Mysteries Cleared Up

Little Murders

This headline from the Davenport Daily Leader, December 9, 1894 references two sensational murder cases. The second case, the murder of Catherine Ging in Minneapolis, has already been covered in detail in this post: The Minneapolis Svengali.

 

Here is the "Packing Box Victim at Chicago:"

 

(From The Davenport Daily Leader, Davenport, Iowa, December 9, 1894.)

Mysteries Cleared Up

Two Sensational Murder Cases Made Plain.

Packing Box Victim at Chicago.

 

He was Killed by His Assistant, Jordan, According to a Confession Made by a Man Who Agreed to Help Dispose of the Body—Confession of Adry Hayward Clears Up the Murder of Miss Catherine Ging at Minneapolis.

Chicago, Dec. 8 – The mystery surrounding the murder of A. D. Barnes, the janitor of the Hiawatha building, whose remains were found in a packing box near Sixty-third street, has been solved. Two men and a woman were arrested. One, named Jordan, was Barnes’s assistant. The other was known as Jersey and sometimes did odd jobs about the place. The woman in the case is the wife of another janitor and from appearance was intimate with Barnes. She says that Jordan and Barnes often quarreled about her. The mystery was solved, however, by a confession, and Jersey was the man who confessed. To police officials he told the following story:

Jersey’s Confession,

“At 4:30 Thursday afternoon at Muldoon’s saloon, a messenger came to me saying that Jordan wanted me to help him that night. I went to the Hiawatha at that and met Jordan who said: ‘Come back at 8:30 and I will have a job for you.’ I went there at 8:30 and he told me he had a box to hide.

“I said: ‘What is in the box’

 

“’It is the body of a man,’ was the reply.

 

“I said: ‘Who is it?’ And he said: ‘It is Barnes.’

 

“I looked in and saw Barnes’ body I was in my shirt sleeves and got blood on my shirt. Jordan and I carried the box to the back yard and left it there.

 

“He said: ‘Wait around here while I go for a wagon.’

 

Given Clean Shirts.

 

“This was about 10 o’clock, so the murder must have occurred about 8 o’clock. Friday morning Jordan came to me and said:

 

“’Here are two shirts. Put on a clean one. Do not squeal and I will give you a job. I killed the man and it will go hard with me if they get me.’

 

“I had been drinking Thursday night, and was asleep when they took the body away in the wagon.”

 

The confession was received after Mrs. Dore, a woman living in the building had identified Jordan and Jersey as the men she had seen carrying out the box. Jordan is weakening and is expected soon to break down and tell all about how he killed Barnes.