The evening world. Newspaper, May 9, 1922, Page 21

ol- jue L} pire Ellis H. Parker, Who Solve « Baffling Brunen Mystery, Has Amazing Record as ‘Infallible’ Man Hunter ae | In 96 Murder Cases He Has Landed HE mysterious murder of John Ty Brunen, the wealthy showman of Riverside, N. J., who was shot through a window in his ikltchen as he sat reading his paper lion the night of March 10, and for hich two men are now in the Mount Holly, N. J., jail, charged with the crime, has brought into the limelight again Ellis H. Parker, the celebrated Gounty Detective of Burlington Sounty. To the average reader In New York Yity the name of Ellis H. Parker may ot mean much, but in police circles ¢ is known from coast to coast, from he Chief in the Upper Office to the p” on the street, and at Scotland ard his name is as famillar as that Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. i the criminal world his name in- pires terror, and the word has been along the line to give Burling- on County a wide berth. Detectives of fiction don’t begin to compare in deeds with the accom- plishments of this blue-eyed quizzing, quizzical New Jersey cop. The un- yavelling of murder mysteries {s the meat of his life, and the trailing and vundoing of evil-doers 1s second nature to him, He has been pot-shotted and ts the hero of a hundred pistol duels. He has fought hand to hand combats 1 With criminals at close quarters, be Using his fists when they would serve ngand when they wouldn't bringing into the handy ‘‘gat.”” He has been sa{Burlington’s County Detective twenty arreight years and has made more than ™0},900 arrests and recovered more than 279800,000 in stolen money and property ‘TerfM ninety-six murder cases he has chyanded eighty-eight convictions. The pofeinety-sixth murder is that of John see , for which Charles M. Powell Bahad, Harry Mohr are soon to be tried Iger their lives. one? gobuyler Ranior is a wealthy far- incmmer of Florence in Burlington County. earQne afternoon while he was away meGrom home a man overpowered and 88 Convictions—Feats That Have Won Him International Fame By Joseph S. Jordan. Copyright, 1022 (New York Evening World) by Press Publishing Co. they sdw a man trimming peach trees on Hamilton's farm, but didn’t see his face. Hamilton told me at the time of the robbery he was trimming peach trees, and I learned he was the only man in the neightborhood who was trimming peach trees that afternoon. “Then I remembered the similarity between Hamilton and a fellow I had sent up for burglary and I started to trace the burglar. I knew he wa: the man. I didn’t tell anybody el what I knew and that's why they thought that I was crazy, I guess, when I said Hamilton was innocent.” On Oct. money 5, 1920, David 8. Paul, messenger for the Broadway Trust Company of Camden, N. J., was lured by two men Into an auto- mobile and robbed of $70,000. His body was found a few days later buried among the New Jersey pines The beat detective skill available was employed by the Broadway Trust Company to find the murderers and the missing’ Money. Ellis H. Parker was working quietly all the while on the case at his home in Mount Holly, where the murdered bank runner’s family lived, just quizzing folks and inquiring around. The daughter-in-law was indignant at questions he asked her and the detective was apologetic but kept on asking more questions ag to the hab its and associates of the murdered man. When he arrested Frank James ant Raymond Shuck for the murder later on amd recovered $65,000 of the stolen money, it was the lady's turn to be apologetic, “Why didn’t you tell me what you Were asking those questions for?” she asked Parker “ft wasn't tellin,’ " rejoinder. was the smiling One Sunday eyening a little over « year ago a friend of Ellis Parker drove up in his automobile to where he detective was standing and breathlessly told him that two thugs loaded, but when Parker was throug) nobody was needed to hold the man who tried to murder him. He landed him in jal! and in less than an hour had bis companion in there with him. Ellis Parker might be taken for a well-to-do farmer or a storekeeper in & prosperous community. Hq was born In Burlington County and has never lived anywhere clse. Wrightstown, where Camp Dix is now located, was hia birthplace, and up to the age of nine he lived in a hotel. Then he went on a farm and grew up as a farmer's