An Acid Bath For The Suffragist

paid in the last month. Superintendent Daniel Smith this afternoon decided to open the apartment using a pass key. He opened the door and immediately noticed an odor. He went through the rooms, and when he reached the bathroom, he discovered the body. Policeman mal Day of the sixty seventh Street station summoned doctor Brown of the emergency hospital, who said that the man had been dead at least three weeks.

The surgeon believed apoplexy was the cause of death. In the bathtub was four inches of water, but the man's face was not covered. It is supposed that he was stricken as he was about to take a bath. True crime historian presents Unsolved, a special edition of Yesterday's News

exploring one of history's most baffling mysteries. Episode three hundred and sixty eight tells the sad story of a woman found dead in a bathtub, her body so decomposed that police first assumed that it is her husband because they heard she is sick and convalescing somewhere. When the truth is revealed and the husband found alive, he soon becomes a suspect as officials assume murder. But is the chauffeur,

murderer or the victim of police harassment. I'm true crime historian Richard O. Jones, and for your puzzlement and indignation, I give you an acid bath for the suffragist. The Lilian She mystery May thirtieth, nineteen eleven. The discovery of a woman's body in a bathtub partly filled with a quicklime or acid solution intended to destroy identification at number five eleven East seventy eighth Street is believed today by

the police to furnish another murder mystery. When the body was found late yesterday by the man in charge of the apartment, it was believed that Harry A. Sheeb, thirty one years old, a chauffeur, and he was supposed to have died from apoplexy. Today, Sheib is a prisoner at police headquarters, suspected of knowing something about the strange disappearance of his wife, Lilian, a suffragist worker and writer, and the body found in the bathtub, which proved to be

a woman's and is believed to be hers. Although paying rent on the seventy eight eighth Street apartment until a few days ago, Sheib has been living at number nine ninety three Amsterdam Avenue. His wife has not been seen

since early in February. When arrested early today at one hundred and tenth Street and Broadway, Shib denied his identity, but finally admitted it, and when told at the East sixty seventh Street police station that he was suspected of killing his wife, he turned pale and exclaimed to Lieutenant Breen, my god, that isn't my wife. Up to that time he had not been told anything about the finding of

the woman's body. It was Dan Smith, in charge of the furnished apartment buildings at number five eleven East seventy eighth Street, who found the body yesterday afternoon, after Sheb had failed to pay the rent several days overdue. He opened the door with his brass key, and the air that rushed out caused him hastily to close the door again and run for a policeman. They climbed the fire escape, opened the windows, and when it was possible, went into

the apartment. In the bath tub, faced downward was a body that, at a rough estimate, had been there for three or four weeks. Clinging to it were fragments of underclothes. One leg was sticking out of the tub. There were three or four inches of liquid in the tub, and doctor Brown, who was called from the Presbyterian Hospital, thought

it was water, although it seared the hands. Watchman Smith, who was a sort of supervisor with the authority of the usual janitor, had been told that missus Sheeb was in Cleveland, Ohio, and it was concluded the unrecognizable mass of flesh was the remains of Sheeb, who had died from apoplexy when preparing to take a bath, and it was so reported by the police. The strange burning effect of the fluid was explained after the body had been removed to the Morgue on the order of Cordner Holzausen.

The Morgue attendant said the body was not only that of a woman instead of a man, but that it had been immersed in a solution of quicklime or some acid for the purpose of destroying it or preventing identification. The police at once got busy. They found in the rooms a large quantity of suffragist writings, evidently the handiwork of Missus Sheeb. Copy paper with completed and uncompleted articles was everywhere, but no woman's clothing could be found anywhere.

Detectives Owen and mc mahon were assigned to the case and found on a slip of paper the address of a Broadway garage and began questioning persons living in the house. Smith told them that last February Sheeb, who had been living in an apartment twenty three with the wife, told him Missus Sheeb had gone to Cleveland to visit his relatives and might not be back for some time. Sheeb said he would live elsewhere during her absence, but would keep the apartment in return every week and pay the rent.

For several weeks. He came regularly and paid or sent the money by messenger recently. According to Smith, Sheb came with the rent and said, in case I should get a few days shy with the rent, don't get uneasy and go into my place. I'll be around all right and make good, so don't go inside. The rule in the furnished apartment house is that the rent must be paid every week. Smith said he became suspicious at the

way Sheb talked, although he couldn't tell why. At any rate, when the rent due last Thursday was not forthcoming and nothing was seen of Sheeb, Smith decided to take a look inside. With the result already detailed, the detectives got a photograph of Sheb and started out to look for the man whose obituary was in all the afternoon papers. They learned at the garage that he drove a car for George Wyeth of number twenty eight eighty one Broadway,

a wealthy man interested in an accounting machine. At the garage where mister Wyeth keeps his machine, they learned that the chauffeur had it out and remained in hiding in the neighborhood until after one o'clock this morning, when Sheb drove up. They put him under arrest, telling him he was wanted for not having a chauffeur's license. She denied his identity, saying his name was Smith, but when taken to the garage, the employees there said, that's sheb all right.

He was then confronted with photographs of himself and admitted his identity. When asked why he denied it, he jauntily replied, oh, John D. Rockefeller himself would deny his identity if anyone came along and ask him questions, and he didn't know their business of people do it. It was learned at the East sixty seventh Street station, according to the police, that she really has no license and that it had

escaped the notice of authorities. Although he was recently arrested and fined for having a smoking car, the prisoner thought he was under arrest for the simple misdemeanor until the police suddenly told him of their suspicions, and then he exclaimed, my god, that's not my wife. Although the police say nothing had been told him of the finding of the body,

sheb seemed very cock sure. At first. He did a lot of talking and several times contradicted himself, but nothing he said, according to the police, threw any light on the whereabouts of his wife, nor could they get from many information that might lead to the discovery of her whereabouts if alive. Sheib told the police that his wife was miss Lillian Glover, an orphan of Holyoake, mass When he married her five years ago in New Jersey, she

was then twenty years old. He seemed to have only a vague idea as to their relatives and where they lived. She did a lot of writing on suffragist matters, he said, but he didn't know what she did with her articles and never knew her to get any pay for them. He said she was intensely jealous of him and imagined he was trying to flirt with every woman he passed on the street. Often, he asserted, his wife had tantrums,

enraged and ranted and left the house. Usually it was always because of her jealousy, and she did not remain away long. Last summer, he got a position driving a car for a man living in Amityville, Long Island. She left him soon afterward and came back to New York, telling him that she would live with him when he returned to the city to work. It was then he gave up the Amityville Place and went to work for

mister Wyeth. They went to live in the East seventy eighth Street apartment February second, He said he went home and found a note with a key to the apartment lying on the dresser. The note and his wife's handwriting, said, I can't stand this any longer. There's no use in your looking for me. I'm gone. He said he expected she would return sooner or later, and told it around

she had gone away on a visit. He explained his paying the rent for two places by saying he knew he would feel lonesome living in the east side apartment and rented a room on the west side, nearer his work. He admitted keeping up two apartments was a drain on his resources. He said that he was the only person who had a key to the apartment so far as he knew, although his wife might have had a duplicate made before she left hers for him with the note.

