Famous Crime Mysteries Recalled

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 21, 25 January 1936, Page 4 (Supplement)

Famous Crime Mysteries Recalled

Feats Of Detection and Deduction.

BERKELEY'S ROMANTIC CITIZEN — STRANGE FRIENDSHIP WITH WANDERING EVANGELIST — NOMAD PREACHER DISAPPEARS — OTHER MAN BELIEVED KILLED — TERRIFIC LABORATORY EXPLOSION — FJRE CHIEF HAS DOUBTS — GREAT CRIMINOLOGIST TAKES UP CASE.

(By LEONARD R. GRIBBLE. —All Rights Reserved.)

Charles Henry Schwartz was one of tiie most romantic citizens of Berkeley, California, in 1925. A fine-looking man, lie carried his 36 years as though tiiey were a compliment. He was invariably dressed with attention to sartorial niceties, and at the town's social functions was a figure to be eyed with interest and speculation. He was known to be fairly well-to-do, for he was a flourishing manufacturing chemist. Furthermore, he was an inventor. He had worked out a new method for the manufacture of artificial silk, a method which he guarded jealously and shared with no one. Some distance out of the town, at Walnut Creek, was a new laboratory Schwartz had built, and in which he had installed some heavy machinery. Small wonder that such a man was the object of more than the usual interest for his neighbours. But there was another reason for that interest. Schwartz was not a native of Berkeley. He had come to California after the war, and not a great deal was known of his early life. True, he was at times fond of recounting rather sketchily his various adventures in different parts of the world, and the telling seemed to amuse him, as though the remembering of his past afforded him the opportunity of enjoying a joke he refused to share. But all Berkeley-—that is, with the exception of those doubters to be found in every community—believed that the military-looking Schwartz had a romantic war record. At the opposite end of the social ladder was Gilbert Warren Barbe, a young man "who had fought with the American troops in France, and who had returned to the United States with his faith in the world and humanity sadly shaken. His large, luminous eyes tokened a brooding nature; they were the eyes of the fanatic. It was in 1924 that he began his crusade.

stairs to the room in which Schwartz was at work and rapped on the door once more. Schwartz appeared, frowning, and obviously annoyed at being interrupted. He told the nightwatchman very brusquely that he had no further need of him that night and that he did not want to be interrupted again. Gonzales had better go home. The nightwatchman left the place shortly before 9 o'clock, taking his dog. As he left the building he looked up and saw the light in the laboratory, where Schwartz was at work. At ten minutes past nine that night, only about a quarter of an hour ai'tei Gonzales and his dog had left, Schwartz phoned to his wife to say that lie was about to leave the laboratory and come home. He sounded tired. He did not arrive home. "So great was the concussion that it seemed as if a wartime bomb had exploded, shattering windows and dishes in nearby houses and frightening the residents within a wide area. Red flames shot high in the sky after the blast and the laboratory became a raging inferno." Explosion at Laboratory. This extract is from a local paper. It describes an explosion that occurred at the Schwartz laboratory some five minutes after the chemist had phoned his wife of ■his intention to close up and come home. The laboratory and the manufacturing plant were wrecked and by the time the fire engines from Berkeley were on the scene great flames had wrapped themselves round the entire building. The place became a blazing ruin. But at length, spraying the blaze with chemicals, the fireman began to win their fight. One by one the flames shrank, withered, as it were, and eventually the building was reduced to a glowing, smouldering pile of wreckage. And then a scare was raised. What of Schwartz himself? Someone had learned that the chemist had not been home that night. Had the chemist himself perished in the explosion?

