1902-09-24-New York Times-Young Says Another Did Actual Murder

New York Times

24 September 1902, page 16

YOUNG SAYS ANOTHER DID ACTUAL MURDER.

Protests He Tried to Revive Mrs. Pulitzer After Crime. Police Searching for Possible Accomplice--Jewels Sold, Not Pawned--Prisoner Now in the Tombs.

William Hooper Young alleged murderer of Mrs. Anna Pulitzer, is now in that part of the Tombs known as "Murderers' Row," there spending his waking hours in reading newspaper acounts of the crime charged to him and begging for cigarettes. After he was arrested in Derby, Conn., and before he was brought to this city yesterday morning, he made some sort of a statement to two of Capt. Titus's detectives, and the Captain announced yesterday that the confession was as follows:

"About three weeks ago I met a man named Charles Eiling in Central Park. He accosted me. We talked and got acquainted, though he was a degenerate. After that he called on me several times in my flat.

"On the night Mrs. Pulitzer died, Eiling and I met her at Broadway and Forty-sixth Street by an appointment I had made. We went to the flat together. I went out for some whiskey after we got there, leaving Eiling and the woman alone. When I got back I found Mrs. Pulitzer lying across the bed with a gag in her mouth. Eiling had gone.

"I ripped open her clothing and moved her hands back and forth over her head to induce respiration. When she didn't breathe I put my hand under her waist and felt her heart. It was not beating. Then I decided to notify the police, but thought I would go to Police Headquarters instead of calling a policeman. I though Police Headquarters was in the City Hall. I got on a train and started down town, and on the way I got to thinking what a lot of disgrace the affair would bring on me and my father. That made me decide to get rid of the body.

"I took a long knife and cut into the body, intending to cut it up so that I could get it into a trunk, but after I had made the first cut my courage failed and I could go no further."

Capt. Titus gave out that version of the prisoner's confession soon after the latter had left Police Headquarters, whither he was taken immediately after arriving at the Grand Central Station from derby. Before quoting the confession the Chief Detective had said:

"Young's counsel, Mr. Hart, is here, and the prisoner made the statement to my officers in Connecticut. I understand that he made practically the same statement to Mr. Hart."

CONTRADICTED THE CAPTAIN.

After the Captain had finished giving out the confession, Mr. Garvan, Assistant District Attorney, who was there, said:

"Captain Titus has said that this prisoner made practically the same statement to his counsel. The Captain is mistaken. We don't know what he told his counsel."

"I have told no one that he made any statement to me," interposed Mr. Hart.

"No," added Mr. Garvan. "The counsel has made no statement on the subject at all, except to say that his client is not guilty."

"He made a statement to his counsel," said Captain Titus. "but we have no means of knowing what it is. I want to be understood as saying that I supposed it was the same he made to my officers."

"That is all the statement Young made," the Captian added. "He volunteered all that. Knowing that his rights are being protected, we cannot question him now."

During the time the prisoner was at headquarters he was not separated from his counsel, except while his picture and measurements were being taken upstairs. Captain Titus personally had no conversation with him. After the man was securely lodged in the Tombs, Mr. Hart had a brief talk with him.

"I don't admit that Young ever made the statement attributed to him," said the lawyer later in the afternoon. "Or, if he made any statement to the detectives, I do not admit that he made one in such a form that it will have legal value. All I can say is that I think Young is innocent, and I shall be able to prove it when the time comes.

"If there was a confession made, as the police say, and if a man named Eiling committed the murder, then Young was guilty only of concealing a dead body, which is not a crime under the laws of this State. If Young is the murderer, then it is up to Captain Titus to prove either that Eiling is a myth or where Eiling is.

"No, I don't say I know that Young is insane. I wish somebody would tell me whether he is or not."

Mr. Hart said that John W. Young, the prisoner's father, had been notified of his son's arrest.

In talking Mr. Hart spoke of the person who had interested him in the case as "a friend of John W. Young," the prisoner's father. He would not disclose the identity of the friend, but it was learned that he is Gen. Avery D. Andrews, ex-Police Commissioner, now living at Ardsley, N. Y. Gen. Andrews is in constant cable communication with Mr. Young in Paris, where an expression of the ex-Commissioner's belief inthe prisoner's story that the actual killing was done by another man has been sent.

It is known, too, that several of the most noted insanity experts in the United States have been communicated with, indicating that the principal defense will be insanity.

Gen. Andrews, when asked last night concerning his interest in the case, declined to say anything.

DISCREDITS ACCOMPLICE STORY.

In speaking of the confession that the officers said Young had made to them in Derby, Conn., Capt. Titus said last night that he placed no credence at all in the accomplice story. He did not believe any such man as Eiling ever existed. Young, according to the police, had said that Eiling lived in Bridgeport for a while and also in Portland, Oregon. To both these cities Capt. Titus sent messages inquiring after the supposed accomplice, but he received word from the respective Chiefs of Police that they were unable to find a trace of such a person. Both the Chiefs were positive that no Eiling had ever been in their territories.

"And yet," added Capt. Titus, "as the prisoner has told this story, I shall not stop investigating it. I shall do all I can to trace it down. If there is any Eiling, I'll do my best to get him."