He declared he had not heard from his wife since February second, when she disappeared, and said he had not been in the flat for a month, but intended to go there last night and pay the rent and find out if his wife had been about. Told the police he had no idea who the woman could be, but he did not believe it was his wife. He did not know any woman could have gone into the flat, he said, and the woman's identity was as much a

mystery to him as to anyone else. The police confess there are many puzzling features about the case, not the least of which is what became of the woman's clothes. The detectives found a few little odds and ends of clothing about the place, but nothing that the person, in their opinion, could have worn to the house alive. The solution in the bathtub had so eaten away the underclothes

worn by the woman. They offered no clue whatever. Today, a dentist who did some work on Missus Sheeb's teeth will go to the Morgue and try to identify the body. The detectives regard the outcome of this examination as the most important thing in the case just now. Superintendent Armstrong of the Morgue said today that the body was in such condition from chemicals it would require an autopsy to determine positively, so far as the officials are concerned, whether

it is that of a man or a woman. It is a small body, however, and there seems to be no doubt in the mind of the coroner that it is a woman. Sheib said his wife was a small woman and never weighed more than one hundred and four pounds. Henry A. Sheeb, held by police on suspicion of having caused the death of his wife Lilian, made the astonishing declaration to Deputy Commissioner Dougherty this afternoon that he wrote a letter addressed to himself and signed Anna, which intimated

intimate relations with that fictitious person. Shib's statement was made in the course of a long examination to which he was subjected at police headquarters. The detectives were very anxious to learn the whereabouts of Anna, and persistently quized him on that point, said Scheib, I wrote that letter myself. I was going to show it to my wife when she came back, to prove that other women liked me. Sheb was given a pen and ink and a sheet

of paper in order to write the Anna letter. From dictation. He turned out an exact facsimile of the letter, which was found in his room after his arrest. In the letter were references to Sheeb's wife. The suspect was under the probe of Dougherty and Inspector Russell for several hours. He admitted that he had made a mistake in giving the name of his wife. His latest story is that she was Lily in Lover, not lilyan Glover. He declared.

She came from a small town near Holyoake, mass Link by link, a convincing chain of circumstantial evidence is being forged round Sheb. It has been established to a certainty that even if he didn't know of his wife's whereabouts as he claims, he lied systematically on the point after she disappeared. As recently as last Wednesday, she voluntarily stated to missus John Wyeth, wife of his employer, that his wife was in Chicago with his mother, living in Llewellen Avenue,

said Sheb. She is out of the hospital and doing fine. About a week previously, she but asked for and had been granted, a short leave of absence. He said he wanted to put his wife on a train and send her to Chicago. She had been, he said, in a hospital in Springfield, Massachusetts. Mister Wyeth recalls that during the spring Sheb made several requests for advances on his salary owing to the heavy expense of taking care of his

sick wife. While she was representing to his employer and Missus Wyeth that his wife was alive, her body was in the bathtub of the East seventy eighth Street flat, the rent of which Sheb was paying. Missus Wyeth says that one day last winter, when she was about to enter her car, a small, sick looking little woman with

light blue eyes walked up and spoke to Sheb. This is my wife, missus Wyeth remembers Sheb to have said, and she's not filling well, if you wouldn't mind, I would like to take her up to one hundred forty eighth Street, where we live in the car, Missus Wyeth had no objections. Sheb took the little woman up to one hundred and forty eighth Street. Some time after that, Sheb informed his employer that he had sent his wife to a hospital in Springfield, Massachusetts, so she could be

near her parents. Since his arrest, he has told police his wife was an orphan when he married her. The detectives attach a lot of importance to Sheeb's admission made to the coroner into various police officials that he was in the flat last on April fifteenth, Two weeks before that, a family living in the flat above was driven out by an undesirable odor. The coroner's experts say the body was in the bathroom at least three months. The police

today began a systematic inquiry into Sheeb's past. He has admitted that he came here from Chicago. When asked if he had ever been arrested there, he said he had not been, but when told his picture and measurements were to be sent to the police there just the same, he is alleged to have exclaimed, well, you'll probably find that I've not been an ider down angel in Chicago. Just because my wife was found dead in the bathtub

is no reason I set fire to Dreamland Park. They do not know whether he was trying to be witty or was so rattled he didn't know what he was saying. They are investigating a rumor that his real name as Wells, and that his home is in Sacramento, California. Headquarters men, on the strength of a letter found in Sheeb's possession, visited Miss ethel Mullen at the home of her parents

six thirty five ninth Avenue. Miss Mullan said she and her friend, Miss May Flannery met Sheb about four months ago through another girl whose name they declined to give. He had been attentive but always brought them home early. She said he had never said anything about being married. The last time they saw him was last Wednesday. Miss

Mullan's mother corroborated her. May Flannery was found today by an Evening World reporter at number four fifty West fifty eighth Street, where she lives with her aunt, missus Jackson. May is seventeen years old, small, dark and attractive. She's employed as a clerk in a Broadway department store. Quote. Ethel Mullen and I met Sheb early in April. We were walking in sixty third Street when he spoke to us. We told him we didn't know him, and he said it was all right and we could call up the

garage and ask all about him. He invited us to get into his car and took us to number six thirty five ninth Avenue, where we both lived at the time. I never liked Sheeb, but I did like to ride in his automobile. Ethel and I went out in the car with him four or five times, and once he took us to see Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. We used to ride up to the Bronx or Westchester, and he brought us home early. He passed with us as a single man, but he never said or did anything that

was not proper. Of course, we never had an idea that he had a wife. A letter that is puzzling the police since they found it in a bureau drawer in Sheeb's room is a badly worn one addressed to William Allen from H. S. Allen, his brother at avalon Catalina Island. It was dated March twenty second, nineteen eleven, inclosing forty dollars sent in response to a telegram for money said at the Samadi Garage. A William Allen had worked there but recently dropped out of sight. No one

knew how Sheb came into possession of the letter. The most important clues found since the discovery of the body of missus Sheeb has been discovered by newspaper reporters doctor Lehane and Detective McMahon. Also found in the kitchen of the flat a copy of the Sunday World of March twenty sixth. In the bathroom were found two pieces of

Sunday World's magazine section dated April second. These discoveries make it certain that someone who had easy access to the Sheb apartment had been there at least twice since the death of Missus Sheeb, and while the body lay in the bathtub for doctor Lehne is convinced that at least four months have elapsed since Missus Sheeb died. The pieces of the Sunday World so close to the body were first pointed out to the police by a reporter.

habeas corpus in his favor yesterday set him free. He was immediately re arrested by Detective Gloucester on two charges, one of operating an automobile without a license and the other charge involving the overcoat. Gloucester arraigned him on the first automobile charge. Magistrate O'Connor heard the evidence and imposed a fine of ten dollars. Then Glocester made a short

affidavit on the overcoat charge. Magistrate O'Connor tried that case at once and obtained an admission from the detective that the overcoat had not really been found in the possession

of Sheb, but in the possession of a man named Allan. Discharged, said Drade O'Connor, and there only remained for Sheb to pay the fine of ten dollars, but he didn't have it, nor did his lawyer, and he was held in the pen while his lawyer went out to get it during the interim Assistant District Attorney Wilmot, who was present to press the various charges, said that the moment the fine was paid, Sheb would be re arrested on another charge. After the fine was paid, Sheb was arrested for the

third time. Sib got his first court hearing before Justice Bishoff of the Supreme Court. A great crowd thronged the court room in Corridor E O Town. A Chicago lawyer who had known Sheb for many years and volunteered to defend him, was in court, as was Alexander Carlin, who has been retained by Sheb. District Attorney Whitman and Assistant District Attorney Strong were on hand to represent the state.

