with the corpse, they were permitted to view it.

Owing to the close proximity to Fort Thomas, where the body was found, and the well-known fact that a number of the "women on the town" in Cincinnati were in the habit of visiting the soldiers at the Fort, many suspected that some one of the soldiers had committed the crime, and as the clothes on the body were of the cheapest kind, they thought the victim was one of these lowe women. Col. Cochran, the commander of the Fort, would not allow such a stigma to rest upon his post. He instituted a most thorough investigation, and invited the civil officials to aid him in his investigation. It did not take long to convince those working on the case that the soldiers were in no way involved in the terrible tragedy.

On Saturday night, not many hours after the discovery of the headless body, Arthur Carter, of Seymour Ind., arrived with his trio of famous bloodhounds, Jack, Wheeler and Stonewall.

The hounds are the same animals that tracked Bud Stone, the colored murderer of the Wratten family, at Washington, Ind., to his home. Stone was later arrested, and when charged with the crime made a full confession, for which he was afterward hanged.

Mr. Carter said during his brief stop at the Grand Central Depot that over 20 criminals are now serving time in the penitentiaries of Indiana and Illinois as a result of the work of the hounds.

Before being taken to the scene of the murder the dogs were taken to White's undertaking establishment and given a scent of the unfortunate woman's clothing. Carter expressed a doubt as to the dogs ability to do any work in striking a trail by the scent from the clothing, as it had been freely handled by a half hundred of persons. The dogs, with noses close to the ground, ran hither and thither in a confused manner. It was evident that the dogs were useless, as all tracks left by the murderer and his victim had been obliterated by the thousands of people who had crossed over the place where the body was found.