100 Years Ago in The Record: More body pieces found

from Troy Record: 07/03/14, 12:46 PM EDT
Sunday, July 5, 1914. More pieces of the body of the woman whose torso was found floating in the Mohawk River two weeks ago have been recovered this weekend, and two people have tentatively identified the murder victim, The Record reports. In the course of an hour, the young woman’s head and right arm were found on the river yesterday.

Norman M. Niven of Schenectady finds the head while canoeing, while Fred Looman finds the arm under the Delaware & Hudson railroad bridge. The locations are a quarter-mile and one mile downriver from where the torso was found on June 19.

“The head is that of a black-haired woman, apparently about 20 years old, with a medium-sized mouth, perfect teeth, without fillings, ear lobes pierced for earrings and with a large oval face, with high cheek bones and the face narrowing toward the chin,” our reporter writes.

“The right arm had been disarticulated at the shoulder and no knife or saw had been used in the work. The arm also shows signs of having been removed from the body by a man skilled in cutting up meat or a surgeon who was trying to leave no traces of surgical skill.”

A man’s handkerchief knotted around the lower part of the head and the clothing in which the arm was still garbed may prove important clues to both the victim and the killer’s identity.

Investigators take remains to the Gleason & Bernardi undertaking parlor, where an unidentified woman today “partly identified” the head as that of her sister. She brings a photograph of her sister which “corresponds in many respects” with the victim’s head. This identification appears to be corroborated by Dr. William M. Sanford, who recently operated on the woman’s sister, removing an abscess in her ear.

Schenectady County district attorney Alexander T. Blessing won’t yet confirm the identification, but he tells reporters that “the finding of the head was the biggest forward step made in the case so far.” He wants to wait until a “chemical and microscopial examination” is completed tomorrow before naming the victim.

Niven is claiming a $500 reward offered by the Schenectady County board of supervisors for information on the crime, but the reward is conditional upon an arrest and conviction. Blessing is hopeful that a positive identification will bring investigators closer to finding a motive for the woman’s death.

“The authorities now believe that the girl was beaten to death,” our writer notes. There are blade wounds on the victim’s right cheek and on her forehead, but neither appears to have been a fatal blow.

— Kevin Gilbert