He set out to tramp the United States from end to. end, his mission one of high resolve. He desired to change men's outlook, set their feet on the right path, bring happiness and Christian comfort to every one and ail. He worked ardently, an evangelist not to be daunted by snubs and sneers. In Berkeley he settled down in a ramshackle shanty on the outskirts of the town, where his winning nature soon gained him friends. His figure became familiar in the Berkeley'streets, and men •would touch their hats to him and women smile sweetly. Yet he remained outside the communal life of the town. Strange Friendship. It is strange, perhaps, that one of the few people in Berkeley with whom this evangelistic nomad contracted a real friendship was Schwartz. True, the two men had similar tastes. For instance, both were deeply interested in chemistry. But their natures were unlike. Schwartz bid himself behind an enigma he had created; Barbe's life and its object were for every man to scrutinise. Then suddenly, in July, 1925, Barbe vanished without a word to explain his going or a sign as to why or where. The young evangelist's disappearance provided a topic for discussion for a few days, and then it was forgotten. A third member of the Berkeley community who requires special mention at this stage is Walter Gonzales, the night watchman at the Schwartz laboratory-at Walnut Creek. Schwartz liked him, for the man was willing, and lie was something of a handy man. On July 30, 1925, Schwartz remained at bis laboratory working late on one of his experiments. Gonzales arrived with hie dog and made his rounds. At 7 o clock the night watchman heated a bowl of soup and took it to his employer. The room in which Schwartz was at work was at the top of a flight of stairs. The night watchman rapped loudly on the door of the laboratory, and Schwartz opened it and took the bowl of soup with a brief nod. Gonzales noted that he looked ■worried, and that his manner was nervous. Not that this was anything out of the ■usual. It was customary for Schwartz to get excited as he was nearing the final stage of a fresh experiment. And there happened a little episode which showed bow keyed up he was. , The nightwatchman's dog had stopped before the door of a small cupboard under the stairs and was growling on a low . eera tehing at the boards. The I eight of the dog roused Schwartz to i anger. He sprang from the door of the laboratory and aimed a hard kick at the growling dog s flanks. Then when the dog had jumped yapping out of reach the chemist turned to the surprised Ctonzales with a brief word of excuse. , Called Him Back. The nigh twatch man was about to go away when Schwartz remembered something and called the man back. He ~ave him some money and asked him to 20 into the town and buy an alarm clock arid some chewing gum. He added that the man could take his time and need not get back for another two hours. Gonzales took the money and left. But be was gone barely half an hour. H e soon made the purchases and saw no reason for stopping out for another hour «.nd a half, so went back to the labors story. He let himeelf in,, climbed the

It was only when the wreckage was cool enough to allow the investigating authorities to break into the ruin of twisted metal and framework that an answer was supplied! to the question. One of the first recognisable things found inside the gutted laboratory was the charred remains of a human being. It was plain now that a tragedy had occurred in the laboratory, and that the chemist had suffered a death too fearful to be contemplated, for the authorities came to the conclusion from the position of the body that he had died while endeavouring to get clear of the raging flames and choking chemical fumes. But there was one man who shook his head as he contemplated it, and who boldly remarked that it was a. ease of either suicide or murder. That man was the chief of the Berkeley Fire Department, Guy Spencer. Spencer had made a personal inspection of tlfe ruins. He had traced the course of the flames, examined carefully the charred wreckage, the twisted metal of the machinery and had come to an astounding conclusion. The fire had not been the result of an accident, but was caused by an incendiary. He emphasised his opinion that the police should investigate the matter thoroughly. Peculiar Torchss. They not unreasonably demanded something in the nature of proof of the fire chief's contention. Spencer took them out to the laboratory and to the burnt stump of the bench at which, apparently, Schwartz had been working when the explosion occurred. He picked out from among the wreckage the remains of six peculiar torches that had been contrived with coarse cloth wrapped round the ends of sticks and soaked in a highly inflammable liquid. From the remains of these strange contraptions it was plain that each had been separately lighted. But they were not the sole foundation of his theory. He pointed out to the police several boxes of a powerful explosive placed against one of the party walls in such a manner that had they exploded it was certain that the entire building would have been lifted from the ground. Had those cases exploded, Spencer added meaningly, no trace of the charred body ever would have been discovered. Spencer had given the local police something to ponder. They promptly scouted the suicide theory—which left murder! But why had Schwartz been murdered.' What had he known that was dangerous to someone else's interest? Why had it been so imperative for someone to silence him in this horrible way? They were questions it would take time to answer. Perhaps—so complete seemed the destruction —the secret of that gutted laboratory would never be known. J here can now be no reasonable doubt that it never would have *been had it not been for the criminological genius of Dr. E. O. Heinrich, one of the most prominent of all American criminologists. For a while the charred body found in the ruins of the laboratory was kept under police guard at Walnut Creek, and it was there that the stricken Mrs. Schwartz identified the remains as those or her husband. Her assertion was positive. So was that of Walter Gonzales. The Eight watchman was a scared man. He realised that be bad escaped a terrible death by j jnere matter of minutes.

Charred Remains X-Rayed. The next step in the police investigation was to send the charred remains to San Francisco, where they were X-rayed, medically overhauled, photographed and then preserved in cold storage against the possibility of future reference.