Mister Carlin asked for the release of Sheb on the ground that he was in without warrant of law by a coroner's commitment for forty eight hours. Justice Bischoff wanted to know if any information had been filed against the prisoner, replied mister Carlin, none, whatever. The only charge against him is that he is a suspicious person. Mister Strong argued that inasmuch as Sheb is suspected of the murder of his wife, the coroner was justified in holding him in

the absence of a formal charge. He said. He understood the coroner has a right to commit a suspect to imprisonment for forty eight hours, said Justice Bischoff. There is no law to warrant any such procedure, explained mister Strong. At the time this man was arrested, we had to hold him in order to prevent his escape from our jurisdiction. But we had no time to file information. The case

had to be investigated, said Justice Bischoff. From the letters before me, I can gather nothing to justify the detention of this man. I have no right to assume that you will be able to gather legal evidence upon which he may be held. Put in mister Carlin, as an officer of the court, I promised to produce the prisoner at the Coroner's court this afternoon. Not heeding mister Carlin's volunteered pledge, Justice Bischoff said, all I can do is

sustain the writ the prisoner's discharged. She laboring under great excitement, hurried through the crowd from the court room, with his lawyers on either side of him. Just outside the door, a husky looking man with a square jaw and a police look grabbed hold of Sheb and yanked him to one side. Here, what are you doing, cried mister Town, who is a noted lawyer in Chicago and unfamiliar with

the appearance of New York policemen. The police looking man, who proved to be Central Office Detective McMahon, said, it means this man is under arrest. I have here a warrant sworn out by John Wyeth charging him with grand larcening. Mister Town and mister Carlin grabbed hold of Sheb, and the detective held on too. The crowd surged about, and there was a lot of excitement in the corridor and in the court room. Mister Town appealed to District Attorney Whitman.

He said hotly, this is not a fair proceeding, mister District Attorney. We have pleasured ourselves to produce our client in the coroner's court at one o'clock, said mister Whitman. I don't know anything about this proceedings. I did not know the warrant was to be issued. The police officials

did not consult me. McMahon showed his warrant, which was in due form then he got a better grip on Sheb and hurried him away, stating that he would take his prisoner to police headquarters and later arraign him in the West Side Police court. John Wyeth, who swore out the warrant, was Sheeb's employer. He charges Sheb with the theft of a fur coat valued at six hundred dollars. Evidence in the hands of the police indicates that Sheb was getting ready to flee from the city when he

was arrested two days ago. He had announced his intention of resigning his position as chauffeur for John Wyeth, and all that held him from departure from New York was a lack of money. Professor John Larkin, who took the organs of the dead woman for the purpose of analysis, made today a preliminary report to Coroner Winterbottom, which encourages the authorities and the belief that they will be able

to build up a murder case against Sheb. The report of Professor Larkin states he will undoubtedly be able to determine the cause of death. Thus far this has been a question of doubt. An important piece of cumulative evidence, such as has been piling up on Sheb ever since his arrest was furnished The Evening World Today by Claude Mne, the telephone operator in the Saint Charles apartments at five

sixty five West one hundred and forty eighth Street. Min's got to know Sheb when the chauffeur used to drive Missus Ways, the wife of his employer, to the Saint Charles where she visited Missus Watson, a friend. While Missus Wyeth was in Missus Watson's flat, it was the custom of SHEB to sit in the corner and talk with Mine. The telephone boy was anxious to become a chauffeur, and Sheb instructed him about the construction and operation of automobiles.

Mine noticed within the last three months that Sheb had become morose and preoccupied sometimes, who would remain outside in the car smoking cigarettes while Missus Wyeth visited her friend. It was apparent to mine In the superintendent of the building, that the chauffeur had something on his mind. On Wednesday, May twenty fourth, Sheib called on Mine and announced that he was going to quit his job and leave New York.

Mine at once asked Sheb of the chance of getting the job of chauffeur for mister Wyath, said Sheb to mine. I haven't told mister wat yet, but I'm going to tell him and cut loose next week and I'll try to get you the job. There's nothing in New York for me. I'm going to strike out for the West as soon as i can, say, asked Sheeb, suddenly shifting the subject. Can you read my mind? Do you think it possible to read a man's mind by looking into

his eyes? Mene replied that he was no mind reader. Well, said Sheep, if you could read my mind, you'd learn something that would surprise you. You'd be wise to something that a whole lot of people would like to find out. But I don't think there's anything in this mind reading business. One reason I'm getting away from New York is because there's no justice here in the courts for a poor man. The rich get everything. Look at that fellow Rosenheimer who

killed a girl with his automobile. They let him off because he had lots of money. If it had been me, they would have sent me to the chair. Millionaires can have what they want. If a millionaire wants your wife, he can get. But if a millionaire interfere between me and my wife, I'd kill my wife. There'd be a chance to beat that, but there's no chance if you

kill a millionaire unquote. Sheb was trapped in another lie yesterday when the dentist who had done nearly all the work on his wife's teeth identified her by gold crowns and pivot teeth he had put in place. Detective Diefendorf then recalled a conversation he had with Sheb at the time of the arrest. Diefendorf asked, if that's your wife's body, how are they going to identify it. Sheb replied, cheerfully.

They can't identify it. The detective said, but they can always get the dentist who fixed up a person's teeth to make an identification. She declared, not in this case. You know that dentist who was killed in his office at fifty ninth Street and Third Avenue last winter, Well, he's the man who fixed my wife's teeth. They can't get an identification from a dead man. A dentist was killed at fifty ninth Street and Third Avenue a few

months ago. He may have done some work on missus Sheeb's teeth, but another dentist put in fillings and crowns. A development that the police are working on today is that Sheb had been using two names, and that he has been concealing the real maiden name of his wife, which he first said was Lillian Glover and yesterday declared was Lover. It has learned today that she is Elizabeth Connor O'Grady, daughter of Connor O'Grady, a well known man

of Springfield, Massachusetts. Sheb was known to her parents as Hugh Allerton, Sherman of Chicago, the initials being the same as those of the right name. According to the statements made to the Eograds, the couple were married here in nineteen o seven in Saint Francis Xavier's Church, West sixteenth Street, by the Reverend S. J. Donnelly. It was said at the church today that no such priest had been attached to the church in recent years. After his arrest, Sheb

told the police they were married in Jersey City. The detectives working on the case are unable to understand why Sheb went under another name unless there was a previous missus Harry A Sheeb he desired to avoid, and this feature. They are investigating very closely. The police admit that Sheb is one of the most remarkable suspects they have ever encountered. They have trapped him in one misstatement after another, only to be met with exasperating calmness and in obstinate adherence

to the last story he happened to tell. After Sheb had admitted writing the love letter to himself and had satisfied Commissioner Dougherty that it was true by writing a copy of it from dictation, he told his lawyer Carlin, according to the latter, that he never claimed to have written the letter and had not written anything at all

at the dictation of the police. Commissioner Dougherty and Inspector Russell, who grilled Sheb for three hours yesterday, laughed when told this and said they would produce the duplicate letter written by the prisoner if necessary. The police learned today that at the time she was telling various friends here that his wife was in this or that hospital. He gave

one acquaintance an account of her death and funeral. This was miss May Blake, who had known that Shebs for three years and is an usher at the Lyric Theater. They all formerly lived at number one seventeen West sixty third Street. Missus Sheeb called her husband Hughey, and they seemed to be a loving couple. The friendship of the two women was such that they exchanged pictures. Miss Blake said today quote After a while, I moved away and went to live with the Bartels at number one forty

one West sixty second Street. I did not see them or hear anything from them until one day in the middle of last March, when I was walking along Eighth Avenue, I was startled by a man rushing out of a restaurant and tapping me on the shoulder. It was Harry Sheep. He said he was awfully glad to see me, and then he exclaimed, isn't it too bad about Lilian? I asked him what he meant, and he said that she

had died two weeks before. He told me that she had been taken down with pneumonia and he had taken her to the German hospital. She lived only three days, according to what he said. He told me how her lips had swollen with the fever and that she looked very ugly in death. Then he went on to tell how he had taken her body to her home in Massachusetts. It was Holyoak or Springfield, I do not remember which.

