I just need to figure out who he is.
Ald. Beattie Gives His View on the Murder Mystery.
"I understand," said a reporter to Ald. John Beattie, that you have a theory regarding this mystery which gives some promise of its solution."
He was at the police headquarters today, the apparent object being to impress upon the powers that be that his theory – it is his only-might have been very useful to the police at an earlier stage of the game.
"Well," he said, as he answered somewhat shyly to the line thrown out, "my theory – and it is mine alone-is one formed from the circumstances of the case. The brain which devised this crime was cunning enough to devise beforehand the means to escape detection. Supposing it was a woman, she was cunning enough to wear a loose wrapper which would have covered her clothes and gloves which would have protected her hands from the stains of blood. If so, there was time to burn both wrapper and glove in the hot ironing fire which is known to have been burning in the kitchen on the day of the tragedy. The ashes would have shown whether or not such material was consumed in the kitchen stove.
"Again, it is hard to believe that the murderer, if there was one, escaped by the side door. He might have gone out the cellar door, as a matter of fact, and escaped by scaling the fence in the rear of the yard. On the day they buried the blood-stained clothes, I noticed that they were about to bury a piece of the skull which had been cut away from the head of one of the victims by the axe of the murderer. I told Officer Chace to preserve it. He wrapped it up in a piece of paper and is carrying it around with him. The appearance of that portion of its surface which was cleanly cut by the axe might give some clue as to the exact nature of the weapon in regard to the smoothness of its blade or the cleanness of the blade.
"The police sealed up nothing on the day of the murder. Had they sealed up the cellar door, placed two officers in the house with instructions to examine everything and note what went on there, told the inmates to keep quiet and allowed absolutely no one to enter the house for the time being some definite action might have been taken before this – an arrest made possibly."