boy. But he was the kind of farmer they had around Concord in the days before the Revolution and Bilis comes from that kind of stock. A great- great-great-grandfather was killed at Monmouth, Four brothers of the Parker family came over in the pre revolutionary days. They were Marous, Ezekiel, Hezekiah and Elisha, and their descendants are numerous, Ellis was the father of thirteen chil- dren, and seven are still living, six boys having died. The living range in age from two years to twenty— four girls and three boys. The detective is five feet eight inches in height but looks smaller on account of his stocky build, his shoulders being constructed on the battleship order. Ho is fifty years old and his face has the healthy glow of outdoor life. His eyes are steely blue with the quality of warmth lightening them when the kindly face relaxes into a smile, which is fre- quent. He has a well-shaped nose on the Indian facial structure and a short upper lip concealed by a close cropped gray mustache. His chin (« Charles M. Powell, who con- fessed to Detective Parker that he shot John Brunen to death. porn instigated the murder. THE EVENING WORLD, TUESDAY, MAY 9 Harry Mohr, Brunen’s brother-in-law, charged by Powell With Having 1922, A Real Sherlock Holmes &% Fact Never Knew the Sherlock Holmes » Fiction fanaa a1 Private Grover L. Duncan arrested by Parker for the murder of a fellow soldier in a case solved only by the Detective’s quick wit. “My method is largely, of course, the process of elimination, Then [ keep on plying questions, some of which may seem foolish, but thoy werve my purpose in the end. If in- vite the confidence of the public and that of the suspected eriminal. I @enerally get it. Seventy-five per e@ent of the men I have sent away have confessed thelr crimes to me. [ have never abused a confidence or some years ago and killed him with © shotgun. Murphy was paying court to @ girl and some one told her he was a married man, which proved t@ bo true. Murphy guessed that Fisher had told on Kim and killed him. Fisher was returning from a visit to hia own girl the aight he was mure dered. Detective Parker went from house to house examining the shotguns of a an used anything told me in confidence the owners. Murphy's sister, accond- KY ound bis housekeeper, punched open "#4 come over from Philadelphia against a man. I ave made over ing to the detective, brought ine 6,000 arrests and | don't believe that phy's weapon to him, and his qui on apts: tn “tis Carman #irche 708m have an enemy In the world, eye caught sight of a twig attached Qad seek $37,000 from it, Tho next The two men who murdered David to the hammer of the gun. The ms- day a neighboring farmer named Paul, the bank runner, and who were ter saw it as/quickly ae did the de~ Hamilton was arrested for the crime gent to the chalr by Ellis Parker, tective and hastily brushed it oem ny the both wrote him on the eve of their its fastening. But Parker grabbed j aged Demtvety, teentined: by being “knocked off,” thanking him for as it fell and had witnesses with f eusekeeper and « minister. his kindness during their trial and him to testify as to where it came wishing him and his family the best from, of luck. “Murphy was arrested as quick as Speaking of (he process of elim- we could find him. That twig oon- {nation Detective Parker told the victed him. it had caught on to the writer that in unravelling the mys- gun as he ran away from the scene af tery of the murder of John Brunen, the crime through the woods. After- the showman, there were mot less ward he confessed. I never overlook than 600 employees and kneckabouts the slightest clue and stay with it tll st day of rifle practice and it was That was the first knowledge that of the circus who had to be traced iwieads somewhere or drops out." ‘asy for the men to recall their move- Parker had that Greggor's head had in his investigation and the trail led nts. But man after man hesitated been beaten in before he waa killed. as far west as Calorads, Louls Lively, whose real name was snder the questioning of the veteran Nobody else knew it, The autopsy —- Louis Roberts, assaulted and mur- celective and wasn't dead sure of his hadn't disclosed it, Duncan had i8 afiss Anna Allison, who was In dered Matilda Russo, seven years old, i movements until jt came the turn of passports for South America when the charge of an