The Barre Daily Times

NO ACTION IS LIKELY
Police Inquiry on Croker Death is Finished.
NEGRO'S STORY BELIEVED
Richard Croker, Jr., Went from New York to Kansas and Got the Body of Herbert V. Croker, Who Died Suddenly on Train.

Kansas City, May 15.-The police have completed their investigation of the visit of Herbert V. Croker, son of Richard Croker, former New York Tammany leader, to an opium resort and to North End saloons preceding his death in an Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe train near Newton, Kan., Friday morning, and unless the relatives of young Croker request it, no further action on the case will be taken by the Kansas City police. Charles Wilson, negro porter at the Coates hotel, who accompanied Croker to the opium den and later put him on a train, was released from jail yesterday. Richard Croker, Jr., passed through Kansas City Sunday on the way to Newton to get the body of his brother, which will be taken at once to New York. Two detectives met Richard Croker, Jr., at the station and told him the particulars of his brother's visit to Kansas City. Croker asked if it could be possible that his brother had been murdered, and when told that the results of the investigation did not justify that belief, he intimated that he would take the body to New York at once and that no further investigation of the case would be requested. Croker said that his brother left New York with $100 and that his family did not know that he intended to stop at Kansas City. A man, said to be a brother of Lewis Nixon, was with Croker. Croker's companion said that Herbert Croker was a secretive man and did not take his parents nor his brothers into his confidence and that it was not surprising that he did not give out his identity in Kansas City. He said that Herbert Croker had frequently left home without telling his family of his intended destination and that he never exploited his identity anywhere. Chief of Police Hayes said: "I am convinced that young Croker met with no violence or foul play in Kansas City. We have run down every clew, and our search has always brought us back to the story told by the negro porter which I think is right. On this account I ordered the release of the porter. In my opinion Croker came to Kansas City Friday morning, probably on the Santa Fe train, which reaches here at 1:30. He went to the Coates house and thence to the races. He returned from the track in the evening, and was then taken in tow by the negro. We have investigated the story that Croker won $200 on the races and was robbed afterwards, and have been unable to verify it. I think the negro told the truth when he said that Croker had only a $20 bill. The case has now been dismissed, and nothing more will be done, unless the relatives ask for further investigation. This I think is not improbable. I think the young man's constitution was not strong enough to stand the form of dissipation that he indulged in here. After drinking hard, he smoked opium, which proved too much for his heart."