LURED TO DEATH.

MUTILATED REMAINS FOUND IN xV£\\ x OaiJv j? LaT.

ACCUSED GIVEN THIRD DEGREE.

NEW YORK, April 3. New York has a sensational horror in the awful fate of a girl clerk. Miss Ruth Wheeler, aged sixteen, who had recently qualified in shorthand and type writing at, a business college, was handed a postcard from an individual named Aloert Wolter applying for a stenographer. She went to his rooms, and her people, becoming alai'med at her long absence, instituted enquiries, which resulted in Wolter being arrested on a charge of abduction. After his removal to prison the girl's body, partly dismembered, was found,, and Wolter was then charged with murder. The police state that no fewer than fifteen young girls have disappeared since Wolter began advertising for typists. Woiter is a young German not yet nineteen years or age, and known in a certain fast set as the East-side Dandy. He had rooms with a girl, also of Germau nationality, named Katie Muller. The mode of discovery was not the least extraordinary part of the crime. The attention of some neighbours, 1 agger t by name, was attracted to an unsightly bundle on the fire-escape adjoining Wolter's apartment. Thinking it to be a collection of old clothes, one of them got a broom and pushed the parcel oft tka aratiug, and it fell iuto the courtyard four storeys below. Mr Taggart ripped opeu the sewn end of the package. As the cords were released the jagged points of bones protruded through the paper wrapping, and further investigation disclosed the head and chest of the murdered girl. There was not a shred of flesh on the ix>rtions of the body found in this bundle, but a torquoise ndfcklace and a piece of si'k, part of the girl's underclothing, were sufficient to indicate that the victim was a woman. The arms and legs were missing, but the bundle also contained a quantity of charcoal. From a closer examination, it was seen that a portion of heavy clothes-line lay embedded in the neck of the dead girl. The police soon carried the investigation further. ' They recalled the fact that they had seen Wolter on Good Friday painting the fireplace. At once the men tore away the slab, and in the fireplace, which was built to serve as a chimney base for a small stove, were the remnants of the grim tragedy. The steel bands of the girl's corset and her hairpins, together with some odd bones, were there, while strewn in the kitchen stove were fragments 3f the girl's scalp Finally, a hand satchel, subsequently identified as belonging to Ruth Wheeler, was found in a corner of the fireplace untouched by the .flames. Apparently after the girl had been strangled", her arms and legs were severed in order to allow the murderer to jam the trunk into, the fireplace, Then it was evidently saturaMJ} ,witlr kerosene oil, and wood and coaJ'Avere added to the pyre as it smouldered. Detectives visited Wolter in his prison cell the same 'riigbt and for three hours tried to' extort a confession from him. They were baffled, for he appeared perfectly cool and denied all knowledge of the crime. His woman companion, Katie Muller, had disappeared, but was found on Sunday, and also arrested. Their rooms were \ papered with newspaper pictures of actresses and professional beauties. . On Monday the police applied the "third degree" methods" ""to Katie Muller, who acknowledged that she was in Wolter's Seventy-fifth street . .apartments on Thursday, the night of the murder. She was taken to the headquarters for an examination before the homicide bureau. She said:

"I was in bed at nine o'clock and sound .asleep. About midnight I was awakened by a crash in the front room. I called out 'Who's there?' and Albert answered, 'Part of. the fireplace has fallen in, and lam fixing it. You stay where you are.' Two hours later I ran to the connecting door, and, .looking in, saw Albert on his knees, shovelling something with bis hands back into the grate. 1 said, 'What has happened?' He answered, 'The fireplace has broken down again. Go back to Ded and keep there, or I? 11 choke you to death." As soon as they had secured this testimony, the detective hurried back to Wolter's cellj and, with the coroner acting as inquisitor, accused was asked, "Will you come with us to see her body?" Wolter burst into hysterical tears and declined.

A STRANGE INTERVIEW

According to the coroner, the victim was aHve, though possibly unconscious, when she was nlaced in the stove, as soot was found in the girl's lungs. In an interview with a New York World reporter in his cell, Wolter denied all knowledge of Ruth Wheeler and of her murder. Ho could not account for the finding of her remains in the fireplace, except by suggesting that somebody hod thrown them down the chimney from the roof.

ALL-NIGHT INQUISITION.

On Monday afternoon Wolter was paraded with many other young men in the prison yard, and several young girls were brought forward, and one after" the other identified him as the man responsible for their downfall.

The police also rounded up several of Wolter's associates in vice, and various stories of Wolter's actions and doings for the past year have been obtained from them and are now being investifated. The police believe that they aye traced several cases of white slavery to Wolter and his associates, though it is impossible to fix any crime upon them Lucked by evidence which would be- acceptable in court. The inquisition on Wolter in prison was continued till well into Monday night, but even when reduced to an abject state of blubbering imbecility he persisted in declaring he was innocent. The cell was crowded with policemen, newspaper reporters, and even other prisoners, and the youth mercilessly plied with questions. inspector Titus having interfered occasionally to protect Wolter, the youth looked at him with friendly eyes. "Come away from the others," he presently whispered to the inspector. "I want to tell you something. My hope is to show that I bought the paint at one o'clock in the morning." The inspector replied, "But the woman who sold you the paint swears it was one o'clock in the afternoon." "Then," said Wolter, with a motion of despair, "I cannot prove my innocence." A second later he turned sharply and said, "Where is my mother?"

So Hie strange conversation went on for hours. Trying another tack the inspector remarked, sympathetically, "Maybe you killed the girl while your mind was deranged, and when your reason returned you found the body and tried to get rid of it. Of course, it would not be murder if you did not know whal> you were doing?" Wolter bpramo of a sudden keenly interested, "How many j r ears can I get?"

"A murder like this," replied the inspector, "can only mean the electric chair "

With almost a shriek Wolter blurted out, "I thought 1 was too young to be sent to the electric chair."

At this moment a letter written by Katie Muller, at the dictation of the police, was brought in, and gave another startling change to the scene. The letter ran:

"My dear Al. — A^ you have been good to me, I beg you to tell the truth. They found the sack in your fire-escape. From what they tell me I think you are guilty, so I beg you to tell all. I forgive you. "You have been so good-hearted to me all the time that I can hardly believe it possible, but take my advice and tell everything you know and what I know. No matter what happens I will love you. — Katie." Wolter, who had torn open the. letter with feverish haste, oollapsed in hysterics after reading it. For a full hour he sobbed over the letter, kissing it, and moaning, "I love my Katie." 1 "Do you want to see Katie?" asked the inspector. "No, no," sobbed the prisoner. "I am ashamed to look Katie in the eyes."

"Write to her," suggested the inspector. A warder brought pen and ink, and a fellow-prisoner began dictating, "Darling Katie," but Wolter indignantly interrupted. "I will write my own letter to Katie," he cried. "I want to ask Katie to forgive everything. When I get her forgiveness I will tell' all. I will tell the truth- on Wednesday." Thiis the inquisition was continued all night. Reporters interviewed, the prisoner while the police istened. Finally a lawyer arrived and showed a paper signed by Wolter's father and mother. "I am commissioned by your parents," he said, "to undertake the defence."

After a talk with the lawyer Wolter remained dumb. "I refer you to my lawyer," he said to all enquirers.

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