WOMAN KNOWS IT.
TELLS POLICE SHE CAN
SOLVE FANNING MURDER MYSTERY.
READ IT IN THE CARDS.
BUT SLEUTHS WILL JOG ALONG WITHOUT HER AID.
Clues Seem to Have Given Out and Force is More
in the Dark Than Ever -- Two Men "Sweated," but Developed Nothing.
City Detective Thomas Hayde, who is trying to solve the Fanning murder mystery, yesterday received the following letter from a woman who evidently takes a deep interest in aiding the detective department out of the dumps:
"Dear Mr. Hayde: I cut the murdered man's picture out of the paper and
took the Jack of Clubs out of a deck of cards. Then I placed Mr.
Fanning and the Jack of Clubs under my pillow and dreamed for three
nights. In the third night the murdered man, with all the cuts in his
head, appeared before me. He told me everything. Now if you want to
know the name of the man who killed Thomas Fanning just call on me."
"Are you going to call on the woman?" Hayde was asked.
"Not much," he said firmly.
A week has passed and the murderer of Thomas Fanning is still at large. Seven days ago yesterday the bruised and lifeless remains of Fanning were found in his home, 1818 Olive street by a nephew who called to pay him a Sunday afternoon visit. The police seem totally helpless in the emergency. They have followed many clues, but not one of them has brought forth any substantial results.
So far only two men have been sweated by Chief Hayes and Prosecutor Kimbrell. One of them, a close friend of Fanning, who visited his home almost daily, could not be connected in any way with the murder. The other one had an airtight alibi. He was able to show where he, as a watchman in an institution, had registered his name each hour during the day the old man is supposed to have been killed. The police have settled upon the theory, from Fanning being dressed and other suggestive features, that the murder was committed in the daytime, most likely Saturday, December 29.
Chief Hayes said yesterday that he had seen investigated the story about the man seen on the Holmes street car at 6 o'clock last Sunday morning with the bag of money, who said he was a Metropolitan employe bring the receipts in from the car barn at Eighteenth and Olive streets and that he was told it was no unusual custom. But the chief's statement does not agree with those of Metropolitan officials who say money is never carried in that way. The conductor said the man appeared nervous because the bag of money attracted attention and explained that he was taking it to Metropolitan headquarters. The conductor said he doubted the man's story, as he knew that all cash was transported in the daytime in locked boxes and under the watchful eyes of armed guards. The man, he said, alighted at Fifteenth and Walnut and stood for a moment as if undecided which way to go. Then he walked east on Fifteenth toward Metropolitan headquarters.
When the man at the car barn at Eighteenth and Olive streets was called up last night and asked if it was the custom to send money down at 6 in the morning in a bag with only one man, he would not answer.
Night Superintendent Kelly at Metropolitan headquarters, said:
"So far as I know money is transported from the various car barns to Fifteenth and Grand about 8 or 9 o'clock each morning. The division superintendent and one trusted man generally accompanies it. It is generally in an iron box. I have known it to be taken down on cars, but it is always in the box and two men accompany it. I never heard of one man being sent alone."
