A BODY-SNATCHER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6063, 23 April 1881, Page 7

A BODY-SNATCHER.

Some two months ago a 3uspicious-looking and strangely-acting man came to Clifton, Ontario, and the police took note of him. Shortly after his arrival the paragraph at the end of this despatch appeared in the daily papers. The police then suspected that the stranger was Dr. Thomas Aust, and at once arranged to get a description of 'that individual, in the meantime keeping a close watch upen their man. Recently they received a full description of Aust from the City Magistrate of Petersburg, in Pike County, Indiana, and upon the strength of it arrested their man at once. He gave his name as Fred. Gibson, but the description is unmistakable, e\ en to a scar on his lip. He had a heavy beard when he arrived here, but had it- clean shaved off shortly a[terwards. "When arrested he had on his person a five-shooter revolver, fully charged, and a quantity of strychnine and some laudanum. He has every appearance of being a desperate character, and was not allowed any opportunity to use his firearms or have resource to his drugs after his arrest. Chief M'Dougald and Thomas K. Wynn, of the Ontario Police, have had the matter in hand, and made the arrest at noon. They deserve much credit for the quiet and effective manner in which the whole matter has been managed. The following paragraph clipped from a Cincinnatti daily paper of the 2Sth December gives a brief sketch of the life he has been leading :—"The particulars of a most shocking crime, the work of two physicians, have just been made public in Pike County, Indiana, in a singular "manner. A few years ago a beautiful lady named Eads, residing between Winslow and Augusta, died very suddenly of heirt disease, and was buried in the graveyard near Winslow. A few days ago the family of this young lady received an anonymous letter postmarked Pikcville, Pike County, and were horrified by the statement it contained, that the body of Miss Eads had been, resurrected by Drs. Joseph ana Thomas Aust, of "Winslow, and two others whose names were given. The jewellery that had been buried with the body was thrown into the l'otaka River, the grave clothes burned, the body dissected in a barn near Winslow, aud the bones, set up in skeleton form, were, at the time of writing, standing in the office of Dr. Thomas Aust, in Winslow. The relatives of the dead girl lost no time in investigating the charges contained in the letter, aud goin« to the cemetery opened the grave in which their loved one had been buried. They found in it only the coffin and the pillow on which the dead girl's head had rested. They hastened to Wiuslow and took the skeleton from the office of Dr. Thomas Aust, where they had often seen it without once suspecting that it was that of their lost one. Nothing that has occurred in the county for many, years has caused so much and intense excitement. The investigation will be pushed, and if the other parties implicated with the Austs in ±he robbery are found guilty, it will go hard with them. The Austs are bad men. Dr. Joseph Aust is dead. Dr. Thomas Aust is a fugitive from justice for the cold-blooded - murder> of his brother-in-law, James Humphrey," -only a short time ago."—Toronto Globe.