Attorney-General Stockton directed Mr. McGill to telegraph to the authorities at Havre, describing Kettler, and requesting his arrest on a charge of murder. Detective Edward Stanton was to sail for Europe on Saturday in pursuit of the murderer, but subsequent events proved this unnecessary, as the reader will learn by following this complete and dramatic recital.
TRACKED AND ARRESTED.
Wildly Declaring his Innocence, yet admitting that he was in Hoboken with the murdered woman—“She Led Me Astray”—A very Touching Scene with his Wife.
Martin Kenkouwsky, alias Louis Kettler, the murderer of Mrs. Mina Muller, was captured on the night of May 19th, 1881, by Policemen Morris Fitzgerald and Richard Tregonning of the Thirty-seventh street police station, as he was walking in Thirty-sixth street, near Tenth Avenue, New York City. The clue which led to his detection was discovered and followed out almost to the end by Gustavus A. Seide, a reporter for a Jersey City newspaper, and compares, as a piece of amateur detective work, with the detection of Chastine Cox, the murderer of Mrs. Hull. Seide recognized that there was a flaw in the theory that the alleged murderer had gone to Europe in the Amerique. There was no certainty that the baggage which was taken from Sherrer’s house on the day the steamer sailed was delivered at the pier of the French line, nor was there positive evidence that Kettler himself had been seen on the pier that morning. Superintendent West of the French pier said that on the day the Amerique sailed, a man answering somewhat Kettler’s description had applied to him for a ticket, and he had referred him to the purser. Baggage corresponding to what Kettler was supposed to have taken with him the Superintendent had not seen on the pier.
Seide came over to New York early Thursday morning, May 19th, and proceeded at once to look for the man who was supposed to have taken Kettler’s baggage from Scherrer’s Hotel to the pier. Scherrer had seen the man in the neighborhood quite frequently, but did not know his name or where he kept. He, however, described him to Seide as a tall, well-built man, with dark moustache and dark complexion. The reporter started out, and visited the truck stands between Christopher and Twentieth streets, but could not find his man. Returning to Scherrer’s, he found a man, whom he describes as a “dilapidated individual,” taking a drink at the bar. Seide again asked Scherrer for a description of the truckman. Scherrer gave it as before, adding that he drove a red truck with one brown horse. Here the “dilapidated individual” spoke up and said, the truckman might be found at Christopher and Bleecker streets. On inquiring there Seide learned that he changed his stand a few days before; but where he had gone no one in the immediate vicinity could tell. He, however, discovered that his name was C. A. Strang. He then made inquiries for Strang’s whereabouts in various smithies and liquor stores, and in one of the latter he ascertained that Strang lived in Greenwich street, on the west side, a few doors below Christopher street.
At this point Seide telegraphed over to Detective Stanton of the New Jersey force, and awaited his arrival. Then they went to Strang’s house, where Mrs. Strang informed them that her husband was at the new market, corner of West and Gansvoort streets. There they found him. They asked him if, on the morning of the sailing of the Amerique, he had taken baggage belonging to Kettler to the steamship wharf. He replied that he had not; he had taken the baggage to a Mrs. Clifford’s, at 179 Charles street, and about ten days afterward he had removed the valise and three ordinary yellow trunks to 510 West Thirty-sixth street. The other trunk, which was long and black, he had not seen again. He was not sure whether he had taken the first load on the 3d or 4th instant. He at first refused to go with them to the house in Charles street, saying he was too busy; but when Seide and Stanton offered to pay him for his time, he consented.
Mrs. Clifford said that a man answering Kettler’s description had come to the house either on the 3d or 4th inst., and she remembered that Strang had brought a valise and four trunks. Kettler had remained at the house about ten days, paying her regularly. Once he paid her with a five-dollar gold piece. She did not notice anything peculiar or restless in his behaviour. He kept to the house pretty closely, though he was generally out nights. She saw, however, that he read the newspapers very closely. He told her that he was going to California. When asked if on his departure he had taken all his baggage, she said, no, he had left a long black trunk, which they would find in the wood-shed. They opened the trunk, and found it full of crockery and cooking utensils. They carried it to Strang’s truck, and directed Strang to carry it to the house in Thirty-sixth street, to ask for Kettler, and if Kettler was there, to give them a sign, as they would remain outside. Strang inquired for Kettler, but was told that no man of that name lived there; but that a man corresponding to the description lived one flight up with a wife and two children. Strang took the trunk up stairs, and found a woman, a young boy, and a little girl in the room designated. The woman said the trunk belonged to Martin Kenkouwsky, her husband, and offered to pay fifty cents for its delivery. Strang then signalled to Seide and Stanton that the man was not in, and the reporter and detective went to an adjoining house, and received permission to watch from the windows. Seide went out again to speak to Strang, and while he was talking to him in front of 510 West Thirty-sixth street, both were arrested by Policeman Tregonning. The police of Capt. Washburn’s precinct had been looking for the same man, and had traced him to this same house. This was the cause of the arrest of Seide and Strang. When they got to the station, Seide explained to the Captain who he was, and the Captain sent him back with a policeman to get Stanton to identify him. At first they couldn’t find Stanton, and the policeman wanted to take Seide back. In the meantime the Captain had sent Policeman Fitzgerald to aid Tregonning in arresting Kenkouwsky. The policemen, Seide, and Stanton, who had meanwhile relieved Seide of his embarrassment, waited for about three hours, when they saw a man answering the description of the murderer walking up the street. Policeman Fitzgerald arrested him. He offered no resistance, and his only exclamation was in German: “Was ist? was ist? was ist?” He was at once taken to the station, where he was locked up. Sergeant Brown was sent down for Scherrer, and a policeman was despatched for Strang. Scherrer arrived about twenty minutes after the arrest, and identified the prisoner as the man who had been at his house under the name of Kettler. Strang also soon appeared, and he too identified Kettler. Meanwhile Policemen had entered the room at 510 West Thirty-sixth street, notified the woman of her husband’s arrest, and taken the four trunks and the valise to the station. Our reporter was present when the trunks were opened. Almost the first thing found when one of the yellow trunks was opened was a letter addressed to Mrs. Mina Muller, 338 West Thirty-ninth street. In a corner of the envelope was printed “Germania Lodge, No. 70, K. of H.” It contained a request for her to attend a lodge meeting on Jan. 10. The trunks were full of articles of female attire, and in one of them was a pair of men’s gloves of white leather, stained with dirt and badly torn, as though whoever wore them had been handling some rough object. It is thought that Kenkowski wore these gloves when he was married and when he crushed Mina Muller’s skull with stones. A gray wrapper, and a straw bonnet and table covers were among the other objects found.