The Bryan Daily Eagle

DOES PIKE STILL LIVE?

Another Chapter to the Trunk Mystery at Salt Lake City.

PIKE'S SUPPOSED LETTER.

It Is Written to a Newspaper at His Old Home—Pike's Relatives Believe the Affair a Fake—Murder of Frenchman Mixed In It.

Chicago, April 16—Oliver Pike, the supposed victim of the Salt Lake, Utah, trunk mystery, has turned up. He has written to his mother and friends at Fayette, O., where his body was supposed to be reposing in a grave in the Fayette cemetery. To the Fayette Record he has written a letter in which he says:

"I wish to inform my friends through your paper that I am living, notwithstanding the contrary reports. When I wrote home a short time since I found some trouble in proving that I was myself, for a strange combination of circumstances seemed to prove that I was dead. I lived in Fresno, Cal., two years; in Hanford two years and the past year in Los Angeles and Redlands.

"Since leaving Puget Sound I have lived under an assumed name, and anyone wishing to inquire will learn nothing discreditable by writing to the places I have mentioned and asking for Harry Price, by which name I am known. Of the cause which led me to take the course I did, will say nothing, for I do not think I could do it satisfactorily

"I am a laundryman by occupation which business I have followed for nearly five years."

The letters to the Ohio newspaper and his mother and friends are taken as authentic and they no longer doubt his identity. As explained in Pike's letter, he had some difficulty in establishing the fact of his existence to his relatives, as they had identified his body, they thought beyond the shadow of a doubt

Pike's reappearance opens up the entire case again and makes it a greater mystery than before

On March 23 of last year Phillip Gries and Charles Hass of Austin purchased a large box at auction, from auctioneers who were selling a large quantity of unclaimed freight for the Chicago and Northwestern road Two days after the box was opened at Austin and found to contain a medium-sized green trunk, bound with iron strips The space between the trunk and the sides of the box was packed with sawdust. Several layers of white oil cloth were wrapped around the trunk Within the trunk was a zinc box, the cover soldered tight. This box was also wrapped in oil cloth Within the inner box was found the decomposed body of a man. It had been bound with a light rope, so as to fit compactly in the box and some chemicals had been placed around it to destroy the flesh

The box was shipped from Salt Lake, Utah, on the morning of February 8, 1893 It was left at the freight office of the Union Pacific at that place the day before by a man giving his name as G. M. Morgan and was billed to G. M. Morgan, 166 Jefferson street, Chicago. The freight was prepaid and the shipper took a train ostensibly for this city the same day. It was shipped as household goods and weighed 640 pounds. The box arrived in Chicago Feb. 16 and remained in the Chicago and Northwestern freight depot until July 28, 1893. It was unclaimed and notices sent to the address on the box elicited no reply. On July 28 it was delivered to the warehouse belonging to the auctioneers, where it remained for nearly three years. On Feb. 9 it was decided to sell the box at auction to get back the freight and storage charges. A notice was then sent to the consignee at Salt Lake that he would be given until Feb. 25 to pay the charges and redeem it. No reply being received, the box was sold and the discovery of the body followed

An examination of the body disclosed the fact that the skull had been fractured in two places, plainly indicating a murder. The blows were supposed to have been struck with a hatchet.

Two clues were followed by the police Henry Devere and Bas Marcel two Frenchmen living here told a story of the disappearance of a friend of theirs named Joanes Prosper Chaseal at Salt Lake during February of 1893 No trace of him has ever been found. Chaseal was a native of Lyons, France, and was well to do The two identified the body as that of their friend and strongly maintained that everything pointed to the correctness of their suspicions that he had been murdered for his jewels. He always wore a collection of great value. The second theory was that the body was that of Oliver Pike, and that he had been murdered in Seattle, Wash His relatives identified the body and had it taken to Fayette for burial He disappeared from Seattle July 3, 1892, and was never heard of until a few days ago, when he wrote to his relatives. It was thought that Pike had been murdered for some damaging knowledge he possessed concerning the operations of an insane asylum at Steilacoom, Wash. An investigation was made but no definite proof was established that Pike had been done away with by the suspected persons at the Steilacoom asylum, and the matter was dropped

Mrs. A. T. Mosher and C. G. Gorlott cousins of Pike, were seen last night in Ravenswood. They have been in communication with the missing man's mother and stated that she believes her son was still alive and that a mistake had been made in the identification of the body found in the trunk at Austin. Presents had been received by Pike's sister purporting to come from him and he had also sent a photograph Still the strange actions of the missing man have made many of his relatives doubt whether he is really still alive. They attribute the report that he is at Redlands and the writing of the letters to the men who are interested in the money that the missing Frenchman left on deposit in the Salt Lake City bank.