St. Louis Post-Dispatch
August 21, 1897

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Page 1

Pe oF eter ‘ dent oy returned. Mre ‘Hows for the past few days been in poor h Ith and her physicians believed she weula | oe prove more rapidly at aome. Upon this it: > ng gar wi ?~ = : « re ae a =>. ota ss “4 2 Le ee s Sal > 2 : , oe = >» cae we * - <& a Ce ae I . A 2 m % ‘ a oh x i % b,. = bs _*. 4 ae n ‘ST. LOUISAN UNDER ARREST. |A Well-Known Insurance Agent Charged With Forgery. Special to the Post-Dispatch. KANSAS CITY, Mo., Aug. 21.—R. M. Dickerson, wanted in St. Louis for the al- leged embezzlement of over $1,000, was ar- rested at the Midland Hotel this morning. Dickerson was formerly Superintendent of the New York office of the Fidelity Insur- SS it be- | idering | on a ance Co., and received a salary of $10,000 a year. This morning he passed a forged check for $25 on Zellers. a Union avenue ticket broker, giving the name of Cray- croft & Peas, agents for the Massachusetts Mutual Life, who had at one time em- ployed Dickerson. It was on this charge that he was locked up. It fs said here that Dickerson not long ago was given charge of the Wichita agency for the Mas- sachusetts Mutual by T. W. Snyder, agent at St. Louls. Dickerson collected some money in premiums and then resigned. His next employer was the National Fire Insur- ance Co. in St. Loule. After collecting $900 in ten days, Dickerson went to Kansas City. His family is in New York City. W. H. Snyder, manager of the National Fire Insurance Co., this city, was not in his office Saturday afternoon. COLLAR BUTTON IN HIS EAR Queer Accident to Wm. Aimstrong, Who Was Pulling on a Shirt. William Armstrong of 1019 Pine street met with a painful accident Saturday morning while making his tollet for the day. As he was pulling on his shirt his gold collar button dropped into his left ear. It is «a slender ornament with not much more base than head, and sunk deep Into the cavity. Armstrong tried in vain to pull It out but couldn't. He had to go to the City Dis- pensary to enlist the services of Dr. New- comb, who with a pair of forceps extracted the golden plug. THE WEATHER FORECAST. POST-DISPATCH THERMOMETER. (On the sidewalk, in the shade.) SHOWERS; STATIONARY. Fo- St. Louls and ricinity—Showers Satertay afternoon and night; Sunday generally fair; lit- tle change ip temperature. For Missourt--Partiy cloedy Saturday night and Sunday, with probably local showers Sat- urday night. For Ulineie—Generally fair Saterday night ana Sunday, possibly becoming upasttied Saa- dey warmer ia borthesst poe satutday pau . - ~ ; he 2 ; he eee s be 2 , bs < « ae & a * et ee FOUND DEAD IN THE WEEDS Corpse Discovered in a Vacant Lot at Berlin and Euclid Avenues. HAD BEEN THERE A LONG TIME. THERE WERE TWO BULLETS IN THE HEAD AND A REVOL- VER BY THE BODY. MAY HAVE BEEN A MURDER. Remains So Badly Decomposed That Identification May Not Be Possible—Taken to the City Morgue. Some small boys playing in a vacant lot at Euclid and Berlin avenues Saturday morning found a dead man beneath a clump of tall weeds. They ran screaming from the lot and told a policeman of their discovery. The corpse was so badly decomposed that the officer and the crowd of fhen and wom- en who accompanied him to the spot did not make a very careful examination. The features were unrecognizable and the clothing was so rotten that it almost fell in pleces from the putrifying remains. The policeman declared that the corpse must have been lying in the weeds for at least a month. Bending over the body, with his handker- chief tightly clutched over his nostrils, the officer found that two bullets had been fired into the dead man’s brain. As the policeman made this discovery, his foot struck something hard on the ground. He stooped and picked up a re- volver. “Uph! Just a case of suicide,” grunted the policeman. A bystander took the weapon from his hand and examined it. “How do you make it out a suicide,” ex- claimed the man, after he had looked care- fully at the revolver. “Look here, officer, two shots have been fired from this revolver and there are sfi!l three loads in it. There are two bulle‘s in this poor fellow’s head. Those bullets were undoubtedly fired from this gun. “But notice that the chambers from which the two bullets were fired are en- tirely empty. What has become of the shells? “This man could not have fired two bul- lets into his brain, then removed the empty shells, flung them so far away they can- not be found and iaid down here and died.” The crowd listened attentively to the ar- gument. “Sure, it's a murder,"’ they said to one another In subdued voices. Then they searched among the weeds and tall grass for the empty cartridge shells, but there were none to be found. They agreed that the man had been mur- dered aid that whoever 4id the foul deed had put tne revolver beside the corpse to make it look like suicide. But the murderer made a fata. mistake in withdrawing the empty shelle, and instead of suicide the po- lice have another murder mystery to solve, The corpse was taken to the Morgue. Here a more thorough examination of the body revealed that the bullet entered un.- der the chin, and ranging up, came out behind the right ear. The revolver. which was found at the dead man's side, contained two unused cartridges and two chambers were empty. The hammer rested on a shell, which had been fired. This was not noticed when the revolver was examined in the lot. It is supposed the man kilied himself on the evening of July 3). A transfer ticket on the Euclid avenue division of the Lindell street radlway was found tn his pocket. The punch marks show it was issued July 31, at 6:30 o'clock. In his pockets were three knives, a razor, a pair of apectacies and a red handker- chief. There were no marks on his clothing ror papers of any kind to indicate h.s identity. When found on the lot hie head rested on a bundle of clothing. At the Morgue the clothing wae unrolled and proved to be @ pair of trousers and a shirt. Nothing was in the pockets. The dead man wore a black suit of d'ag- onal clothes. well worn. A black derby hat was by his side. Morgue Superint»*ndent. Mack said the man was about © years old. MRS. PORTER WAS ACQUITTED. Jury Decided She Did Not Poison Her Husband. Special to the Post-Dispatch. KEWANEE, ll. Aug. T11.—At midnight last night the jury In the Porter murder case brought in a verdict of not guilty, thus closing one of the most sensational murder cases ever tried in Henry County court Mra. Emma Porter, a weil-reapected is death rosecution was the State. The trial has wee aes o Save Mra. Porter wishing to murder ber husband, including her ilich connections with aw poison for the Dion b+ at =e. ota Saw ew He eet: wap 2 ’ Soa ey