GIRLS’ TERRIBLE FATE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 462, 24 June 1909, Page 3

GIRLS’ TERRIBLE FATE.

MURDERED BY A WHITE MAN DISGUISED AS A NEGRO.

A widespread sensation was caused in January last by the mysterious murder of two young girls at Dayton, Ohio, their deaths being attended by unspeakable outrages. No clue to the murderer could be discovered at the time, and all subsequent attempts to solve the mystery ended in failure. As the result of a startling confession, which has just been made to the police, the identity of the perpetrator of these revolting crimes has at last, it is believed, been revealed. The alleged murderer, Ermer Carr, was employed in Dayton last year by a wealthy cheese manufacturer, named Middlestetter. Carr, in some mysterious way, formed the acquaintance of the manufacturer’s wife, a woman of great beauty, and induced her to leave her husband. At Carr’s persuasion she opened a small hotel, and they lived together. Last autumn, the place, which was heavily insured, was burnt down. Carr collected most of the insurance, and was afterwards arrested on the charge of arson, but was subsequently released. He was again arrested, the police recently having obtained fresh evidence.

Mrs Midlestetter, when questioned by the police concerning the case, suddenly broke down and made a terrible confession. Carr, she alleged, was a former convict, and had confided to her that he had committed many assaults on women, had murdered the two Dayton girls, and had also murdered a young girl in Boston. After she lived with Carr, she said, he would often go out at night disguised as a negro labourer and would invariably return with women’s purses, often torn and broken. These he would give tp her. A number of highway robberies occurred at the time, which were attributed to a mysterious negro desperado. FOUND IN A CISTERN.

On the night of January 3, Carr left the house made up as a negro, and wearing coarse working clothes. When he returned late at night, Mrs Middlestetter said his clothing was covered with mud. He saturated it with kerosene, and burned it before the eyes of the woman and her little girl who lived with her.

The next day she said she heard of the brutal murder of Mary Forchner, a girl of 15, who had been sent by her mother to a neighbouring shop and had disappeared. Her mutilated body was discovered in a stable, and the whole city was stirred by the crime.

On the night of January 31 the woman confessed that Carr brought Lizzie Fullhart, a pretty girl of xS, to the hotel. About midnight the girl and he went out together and did not return. The following night Carr sent for Mrs Middlestetter to meet him in a lonely spot, and told her, she alleges, that he had done something which would “turn the old town upside down,” Two days later some workmen found the body of Lizzie Fullhart floating in the cistern, her body showing evidences of cruel handling. As Carr has been seen with the girl he was arrested on suspicion, but was released for lack of evidence to connect him with the crime.

The police were astounded when they heard the woman T s confession. It was only when she was convinced that Carr was actually under arrest on the charge of arson and that her life was not in immediate danger, that she related her terrible story.