The Long Island Torso Murder

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Welcome to the New Aftermarket.

June 27, 1897.

A portion of a man's body, apparently dead, but a few hours, was found done up in a neat looking

package and floating in the East River yesterday afternoon. It was the upper part of the trunk,

the chest, shoulders, and arms only. The head and all below the fifth rib had been sawed off.

The marks of the Course Two Th saw were plainly visible on the flesh, and in the opinion of the

physicians who saw them, refuted convincingly the first advanced theory that the remains had

been experimented with by medical students. Anatomical students cut flesh and saw only bone.

The breast had been cut, apparently to remove tattooing marks. The extended arms showed that a man

had been tall, and the shoulders and back muscles were well developed and powerful. The hands were

white, soft, and pliable, but not those of a man who had never worked. From fingertip to fingertip,

the measurement was five feet ten inches. When found, the arms were crossed, the left and right

hands being on the right and left shoulder and firmly tied. Three boys, James McKinnon, John McGuire,

and Edward Curley, were playing together at the dock at the foot of East 11th Street yesterday

afternoon, saw a bundle floating high in the water. McKinnon saw it first, and claiming the right

of treasure trove stripped off his clothes and swam after it. It was only a few feet away,

and he soon reached it and pushed it before him to the piles of the dock where the other boys

were awaiting him. The package was about fourteen by ten by eight inches. It was carefully done up

in red oil cloth, the end tightly turned in, and the hole tied up with a thick cord.

Eagerly, the boys seized it and unfastened the cord. Another wrapping of coarse burlap bound

round and round with twine confronted them. They cut the twine to still find another wrapping of

paper. The boys differ in their descriptions of the paper. A crowd had gathered while they were

opening the parcel, and some said it was all newspaper, while others say they saw soft brown

paper and manila wrapping paper. All agree that the papers were dry enough to rustle. When the

paper was torn off, exposing to the horrified youngsters the ghastly nature of their find,

they dropped it and hurried to the street above, shouting for the police. By the time they found

policeman J. G. Moore of the Union Market Squad and took him down by the water's edge,

the papers which by their dates might have afforded some clues had floated out of sight.

Moore notified the police station and police headquarters notified the moored people to send

the dead wagon. The bundle was found at two forty-five o'clock. It was taken from the dock

after all the neighborhood had seen it shortly after six o'clock. The interior of the bundle

showed no signs of having been in the water. The cloth side of the oil cloth was dry,

saved for a couple of dark red stains, as was the burlap. The oil cloth of bright red with

figuring of large and small squares and flowering of gold is such as can be found in hundreds of

shops on the east side. A reporter for the New York Times found in a little store at Avenue B

in 11th Street almost identically the same pattern. The storekeeper said it was American oil cloth,

retailing at about a dollar and ten cents for a piece of twelve yards, and was used by the

poorest tablecloths and by peddlers as coverings for their packs. The piece around the package

was about four feet square and new. It was sufficiently bright to be very noticeable,

but no one around the neighborhood where it was found floating had seen anyone carrying such a

parcel. Dr. Daow of Bellevue Hospital, who examined the remains when they were taken to the morgue,

said the flesh looked as if the body had been dead less than ten hours. He declined to commit

himself positively to that statement until he had made further examination, but said that was his

opinion. He said he was sure the cutting at the breast had not been done by medical students.

The police at first were satisfied that there was no mystery and that the remains had come from

some dissecting room. At the Union Market Station at three o'clock, the sergeant in charge said

the precinct detectives were investigating the matter. At six o'clock, another sergeant said

Captain Hogan himself was out on the case. But up to nine o'clock, neither Captain Hogan nor

his detectives had visited the houses of any of the boys who found the bundle nor had any

policemen except more questioned them. As far as the Bellevue Hospital authorities know,

no policemen had visited the morgue. The coroner was so convinced that the remains were

certain evidence of a crime having been committed that he went personally to police headquarters

after leaving the Union Market Police Station and placed the matter in the hands of the detective

Bureau. After the coroner had visited headquarters, Captain Hogan went to the morgue and examined

the remains. After looking at them carefully, he said he believed the man had been murdered and

thought so all along. He had pretended to think there was nothing in the case because he thought

that detectives could obtain better results if it was made public that the police had no

suspicions of anything being wrong.

