' MANY TORIES
AS TO CAUSE OF
ELWELL DEATH
4
NEW YORK, July 31 (by Associat
ed Pi’ess).—Every element of the
classic detective tale has appeared in
its most dramatic setting in the El
well case which since June 11 has de
fied solution by the foremost sleuths
of this city. Wealth, divorce, the glit
ter of Broadway night life, beautiful
women gowned and jeweled for the
ball, the race track, the gaming table
and, far removed from the frenzied
whirle of the “bright lights,” the dot
ing parents in* their vine-shaded
home in the country—all these are
woven and interwoven into what has
' been pronounced by detectives as the
deepest mystery of years.
In its most sinister guise, murder at
~%e hands of an unknown and unsus
pected assassin, death came to Joseph
Bowne Elwell in middle age when his
most engrossing cares amounted to
anxiety over a favorite race horse,
some intricacy of his.ruling passion,
bridge whist, or an after-theater en
gagement with “the woman in black”
or “the lady in gray.”
Still breathing, though a large cali
bre bullet had plowed through his
brain, Elwell was discovered at 8:30
5n the morning of June 11 clad in his
pajamas and slumped down in a chair
against the wall of the reception room
on the first floor of his three story
house in West 70th street. He died
several hours later without speaking
* a word which might betray the iden
tity of his slayer.
He was found by Mrs. Marie Ear
sen, Elwell’s housekeeper, arriving
for her daily work of tidying up the
house. On a table at his side were
several letters, one of which, from a
racing associate, had been removed
from the envelope. The letters had
been delivered by the postman at 7:35.
There was no weapon, no footprint,
no evidence of a struggle, no possible
clew except a 45 calibre shell, such as
is ejected from an automatic pistol
of the army type and the stub of a
* cigarette different from those Elwell
habitually smoked. Doors and win
dows were securely locked.
Experts declared that a suicide
theory was untenable because Elwell
could not have held the fatal pistol
far enough from his head to avoid
leader burns, even were it possible to
account for the disappearance of the
weapon. There were powder marks
on the dying man’s forehead but no
uui ns.
As soon as the idea of self-destruc
tion was rejected the man hunt start
ed. Its ramifications extended all
over the country, into every circle
of society for years back into the dead
man’s past. Every possible motive
for his killing was explored. Love
affairs long buried were exhumed and
the principals grilled to discover a
motive for the crime. Every real or
suspected enmity was probed. All
le<4 to the same end—a wealth of in
formation about the dead man’s lei
-fcsurely life, his reputation for suave
good nature and his conquest of wom
en’s heart. But not a ray of light on
the crime itself.
The known facts of how Elwell
spent the night before his death are
few. During the early evening he
was one of a dinner party at a large
hotel. Other guests were Mr. and
Mrs. Lewisohn, Miss Viola Kraus and
a South American journalist who met
Elwell for the first time that evening.
At a nearby table sat Victoi Von
»-—
Schlegel, the divorced husband of
Miss Kraus and Miss Elly Hope An
derson, a singer whose home is in
Minneapolis.
All who were present agreed after
ward' that there was no show of ill
feeling between Elwell and Von
Schlegell, though they brushed
shoulders on the dance floor several
times with Von Schlegell’s former
wife dancing with the sportsman.
After leaving the hotel the Lew.
isohn party, including Elwell, went
to a roof garden theater, w’here they
remained until 1:30 when all left and
Elwell was seen to start on foot
toward his home. Here ends all un.
assailable evidence of the murder
victim’s movements. A man told in
vestigators he had seen Elwell and
a woman in an upper Broadway dance j
hall at a much later hour. A neigh
bor claimed to have seen Elwell
driven home by a man in a racing car
at 2:30. A taxicab driver asserted
he had driven the sportsman home
directly after he left the Lewisohn
party.
More important evidence seemed to
lie in the statements 01 Margaret
Entler, a telephone operator, who de
clares she tried to put through two
telephone calls from Elwell’s home
between 2 and 2:30 o’clock on the
morning of the tragedy. The number
called in each case was that of Wil
liam H. Pendelton, a former racing
partner of Elwell’s. When interro
gated he said he could not imagine
why Elwell should have been so anx
ious to communicate with him during
the early morning hours. They had
not been intimate in many months, he
said.
After two weeks of investigation
and merciless publicity the small
army of investigators became defin
itely separated into two factions. Both
preface their theories with the state
ment, “nothing is impossible,” and
each clung doggedly to its pet “solu
tion.”
The first faction, including a major
ity of the detectives, said, “What if
the doors were locked? Some enemy,
man or women, killed Elwell.”
The second, numbering many of El
well’s former friends and some of the
cleverest detectives, retorted, “What
if there wrere no powder burns, El
well killed himself and someone who
arrived before the police hid the pis
tol?”
After the funeral, Joseph S. Elwell,
father of the dead man, declared his
unfaltering belief that his son had
been murdered.
Elwell’s wife, who admitted she was
contemplating divorce proceedings
when she heard of Elwell’s death, ad
hered to the suicide theory, and ex
pressed indignation that the racing
man had left no provision in his will
for their son.
During the course of the investiga
tion Assistant District Attorney
Joyce ordered the detention of Mrs.
Larsen, the housekeeper, as a mater
ial witness. Many were convinced
that the woman’s anxiety to “avoid
scandal” was concealing evidence
that might lead to the apprehension of
the guilty person. Her release was
ordered by District Attorney Swann,
who said that no evidence sufficient
to hold anyone had been secured.
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♦ -4
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»
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