“Possessed, maybe.”
“You think that happens? Someone goes to see a movie about murderers and then they go out and kill people?”
Lael shrugged. “Sure,” he said, “but the person has to want it to happen first. Some people are just aching for an excuse.”
The “Chief Detective said that he had found letters in Young’s flat that proved the man to be a moral pervert.” In addition, “he had a very peculiar walk, as though something was the matter with his legs, and I think anybody who ever saw him could identify him by his gait among a million men.” Other tenants in his father’s building described him as “a dope and a vagabond. He had gone to the roof often and acted queerly. When anybody saw him there he would dodge behind chimneys.” “He was a cigarette fiend.” “He was a brilliant talker.” “… haggard.” “He was the most attractive fellow you ever saw. He was well educated, perfectly honest and seemingly well-balanced.” “He was quiet and did not seem freakish in any way.”
By Monday, September 22, a man disguised as a tramp but matching Hooper Young’s description was picked up in Derby, Connecticut, after a scuffle. The man refused to give his name or account for his whereabouts. His face resembled Young’s. Upon being apprehended, his clothing, though trampish in appearance, proved to be new. He was said to have “a look of refinement about him which does not become the clothes he wears.” “The nervous condition of the man is such that it would appear that he is on the verge of collapse, and he is restless in a most exaggerated degree.” It was thought by the arresting officers that Young had a gold tooth, which they looked for, but “instead was a hole in the gum where a tooth had been extracted quite recently.” In the same article, Captain Titus insisted that in the police descriptions of Young “no mention of a gold tooth was made. Young has no gold teeth.” His pockets were full of red pepper. A packet of red pepper, it was discovered, was found in the trunk sent to Chicago as well.
As more details surfaced about how Young spent his time after the murder, the motivation for the crime began to seem more complex to Captain Titus:
“All this is certain. After buying the clothes in which he was clad when he hired the rig in Hoboken, he must have spent some more money, including what he paid the liveryman. While he was pawning the jewelry and getting the buggy, the body of his victim was resting in his bedroom closet, covered with blood. By all who saw him during his preparations for the disposal of the body, it is stated that he was very calm and collected. A man who could stroll around without excitement while the woman he had killed lay in his apartment must have been a hardened and deliberate criminal.”
THE CRIME DELIBERATE
Capt. Titus said he had come to the conclusion that not only the motive of robbery entered into the crime, but that the murder had been deliberate.
“I argue,” said the Captain, “that, if robbery had been the only motive, Young might just as well have carried the woman into insensibility. When he carried her to his flat, he knew he would have to kill as well as rob….”
Joseph Pulitzer insisted, though it had not been mentioned in earlier interviews, that just a few hours prior to her disappearance, his wife had been accosted by a man resembling Young who proposed that she visit his apartment. How Pulitzer knew this or why he wasn’t troubled by it remained unclear.
More importantly, according to Mrs. Pulitzer’s parents, the murdered woman had known Young for nine years. There were some hints made suggesting that she had followed Young north to Jersey City and then to New York.
The man disguised as the tramp at first denied he was Hooper Young, claiming instead to be Bert Edwards until the police brought him into contact with an athletic instructor who knew Young, Mac Levy:
“Hello, Hooper!”
There was no response.
“You think that happens? Someone goes to see a movie about murderers and then they go out and kill people?”
Lael shrugged. “Sure,” he said, “but the person has to want it to happen first. Some people are just aching for an excuse.”
The “Chief Detective said that he had found letters in Young’s flat that proved the man to be a moral pervert.” In addition, “he had a very peculiar walk, as though something was the matter with his legs, and I think anybody who ever saw him could identify him by his gait among a million men.” Other tenants in his father’s building described him as “a dope and a vagabond. He had gone to the roof often and acted queerly. When anybody saw him there he would dodge behind chimneys.” “He was a cigarette fiend.” “He was a brilliant talker.” “… haggard.” “He was the most attractive fellow you ever saw. He was well educated, perfectly honest and seemingly well-balanced.” “He was quiet and did not seem freakish in any way.”
By Monday, September 22, a man disguised as a tramp but matching Hooper Young’s description was picked up in Derby, Connecticut, after a scuffle. The man refused to give his name or account for his whereabouts. His face resembled Young’s. Upon being apprehended, his clothing, though trampish in appearance, proved to be new. He was said to have “a look of refinement about him which does not become the clothes he wears.” “The nervous condition of the man is such that it would appear that he is on the verge of collapse, and he is restless in a most exaggerated degree.” It was thought by the arresting officers that Young had a gold tooth, which they looked for, but “instead was a hole in the gum where a tooth had been extracted quite recently.” In the same article, Captain Titus insisted that in the police descriptions of Young “no mention of a gold tooth was made. Young has no gold teeth.” His pockets were full of red pepper. A packet of red pepper, it was discovered, was found in the trunk sent to Chicago as well.
As more details surfaced about how Young spent his time after the murder, the motivation for the crime began to seem more complex to Captain Titus:
“All this is certain. After buying the clothes in which he was clad when he hired the rig in Hoboken, he must have spent some more money, including what he paid the liveryman. While he was pawning the jewelry and getting the buggy, the body of his victim was resting in his bedroom closet, covered with blood. By all who saw him during his preparations for the disposal of the body, it is stated that he was very calm and collected. A man who could stroll around without excitement while the woman he had killed lay in his apartment must have been a hardened and deliberate criminal.”
THE CRIME DELIBERATE
Capt. Titus said he had come to the conclusion that not only the motive of robbery entered into the crime, but that the murder had been deliberate.
“I argue,” said the Captain, “that, if robbery had been the only motive, Young might just as well have carried the woman into insensibility. When he carried her to his flat, he knew he would have to kill as well as rob….”
Joseph Pulitzer insisted, though it had not been mentioned in earlier interviews, that just a few hours prior to her disappearance, his wife had been accosted by a man resembling Young who proposed that she visit his apartment. How Pulitzer knew this or why he wasn’t troubled by it remained unclear.
More importantly, according to Mrs. Pulitzer’s parents, the murdered woman had known Young for nine years. There were some hints made suggesting that she had followed Young north to Jersey City and then to New York.
The man disguised as the tramp at first denied he was Hooper Young, claiming instead to be Bert Edwards until the police brought him into contact with an athletic instructor who knew Young, Mac Levy:
“Hello, Hooper!”
There was no response.
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