The Perfect Murder Plot

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 165, 15 July 1939, Page 9 (Supplement)

The Perfect Murder Plot

By Capt. Eugene ie Beck And Dr. Carleton Simon

SYNOPSIS. New York was amazed by the discovery, at various point* throughout the city, of portion* of a man'* body wrapped in red and gold oilcloth. They were Anally identified a* thoae of the body of William Culd«n*uppo, ■ rubber at a metropolitan bath olub, and Mr*. Nack, the woman with whom he lived, wn arrested, but eonfeeeed nothing.

SHE made no mention of the trip to Long Island. She had been at home removing the last year's yellowed roses from her best hat when the body was found, she said. She had changed the roses from yellow to red. The detectives were interested in the Long Island angle—especially Detective Cury, an old central office m;>n. "It looke to me as if the murder waa committed in Long Island and tne derer cut up the body and dumped it off the ferry on the way back to the city," Cary told a fellow detective. Working on this theory, Cary and Detective Aloncle. another central office man, went to Long Island. The first thing they discovered was that * Long Island shopkeeper, Mrs. Pauline Riger, had sold six yards of red and gold oilcloth to a woman with a heavy German accent. "She came in with a man," Mrs. Riger told the detectives, "and after she got the oilcloth ehe asked for some heavy twine." The woman purchaser, according to Mrs. Riger, looked very much like the pictures the police had of Mrs. Xack. Immediately the detectives started questioning street car conductors and newsboys and Long Island City policemen to try to trace the movements of the couple" with the German accent. The trail led to Woodside, Long Island. Here a lamplighter gave the detectiveo their best lead—a lead that drew Mrs. Xack definitely into the picture and raised a very strong doubt as to whether this case actually was "the perfect crime." The lamplighter, in common with numerous other Long Islanders of the 'nineties, owned a duck. The duck was

pure white. "But just a few days ago my duck came home with red stain* on its breast," the lamplighter explained to ( ary and Aloncle. "Then when I trailed him" back to a nearby house, I found * large pool of bloody water in the yard." The two detectives lost no time in visiting this sanguinary duck pond. They found that it apparently had rome from a drain leadinjr to the second floor. They examined the house from top to bottom, but there was nothing further to indicate that a murder had taken place within its walls. However, they scooped some mud from the mar«in'of the bloody pool and took it with thorn for analysis later. Their next move was to interview the ronl estate agent who had had the house for rent. Had anyone been in it lately? they asked. The real estate agent nodded. "Yes, a (ierman couple paid 15 dollars to rent the house for a month. Then they suddenly decided that they didn't want it. The detectives thought this was veryinteresting, especially when they found that the description of Mrs. Nack tallied with that of the woman and that the time coincided with the date of the murder. Meanwhile, back in Xew York City other detectives had been searching Mrs. Xack's flat. They found a scrap of the same red and gold oilcloth hidden under the bed. And they had further discovered that the placid German lady had 2 iven her landlord notice, saying that she intended to move within a WPPk nr so. Herman Nack was brought into Captain O'Brien's office, but hie etory of separation f- e> Mrs. Nack was eo con▼ineing that he wa* immediately freed.

Lessons From Historic Crimes

That was the way the case stood on July 2, just a week after the first package had been discovered. The detectives had a mass of circumstantial evidence. Most of it pointed toward Mrs. Xack as the murderess, but none of it was conclusive. The name of Martin Thorn had not even been mentioned. Then Constantine Keehri, a barber, began to talk. He told the police of the fight between Guldensuppe and Thorn. He told them about Thorn's gun and stiletto. And he told them of Thorn's threats to kill the big German rubber. He explained that during the previous winter Thorn had complained that his hall bedroom was cold and uncomfortable-. The complaint, according to Keehn, had stirred Mrs. Xack to the suggestion that Thorn move his bed into the kitchen. The kitchen opened into Mrs. Xaek's bedroom, and this

architectural proximity made Guldensuppe angry. He fought with Thorn, and Thorn left the apartment soon afterward. Immediately after this revelation, Captain O'Brien sent out a general alarm for Thorn. Then he again questioned Mrs. Xack. She admitted that she had been with the handsome barber on the Saturday when the body of Guldensuppe was found. "I love him," she said. "But I don't know where he is." The police suffered from the same lack of knowledge. They thought for a time that Thorn had taken a ship and sailed for Germany. And when they learned that two boys had delivered a valise to Thorn on the Tuesday following the discovery of the crime, they felt certain that it contained the head of Guldensuppe and

that Thoi\j was going to throw it from the deck of his Europe-bound steamer. They redoubled their efforts to find the barber. But it wasn't their efforts that finally led to his arrest. Thorn, who was actually in hiding in Xew York, talked to John Gartha, another barber. Gartha talked to his wife. His wife talked to the police. And the police turned right around and talked to Gartha again. They talked to him forcibly. "You get Thorn to meet you at the corner of Bth Avenue and 12."Hh Street at S o'clock to-night," they told him. The barber agreed. That night three detectives, disguised as labourers. loitered at the arranged meeting place. Soon Gartha appeared, and with him was a tall, lean man with dark hair. In a second the detectives had the man's arms pinioned to his side. They hustled him into a drug store. They took a revolver from his pocket, then inarched him to headquarters. (Continued next week.)