June 28th, 1897. Julius Meyer, with his son Edgar aged eight and Herbert 13 years, was looking

for Barry shortly before 1 o'clock. Edgar had got separated from the others and they were seeking him

when they heard him call to come and see what he had found. Mr. Meyer saw the big bundle, found it

too heavy to lift. It smelled suspiciously, he thought, and the newness of its gaudy covering decided

him to let the police investigate it first. Carefully marking the place by making Herbert climb the

wall to undercliff Avenue, he went back through the wood to Sedwick Avenue, intending to go to the

Highbridge Police Station about three-quarters of a mile distant if he failed to see the policeman

who was on the post when he passed an hour earlier. He met mounted policeman TB Farley,

totem of the find, and Farley started for the bridge to get round to undercliff Avenue.

Mounted policeman Andrew Bruner, coming from the Morris Heights, saw the boy left on guard and

riding up to warn him not to fall over the wall, was just in time to help Farley. The rains from

Brunner's horse served as hauling lines, and the bundle was hauled to street level. It weighed

more than 100 pounds. Without opening it, but with no doubt of its contents, Farley galloped to the

police station and notified Captain Killian, and with the captain hurried to the place and brought

the bundle to the police house in the patrol wagon. Beneath the outer wrapping of red cloth,

tied with bailing rope, was a wrapping of white oil cloth tied with sane twine. When that was

stripped off, there was an awkward looking bundle of light brown manila paper fastened crossways

with thick pink cotton twine. The paper was dampish, but not wet. The outer

wrappings were clean and new. The contents were the lower part of the body of a man just below

the fifth rib to a few inches below the hip joints. The length of the body was so great that the police

at first refused to believe that the find had anything to do with the remains found Saturday.

They communicated with police headquarters and with the mord, and then sent their fine to the

Harlem mord. Coroner Tuttle was notified and immediately asked for a description of the red oil

cloth. When he learned that it was identical with that already in his possession, he ordered the

gruesome bundle to be sent at once to the Bellevue mord. He was waiting there to receive it,

and said directly that the two parts were of the same body. The parts were carried to the

autopsy room and put together by the attendants and fitted exactly. Half a dozen of the hospital's

doctors assisted at the work and decided there was no room for doubt. The last found portion

looked less fresh than the other and showed signs of decomposition. The flesh seemed damp and

greasy and was wrinkled in places as if it had been in brine or some other preserving fluid.

The doctors said that the indications were misleading, that the flesh was comparatively fresh,

and that its appearance was due to a washing of hot water and the tightness of the binding that

had confided in its casings of paper and cloth. Peace together, the mutilated trunk told a

ghastly tale. It told to the trained eye of the surgeons in its entirety the story of the killing

and left nothing for the detectives to learn but the name of the murderer or murderers and the identity

of the victim. There were a few marks in the flesh of the lower part of the trunk, just where the

spine was cut from the upper part was a triangular scratch, the ends extending about 15 inches downward

and separating gradually. Taken in conjunction with other marks, this theory of the killing was

evolved. The man, the victim, was undressed when stabbed in the heart. Had he been dressed,

some mark of the material of his clothes would have probably been found in some of the stab wounds.

The directness of the heart blow looks as if the stabber was standing over his victim.

A wake-in door aroused by the mortal wound, the victim threw out his hand as he rolled over,

lightly touching the blade as it was withdrawn and receiving the slight cut found by the autopsy.

