Greatest Feats of Crime Detection.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 170, 20 July 1935, Page 4 (Supplement)

Greatest Feats of Crime Detection.

MYSTERY OF CHEMISTRY MILL

TRAGIC EXPLOSION AND FIRE IN FACTORY — BELIEVED AWFUL DEATH OF INVENTOR — REMAINS OF BODY POSITIVELY IDENTIFIED — WIFE PROSTRATED WITH GRIEF — POST MORTEM EXAMINATION PROVIDES SENSATIONAL REVELATION — SIGNIFICANCE OF HUGE INSURANCE POLICY — TRAGEDY CONSIDERED FOUL MURDER TO REAP RICH REWARD.

(By GEORGE BARTON.—AII Rights Reserved.)

The tale of the tragedy of Charles Henry Schwartz, chemist, plant manager and promoter of the Pacific Cellulose Company, reads like something torn from the pages of an extravagant story book. The plot is laid in California, and it moved from Martinez to Walnut Creek and then to an Oakland apartment house and finally to a damp slab, the morgue. Everybody who knew Schwartz would have said unhesitatingly that he was a man with a great future. He liad many of the qualities of a good promoter and yet he seemed most at home when he was in his laboratory experimenting with the elements which are a closed book to the average person. July 30, 1925, was to be a a dramatic date in the career of this unusual man. On that day he remained longer than usual in the testing room of the company which he had helped to organise and from which he hoped to get rich beyond the dreams of avarice. One by one the other men connected with the plant left, but Schwartz was so absorbed in his work that he barely noticed he was gradually being left alone. The testimony agrees that -he was in his usual good spirits on the eve of that eventful night. Charles Henry Schwartz was a quiet, thoughtful man, so intent on his experiments that there were times when he did not appear to know what was going oij around him. That, perhaps, is the most notable trait in the majority of chemists and inventors.

tion to the marks of resemblance between the body found in the ruins and that of his former patient. In a word, the body found in the ruins was generally accepted as that of Charles Henry Schwartz. The first reaction was one of sincere regret that the world had been deprived of the services of a man who might have done great things in the field of science. The disaster would have been sad enough in any case, but it was rendered more so by the sudden snuffing out of a life that meant so much to the course of human progress. Hut the strain of sadness was abruptly halted by the unexpected introduction of a sordid note. It was learned that Schwartz was heavily insured. There seems to have been some difference of opinion regarding the amount, but at one time it was placed at £20,000. The officers of the insurance company proved to be very hard-boiled, not to say sceptical. They were exacting with a vengeance. They not only wanted to be shown but they insisted upon being convinced. The police had been dubious from the outset and a final post-mortem led to the surprising but positive announcement that the body was not that of Charles Henry Schwartz. There were a number of convincing details which led to this conclusion. One was that the tips of the fingers had been cut off; another was that the face and hands had been covered with acid which had the effect of making them unrecognisable, and last, but by no means least,

fjut this particular genius had all the marks of normality. He was quiet and self-contained, did not dress either extravagantly or meanly, had a devoted wife and possessed a particular love for children and young folks. His one enthusiasm was for the business in which he was engaged. He was there were millions in it, but he was always trying to perfect certain details of the manufacturing side of the plant and it appeared to be that purpose which kept him late on the night of which we speak. Mrs. Schwartz, with wifely devotion, was disturbed when he failed to appear at the usual hour, but just when the suspense was beginning to become acute the telephone rang and she heard her husband's voice on the other end of the wire. "I'm sorry to be late," he said, "but I'll be home in. 20 minutes."

