Investigations Now in Progress
31 DEC 1885. Austin Daily Statesman.
We are authorized to give assurances to the citizens of Austin that the city authorities and the executive committee of citizens have arrived at the conclusion, after careful investigation, that all the murders for the last year in this city can be traced to a special cause and to a certain class of persons, and that they will be enabled in ten days, to give the public such a solution of the seemingly mysterious murders, that will free all good citizens from apprehensions of danger. The city authorities and the citizen’s executive committee are in possession of facts that will convict the murderers and demonstrate the fact to the whole world that there is no danger to a good citizen in this city. Day has broken and the light of the sun fully and clearly illuminates the dark deeds of the past year. There will be no more murders, for before the investigation ceases every culprit will be revealed. We do not pretend to assert that every one of the murderers is known, so fully as to insure a legal conviction, and, therefore, elsewhere we advocate a large reward for any and all information that will guide investigations now in progress.
REWARD OFFERED.
It will be seen elsewhere that Governor Ireland has offered a reward of three hundred dollars for the arrest and conviction of each of the murderers of Mrs. Hancock and Mrs. Phillips. The reward, however, is not to embrace conviction of those parties already arrested and imprisoned on suspicion.
We think the governor made a mistake in not making the reward general, including all parties to the crime. The motives that controlled the governor in the limitation of the reward are obvious. He assumed that these arrests were not made without sufficient grounds and that the conviction would follow, as a matter of course.
But we have had experience of the fact that conviction would not follow, as a matter of course, even when the recognition of the murderers has been proved. We know an alibi was proved, sufficient to negative before a jury the positive recognition of one of the assassins, by one of the victims of the outrage and murder. It is creditably stated that one of the officers of the law has the money to pay a thousand dollars for the information that would lead to the arrest and conviction of any one of the participants in the bloody tragedies. If that is the case why not supplement the offer of the governor and increase the thousand dollar said to be in the hands of the officer to twenty-five hundred dollars for the information that would give a clue to the murderers and their final conviction?
We have suggested a reward of twenty-five hundred dollars, based upon the fact that it has been stated by many gentlemen very able to give that amount, that they would supplement the present subscriptions to that amount. It is well worth ten, twenty, a hundred thousand dollars to the city of Austin to detect and punish these demons, and it is useless to haggle about the amount to be paid. If any one has information that will free us from this constant apprehension of being murdered in our beds, give him or her whatever amount he or she asks, and let the world know the truth. It is only necessary to let the world know the whole truth to quiet all apprehension of danger on the part of unsuspected citizens.
THE REIGN OF BLOOD. SOME MORE CLUES TO WORK ON. ARREST OF A MEXICAN WITH A CARGO OF BLOODY IMPLEMENTS.
About 6 o’clock last evening Officers Robinson and Sendrey arrested a Mexcian named Anastacio Martinez at a house near the corner of Live Oak and San Antonio streets, in the First ward, and took him to the police station. Subsequently his premises were searched and two flour barrels full and a bundle of plunder were taken possession of and conveyed to police headquarters. In addition to a large number of articles of female wearing apparel, many of which were stained with blood, the officers found a Colt’s cap and ball six-shooter; a variety of butcher and other knives, seven in number, some of them bearing blood stains; a razor; a small ice pick of blunt bodkin, and a long iron spike, such as might have been driven into the ears of Becky Ramey and Mrs. Hancock. Among other articles the Mexican possessed was a small prayer book, with the name of Ella R. Rooney, written on the inside. He also had a couple of white linen handkerchiefs, with the letters “J.R.” embroidered in white silk on the corner of one, and on the other the letter “A” worked in red. Quite a number of dresses were found in his possession, one of which is expected to be identified today by a German woman, whom it is now thought this Mexican attempted to outrage last summer, and in his flight tore the dress off her. In her scuffle with the man, whoever he was, she inflicted a severe wound in the palm of his hand by jerking a knife blade through it. This Mexican has a scar on his hand, it is said, that looks like it might have been made that way. The lady will certainly know him if he is the man who assaulted her.
Underneath his shirt he carried a roll of money containing thirty-two American trade dollars, there being a piece of cardboard, cut to fit the coin, placed between each dollar, the whole being rolled so compactly that when it struck the floor the sound was more like that made by a piece of iron. Speaking in his native tongue he told officer Sendrey that he had been two years in jail at Brownsville, Texas, for assaulting women, and afterwards laid in a hospital for several months. He is of stout build, good size and between forty and forty-five years of age.