A final struggle, harmless yet terrifying, led the murderer to think he had failed and

deplunded the knife into the back of his victim. The other cuts were but superficial and might have

been caused in half a hundred different ways. The scratches on the back were in all probability,

made by the attempt of a smaller man to haul the body into some more suitable position

for the work he had to do. And the heel mark, if it is a heel mark, on the inner part of the arm

could have been done by the murderer standing over the body, either to break off the legs or to

lift the lower end of the trunk. The cuts on the breast were made after the body had been

solved apart. Proof of that is found in the ragged ends of the cuts on the upper part and the

lack of any knife mark on the adjoining portion. A butcher's knife and saw, the doctors believe,

did the cutting and sawing. The appearance of the flesh they attribute to the murderer having

washed the blood from the corpse after cutting it up. The style of the weapons that must have

been used in the scalding with hot water, as the stuck pigs are scalded, gave rise to the theory

that the murderer was a butcher or at least a man used to the ways of the slaughterhouse.

But there were many theories around the morgue and the two police stations concerned yesterday,

and when all were argued out, there was always some flaw found that destroyed the listener's

faith in the science of deduction. The proposition remains, a man was murdered,

a portion of the remains have been found at points nearly eight miles apart,

who killed him, where he was killed, and why is the answer the police are asked to supply.

July 1st, 1897

Nine men, seven of them positively, have identified the mutilated and dismembered corpse at the morgue

as that of William Goldensuppey, a masseur at the Murray Hill Turkish Baths in 42nd Street.

Five fellow employees had known him for years and had seen him almost daily nearly naked at his

work in the baths. Frank Schellenberg, the superintendent of the establishment,

was the sixth of the identifiers, and Dr. J. S. Cosby was the seventh, two other men,

who had known him less intimately, made the same identification. All declared themselves

convinced beyond all possibility of mistake of the identity, and all gave plausible reasons

for their certainty. Goldensuppey, they said, had been missing since Friday when he had

obtained leave to be away from the baths for the evening and night. None of his friends

has seen him or heard from him since. The murdered man was killed Friday night, or early Saturday

morning. His figure corresponded with out of the murdered man theoretically reconstructed

from his remains. His hands were white and soft as were those of the corpse, and he had the

figure of a woman tattooed on the flesh of his chest. The flesh of the chest of the corpse

had been cut away as if to hide tell-tale marks that might have led to speedy identification.

Goldensuppey suffered some months ago with a felon on the index finger of his left hand.

All the bath employees had heard him complain of it, and Dr. Cosby lanced and cured it,

an ugly scar resulted. Just such a scar is on the index finger of the left hand of the corpse,

and Dr. Cosby said he could make no mistake. The dead hand was the hand he had scarred to cure.

Although the identification is not yet complete, and no record at the morgue shows that any

identification has been made, the police are satisfied that the murdered man is William Goldensuppey,

and are bending all their energies to find his slayer and clear up the mystery of his death.

They have arrested a woman with whom for more than a year, Goldensuppey had lived as a

husband, and for whom he had parted Thursday afternoon of last week after a slight quarrel precipitated

by the woman's jealousy. They took to police headquarters and cross-examined, but afterwards

discharged the woman's husband, from whom she had been living apart nearly two years,

and they have two men detained, not as prisoners, they say, who volunteered information regarding

the murder mystery. Incidentally, they are looking for a man known only as Fred.

George Anderson, one of the men detained, is a waiter. He told the police he saw two men on Saturday

night leave a train at West Farms. One of them carried a bundle large and awkwardly shaped.

Detective McCormick of the Union Market Squad heard him make the statement and took him to headquarters.

He is held that he may identify anyone who may be arrested on suspicion of having placed

the bundle found Sunday in the woods. The other man the police are holding is the crazy

peddler who told a wild story to the high bridge police of having seen a dead man's head in Jerome

Avenue and after a long chase pointed to a battered old hat as the head he had seen.

The woman in the case is Mrs. Augusta Nack, a midwife. She is in the directory as widow of Herman

Nack, but her husband is not dead. He is employed by Joseph A. Schaff, proprietor of the

Astoria Model Bakery at Sherman Street. Two years ago, Nack and his wife lived on 9th Avenue.

She applied her profession and he worked for Fuller's Areated Bread Company of which Schaff

was the foreman. The last of their seven children died and they decided to take on the border.