He told me about the services at the church, how all the people in the town turned out at the funeral. He even went so far as to give me a description of how the little girls of the parish, all dressed in white and carrying flowers, walked in front of the coffin up the aisle of the church. Then he told me how everyone went out to the grave, and how he had cried over her coffin until they had to take him away. I pitied him so much that I gave him my dress and asked him to call

me and see me. I didn't see any harm in it now that his wife was dead. But he never came, and I never have seen him from that day to this. It is all very terrible, and I'm so sorry for Lilian, as she was a very sweet girl and I was very fond of her. June second, nineteen eleven, a writ of habeas corpus, designed to secure the release of Henry A. Sheeb from custody, was dismissed this afternoon by Justice Bischoff.

Justice Bischoff held that there is sufficient evidence at hand to warrant the suspicion that sheb killed his wife, Lilian and left her body in the bathroom of their apartment for several weeks. Sheib was taken into court at twelve thirty o'clock on a writ that he had been granted two hours before. He was represented by Alex and Carlin, who maintained that the commitment of his client to the tombs, on the strength of a deposition made by Inspector Russell

of the police department, was illegal. Justice Bischoff read over the deposition and appeared to agree with Carlin. Then assistant district attorneys Johnson, Ruben and Strong got into the proceedings.

They pointed out that the woman disappeared early in the year that Sib left the flat at the time the woman's absence was marked, but continued to pay the rent for the apartment that he had declared he was in the flat on April twenty fifth, where there is indisputably evidence apparently that the body was there at that time. The many discrepancies in the stories he told to account for his wife's disappearance were also pointed out to the court.

Justice Bischoff said that the body was undoubtedly in the flat on April twenty fifth. According to the evidence, if she was there at that time or any other time, he should have reported the death of his wife to the authorities. His policy of secrecy indicated guilty knowledge. Sheb was sent back to the Tombs. Counsel for Sheb will try some other plan to procure his release. They hold that the police have not produced evidence that a crime

was committed. Confronting the authorities is the task of proving how Lilian Sheeb came to her death. This was a task successfully taken up by the authorities of London in the Cripping case. In fact, there is considerable similarity between the Cripping case and the case of the woman whose body was found last Monday in a bathtub in an apartment at number five eleven East seventy eighth Street. In the Cripping case, only fragments of the body that in

buried in the cellar were found. In the Sheeb case, the body was in such an advanced state of decomposition that the cause of death is impossible of determination by ordinary means, as if in the Cripping case, the authorities

must depend upon a chemical examination. Professor John Larkin who does all that kind of work for the city, reports that he will not be able to complete the requisite tests for three weeks, and the absence of definite information as to the cause of the death of Sheib's wife, no information based upon facts can be filed against him.

The police are under the necessity of resorting to legal subterfuges, such as mark the proceedings in the Sheb case yesterday, when the prisoner was arraigned four times in court and discharged three times. In order to hold him, it was necessary for Inspector Russell and coroner's physician Lehane to make affidavit charging him with murder in the first degree. Alexander Carlin Sheeb's Council maintains that this form of procedure is illegal.

If habeas corpus proceedings batter down all the plans of the police, it will be necessary to place a continual watch of detectives over the suspect, with orders to arrest him on some pretext or other should he attempt to leave the city. Inspector Russell's men have some evidence which they are compelled to keep secret. On this evidence, they have built up two theories designed to account for one

of the factors entering into first degree murder motive. The two theories they are now working on are that Missus Sheeb was killed through jealousy or in order to get her out of the way. Charles Connor O'Grady, Missus Sheheb's father, arrived late yesterday from Springfield, Massachusetts, and identified Sheb as the Hugh Allerton sherman who married his daughter. The side of his father in law visibly affected Sheb, who became

nervous immediately and almost collapsed. According to the Springfield police, sherman who married the O'Grady girl, is wanted there for jumping his bail in a check transaction. The police think Missus Sheeb was the only person who knew that Harry A. Sheeb and Hugh A. Sherman were one and the same, and that because of his ill treatment of her, she had threatened to give him away to the authorities and

was put out of the way to prevent it. The police have heard that Sheb served a term in Elmira and that he was hauled before the domestic relations court last fall by his wife for non support. They are investigating both reports. Winnipeg Dispatches quote John Mackenzie, a real estate dealer there as, saying he corresponded with Missus Sheeb, whom he met on a trip to New York until

early this year. He also knows miss may Blake, the girl to whom Sheb described his wife's death and funeral, and says he has heard them discuss Missus Sheeb's troubles with her husband. According to Mackenzie, Missus Sheeb told him her husband was intensely jealous of her, although he ran around with other women and spent most of his money on them. Mackenzie says he sent Missus Sheeb money from time to time because she had written she did not get enough to eat. He addressed letters to her as

Lilian May Stearn's care of General Delivery. He has a photograph signed ever Yours Lil Sheeb. Missus Fred Carston of Blue Island, Illinois, mother of Sheeb, has announced she will come to New York to help extricate her son from his troubles. She is sixty years old and recently married a well to do real estate operator. The condition of the body made it impossible for a Grady to identify it as that of his daughter, but as Sheeb has positively identified it and as a dentist chart in the

hands of the police also established the identification. He will give it burial. Doctor Lee Haines expects development shortly. He completed his examination of the body today and said there were no signs of violence discoverable. The lungs showed no signs of strangulation and no bones were broken. The police now depend on the chemical analysis for traces of poison.

Doctor Lehane said the shirt, towel and apron found in the tub were not stained, except where a little of the cloth had lain in the liquid in the tub, which indicated to him that these cloths were thrown over the body long after the body itself was put in

the top. June third, nineteen eleven. In the story of Eileen Macombe, not yet seven years old, the police have found they believe a strong strand for the net of circumstantial evidence which they have been night and day weaving for the chauffeur Hairy A Sheeb, now formerly charged with the murder of his waff the little girl, were proved by her testimony that as far back as the holidays of last year, Sheib was setting afloat the fiction, which

he repeated so often subsequently, that his wife had been taken to a hospital very ill. Even more important from the viewpoint of the authorities is the child's positive assertion that last Sunday afternoon, less than twenty four hours before the discovery of the corpse by a suspicious janitor, she encountered sheb as he hurried away from the vicinity of the locked and empty rooms, wherein so the coroner's physician claims the woman's remains had been hidden for upwards of

six months. So the District Attorney's office counts heavily upon evidence of little Eileen Young as she is, for she connects, by two widely separate incidents, the main points of the theory which the police have built up to account for

the mystery. The found witness is the daughter of John mccomby, a well to do carpenter who lives with his family in a comfortable flat on the top floor of number five eight East seventy ninth Street, almost directly back of the house where the crime is supposed to have been committed. An Evening World reporter heard the child's story this afternoon at the home in the presence of her mother, who

pieced out the narrative with things which she herself remembered. Eileen, who is phenomenally bright for her years, with the precocious alertness of the city raised child, gave her account with a clearness and coherency that would do credit to one three times per age. Her acquaintans with the Sheebs dated back to last fall. The Macombe children, there are three of them, Eileen being the second, used to play in the courtyard which runs through the block back of the

row of the model tenements where they live. From a rear window of a ground flour or flat in the row which faces seventy eighth Street, they frequently saw a slender, pale little woman who seemed to take great interest in their frolicking. Finally, one day she spoke to them, telling them her name was Missus Sheeb. On Thanksgiving Day, Sheeb himself came to the mccomby apartment and introduced himself to

