THE ST. LOUIS TRAGEDY.

Kumara Times, Issue 2727, 18 June 1885, Page 2

THE ST. LOUIS TRAGEDY.

FULL PARTICULARS, SUPPOSED MURDERER TRACED TO AUCKLAND. [Auckland "Herald," June 2.] It will be remembered that on the arrival of the mail steamer City of Sydney, last month, the Auckland police, acting on instructions received by cable from America, arrested a passenger named Maxwell, alias d'Augiuer, on a charge of murder. By our newspaper files received by the Australia yesterday we are now placed in possession of the facts of the case, and from the particulars which we append it will be seen that a brutal and ghastly crime haß been committed.

St. Louis, April 14. A sensation was caused at the Southern Hotel th:s morning by finding in a room a trunk containing the headless body of a man, with a note saying: "So perish all traitors to the great cause." The room was assigned March 30th to Walter A. Lennox, London, England.

Maxwell is described as a very girl-ish-looking, bloude young maD, wearing a dark, wooly, cutaway suit of English stuff, face clean shaven, and wore his hair banged—not parting it at all. He was frequently seen in company with a dark-lookiug gentleman, about 5 feet 10 inches tall. The latter wore a dark moustache, and had dark hair. The eentleinan registered as C. Arthur Preller, London, England, and was assigned to room 184. Four days after Maxwell had registered, a telegram was received from Preller, asking whether Maxwell was a guest of the bouse. He was answered in the affirmative, and soon came on, and was assigned to the room given. Both men occupied room 184 in common a considerable part of the time. Each called for a key, and the clerk gave it to each indiscriminately, as they seemed good friends and intimate acquaintances. The men were remarked much about around the hotel for their dudish appearance and dandified airs. DISCOVERY OF THE CRIME.

Maxwell left the hotel a week ago Sunday night, but he paid a full week's board promptly and it was supposed he would return any day. No suspicion attached to his absence until a horrible smell called attention to the room, and led to the opening of the trunks. When the trunk containing the body was opened it was found to contain the body of a middle-aged man, the face and breast up, and the body so doubled about the hips and knees tint it filled the receptacle. On the side of the trunk, over the head of the corpse, was printed in large letters the words " So perish all traitors to the great cause,"

The trunk and its ghastly contents were immediately hurried to the Four Courts. A GHASTLY SPECTACLE. The body, as it appeared in the trunk, presented a horrible aspect. The face and parts of the body were uncovered, the only garment being a pair of drawers, reaching just, to the knees, which were entirely black and showed advanced decom position. Preller's trunks are of much better quality than Maxwell's, being made of fine leather. The personal effects in them indicate that the owner was a gentleman of means and culture. The trunks have ok them the labels of the Canard Steamship Company, and the Coutineutal Hotel, Philadelphia, where he occupied room 186 on March 26. He had also been at the Rossin House, Toronto. PEN PICTURE OF THE MURDERER. The following is a description of Maxwell, given by a person who saw and conversed with him daily whi'e he was at the Southern Hotel:—" He whs about five feet nine and a half inches in height; weighed about 140 pounds; was well proportioned and rather good figure; his face was of the English type and clean shaven; eyes light blue, I think—or, at least, they were not dark in colour; hair of light sandy colour; wore cut very short behind and rather bushy in front, without any part, and banged like a girl's; generally dressed iu broad tweed suit of English cut; Newmarket overcoat and high Derby hat. In his manners he was very effeminate; he even carried this so far as to Walk with a short, mincing step, like a woman." DESCRIPTION OP THE VICTIM. This afternoon the body of Preller was exposed on a slab in the Morgue for further identification, with the following description given by Superintendent Ryan: The deceased was about five nine inches in height, weighing about 150 pounds; black hair; eyes of dark colour; wore white knit drawers; uo other clothing came with the body; was about 22 or 23 years of age; body very much decomposed ; has been dead ten or twelve days ; tongue protruding; large blisters on both legs; cross cut into flesh on the breast.

NEWS OP THE ARREST OP MAXWELL. On May 6 the St. Louis authorities learnt that Maxwell had been arrested at Auckland. On the 7th the following appeared in the San Francisco papars : " Extradition papers were prepared here to-day to be sent to Auckland, New Zealand, for Maxwell, the Southern Hotel murderer. No agent for the State has yet been appointed to go for Maxwell, there being some doubt as to the manner of his being appointed. There is no need for hurry, however, as the officer who goes cannot leave San Francisco before June 6th, when the next Auckland steamer sails. The Chief of Police cabled to the American Consul at Auckland, this afternoon instructing him to hold Maxwell at all hazards until an officer from Missouri arrived. He also telegraphed to Secretary Bayard that an officer will leave San Francisco for Maxwell on June 6th, and urging Bayard, in conjunction with the British Minister at Washington, to see that Maxwell is not released on a technicality until the officer arrives." THE MURDERED MAN. A paragraph in an English paper says:—"The relatives of Mr C. A. Preller, and those who were acquainted with him, seem to entertain but little doubt that the dismembered body of a man found in a trunk at the Southern Hotel, St. Louis, are the remains of the J young traveller, who had gone out to America to represent the firm of Mr J. H. Dixon, worsted manufacturer, of Bradford, Mr Preller's father, who is a silk agent, carrying on busiuess at Wood street, Cheapside." THE OOST OP THE CABLE MESSAGE. The St. Louis police authorities are somewhat exercised over the heavy expense which the search for and extradition of Maxwell will entail. The cable message to the authorities of Auckland, New Zealand, consisting of 133 words, cost 3dols. 34cts. a word, or 444d015. 22cts. It was the most expensive police message ever sent out from a telegraph office in this country. The secret service fund of St. Louis is small, barely sufficient to cover the cost of this message, although ex-Governor Critteuden declares that the Governor can make use of a contingeut fund of 250,000 dollars to hunt down a criminal like this. It is proposed to start a public subscription in St. Louis to defray the expenses of the capfcnre of Maxwell. A PAINFUL INCIDENT. Our London correspondent writes: '•'There is a painful episode connected with the murder. On (he morning when the intelligence of the* inn <ler appeared in'tbe London papers, the father of Mr teller was coming into the city by

train from his residence iu one of the suburbs, and opening his paper, his eye lighted on the account of a dreadful mnrder in the United States. He proceeded to read the account to his fellow passengers in the train, when he suddenly stopped as he came to the name of the victim', and fouud that it was that of bis own son."