William Goldensepy was the border and six months later Nack decided to leave his wife.

Quarles between them, the neighbors say, were frequent. After he left and Goldensepy remained,

the neighbors made remarks and Mrs. Nack determined to seek other quarters.

Goldensepy found a little floor flat on 9th Avenue and rented it from F.G. Warners who

occupies the ground floor as a drugstore for her. There were three bedrooms and Mrs. Nack

rented the hallroom to Fred. No one could be found yesterday who knows his other name.

He is described as of medium height and dark complexion and quiet of demeanor. He worked

somewhere downtown and boarded the ninth street elevated every morning. The three lived together

quietly until last winter. Then, when Fred complained of his room being cold, Mrs. Nack invited

him to sleep in the kitchen. Mrs. Nack's room opened into the kitchen and Goldensepy objected.

The men had words and the big man threatened the thrashed Fred. He met him on the street and

repeated the threats until Fred pulled a pistol from his pocket and remarked quietly,

I am not sure you could thrash me. Goldensepy saw the force of his argument and said no more.

His influence with Mrs. Nack was paramount, however, and last February, Fred went away.

According to the neighbors, Goldensepy was not as faithful to Mrs. Nack as she was to him.

They never quarreled, but she was frequently heard to upgrade him for his attentions to other women.

As soon as the police were satisfied that the dead man was Goldensepy, they called on Mrs. Nack

and asked for information of his whereabouts. She denied that she had seen him since Friday morning

when she said he came home early from the baths, put on his best clothes, and made her give him $50

and went out. When asked if she knew he had been killed, she contradicted her former statement,

and then contradicted her second statement, and the detectives took her to police headquarters

for examination. They saw that her apartments were disarranged, and they learned from Mr. Werner's

that she had notified him Monday of her intention to give up possession at once. Mrs. Nack is a

day. She is of pleasing, yet repellent appearance, and perhaps 36 years old. She is tall, about five

feet six inches, stands erect, and looks healthy and strong. Her wrists are notable for their breath.

She is broad-shouldered and well, although not too well-developed. Her face is squareish,

broad of jaw, and her black eyes are a shade too close together. Her hair is black and well kept.

With all her personality is rather pleasant than otherwise to the beholder. The police learned

that Mrs. Pauline Ryger of Jackson Avenue, Dutch Kills, had sold some oil cloth of the red and

gold flower pattern to a woman one day last week, and had Mrs. Ryger at headquarters to meet Mrs.

Nack. Mrs. Ryger said she looked like the woman to whom she had sold the stuff. The woman,

Mrs. Ryger said, came to her sore Wednesday or Friday last, and asked for some oil cloth. She wanted

six yards and took all of the first piece offered to her. She then asked for six yards of white

lean and four yards of white oil cloth. When that was done, she asked for some cord. None that was

shown her was satisfactory, and at last Mrs. Ryger brought a bundle of old cord from under the

counter, and the woman picked out all of the bailing rope there was, and said she would take that,

and if it was not sufficient for her purpose, would buy more in New York. Mrs. Ryger said her

customer spoke in German, and she thought Mrs. Nack was the woman, but could not swear to it.

A woman who was in the store at the time, Mrs. Ryger sold the stuff, and who accompanied her to

headquarters, was also not sure that Mrs. Nack was the purchaser. Mrs. Nack was closely

questioned by Captain O'Brien in the presence only of the detectives. Late in the day,

Captain O'Brien gave out a statement of what she had said. After admitting that she had lived with

Golden Suppy for about 16 months, and telling her reasons for quarreling with her husband, Mrs. Nack

said at 7 o'clock Friday morning, Golden Suppy came in from work and asked her for money. He declared

that he wanted $75, and she gave him $50, and told him to go anywhere he wanted. She admitted that

she was angry with him, and jealous at the attentions he had been paying to one of her friends.