Missus mccomby. He said his wife had taken a fancy to the young mccomby's and wanted them to eat dinner with her that afternoon. Although she often heard her little one speak of the lonely lady, as they called Missus Sheeb. Missus mccomby would not trust her brood into strange hands until she had investigated herself. She accompanied Sheb back to his house, and after meeting with Missus Sheeb, she consented that the three youngsters should make the visit. They came

back at dusk, stuffed with goodness and radiantly happy. Thereafter, one or another of them, but most frequently Eileen, was almost daily in the sheeb apartment. Missus Sheeb gave her small collars, candies, and tea cakes. She showed them a handsome doll which she was dressing for her little niece in Massachusetts, and on Christmas morning she and her husband brought to the Mcombe house a bundle of small gifts

for their little friends. It was during the Christmas holidays, and probably only one or two days before New Year's Missus mccombe's remembrance serving to fix the approximate date that Eileen and Stanley, her brother, aged three, went in the afternoon to seventy eighth Street address to see their charm. Their knock brought Sheb in his shirt sleeves to the hall door. According to Ellen, he said to her runaway kitties. My wife is very sick and I don't want you

to disturb her. The children tiptoed off obediently. The next day, Eileen was back again to inquire how the invalid was. This time she didn't get past the hall door either. Sheb, who seemed to be spending most of his time indoors, told her missus Sheeb had grown worse during the night and had to be taken to the hospital. She is very sick, he added, and then he closed the door,

leaving her outside. For weeks afterward, Eileen made daily visits to the Sheebs, but her Knox never brought any answers. Each time, she would go home and tell her mother, she supposed the lonely lady must still be at the hospital. On last Sunday afternoon, somewhere around three o'clock, Eileen and Stanley, with some other children, were skylarking on the sidewalk in front of Kepler's drug Store at the southeast corner of seventy ninth Street and Avenue A, a half block from

their home. She saw Sheb, whom she had not seen in months, coming up the avenue from the direction of seventy eighth Street, she ran toward him. Ring to her account, he stopped at the sight of her and smiled, and when she came nearer, he patted her on the head quote. I said to him, why, hello, mister Sheep. He said, hello Eileen. I said, oh, mister Sheeb, how was missus Sheep? He said, she's almost well and she'll be home again

in a few days. I said, I'm so glad, And then he crossed the avenue caddy cornered and walked fast along seventy ninth Street, going toward First Avenue. I ran home to tell my mama that our lonely lady would be out of the hospital soon. But the next day Papa came home and said she was dead in a bathtub,

and we all cried unquote. The mother added that when she first heard of the discovery of the remains, she could hardly credit the news, for on her last meetings with the Sheeps, they had seemed to her a most

loving and devoted couple. Her husband went yesterday afternoon to the police with the account of the little daughter's experience, and it was then arranged that I Eileen should be taken a headquarters and subjected to a test at the Detective Bureau, she was handed a sheaf of police photographs. She ran through them and at once sifted out five

different pictures of Sheb and identified all of them. Because of her age, the District Attorney hesitated at first to add Eileen to his list of prospective witnesses, but after he had heard from two of his assistants descriptions of the child's quick wit and good memory, he decided to

use her testimony at the proper time. While men from the Central Office were uptown scouring the length of East seventy eighth Street for any shreds of proof which they might fit into the fabric of their case, plans to meet and combat Sheb's newest fight for freedom were being framed at the Criminal Courts Building on an adjourned hearing. He was taken before Magistrate Corrigan in the Center Street

Police Court at one o'clock this afternoon. Sheb was in the consultation room at the Tombs in conference with his lawy Carlin, in town when a fashionably dressed woman who said she was missus Helen Foley of number fifty one Beach Street, came to the prison accompanied by her brother Edward Foley, and asked to see the prisoner, saying his published pictures bore a close resemblance to her husband, who disappeared two years ago. Warren Fallon took her before sheeb.

At first glance, she said, that's him. That's the man who deserted me. She laughed, and she quickly added, no, I've made a mistake. This is not my husband, although he looks like him. A few minutes later she crossed the bridge of size, handcuffed between detectives Gloucester and McMahon. Lawyer Carlin wanted to send all the witnesses away from the courtroom, but the magistrate allowed Deputy Commissioner Dowerty and Inspector Russell to remain, so mister Carlin contented himself by

sharply cross examining each witness for the prosecution. Doctor Timothy Hayne, coroner's surgeon, described the autopsy. He also said that when sheb was brought to the more Glass Tuesday, he admitted the body was that of his wife, saying he recognized it by the teeth. Doctor Lane based his claim that the woman must have been dead at least four months

and probably longer on the physical conditions. A leg which had escaped the fluid that filled the tub was mummified in itself, a certain evidence that death occurred a considerable time before he recalled that Sheib had told him the last time he saw his wife alive on February second, when, according to the prisoner's account, she went away in a jealous hoff decay had been so far advanced that it was impossible to tell whether any violence had been inflicted.

Most of the vital organs had entirely disappeared, which explained why he could not answer Carlin's demand to know whether the woman might have succumbed to chronic lung trouble. The lawyer said, quote, it has been alleged that the defendants spent days in the rooms and even slept there while the body was in the tub. Could any human have

endured the odors? The bathroom door was well made and tightly closed, and most of the odors escaped by a window opening into the court, which was open, said doctor Lehane. The bathroom door was well made and tightly closed, and most of the odors escaped by a window opening into the court, which was open. Nevertheless, the condition must have been such in the flat that only a man who was drunk or full of drugs could stay there very long.

A normal man could not endure the situation long. Here, the preliminary hearing was broken off to be resumed Tuesday morning. Although mister Carlin had been threatening to sue out another rit of habeas corpus, which would make three times he had invoked this rite in his client's behalf, he made no objection to the remanding of Schibe to the tombs if us or Larkin of Columbia University went to the morgue last night and procured two sealed jars containing what

remained of the internal organs of missus Sheeb. He is analyzing them for traces of poison, but it will be next week before he is able to make a report concerning the result.