[ It was after the X-ray photographs had , been submitted to the authorities, includ--1 ing Dr. Heinrich, that confirmation was - given to the obvious theory—supported by the evidence of Mrs. Schwartz and Walter 1 Gonzales—that the remains were those of the chemist. It was impossible to say at the time this report was made whether the dead man had been deliberately placed in such a position as would make it appear that he was struggling to escape from the flames when he died. The flames had done their work too thoroughly. However, there was one point not overlooked by Heinrich even at that stage. If, as the Berkeley fire chief believed, it had been the murderer's intention to blow the laboratory sky high, thus leaving no trace of the victim, why should he have deemed it necessary to place the body in any particular position? Heinrich considered that the finding of the body where it had been lying was purely fortuitous, and merely went to substantiate the obvious, that the murderer's dastardly plans had gone awry. Here, he believed, were all the earmarks of a cleverly contrived and intricate murder puzzle, worked out with cunning and foresight, and with a scrupulousness of detail worthy of a very active and clear-thinking brain. An investigation was begun and pursued with the utmost care and diligence. It was in Walnut Creek that the police discovered an important piece of evidence. The witness in this case was a youngster named Gallagher, who lived near the site of the laboratory. He had run out of his home immediately after the explosion and had run to the spot where he saw flames shooting skyward. He went on to say that he had suddenly become aware of a lightless motor car racing toward him through the dusk. Only just in time had lie leapt out of the way. A few seconds later the car had disappeared in a cloud of dust. But the boy had gathered the impression that it was Schwartz's car that had so nearly run him down. He knew the chemist's car well by sight. Two Hats Found. There was another piece of evidence offered the police at this stage. This was two hats which had been found lying in the road near the laboratory on the day after the explosion. The finder's name was G'orry and he hastened to the police with his discovery. On the band of one was some cellulose and the hat was 1

stained and muddy. Later it was recognised by reliable witnesses as a hai. Schwartz had worn.

Already Heinrich had spent some time puzzling over the case. In the first place it had many unusual facets, and he was convinced that its solution would be an unusual one likewise. He had reviewed painstakingly and impartially every scrap of evidence the police had secured and the more he brooded over the mystery the more persistent bccame a doubt thai obtruded itself into his thoughts.

.Mrs. Schwartz had identified tiie charred remains as those of her husband and Gonzales, doubtless following her lead, had confirmed her assertion. Again, he himself and the San Francisco detectives who had examined the X-ray photographs had seen nothing that did not point to the remains being those of Schwartz. But —and this was where the doubt started—he himself had so far seen nothing or been offered evidence to the effect that definitely pointed to the fact that the charred body found in the laboratory was indeed that of the chemist. True, there was the statement

made by Mrs. Schwartz and that made by the nightwatchman.

Heinrich went to San Francisco with the newly received photograph of the chemist. He visited the city's morgue and examined the remains with the photograph, charred feature by charred feature. A difficult task and n tedious one. But he was rewarded. The right ear of 111 c victim had not been entirely destroyed. The contour and the shape of the lobe were still distinct. It was an ear w.ith what is known as a Darwinian lobe. Yet the photograph of Schwartz showed that the chemist's right ear had a lobe of an entirely different shape and contour! (To be concluded.)

The second hat remained a mystery. It was an old hat, shapeless and faded and stained with some caustic chemical. The chances were that originally it had been a brown felt hat. It might prove to be the hat of Schwartz's murderer. On the other hand, it might not. It was from Mrs. Esther Hatfield, the chemist's secretary, that the police first heard of the cupboard under the stairs of the laboratory. She was questioned regarding her employer's habits and Ins business, and it was when she was describing his work 011 the day of the explosion that the reference to the cupboard was made. "Mr. Schwartz had always a restless, nervous air," she told the police, "but that day he seemed more than usually disturbed and uneasy. He paced the floor to and fro continuously. His eyes had a wild stare in them. Frequently I observed him glancing in the direction of the small secret closet opening off the laboratory. He had always been secretive about the closet, and 110 one knew what it contained. He alone had a key to it."

When Walter Gonzales submitted his testimony regarding his employer's anger when he saw the nightwatchman's dog scratching outside the cupboard, the police decided that the "secret closet" had something to do with the mystery. So inquiries were made about it, but they discovered nothing cither suspicious or illuminating. Even Mrs. Schwjytz when questioned seemed to know singularly little about her husband's business and the laboratory and nothing about the cupboard under the stairs. Thus the police had to find another angle from which to view the mystery. They were soon supplied one —by Mrs. Schwartz herself. Photographs Stolen. Three days after the explosion she told the police that her home had been broken into on the previous night by a burglar who had entered through a bedroom window in the rear. Put the most surprising thing regarding this mysterious entrance into the dead chemist's home was that the burglar had contented himself with stealing only photographs of Schwartz himself. The family albums had been ransacked, picture frames emptied, and the widow was left without a single portrait of her husband. When this strange burglary was recounted to Dr. Heinrich he at once advised the police to hunt for a photograph of the chemist, and after many inquiries had been made one was obtained from someone who had a single portrait, which, fortunately, had been taken not long before. This was given to Heinrich, and the professor took it with him to San Francisco.