KPRIEST SECRETLY MURDERED.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 166, 13 July 1907, Page 13

KPRIEST SECRETLY MURDERED.

A NEW YORK. ARM.ENIAX VENTDETTA. The discovery on Monday, Hay 27, of a priest's body, tightly packed ,a a trunk, bruised, maimed, and apparently suffocated, has been investigated by the New correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph," to whom it recalls very vividly that Armenian vendetta in Camberwell, London, a few years ago, -tvhen three Armenians were shot in a public thoroughfare and tilled. In the present case the victim is Father Caspart Haran, a handsome, middle-aged Armenian priest, and the discovery of his body m » common boardinghouse, where the trunk had been left by two other Armenians "in lien of rent," together' with, certain, kuotva facts connected with the priest's mysterious disappearance, hae developed a murder mystery of the very first class, a ms r stery which, so far, promises to baffle the American police.

There are amazing resemblances between both crimes, resemblances which may be accidental, of course, but which the American police at least believe afford a clue to the clergyman's death.

Father Haran, lite the Camberwell A*menians, was a political refugee, and throughout the period of his expatriation he tnaintained a secret regular correspondence with friends at home. He had bitter political enemies in Armenia, and they nad threatened his life. Quite recently he had been in personal communication with two of these mysterious partisans. Their meet ings always took place at night, and always with great secrecy. Armenians in New York who knew Father Haran have declared that the. priest had fallen foul of certain revolutionaries at Home, and they vrere not surprised to hear of his death. Who the actual mnrderers were remains a mysteryAil that tb.e police know is that a couple of young Armenians, apparently in poor circumstances, took a room in West Thirty-Seventh-street, In buildings realistically known as "Hell's Kitchen," situated in "Murderers' Row." These names, in view ot the grim discovery of four days later, are considered peculiarly appropriate. Murderers' Row has often justified its name, and oHly a week ago one of the tenants was bratally done to death.

SuorUy after the arrival of the young Armenians a parcels van came and unloaded a medium-sized trunk, very heavy, which was carried upstairs and placed in tne Armenians' room. Nest day the strange lodgers, who kept entirely to themselves, proceeded to bring the trunk down, intending to take it away, tout the landlady retused permission, saying: ""~¥ou have not paid your rent, and 1 will keep the trunk until you pay." The Armenians protested vigorously, but ineffectually. They said they were honest, and would pay every oent, and they went away on the same day, ip.texiding, as they said, to get the money; but thpy have not been seen since.

In the meantime other lodgers had used the Armenians* room, and it was the complaints of a young couple who sat on. tbe trunk on Sunday for a few moments which led to the investigation. Both had expressed suspicions about the contents o£ the box- The landlord then appeared wits a chisel, opened the trunk, and out fell the priest's body, tightly bound.ln a sitting posture, with tne head closely pressed upon his chest, while one leg and one arm were broken. The young couple almost fainted at toe sight. The police were called in, and began which resulted in the identification of the deceased.

It is known that the two mi&slng Armenians spent the night with the priest on the day he was murdered, and the police are sparing no effort to trace their whereabonts. Several New York Armenians Informed the police that Father Haran was suspected of revealing a revolutionary plot to seize the Servian throne. There are other theories also disrnsseii. but everyone knowing the dead priest and his past s&sms agreed that a secret society in Armenia, to which he was antagonistic, is'chiefly responsible for his death.