for murder in the first degree. The twenty five witnesses included Inspector Russell of the Detective Bureau and several of his men. Little Eileen McCombe, the six year old charm of the dead woman and her mother, Missus John mccomby may Blake, a young woman to whom sheb posing as a widower, paid attentions, and one new witness in the person of a waitress in a Harlem restaurant. According to one report, this girl was the Anna of the letters

found in Sheeb's rooms. After his arrest on the night when his wife's body was discovered in his abandoned flat, Sheeb declared that he himself wrote the love letter signed Anna, but it was said that the police had found a genuine Anna who admitted knowing the accused man. The newest theory in the mystery that Missus Sheeb was either killed by drowning or that boiling water was used after her

death in an effort to destroy the body. Received more attention today from the detectives when the body, or what remained of it, was found a week ago today in the locked and deserted flat. It lay face upward in the dingy white tub, with the head flat on the bottom and one of the legs sticking up from the other end. This body was half covered in a noisome liquid, which the investigators at first took to be an acid

solution of some sort. Later they had reasons to amend this theory, but subsequent search has revealed indubitable proof that after the woman's body sank into the tub, a considerable quantity of water must have been poured in. This is a stablo by the presence of rings of dried sediment upon the smooth inner walls. The first of these shows plain against the white porcelain surface. It encircles the tub

at a height of about ten inches. The next is perhaps five inches lower down, and there follows a succession of these black water marks, showing how the natural processes of evaporation gradually reduced the volume until there remained only the fluid mass which would resist all the influences of heat and cold. Moreover, these traces helped to bolster up the claim of the authorities that the remains of the woman must have lain in the tub for weeks and

perhaps months. To an evening World reporter, a high authority of the police department this afternoon made this statement. My belief is that the woman, while in bed, was at first choked until she died or lost consciousness, and then that the murderer, cared, carried her body into the bathroom and thrust it into the tub and turned on the water, either to finish the work he had begun or to assist the natural action of decay. I based this opinion

mainly upon certain physical facts. To begin with, the body, when found, was crowded down into the short tub, with legs protruding, just as though it had been flung there. Moreover, the head lay directly under the water taps at the straight up and down end of the tub. This, to my mind, effectively disproves the suggestion that missus Sheeb might

have succumbed to illness while taking a bath. Any sane person taking a bath would lie or sit in the tub with the head at the sloping end of the tub and the feet toward the faucets, whereas in this case the normal position was exactly reversed. There have been certain important developments of the last few hours which I

cannot at this time even hint at. I can't tell you, however, that we are strengthening our evidence all the time, and we feel entirely confident that the committing magistrate will hold Sheb without bail and that the grand jury will indict him for murder in the first degree. Yesterday and today the Sheb flat was thoroughly gone over by men from headquarters, even the wallpaper being examined. The detectives announced later that they had found evidence indicating that an effort had been

made to dispose of the body by boiling it. After having been partly carried out. According to the detective's theory, the effort was abandoned. It is recalled that a hardware dealer in the neighborhood says that in February she bought the biggest copper bottom wash boiler in the store, saying his wife intended to take in washing. The same dealer had previously sold missus Sheeb a smaller boiler and one adequate to the needs of the average household. This smaller boiler,

the police say is still on the Sheeb flat. The other boiler was soon after. We're taken back by Sheeb, who explained that his wife had gone to a hospital. Another important witness has appeared. Missus J. J. Donnelly of three nineteen West sixty fourth Street, told a story of domestic trouble that culminated about a year ago in a street assault which she says Schibe made on his frail little wife. The police do not try to conceal the fact that they have one of the naughtiest cases in

years to handle. Connor Seal Grady, father of Missus Sheeb, who came here from Springfield, Mass and identified the prisoner as the man who married his daughter under the name of Sherman, now says he is not satisfied that the body is that of his daughter. He declares the identification is not complete enough to satisfy him, and that until it is he will take no steps towards burying the body.

When Deputy Commissioner Dougherty heard the Sheb would declare that he slept in the flat until March twenty fifth, He gave orders for his men to bend their efforts towards ascertaining where Sheb lived between February two, when he was last seen at the seventy eighth Street flat, until he rented his room in Amsterdam Avenue late in March. They are satisfied he did not live in the seventy eighth Street house as he says, but they have been unable

to discover where he did live. After he and his client had discussed every phase of the police evidence, mister Carlin announced he was ready to back his assertion that missus Sheeb died of tuberculosis. The defense will contend that she was in the last stages of the disease, died while taking a bath, and that the sudden change in the temperature two weeks ago caused rapid decomposition of the body.

Quote Harry Sheeb slept in the flat for seven weeks prior to March twenty fifth, and his wife was missing all that time. It was after a quarrel on February second that Missus Sheeb left her husband. He kept up the payment of rent, believing he would hear from her. In a last effort to prove their assertion that missus Sheeb was murdered by her husband. The police have come forward with a ring, but the pawnbroker who gave the ring to them has failed to identify Sheb as the

man who pledged it. The ring did not belong to the dead woman. We will prove that missus Sheeb and her husband quarreled frequently. In the summer of nineteen ten, she left him, and after an absence of several months, she came back to him. All the time she was gone, Sheib kept the flat and never disturbed any of the little furnishings she had added. In the fall of last year, they became reunited, but in February, the woman, jealous without cause, again left him. At that time, she was a victim

of the white plague. Her body was wasted and death was not far off. Sib knew this and determined to have everything ready to nurse his wife should she come back to him Once. He sent her to a sanitarium and paid her bills there for some time. To prove this, we will summon physicians who attended the unfortunate woman just before missus Sheeb left her husband. The last time. She was in such a condition that medical men would have despaired of curing her. Instead of being a brute as

he has been pictured. Harry Sheeb paid the rent of the flat, hoping she would return. For seven weeks he lived there alone and then he lost his position. That was at the time the automobile broke down. Knowing it would be from five to six weeks before repairs could be made, Shib took a position with the Semiati garage. Tired of living alone, Sheb went to the house of Hugo Minor at nine to ninety three Amsterdam Avenue and

took a room. In his new position. The chauffeur had night work and could not very well go away over to the east side. There was no wife to meet him, and he preferred to be near his work. If Missus Sheeb died in her apartment as described, it was after March twenty fifth, as her husband was there until that time. Doctor Lahane, the coroner's physician, has said the woman has been dead four months when found. That may appear to be so to him, But what about the warm weather

since May one? Was that not responsible for the condition of the body? Unquote. June sixth, nineteen eleven, after working all night, Professor John Larkin of Columbia University reported today to District Attorney Whitman that he had been unable to discover any traces of poison in the internal organs of

Missus Lillian O'shady Sheeb. This report, although not entirely unexpected, was a profound disappointment to the police who have been working night and day since the finding of the corpse to make out a case of circumstantial evidence against the woman's husband, Harry A. Sheeb, who is under arrest on

a charge of murder. Professor Larkin said that none of his tests produced suggestions of any of the mineral poisons, such as arsenic decay was so far advanced, he said that even if there had been an alkali poison in the body, he could not have proved its presence. Immediately, the high police officials, who have been at work on the bathtub mystery were called into consultation with mister Whitman

and his assistant, Mister Reuben. It was apparent that the authorities feared they might not be able to muster sufficient testimony to ensure that Sheb would be held without bail for any considerable time. Except for his own contradictory statements regarding the prolonged absence of his wife and certain suspicious details. They had nothing seemingly upon which to base a forty

normal accusation. Professor Larkin made his report verbally, he didn't have time to write it out formally, and he said he wanted more time for further examination of the liquid in which the body lay when it was discovered, although he held out no hope of discovering anything of significance there. He was sitting alongside Magistrate Corrigan this afternoon when the adjourned hearing of sheb was continued in the library of

the District Attorney's office. Doctor Timothy Lehane, coroner's physician, who was on the stand when the examination broke off last Saturday, resumed his testimony, describing with minute detail the condition of the body and the autopsy. SIB's counsel, Mister Carlin, devoted more than an hour to cross examining doctor Lehane, mainly centering his fire upon Lehane's estimate of the length of time the corpse was in the flat. Lehane stuck to it that the woman must have been dead for at

least four months and possibly five or six. Carlin demanded, suppose I produced a witness to prove that missus Sheeb was alive on February twenty seventh. Lehane answered that would make it approximately four months until the finding of the remains February, March, April and May. After policemen and an ambulance surgeon described the finding of the body in its

removal to the Morgue. Doctor S. A. Wooster, a dentist, testified that missus Sheeb on January twenty sixth, went to his office on East fifty ninth Street and contracted with him to do twenty two dollars worth of repair upon her teeth. During the week following this date, she called twice and began preliminary work, receiving from her four dollars on account. After the second visit, she never returned and

he had no word from her. Abraham Moscow, now living in the Bronx, and his wife, said they had been forced to move out of the seventy eight Street tenement on April fourteenth because of noisome odors. Both of them insisted that the unpleasant smells had been noticeable for at least two months before they moved. Several other former tenants agreed that the odors began to fill the building as

far back as February and March. Magistrate Corgan adjourned the hearing until Friday morning, and in the meantime remanded Sheb back to the tombs without bail. June seventh, nineteen eleven. It developed this afternoon that on the day after the body of Missus Lillian O'Grady Sheb was discovered, detectives in searching the apartment found upon the bed in the single sleeping room a mattress with dark brown stains upon it.