She told him she said all he wanted of her was her money. He left her house with the money,

and was in and out of the place several times during the morning. He came in about 1 o'clock and

remained until about 2 o'clock when he went out and did not return on Friday night. On Saturday morning,

the day when the first portion of the mutilated corpse was found in the river, Mrs. Nack said

Golden Suppy returned at 7 o'clock or a little before. She knew it was as early as that because she

had no coffee prepared for him. He asked her for the balance of the $75 he wanted, and she said that

she had not got it, but would get it in the morning when she went to the bank. Later in the

morning, she went to the Franklin Savings Bank at 8th Avenue in 42nd Street and drew $50.

On her return home, she received a telegram from him asking her to go to the baths and tell the

superintendent that he should get someone to work for him as he would be away that night. The

superintendent did not appear surprised for Golden Suppy had told him he was ill on leaving the

place the last time. She said that while away from her rooms, she drank a glass of soda water and

ate a plate of ice cream in a confectionery store on 8th Avenue and also made a purchase of some

dry goods in a store nearby. She then went back to her home and between 3 and 4 o'clock,

Golden Suppy returned. The first portion of the body was found at 2.40 pm on Saturday, so if her

story is true, the body is not bad of Golden Suppy. She gave him the money and he went out and she

has not seen him since. At 1 o'clock Sunday, she said she went to George Box Restaurant on 6th

Avenue and asked Bach to go up to the bath to see if he was there. Bach went over and the

superintendent told him that he was not there. She said she had dinner at Bach's and then went

home where she sat at the door waiting for Golden Suppy's return for 2 hours. She then went to

Bach's and met Emma Miller. The two rode to Amsterdam Avenue and 125th street and back and then

she went to her room. She stayed at home all night. On Monday, she came to the conclusion that

Golden Suppy had deserted her and as she could not afford to live here on her earnings as a midwife,

she concluded to go to Europe. Tuesday morning, she remained in the house and with the assistance of

Mrs. Kinkle, a neighbor, prepared to pack her belongings in order that she might sail for Europe

on Saturday. On Monday, she said, a man came to the house with a note from Golden Suppy, although

it was unsigned, asking her to send him all of his clothing. She refused to do so and sent the

messenger away empty handed. This note was not signed, but she is certain that it was from him.

On Tuesday afternoon, two Italians appeared at the house and bearing another message from

Golden Suppy as she believes, although it was without signature, making another demand for his

clothing. She was about to reply to the effect that if he wanted this clothing, he might come

forward himself when Mrs. Kinkle interposed and told her not to bother with the fellow any longer,

but to send him back his clothes. She then packed them in a brown vellise and sent them away

with the two men. Mrs. Kinkle denied that she had ever any other friend than Golden Suppy.

She denied any knowledge or complicity in his alleged murder and professed to believe that he is still

alive. She denied the truth of the statement of Mrs. Riger that she bought any oil cloth in Long Island

City. She said that the Riger woman is mistaken. While Mrs. Kinkle was telling her story to Captain

O'Brien, the bundle containing the two legs found off the Brooklyn Navy yard was brought in.

The bundle was opened and the limbs were placed on the floor of a passageway leading to the office

that they were plainly visible when the door was opened. Captain O'Brien made an attempt to

scare the woman into a confession by suddenly showing the legs of the corpse in the doorway

and by asking her if they did not look like the legs of Golden Suppy. She simply looked at them,

shrugged her shoulders and replied that she could not tell whose legs they were,

but that she did not believe Golden Suppy was dead. Mrs. Nack did receive a telegram on Friday.

It was received in the afternoon at the Western Union Office at 34th Street in 8th Avenue and

was sent to her by Messenger Zimmerman. The operator remembers the dispatch because the words were