orphans’ home out from and hid the body in his cellar at j Private Grover Landis Duncan County Detective placed him under ¢4oorestown, N. J., was asuaulted and Moorestown. The negro told the detec- Duncan was cocksure of his every arrest. Parker had, as usual, all the s wo negroes, The only tives that he had been at the time of pnd bint holding up automobiles at round and firm and lis forehead te St the horses back and sent the ovement, He remembe litue ts, but he made Duncan tell them marsauee DY ie aspenraste of tho the murder on a visit to his wife, sixty ei ie Po nt of thelr guns in the main high. When his hat is off it is hard Wipves to jail, Young Parker orga! geiails, His alibi was y | over again, made him trip dimself pegroes and tho uggle was a little miles away. Parker checked up on his ) Ph to determine where the forehead !#@d his party on a systematic basi® “That's my 4 1 UD by the questions he put.to him, and orphan, Bessie, four years old, but Ume and found that he had lied. He arker dashed into his home, stops and the head bogins, for the “N@ pretty soon horge thieves we? county detective finally the murderer Lroke down and pohody but Parker paid m tten- had his men go through every inch of That case, which occurred several €'abbed his gun and was in the ma- pate is clean, with a bump at the top, W&known in that part of Burlington tov much, c acd tlon to her. He had all the négroca the cellar with spears until the bury- Years ago, came near costing the © pe less than 4 minute, bidding as a plate just } from the County “ : 1) & dozen other wo that "I had the facts,’ sald the County tm the neighbo ood lined up before {ng place of the little tot was revealed. Mavaty: Detective:hie doh. ‘The evi; Sine vet to speed up, They caught dresser, At the buck near the neck # ert P. Budd, one of Burlington's his suspicions might arhed, Detectty “IL always have the facts per and phe shook her head in the Roberts was chased all over the coun- 4 Eht of the two men boarding the fringe of gray hair extending from Most brilliant attorneys, was then the he had Duncan fine printed and before I make an arrest. Suspicions pegative as each passed in review, (try and was finally caught and sent i Gence was apparentiy so plain that irolley car and sped after the ear: temple to templu hangs like a bit of Prosecutor of the county and insisted gave orders to watch his mull. He are all right, but 1 never let them in- "Detective Parker was told that the to the chair when he protested that Hamilton was ! ron made a jump from the run- clinging old lace \pon Ellis, who was only twenty-two. jcarned that shortly after the murder torfere with judgment and MY murdered young woman had a These are a fow of the cases which tpnocent even the Judge and the then 1" bhp | the ear platform, told becoming his county detective, and Duncan had gone away on u ten-day fiudings, [ never try to make 4 CA@ brother, a detective in London, and has brought the slmple-appearing Prosecuting Attorney turned fs0m (he can janet 0 stan and entering It _was the love for a fiddle that Hille Las been on the Job ever since rlough, to see his girl down Ih fea theory, I never use harsh meas: another a missionary In Asia, The County Detective Ellis Parker fame ip 4 im, But Bheriff W. W. Worrell re- a corner, told them to throw up they Ld fullis Parker Into | tha of the 4 imianes the Tennessee mountains. Varker ures in questioning a man accused. © latter hed given her a gold watch of the criminal circles of nearly every, : s hande andsseineit eee. thelr Hawkshaws, the Vidoeqs and the His old home town, now Camp Dix, went to Tennessee and asked the girl just keep on questioning him and tt foreign make. Parker immediately World centre, Of his personal en- tained his confidence in Bilis and told Be risked" them for their gherlock Holmes clar In his youth gave him one of the hardest murder Where the gun was that her eel- {him trip himself up. There's NO US cabled the particulars to Scotland counters be laughs and says that they him te go ahead. Parker took a trail i tha tk he was something of a musician and mysteries to unravel in his career art had given her. That was ® trying to bluff a man. If you haven't yarq and asked for the number of are all part of the life, He hopes to that led him to Philadelphia, to South the inside of ee Wew his Eun from he fiddted to his heart's