The stains were at the upper end, where the head would rest in the case of a person lying in the normal position. Without making public the news of the discovery, the police department turn this mattress over to Professor John A. Larkin, the bacteriologist at Columbia University, for analysis. He made a private report today to Deputy Commissioner Dougherty that the discolorations

were caused by dried human blood. This new development, in the eyes of the men at the Detective Bureau, constitutes a new and valuable piece of evidence to be used against the dead woman's husband, who is now in the tombs,

charged with her murder. Inspector Russell holds that the presence of the bloodstains at the upper end of the mattress serves to confirm his original theory that Missus Sheeb, while helpless in bed, was choked until she died or became unconscious, and then that she was thrust into the bathtub and

covered with boiling water. On the other hand, it seems certain that Carlin in Town, lawyers for the accused man, will undertake to explain the bloodstains on the claim that Missus sheephb had weak lungs and suffered from frequent hemorrhages. The two lawyers succeeded today in entering the flat, which is upon the ground floor of a model tenement, by

a rear window opening upon an enclosed court. They took from the walls a calendar for nineteen eleven, with the January page still adhering as support for their contention that Missus Sheeb went away of her own accord on February second,

and that sheb did not thereafter occupy the room. They also hold that their own entry by way of the window served to emphasize the suggestion advanced by the defense that Missus Sheeb returning home and finding the door locked might have broken in from the back and then, while taking a bath, succumbed to illness. Unless some really important evidence is found in the meantime, Assistant District Attorney Reuben has little hope of inducing Magistrate Corgan to hold Sheb

when the preliminary hearing is continued on Fry. Mister Rubin admitted that so far the police have been unable to find little proof that would serve to actually connect Sheb with the supposed murder, except for the accused man's own contradictory statements, his often repeated fictions regarding the missing woman, and his suspicious behavior prior to the finding of the body in the flat. There is at this time absolutely nothing upon which to base a formal charge. Yet mister

Rubin feels morally sure that a crime was committed. The police are promising that they will have charges sufficient to hold Sheep for possibly several months while the detective Bureau seeks evidence. It does not believed the grand jury will take up the alleged murder case unless stronger evidence develops. Magistrate Corgan, who is in charge of the preliminary hearing, has expressed the hope that the grand jury will take the case off of his hands. They say. The police

have proven neither a motevtive nor a murder. The preliminary report of Professor Larkin of his chemical analysis was a disappointment to the police. He found no poison in the organs, but has not completed his examination of the fluid found in the bathtub. Coroner's physician Lee Hayne has testified that death by poison was the only kind of murder that could be proven owing to the condition of the body. The pivotal point in the case is now that of

the time of death. Sheeb says he lived in the flat until the latter part of March and that there was no body in the bathtub. Then coroner's physician Lehane asserts that from all medical standards, the body must have been there at least four months. Professor Larkin gives it as his opinion that the woman had been dead about two months.

a habit of leaving her for irregular periods. He went away about two years ago and she hasn't seen him since. Sheieb's published photographs. She thought bore a close resemblance to the truant. She consulted with Missus Connolly probation offer at the Adams Street Court, and at miss Connolly's suggestion, she went to the Brooklyn headquarters and told her story. Detective Murray was detailed to accompany her to Manhattan. Deputy war

Card and Hanley stood. Sheb in a row with fourteen other men, and Missus Tripp was asked to walk along the line and pick out her husband if she could. She passed sheb twice, once when he had his hat on and once when he was bareheaded, and failed to recognize him as she was going away. She said she must have been mistaken. The bacteriologist of Columbia University Today received in his mail a letter apparently written by a woman threatening him with death unless he dropped the case.

The envelope bore a one cent stamp who was addressed to doctor Larkin at number four thirty nine West one hundred and thirtieth Street, and the postman took it to his home, number two ninety three on the same street. Quote Doctor Larkin, you better drop your connections with the missus Sheeb case. There is nothing in it. If you do not, I will shoot you on site, signed suspect Jim on quote. Professor Larkin took the letter to the West one hundred and twenty fifth Street station and turned

it over to Captain Farrell. June ninth, nineteen eleven. While the preliminary hearing of Harry Sheeb went on today before Magistrate Corrigan, his lawyers were confident that he would be discharged from custody, while the police were ready to admit that in less some evidence more valuable than any on hand should materialize. At the last moment, there was little prospect that the prisoner would be held for the grand

jury on the charge of murdering his wife, Lilian. The examination of today's witnesses failed to lift any of the mystery that surrounds the case. Sheib's employer, John H. Wyeth, testified that the chauffeur had remarked to him in an ironical tone one week before he was arrested that he had had a happy birthday in February because that was

the day he took his wife to the hospital. Missus Wyeth, wife of Sheeb's employer, testified that the chauffeur had told her four days before the arrest that his wife was recovering from an illness in Chicago and wanted him to join her there. Another witness was miss May Blake, who gave her occupation as a lady usher in the Lyric Theater. She said she had met Sheb on the street early in March and that he told her his wife was dead.

His eyes filled with tears, she said, and he asked if he might come and visit her, said Miss Blake. He told me that in death she had presented a very ugly appearance, her lips burned by fever and her face discolored. He seemed to be very much affected as he told me this, And when I invited him to call on me, he accepted gladly. Then he told the same thing again to me and people with whom I bored.

He described the fine funeral he had given his wife at a cost of four hundred dollars, and how little girls of her hometown and all her friends and relatives had turned out to attend the funeral. It was very affecting to listen to him. Missus Mary Fell, a laundress, said that on February twelfth, she brought her some of his clothing and some of Missus Sheebs to be laundered. He told her. She said that his wife was ill in a hospital, and that her illness had already cost

him two hundred dollars. Three or four weeks passed before he called for the bundle. Miss Agnes Graham, a telephone operator, said that about two months ago she told her that missus Sheeb was ill in Springfield, Massachusetts. During February, he frequently mentioned his wife's illness to her, she claimed. Miss Nina Pray, rent collector for the building, told of having called at the flat every Tuesday up to February ninth, and receiving an answer from some person whose identity or

sex she said she could not recall. After that date, however, she was unable to get any response to her calls, though the rent was paid at irregular intervals up to May tenth. She opened the door of the flat on at least three occasions, she said, and found it each time in precisely the same condition. Lieutenant Gloucester of the Central Office, who took Sheb to the morgue, told how Sheb had at once identified the skull as his wife's and had lingered around the remains, although he Gloucester was

forced to leave the room because of the odor. At four o'clock, after twenty witnesses had been examined, Assistant District Attorney Strong asked for an adjournment until Monday, saying he still had one more witness to produce. Alexander Carlin, attorney for the prisoner, protested, but on mister Strong's promise to close this case within fifteen minutes time, the magistrate continued to examination until Monday, meanwhile remanding Sheb to the tombs

without bail. June twelfth, nineteen eleven, Harry Sheeb was this afternoon discharged from custody by Magistrate Corrigan. Immediately after the man left the Criminal Court building, he was again arrested by Lieutenant Gloucester on the charge of taking the automobile of his employer without permission, which constitutes grand larceny. The new charge upon which she was arrested was preferred by John Wyeth, who asserts that the chauffeur used his machine

for joy rides without his permission. Shib was taken to the fifty fourth Street Court for hearing upon the new charge. The dismissal upon the murder charge followed the hearing of a number of witnesses and arguments by Assistant District Attorney