Mrs. Pulitzer's murder has not lost all its mystery, as the police had expected it would as soon as Young was caught. The prisoner told them that he could not remember where he had been since he left New York. Nor did he explain the injuries to the head and face of the dead woman. Even his lawyer was unable to get much information from him yesterday, for after they had talked together in the Tombs the lawyer said he had no idea about his client's recent movements.

"But," he added, "there is one point I expect to clear up soon. What it is I can't tell you now, but I'll make it public as soon as I straighten it out."

When Young reached the Grand Central Station at 9:21 o'clock, he was still handcuffed to Detective Seargeant Findlay. Accompanying them were Seargeant Hughes and Mr. Hart, the prisoner's lawyer. They came on the New Haven express, and had occupied seats in the smoker during the entire trip. Young and Mr. Hart talked much of the time on the way to New York. Young asked several times for a cigarette, but as none of the party was addicted to their use, cigars were given to him, and he smoked these incessantly.

From as early as 7 o'clock, a crowd began to collect about the Grand Central Station to see Young. The news that he had been captured and that he would be brought to New York attracted a thousand or more persons. The police had much to do in keeping them out of the station, in order to permit of the regular traffic. Nearly every one that came in on the trains from the suburbs wanted to know what the crowd had assembled for, and when they were told that Young was expected, many of them waited.

RUSH OF THE CROWD.

It was about five minutes after the last person had left the train before Yong was brought out. The smoker was in the front of the train, just behind the baggage car, and the walk to the cab was a short one. The detectives took their prisoner across several tracks and out from a gate to one side of where the crowd had collected. They evidently had not attempted to avoid the crowd, but nevertheless, they nearly succeeded. Suddenly a cry went up of "Here he comes; here's Young."

The crowd made a rush for the gate. The policemen drew their clubs and threatened to use them. Down the walk to the gate at a hurried step went the detectives dragging their prisoner, for he was hardly able to walk. He seemed to fear the crowd, for he shouted "Hart! Hart!" as though he wished his counsel to protect him.

The prisoner's face is thin, but not long. His brow is high, but exceedingly narrow. His hair was short, his eyes are rather large and hazel, and they move furtively from side to side, his glance never lingering in any spot longer than the fraction of a second. His dark complextion is not that of one naturally a brunette, but looks as if he might have spent years in the tropics. His nose is long, thin, and the bone shows prominently, while his mouth is small. His neck is long and the Adam's apple is prominent.

Young was almost barefooted, his shoes being torn and worn out on the soles. He wore a cheap brown checked suit of clothes and a golf cap of mixed material. His linen was dirty, and he wore no neck-tie.

The police made an opening through the crowd from the gate to the carriage. young before he entered turned to Mr. Hart again, but Detective Findlay jerked him unceremoniously toward the door. Again he shouted:

"Mr. Hart! Mr. Hart!"

RAN AFTER THE CARRIAGE.

"Get in here!" exclaimed the detective, and the prisoner was pulled and shoved into the cab, and the driver gave the horse a sharp lash of the whip. The crowd scattered in front of the carriage, and hundreds of persons ran after it for blocks. At Forty-second Street and Park Avenue the cab got blocked by a car, and another endeavor was made to get a look at the prisoner. Hundreds fought their way to the windows. The carriage proceeded on its way to East Forty-first Street, followed by the crowd. It went through Fifth Avenue and thence to Police Headquarters.

The crowd about Headquarters was almost as large as at the station, for the word had been sent there that Young was on the way. Even the old Italian women of the neighborhood gathered, and head were out of all the buildings near. The prisoner was taken in by the Mott Street entrance of the building. The prisoner was held at Headquarters for nearly two hours and then was taken in a carriage to the Criminal Court Building where he spent half an hour in the offic eof District Attorney Jerome. Later he was arraigned before Magistrate Mayo in the Centre Street Police Court and held, without bail, for examination next Tuesday.

While he was arraigned before the Magistrate, Young's demeanor was that of a frightened and hunted man. Once he tried to force a smile, after his lawyer had whispered in his ear something which could not be heard, but his attempt was pathetic.

The Tombs Warden, when asked about his new prisoner last night said:

"We put him in the hospital cell just for the sake of precaution. The nurses never take their eyes off of him. He has been examined by the prison physician, who found that there was nothing the matter with him, except that he was rund down but his lawyer be allowed to see him. No Mormons nor any friends have called for him."

Several hours after Captain Titus had told of Young's statement, which he called "a statement and not a confession," the Captain was asked if the prisoner had given any intimation of what he had done with Mrs. Pulitzer's jewelry that she wore on the night of the murder.

"Yes," was the reply, "he told my men he had sold it for $8.25. He had not pawned it. He gave the name of the place where he got rid of the valuables, and we are now looking them up.

Mac Levy, the Brooklyn gymnasium instructor, who knew Young, and who went to Derby on Monday to make the identification, said yesterday that he believed the story of the accomplice. He said Young told him the same things that he was said to have told the detectives. He also told Levy that he thought Eiling had given Mrs. Pulitzer "knockout drops" while he (Young) was away from the flat.