German, although the letters were English, and she joked with the other employees about her

inability to understand it. The boy says that when he delivered it, Mrs. Nack asked him sternly

if he had read it, and then again if he could read German. She appeared much relieved and smiled

when he answered no to both questions. After hearing her statements, Captain O'Brien decided that

there was grave cause for suspicion against her and sent her to Jefferson Market Prison with a

request that she be remanded to his care for 24 hours. The story told by Mrs. Riger was put forward

as the reason for the request and the magistrate promptly exceeded to it. It was said that the

detectives had found a piece of the tail-tailed red oil cloth and Mrs. Nack's flat, but the

detectives would neither confirm nor deny this report. Superintendent Schalenberg, when seen by

reporter for The New York Times, said that when Golden Suppy asked for leave Friday, he said he had

made an arrangement to go to Long Island with the old woman to look at a place. She intended to go

into the baby farming business and had received an offer of a place cheap and wanted him to look

over the ground. Mr. Werner, who conducts the drugstore over which Mrs. Nack lived, said last night that

Mrs. Nack had paid a rent up to the 1st of July and that she had been talking about preparing to

go to Germany for the past six months and that her determination to leave her flat was not a sudden

one. He also said, I have seen Golden Suppy here and in his room often, sometimes in his shirt

sleeves with his sleeves rolled up and have noticed that his arms were covered with air. This does not

correspond with the description of the arms of the man at the morgue. I intend going to see the

remains at the morgue tomorrow, but I do not believe that it is Golden Suppy who has been murdered.

My own impression is that Golden Suppy has gone to Germany.

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crime historian. The past is present

July 2nd, 1897. If the story told last night by Constantine Keene, a barber working on sixth avenue

is true and the mangled and mutilated body at the morgue is that of William Goldensuppey.

The mystery of the case is solved and there is nothing left for the police but to find and arrest

Martin Thorn known in the Goldensuppey knack household as Fred. Keene says he knows Thorn well

that they worked together in Vogel's shop for more than three months until May last.

Talking to a reporter for the New York Times, Keene said when Thorn first came to work here,

his eyes were blackened. He told me about Mrs. Knack and said he had whorled with her other

fellow Goldensuppey on her account. He tried to shoot the man but the revolver misfired and

Goldensuppey took it away from him and struck him on the face with it, cutting open the bridge

of his nose and blackening his eyes. Thorn said he did not care continued Keene. He had

everything his own way. Mrs. Knack liked him best and gave him money whenever he wanted it.

She wanted to get rid of the other man but he was big and strong and she was afraid of him.

A few days later Thorn told me he wanted to buy a stiletto. I showed him one I had and he wanted

to buy it but I would not sell. He found one that suited him in a second hand shop and bought it.

The point was not sharp he said and he ground it down. It had a yellow leather handle and

was in a yellow leather sheath. Then he bought a seven shooter revolver and asked me where he could

get some noiseless cartridges. I did not know. One day Keene went on. Thorn told me Mrs. Knack

wished to get away from Goldensuppey and had suggested that he take the whole house. He said he had

been looking for one in Brooklyn and a story and all around. He and Mrs. Knack had money and was

ready to start him in a shop of his own. He often showed money once as much as fifty dollars. He

said he received from her. Thorn left here the second Monday in May said Mr. Vogel the

proprietor of the shop. He was a first-class barber. He left rather abruptly and I do not know where he

went. July 7th 1897. Martin Thorn, the man for whom the New York police have been looking for

the past few days as the probable murderer of William Goldensuppey was arrested last night.

He has made a full confession giving the details of how he first shot Goldensuppey and then

cut up the body, how he and Mrs. Knack planned the murder and how they both disposed of the

dismembered parts of their victim. His story is a recital of the most cold blooded and brutal crime

ever recorded. Acting Inspector O'Brien claims he has Thorn's confession. The confession he says

was not made to him but to a man whose identity he refuses to reveal. The presumption, however,

is that the confession was made to John Golfah, the barber who betrayed Thorn into the hands of the

police last night. If this is true, the murder was committed after a diabolical plot for the

taking of Goldensuppey's life had been arranged and this plot was carried out to the letter.

The murder was committed in a house at Woodside Long Island. Thorn shot Goldensuppey and then

hacked him to pieces. Mrs. Knack lured Goldensuppey to the place and then left the house while

Thorn carried out the plot. Thorn had gone to the house on Saturday morning, armed with a fully

loaded revolver and with a package containing two pounds of plaster of Paris. He concealed himself

according to the plan behind the door of a closet on one of the upper floors and awaited the

arrival of Mrs. Knack and Goldensuppey. He removed his shoes and revolver in hand, waited for the man

he had come to kill. It was between 10 and 11 when the sound of Surrey wheels crunching over the

gravel in the yard in front of the house, announced the arrival of Mrs. Knack and her victim.