Never Came Home. But- he never came home and Mrs. Schwartz- never saw him alive again! It was barely five minutes after the telephone message when there was a terrific explosion in the laboratory of the Pacific Cellulose Company and when the smoke had cleared away the plant was a wreck. The police came scurrying to the place and the fire department was called out. They did the best they could, but it was not long before all that remained of the manufacturing concern was a mass of charred timber and bent steel. Mrs. Schwartz was almost prostrated when she heard the shocking news. She told the police of the telephone call she had received and the work of'searching for the body began. The problem was whether Schwartz had left the place before the explosion had occurred. As he did not get- home it was taken for granted that he must have been in the plant when the crash came. The theory was that he had been working with some dangerous chemicals and that the unexpected happened. It is easy to understand how that might have come about with such an inflammable compound as cellulose. The searchers discussed this as they went about their work and the consensus was that Charles Henry Schwartz was just another of the long line of inventors who had given up life in the cause of science. It was a long and laborious job, but when it seemed almost hopeless, workers were rewarded by the sight of a human leg sticking out of the doorway of the laboratory in which Schwartz had been conducting his experiments. It was part of the dead body of a man. Tenderly it was brought forth from the ruins and placed on a cot that had been brought there for the purpose. Thence it was taken to the morgue and then began the business of trying to identify the remains. That charred and battered corpse was all but unrecognisable. The features had been so blurred that no one could tell what they had looked like. But the body was almost precisely the size of the chemist. The remains of the moustache and certain other details satisfied the examiners that it must have been the body of Schwartz. The final clue was a missing tooth in the mouth of the dead man. It corresponded precisely with a cavity that had been one of the conspicuous marks of the inventor. Mrs. Schwartz fainted when she was.called upon to view the remains.

Identification Complete. The identification was as complete as anything of the kmd could be in the circumstances First it was tile widow who expressed the belief that the remains were those of her husband; then it was the Wer who testified that in all human probability the mass of burnerl and bruised flesh and bone -was that of Schwartz and finally it was the doctor who called atten-

it was demonstrated beyond the possibility of a doubt that the missing tooth had been chiselled out. Convinced of Fraud.

The theory of the police was that Schwartz had substituted the body of another man in order that he might get the heavy insurance. Just how he expected to do this was never made very clear, but all of the events leading up to the explosion and the finding of the charred body led the officers of the law to believe that their theory was correct. The claim was made that Schwartz had hunted until he found a man who closely resembled him in height, form and build and then made this unfortunate person his victim in carrying out a carefullyplanned conspiracy.

What happened after that is charac-

teristic of one curious phase of American life, No sooner had it been announced

that the police were convinced of fraud

than the public took sides in the case. They were divided into two camps, those who believed that Schwartz had died in

the ruins and those who were 6ure that he had substituted another man for himself. For days the battle raged. Men and woman who had never heard of Schwartz until the publication of the shocking explosion, took sides as though it was a matter of grave personal concern. It was the topic of conversation at thousands of dinner tables; wives and husbands quarrelled over it; fathers and sons engaged in heated discussions. Persons who had no knowledge of the facts beyond what they read in the daily newspaper reports handed down positive opinions on the case. It was the great American game of hide-and-seek.

The police, who are unable to settle mysteries in this easy and offhand fashion, were confronted with two big question marks. First, who was the man whose body was found in the wreckage? Secondly, if it was not Schwartz—as they were satisfied it was not—what had become of the inventor? Descriptions of the man were sent far and wide. The police of other cities and States were invited to ioin in the chase. The ticket sellers at the various railroads could not recall selling transportation to anyone looking like Schwartz. But. being human and fallible, how could they recall all of the customers they had waited on during the 24 hours after the explosion? At first the police thought the missing man might have headed for Germany. Later /iey got a clue which suggested that he had fled to Mexico.

The Mystery Man. The most important step in the solution of the problem lay in discovering the identity of the man who had been found in the ruins. In one of the many examinations of the body it was found that the skull had been crushed as if with some heavy, blunt instrument. This might have been the result of the explosion, but the police preferred to believe that it was only another evidence of foul play. In their endeavour to find the name of the victim they used the process of elimination. This was not

difficult because only a few persons, were employed in the factory of the Pacific Cellulose Company. It could hardly he called a "going" concern because it was always preparing to go into operation without actually making a start. Schwartz was interested in the sale of stock and as it did not go very well he was discouraged. The investigators concluded that he was facing a financial crisis, and this was a reason for the scheme which had been carefully planned and executed.

It did not take long to account for all the employees with a single exception. This was Joe Rodriguez, one of the labourers about the plant. Joe wa6 a

[ happy-go-lucky sort of fellow who seems to have come from Mexico. Curiously enough, he was about the height and build of Schwartz and might have been taken for the inventor's other self. It was recalled that Schwartz had treated Rodriguez with good-natured familiarity. No one could tell with any degree of certainty whether he had been in the plant on that fatal night, but it was certain that he was last seen alive on the afternoon of the day of the explosion. So a description of Joe Rodriguez was sent to the police in every part of California in the endeavour to find out if lie were still in the land of the living. Forty-eight hours passed and no word came from any of the surrounding cities. The newspapers were asked to broadcast the fact that the man was wanted but there was no response. (To be continued.)