Strong and Alexander Carlin, the latter representing Sheeb. After all the testimony was in and the statements of Council were made, Magistrate Quarrigan said that none of the evidence had established that missus Sheeb had been murdered or that the defendant had murdered her. Sheeb shook hands with his counsel and friends and started away after the decision was rendered, only

to meet with his new trouble. Before the decision was reached, Magistrate Quarrigan heard Louis P. Ludwig, who said that he was employed by the gas company which supplied the flat, and that he came at intervals to collect from the quarter meter. He said that he had to let himself in with the pass key and noticed the peculiar odor

of the decomposing body upon his late trips. George Hunrath, who lives in the house where the body was found, said that the last time he had seen Sheb and his wife together was February second, when the two came from the house apparently quarreling. He said that the wife went toward Avenue A in seventy eighth Street, and that she followed her and brought her back to the house. May Flannery said she had been joy writing with Sheep several times and that he had never said anything to

her about having a wife. Anne A. Crouse, cashier and a restaurant on Broadway, said she had been writing three times with Sheep, the last time being May eighteenth, and that she did not know he was married. Policeman Skellion Inspector Russell completed the list of witnesses. Both gave facts that the police investigation had developed for the defendant. Attorney Carland dwelt, upon the statement of coroner's physician Lehne, that he did not know how the woman came to her death.

For the people. Mister Strong called attention to the many conflicting statements made by the defendant, to the fact that he paid the rent for the room where the body was found with so much care, and to his ready identification of the body at the morgue, and various other

elements of the tragedy. When he finished, Magistrate Corgan said, Miss Strong, while I agree with you that there are suspicious circumstances connected with this case, still the people have not proved that this woman died from homicide or that this man killed her. She went to the elevator with his counsel. He did not notice mister Wyeth, his former employer, was in the next elevator. When Lieutenant Gloucester arrested the man at the bottom of the shaft. His attorney, Carlin,

was furious. Who makes the charge? He demanded, I do, responded Wyath, and the entire party went to the scene of the next trial. June thirteenth, nineteen eleven. Chauffeur Harry Sheeb landed back in the tombs this afternoon, this time under bonds of three thousand dollars to await the action

of the grand jury in a grand larceny complaint. His return to his old cell was a victory for the Detective Bureau, which for two weeks has been working to find evidence that would connect Sheb with the death of his wife. John Wyeth, who made the newest accusation yesterday after Magistrate Corrigan had declined to longer hold the much buffeted prisoner for homicide upon such scanty proof as the police had gathered, appeared today as the complainant in the

West Side Court, where the preliminary hearing was resumed. Mister Wyeth's charge was based upon the new law which makes it a felony to use an automobile without the owner's consent. Mister Wyeth said he was positive he did not use his machine May eighteenth, the date named in the warrant and the affidavit, because on the evening of that day

he had guests at dinner. Anne Akraus, a waitress to whom Sheb had paid attention after his wife had disappeared, testified that on May eighteenth, at six thirty o'clock in the morning, she wrote a note to Sheb asking him to take her that evening for a spin. About eight forty five o'clock, she said he drove a machine to her house on West ninetieth Street. Mister and Missus Sherman, Miss Simper and W. D. Meeker accompanied Sheeb for a ride.

They were gone two hours and a half. Anna Crous rode on the front seat with Sheeb and recalled that he told her the automobile was a Pullman, the make owned by mister Wyeth. W. R. Clemens, manager of a garage on Broadway, produced records to show that the Wyeth Carr had been checked out May eighteenth at eight forty p m. And had been returned shortly before midnight. Alexander Karen,

Sheeb's lawyer, cross examined each witness sharply. Then he announced that he wanted to press a charge of perjury against mister Wyath because of the alleged contradictory statements Magistrate Fresh He told mister Carland that if he wanted to make a case against mister Wyath, he must swear to the

preliminary papers and assume responsibility for prosecution. Mister Carlin dropped that subject and made a lengthy plea for the discharge of his client, saying that a miserable police conspiracy was behind the continued imprisonment of Sheb, and that detectives in New York would swear an innocent man's life away to

make reputations. When he was through Central Office, men handcuffed the suspect and started with him for jail, while mister Carlin hurried out, threatening to invoke habeas corpus, a right which he already employed twice in his efforts to free as man. October eleventh, nineteen eleven, Harry Sheeb was placed on trial today before Judge Foster in General Sessions on an indictment charging grand larceny. This indictment was found shortly after Sheb was arrested and charged with the murder of

his wife. There was no direct evidence that Sheb had committed murder, other than that he was separated from his wife and she was dead. In order to hold him and dodge writz of habeas corpus, the detectives prevailed upon John H. Wyatt, for whom she worked as a chauffeur, to swear out information charging grand larceny in that Sheb used mister Wyatt's car without his permission for joy riding purposes. Sheib has been in the tombs ever since, awaiting trial.

October fourteenth, nineteen eleven. Harry A. Sheeb, the chauffeur who has been locked up ever since May twenty ninth, when the body of his wife, Lilian was found in the bathtub of their flat at five eleven East seventy eighth Street, was acquitted yesterday before Judge Foster in General Sessions, where

he was on trial for grand larceny. Sheb was first arrested for having caused his wife's death, and when that and two other charges brought against him failed to hold him, his employer, John H. Wyeth, brought the charge of grand larceny. Sheib did not take the stand in his own defense.

Assistant District Attorney McCormick was unable to find more than one of the women with whom Sheb was said to have been riding May eighteenth, and she could not state positively that it was mister Wyeth's car which was used. The strongest point against him was the testimony of the policeman, who said that Sheb admitted to them he had used his employer's automobile without his permission. Judge Foster instructed the jury to regard the charge as one of petty larceny,

and they brought a verdict of not guilty. Sheeb said that he had been very well treated in the tombs, but that he was very glad to get out. During the hot weather summer, he said, the temperature in his cell rose to one hundred and twenty eight and he spent four days wrapped in a wet sheet. He had not decided whether he would try to get another job

as a chauffeur. About the first thing he would do, he said, would be to have his wife's body removed from Potter's Field, where it was buried while he was in the tombs. His council Alexander Carlin, said that a suit for ten thousand dollars damages for false imprisonment would be brought against mister Wyath. She added, a summer in the tombs is worth more than that you can bet unquote, that was an acid bath for the suffer, just the Lillian Sheeb mystery, called from the historic pages of the

New York World and other newspapers of the era. True Crime Historian is a creation of popular media opening theme by Nico Vitesi. Incidental music by Nico Vitesi, Chuck Wiggins, and Dave SAMs. Some music and sound effects license from podcastmusic dot Com. Closing music by Dave SAMs and Rachel Shatt, engineered by David Hish, Third Street Music Media Management, and graphic elements by Sean R. Miller. Jones And as for me, he did a lot of talking and several times contradicted himself.

I'm true crime historian Richard O. Jones, signing off for now.