Thorn heard the door open and close. He heard Mrs. Knack ask Goldensuppey what he thought of the

house and its surroundings. He heard Goldensuppey express a nonchalant approval and then he heard Mrs. Knack

leave the room and go into the rear yard. Don't wait for me, he heard Mrs. Knack say to Goldensuppey,

go through the house and see how you like its arrangements. Oh, I'll just stay here until you come

back, Goldensuppey replied. No, don't wait Mrs. Knack urged, go and see the rooms upstairs. I think

you'll like them. Goldensuppey, good naturedly, complied and mounted the stairs to his death.

Thorn concealed behind the door, heard Goldensuppey coming. Goldensuppey came up the stairs and leisurely

fashion and looked into room after room. Then he opened the door behind which Thorn stood waiting.

As the door swung open, a pistol flashed in Goldensuppey's face. He threw up his hand and alarm but

before he could gather his senses, the pistol went off and a bullet had lodged in Goldensuppey's brain.

Goldensuppey fell heavily to the ground and Thorn rushed to his side. He bent over and examined

his man closely. Then Thorn caught hold of the murdered man by the shoulders and dragged him to

the bathtub. Next he hastened down the stairs and there he met Mrs. Knack, who was waiting at the

bottom. It's done, said Thorn. I know replied Mrs. Knack. I heard. Now go Thorn commanded. Go back

to the city, come back here at five o'clock. Thorn then hastened to the bathtub. He pulled a razor

from his pocket. He bent over Goldensuppey. I heard a snore, he said, according to the statement in

O'Brien's possession, he means that he heard the death rattle. With sickening detail, Thorn

described how he cut the head off first with a razor and a saw. The head was packed in a paste-like

mixture of plaster of Paris and water. Then, says Thorn, according to the statement, I stopped to think.

I had not shaved off Goldensuppey's mustache. That might be Treas. Well, the head was in plaster

of Paris and it made a heavy parcel. I threw it overboard. It must have gone to the bottom. They

can't find it. I don't care. Then the legs were severed and then the nether portion of the trunk.

Then, as if he were packing so much beef, he packed the different portions of the body and the

cheesecloth. Then in the oilcloth, tied the bundle neatly, lit a pipe and waited for Mrs. Knack.

She came at the appointed hour with the Surrey. On the ferryboat, they took up the various bundles

and threw them in the river. Goldensuppey had a gold watch and chain. These were taken possession

of by Thorn, who pawned them. Thorn, in his confession to his friend, also stated that he had been

disappointed in the house they had hired in Woodside. He told the man that he expected the drainage

from the bathtub went into a sewer, but instead it went into a ditch. Acting Inspector O'Brien said

this morning that he thought that he had located the part of the river in which Thorn had dropped

the head of Goldensuppey. He said he would make arrangements for dragging the river at that point.

January 11th, 1898. Mrs. Augusta Knack, and dided for the murder of William Goldensuppey,

appeared in the Queen's County Court yesterday and received a sentence of 15 years in Auburn prison.

The stairs and halls were lined with people about half of the crowd was feminine and well-dressed.

Mrs. Knack was in high spirits yesterday morning, almost gay. She looked for a sentence of 20 years

and, judging from the little she said, had made up her mind to a long term of peaceful prison life

and coming out with what property she has left increased to a considerable figure by the laps of time.

She remarked that her free life had been stormy and troubled and that in prison she would have

nothing to worry her. She did not seem to give a thought to Thorn whom she regards as virtually dead

and gone or to her husband or to Goldensuppey. Just after court had reconvened she stepped in through

the side door. She looked to the right and left hastily and rather impatiently as if she resented

the gaze of the hundreds of eyes fastened upon her. She was led to a chair at the center of the bar

just where Thorn had stood to receive his sentence and as she took her seat she again looked about

her moment. Then she looked straight at Justice Garrison breathing rather fast, her lips parted

and indescribable expression of appeal in her eyes. The proceedings were brief and business-like.