content af- Om Sept. 9, 1921, Michael Greggor, ‘ance question, but the gil t Id Him got the facts be can laugh at YOU the case ang works. He had it in fétire with a pension in two more Daihialinnt tb wittaic ADA Haale to. Parker's fine A eons ca vet and ter the day's work on the farm, Then who was to be honorably discharged ‘iat she had received it and fut if you have a few facts you've forty-eight hours and sent the num- Years, but has no plans for the future, ‘ ohn athe i i blue bareelst cine o fos nto the some one stole the violin and young i about 4 month, was missed from |’arker traced the gun into | got him guessing, Keep him guessing pers atl over the country, The watch only the hope that he will be able te Chicago, from east side to west side. Ne Dblel, Like a flash of lightning jullie went out word thit ho was go- camp, He had been in the best o: and then to West Virginia. | always until you get him wus located in m pawnshop in Baiti- set 9 little rest and have alittle time He told Chief of Detectives Wood of jt upward Mi dined Wrist, forcing ing to find it If \t weren't returned. spirits when last seen and had con- aid as he suspected, it wa "L have never used the third degree, Mere and the Mew Jermey sleuth t© himself, his home and his family Chicago what he wanted and the Chief bullet went tearing through the root 22,f0und the vt and the thlvf, siderable money on him. Om Dec, & sui with which he hud be but 1 think there sre occasions when Went aown there and in a tow days He haw been offered big positions but Detectives Homer and Mason of the car. Parker pulled t Dent UR Ee: thier fod, Sone Lim te IE Acisier'e Rody Was found in A | DUSCAR'S sail shi he had it may be necess.'y. Courtesy 18 gor one of his fen. Little Ressie has turned them all down, esalgned me ; Y his own jail, Later his father's house was clump of bushes on the reservation | 0 Communication wit!) a fin iny strong card in examinations, an & : nt af Insurance companies would ike te fo him. Three days later Parker ar- SUD And pulled the trigger .Arst at robbed and the embiyo detective Went ond was identified by his keya and pint expertin Chicago. La:ker wrote bilicer of the law to be cour- SMrank {rom the sight of the mur. | ive him on thelr staft. He hep | rested the man for whom he bad been {iy men, but the gum Wow mic ncK, Out and located the thieves ; 4 Leary. His revolver was gone expert, asking him to return Dun # always to the public, even to Gerer Suds burying her face in (urned up not less than 100 stalen | hunting He banged hia Sould.te Pais pat There was a good ef horse Parker was put on the case and i's original letter, which an aecused. It gains the CoM- oo ied her, pointed a tiny finger at C'S brought into his county, But Th 1 Urderer stealing going around Wrights Capts, Killean and Fred Lang wero Ths letter asked whether finger fidence of them all. [f you haven't PANO Der F any as entxaa h@ Prefers to remuin to the last maa- rea men had seen this fellow In ove ad with his gun barrel, town in those 1 young Bile assumed from the anne nk ‘te Guaonar co ey eae ee , ee yd accused, His companion was picked rete eit Wille the Spe rears . 7a “4 rmy to ald hin . na s} e¢ got the confidence and the backing Of 4) few days later in the neighbor- his own domain, the County of She woods close to Ranier's house and A a panic was called to w as then In the murdered soldier's company hs after a murder had t mM: the public you are badly handicapped ston, which stretches slong halled him as Hamilton, whom they 0fee™ins Out of the cur the second Called « "pursuing part It was ® were 175 men and every one of thom 1 and described how one of his ‘They are test assets to a Ot t . river front from Camden to Moaw 4s well a0} did," said the de- scien in the outs june Parker's Party like the old Judy» Love? partive hud to be examined by the patient dea had been smashed aver the man who Is tying to detect crime — vi ton from the Delaware te { : ‘i , ump he af the early daye of tie Wee questioning county detective ne 1 with & gum and then shot twice Having the public w ou is ¢ Murphy waylaid Herman the AUlait}c Ocean, His salar ¢ hap. A little farther on, they waid, found that the cetective’s gua wass't a's dido'l do any lynching. They day that Greggor disappeared was the ugh the head the battle, . in the woods near Riverside 500 @ i 5 . 4 aad iv ore vee