Kinkowski, Martin, -1882; Muller, Philomena, -1881; Murder -- New Jersey
On the 18th the young woman was completely identified as Mrs.
Philomena Muller, the wife of Simon Muller, a tobacconist, at 502 West
Thirtieth street, N. Y. Mr. Muller called at the Morgue at 3 o’clock on
the afternoon of May 18th, in company with a lady whom he introduced as
Miss Maria Schmidt, his wife’s sister. He said they desired to look at
the body. They were led into the damp vault, and at sight of the body
Miss Schmidt was overcome, and she retired to the adjoining basement.
Mr. Muller gazed upon the body calmly. The jewelry and clothing of
the dead woman were shown to him, and he positively identified them
as the property of his wife. He said that he had given her the cameo
brooch. Mr. Muller said that some time ago his wife deserted him,
and since then she had not lived with him. Miss Schmidt had seen her
sister about two weeks before. Mrs. Muller then informed her that she
had found a decent man, who was going to marry her and take her to
Germany in the steamer L’Amerique, which was to sail on the 4th of May.
When Miss Schmidt told Mr. Muller of this he went to the wharf of the
Transatlantic Steamship Company on the morning of May 4th, and remained
at the gang plank of the vessel until all the passengers had gone
aboard. He was certain that his wife was not among them, but he did not
know her paramour.
Before this identification was made, the authorities of Hudson county
had obtained conclusive evidence of the fact that the murdered woman
was Mrs. Philomena Muller, and that her assassin had married her on the
morning of the day on which he killed her, and had taken passage on the
following day for Europe. As Mrs. Finck, the wife of an alehouse keeper
in Pierce Avenue, West New York, was sitting in her saloon on the
afternoon of Tuesday, the 3d of May, a man and a woman entered and sat
down at a table. The woman ordered drinks, and called for a glass of
beer. Her companion drank soda water. While they were there the woman
talked almost incessantly. She said that they came from Morrisania. She
seemed to have plenty of money. When she paid for the refreshments,
Mrs. Finck noticed a large roll of bank notes in her pocketbook,
besides some silver and gold. Before going away, the woman borrowed
a corkscrew to open a bottle of Rhine wine which she had with her.
She said she had bought the bottle in Union Hill. Mrs. Finck minutely
described the woman, and the description tallied exactly with that of
the woman who was murdered. Prosecutor McGill was so impressed with
the accuracy of Mrs. Finck’s description, that he specially detailed
Detectives Swinton and Fanning to trace the movements of the unknown
couple. They began their search on Tuesday evening, May 17th, and
Wednesday the 18th they submitted to the Prosecutor a circumstantial
account of their discoveries.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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