A HORRIBLE OUTRAGE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2719, 25 April 1906, Page 15

A HORRIBLE OUTRAGE.

A message from Minneapolis (Minn.), dated March 28, says: The hacked end mutilated bodies of six Bulgarians — evidently workmen — were found lying in pools of coagulated blood in a little tumble-down house at 245 Tenth avenue South this morrting. Four of the bodies were found an a sleeping-room on the second floor, cut and slashed in a shocking manner, while in the cellar were two others with their throats cut from ear to ear. Next the bodies were found five large bowie knives, with razoredged blades nearly Bin long, and a bloodstained hatchet. Ali the men were comparatively young. The only clue to the •wholesale murder which may lead to something definite was obtained from a drayman named Meikleberg. He aays that he •was approached last Monday afternoon by some men whom he took for Italians or Greeks, who wanted him to take six packages from the house wh-er-e the bodies were found to the Union 'Station. s On arriving at the house he found there were 12 packages, and, after some haggling about the price, he 100k ' theni to the station. ' A young man aged about 20 years rode on the - ' Waggon with him. ' The other men walked, -^he man who -rode on the 'waggon said that ■the -party was.- .going to -Duluth. At the -station be -noticed that the men from the • house' were joined by several other men, a •woman, and a little girl. From this the police believe thai; the murders were committed sometime between midnight on Sunday and Monday morning. This suspicion is clinched by the statement of S. Magnuson, owner of the house where the murders occurred. At about 10 o'clock to-day he asked the police to search the house. He said that an aged German who occupied the lower flat, of the house could not be found. He had notified Magnuson that a fighfc had taken place in rooms over the ones occupied by a German on Sunday night. The German said ,ho heard scuffling in the rear of the house, but thought no- , thing- of it until to-day, when he observed that the tenants above him were not moving about as usual. After informing Magnuson, the German disappeared, and had not been located -up to a late hour to-day. Magnuson at once informed the police, who broke open the dooi-s and made the horrJfying disco\-ery. Magnuson told the police that about four months ago a well-dressed Italian rented the upper storey of the house, and paid four months' rent in adTanoe. The Italian told him he was fch« foreman of a railway construction gang, and that none of the hotels would keep the men. Next day 12 men moved . their be-

' longings iri. - -They ■went 'to -work -each 'day . and returned 'in the- evening. They were quiet, never drank, and those living about tie** place paid; little attention to them. _. Magnuson t Jaeger inquiredAtheir names, and - "^naerely ' entered them "on\ the., books as ■"Variants for whom four., mcidtfas' jent had ■ fceeh.jpaid in, advance.' The *' foreman "' "was.- never seen" again, and the police have absoolutelv no of - his- identity. -SPl*j©~-fcwo ,koclxes --in -fc!i«s- bassmenf, -aceoriling: to the coroner, had been dead nearly two days. The blood surrounding tho bodies in the upper rooms was more fresh than around tho3e in the cellar, also the wounds on ths four appeared to have been made later. The men in the basement had been killed by haying their throats cut, and the police are inclined to believe that they ■were murdered for their money, and that a free fight followed over the division of the This is indicated by the wounds on the bodies found in the upper room 6. Their faces were slashed almost beyond recognition. One man had fallen against a hot stove, and the right side of- his face ■was" burned past all identification. Beside this man lav a bloody hatchet. The fight for money theory is borne out by the finding near the body of a money-belt, in whioh •were 506d0l in United States currency and gold. On oiie of the bodies was found a ■watch still going. Some of the bodies had been stripped, evidently for robbery. Th two satchels found in the house were, besides some woodsmen's clotliing, a curious set of regalia, oorisisting of caps, robe, and 'kerchiefs containing characters and emWems, which, it is thought, may have belonged to an order of the Greek Church.