Case #4

​St. Louis

Bloody Puzzles That St. Louis Police Could Not Solve. While waiting -for something to turn up or somebody to come in and tell them where to find the perpetrators of recent mysterious murders, the detective and police are entertaining themselves with reminiscences of other local murders among the victims. They recall the teries, notably a those of which women Annie Weiss case, which has never been cleared up; the Ida Buckley case, the Josie Simons mystery, the Susie Beck tragedy and others.

Annie Weiss was killed in the summer of 1889 at Union and Page avenues, and the identity of her murderer was never discovered. She was a young girl of German extraction, and before coming here, lived with her parents in Jefferson City. She had a married sister in this city and came here to visit her. One afternoon, she went out to make a few purchases, and her dead body was found the next morning in the weeds on Union Avenue. The police made several arrests on suspicion, but could never fasten the crime on anybody.

Susie Beck, a young ' girl, was lured from her home in Chesterton, Ind., in 1887 by Rev. William Thomas Abbott West, brought to this city, and here poisoned by her ministerial betrayer. West, before he arrived in St. Louis, was a Metho: list preacher in Chesterton, and his victim was not only a member of the congregation, but a singer in the choir as well. West had his own family but became infatuated with the girl and ruined her.

He brought her to St. Louis and murdered her. This was clearly shown, but he was never caught. Josie Simons was brutally murdered at her home, south of the poor house, in October, 1892. She was but 20 years of age and lived with her relatives.

When her assailant let out her life, she was at home alone and was found when her body was scarcely -cold. Several arrests were effected in this case, but evidence sufficiently strong to hold anybody was lacking, and the case was given a place among the unsolved mysteries. The Ida Buckley case was never fully solved. Show was a young girl disposed to be wayward despite the efforts of her relatives to keep her in the straight path. One evening, fully 25 years ago, she was taken out of a resort where she was living and taken about nine miles on Olive Street road, where she was shot and killed.

A relative was arrested and tried for the murder but was acquitted. The murder of Benjamin Cut loch, a paying teller of the State Bank of St. Louis. has never been clearly solved. However, the belief is strong that Jim and Cd Murray, the negroes convicted and hung for the murder of Edgar Fitzwilliam, committed the deed. Mr.

Li Calloch was an old and popular bank clerk, and his murder created so much feeling that a reward of $1,500 was quickly posted for the apprehension of the murderer. The crime was committed on the porch of Mr. M Calloen's residence at Bonwool, just beyond the city limits. Another case of compulsively recent date W89 the murder and robbery of Gille, an old ex-federal soldier, who was choked to death and robbed of his money in a room in the rear of 22) Walnut Street, April 2, 1803. A cook and a cigarmaker were suspected, but although circulars were sc.

Uttered broadcast and a reward crore, DO arrests were made. Going back some 13 years, the records show another case surrounded by mystery. The victim on that occasion was Police Officer Patrick Walsh. He was shot and killed, presumably by a burglar, in an alley at Eighteenth and Pine Streets. A burglar named Higgins was suspected, but the police could not fasten the crime on him.

The murder of Lou Johnson, the Americanized Chinaman, in the alley in the rear of 719 Walnut Street was one of the most mysterious cases the police ever had to handle, and though Chinese were arrested by the wholesale, the identity of the murderer was never fully established. However, it was shown that the killing was the result of a conspiracy on the part of the Highbinders, a Chinese secret society..