INDIANA MURDERS.

Waipukurau Press, Issue 281, 11 July 1908, Page 7

INDIANA MURDERS.

0 THE FATE OF A CHRISTMAS PARTY. It is still uncertain whether the widow Gunness is alive or whether she was burnt to death in the fire which destroyed her farm near La Porte, Indiana. The Indiana police believe that she escaped, travelled to Galveston, and boarded a vessel bound for Hamburg. On the other hand, the reporters engaged in examining the mystery are almost unanimously of opinion that the terrible widow was burnt and their view is corroborated by the finding of a set of artificial teeth, consisting of both upper and lower plates, in the ashes of the farmhouse. They are believed to be hers, and their presence appears to indicate that she was burned to death. Meanwhile the police have been making inquiries in all directions, and have brought to light a remarkable story of a Christmas party. The tale is told by Emil Greening, an errand boy. who says that on Christmas Day, 1906, Mrs Gunness had a party, at which were present a couple she called the professor and his wife, John Moo, of Elbow Lake, Minnesota, and Jennie Olsen, her adopted daughter. On Boxing Day the guests had disappeared, and when Greeningasked Mrs Gunness where they had gone she replied that the professor and his wife had gone back - to a school they kept near Los Angelses, and had taken Jennie with them. As a matter of fact she had killed and dismembered them all, and buried them in the same grave. The men who uncovered the grave with the four corpses say that each body had been butchered and disarticulated in the same manner with a saw. The legs were cut in two above the knee, the arms removed at the sockets, and the heads cut. off. The bodies of Jennie Olsen and John Moo were identified, but who the so-called professor and his wife were has not yet been ascertained. . Moo was the “ relative whom Ray Lamphere (the farm hand who is under arrest) was sent to meet when the widow wanted the coast clear for the disposal of Andrew Heldg-rcn. Mr Rendan,

half-brother of Moo, identified a watch found in Lamphere’s pocket as belonging to Moo. “ I know the watch well,” said Mr Rendan ; “ even the leather thong fastened in the ring of the watch I recognised, for I was with Moo when he bought it.” . / x