District Attorney Youngs briefly outlined the difficulties the state had been confronted with

in making out its case, the chief of which was the establishment of the Corpus Delecti.

Mrs. Knack had voluntarily removed this difficulty, ensured the conviction of Thorn,

and saved the prosecuting officers much trouble and the county some expense by her confession.

She had offered to confess as long ago as last October and had received no promise of reward or

immunity. He moved that the defendant be called for sentence and formally announced that in

behalf of the people he was ready to consent that she should withdraw her plea of not guilty

and substitute a plea of guilty of manslaughter in the first degree. Mr. Friend, the attorney who sat

by Mrs. Knack rose and said that his client pleaded guilty of manslaughter in the first degree.

Here Mrs. Knack put her handkerchief up to her eyes. She was called on to stand up. If she had

been crying, she had ceased during the brief colloquy between the Justice and the lawyers,

and her eyes were now dry and bright. The Justice asked her if she had anything to say why

sentence should not be pronounced, and she have turned toward Mr. Friend, who promptly answered for

her, nothing whatever. The Justice, after a brief glance at the papers before him, and with a cold,

unsympathetic voice looked directly at Mrs. Knack, whose eyes did not leave his face for an

instant. Told her that it appeared from the papers that she and Thorn conspired together to kill

Golden Suppy and did kill him. Then the Justice seemed to address the bar and the public generally,

as he added, Martin Thorn has been tried in this court, convicted and sentenced to death.

The case of the people from the start was surrounded with grave difficulties. It is impossible to

overestimate the importance of the confession which this woman made. Whether or not she be equally

guilty with Thorn, it is certain that the use of her confession on his first trial constitutes an

implied agreement either for complete immunity or for a lesser offense. The sentence of this court

is that you'd be confined in the state prison for women at Auburn, New York, for the term of 15

years. Sheriff, remove your prisoner. This was a clear and unexpected gift to five years of liberty,

but Mrs. Knack gave no indication of emotion. Captain Methven touched her on the shoulder and

she followed him quickly through the side door. The business did not occupy the time of the court

quite ten minutes. Commutation for good behavior will reduce the actual time Mrs. Knack will serve

to nine years, eight months and four days. About three o'clock this afternoon, Warden Sage of

Sing Sing Prison received a message from New York of Mrs. Knack's sentence. Soon after he had a

brief talk with Thorn, the Warden said Thorn, Mrs. Knack has been sentenced to 15 years in

prison. What do you think about it? Oh, I don't know, replied Thorn. I don't care much about it one

way or the other. Thorn then spoke to the Warden about the execution of Sutherland this morning and

said, this ought to have been my day. You know I was sentenced to die today. To this the Warden

replied, but you know you have a stay which means that you have a chance yet. Well, Thorn said,

I would rather gone off today than have any further delay.

August 1st, 1898

Martin Thorn sat up later last night than was his custom. He talked of his parents, his boyhood days in

Germany and his wife's parents in this country. He showed no nervousness and when he threw himself on

his cot, it was but a few minutes until he was sound asleep. Warden Sage, who went to Thorn's cell

early today, said of him, Thorn told me he was not nervous and would die bravely. He said he was

perfectly reconciled to his fate and that he had made peace with his God. He slept well and had no

fear of death. There is not the slightest change in his actions. He is the same cool man who came to

the prison six months ago. His nerve is stronger than that of any other murderer who has been in the

death house. Thorn told one of his keepers that his only dread was the wait from the time he awoke

until he was summoned to the chair. The condemned man received the last sacraments of the Roman

Catholic Church. When summoned to the execution chair, Thorn showed no emotion, walked to it quickly,

repeating the prayers after the attending priest. There was no untoward incident in connection with

the execution and after the colon had been turned on for 55 seconds, Thorn was dead.

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