GIRLS STABBED.

Shannon News, 28 September 1926, Page 4

GIRLS STABBED.

SIXTEEN WOUNDED IN YEAR. Young women and girls arc in a state of terror at Bridgeport, U.S.A., as a result olj the resumption by the “phantom stabber” of attacks on girls encountered on dark streets and other places where ho has an opportunity for a sudden attack and a quick getaway. j Three girls were stabbed the other • night, escaping serious injury bej cause the slabbers’ stiletto or sharppointed knife failing to penetrate j deeper than an inch below the surI face of their skins. These. attacks' marked tlie slabber’s second a.ppearance within eight days and brings to ! sixteen the total number of victims. since he began his attacks a year j ago. ' J Three Latest Victims. 1 The girls attacked -were: ] ) Adeline Kinder, 16, of 126 Austin 1 ; street, daughter of Robert F. Kinder, I I widely known in billiard and bowling | circles; attacked in the subway at the ! New Haevn Railroad Station while on 1 her way to the ticket office in comI pany with her sister, Marjorie, a J teacher at Booth and Bayliss Business ' | College. , : Mary Dentato, of 484 East Main Street, stabbed at State and Warren Streets, while on her way hom'e with a girl friend, Stella Hodkoska, 13, of; 590 East Main Street. ' I Anna Borggard, 26, 2140 Park Avenue, stabbed on Broad Street, bei <

j tvvoen West Liberty and Gilbert ' Streets. • 1 Adeline Kinder was stabbed in the bed in the left side of the abdomen L and Mary Dentato was stabbed in her > left breast. In each case the wounds ' were .similar. They appear to have i been inflicted with a sharp stiletto, 1 the weapon penetrating to a depth of ’ nearly an inch in each case. Hurt Is Like Pinprick. The weapon was so sharp that none of the girls experienced more than the sensation of being pricked with a pin. The appearance of the stabber last night was the second in the last eight nights. Previous to August 5, ' when Mary Corcoran, 14, living at the Hotel Morehouse, was attacked, the stabber had been inactive since last . December. , j Since bis first attack on a girl, a ' year ago, the fiend has wounded fifteen girls and has always succeeded lin eluding the police. The slabber’s | ability to escape, after the attack's is I laid by the police to the fact that the victims seldom realise what has happened to them. They seldom made 1 an outcry. Were they to scream when jostled by the stabber there would be j a good chance of capturing the man. ' This fact was demonstrated when Mary Dentato cried out for help. Ernest Noel, a steeplejack, living at 427 State Street, hoard the girl’s scream. He leaped through an open window, but his foot caught in a vine as ho dropped 15 feet to the ground, giving him a bad fall, so he was un- ‘ able to capture the stabber. Noel J chased the man untal he disappeared j through a driveway on Warren Street.- | Superintendent of Police P. J. Flan- ) agan and Defective Captain John H. j Reagan issued a plea to girls who are attacked to scream at the top of their [ lungs . when they are attacked, so near-by residents and police may ar- I rivo in time to chase the stabber.