TOLD BY A DETECTIVE. A Murderer Who Escaped Full Punishment.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 417, 6 November 1889, Page 4

TOLD BY A DETECTIVE. A Murderer Who Escaped Full Punishment.

An ex-detective, who no longer wishes to be quoted by name, has a delightful home on the North Side, Chicago, where he \vater3 his flowers morning and "afternoon and plays with his children in the evening. I called upon him the other day, and in the course of our talk he said : ' I had a case once— that is to say, I was interested in a case — in which the circumstantial evidence against the accused was strong, but the man is^till living, and the last I heard of him he was a commercial drummer in the State ot Ohio. ( lt is a case with which the eai'lier settlers of this section are familiar. Vanderpole and Field were bankers in Manistee, Mich. Vanderpole was the senior member of the firm and a married man. Field was the moneyed man of the concern. One Monday morning the bank tailed to open. A hasty inquiry revealed the fact that Field could nowhere be found. Vanderpole was at his house, and when informed that the bank had not been opened expressed all the surprise of an innocent man. He came to the bank and opened it. In the private office the discovery was made that a piece had been cut out of the carpet. This wasn't much of a starter, but in trying to learn why it had been done some one dropped an incidental remark to the effect that the members of the firm had been quarrelling about fcheir business affairs, and that Vanderpole had been trying to get the upper hand. • A search of the basement of the bank resulted in the finding of a hatchet. It was blood stained. Vanderpole explained that he had a dog which had received an accident, and he had taken him into the room to perform some kind of an operation on him. This stained the parpet, and he had cut out the stained section and had thrown the hatchet into the basement c On this Vanderpole was arrested. About a week from that time the body of Field washed ashore near the mouth of the river. The nature of the injuries on his head was such as to cause the suspicion that they had been inflicted by an axe or a hatchet. A rope was tied around the body and a noose in it showed that some heavy substance had been originally placed on the noose, the object being to sink the body. ♦The theory was that the murder had been committed Sunday and the body taken by boat out into the lake and dropped in the water, and that the murder was done with the hatchet. Vanderpole made a statement in which he accounted accurately for his whereabouts every minute of Sunday, not one of which had been passed at the bank. To make this statement stronger it had some corroboration. ' He was, however, found guilty and was remanded for sentence, as I remember it now. The usual motion for a new trial was argued and granted. A change of venue to another county was made, and the result of that trial was that he received a penitentiary sentence. Mr Van Annan, of Chicago, who was then the leading lawyer of our criminal bar, was sent for and habeas corpus proceedings followod. Vanderpole was taken from prison and had a third trial. On this he was released. General Cutcheon, now member of Congress from the Manistee district, was then Prosecuting Attorney. I never hear detectives and lawyers talk about' circumstantial evidence that I don't recall this trial and' its result.'