The Unknown Death

A Detective Story

Murder had been done in Philadelphia—or at least, it was supposed—and the papers were full of it. The journals were divided in opinion about the matter, some maintaining that it was a case of simple suicide, others inclining to the belief that there had been foul play, and still others arguing in favor of death from natural though unknown causes. Indeed, it would appear, at first sight, as if the latter were the true supposition, and the majority of superficial readers and thinkers who talked over the matter at home or in the streets the next day, seemed to have very little trouble in arriving at a like conclusion.

All that was known was this: An esteemed citizen—a man of wealth and high standing—had retired to rest the night before apparently in sound health and good spirits, and at two o’clock the following morning had been found dead in bed, without one visible mark of violence upon his person. His son, who had returned from a pleasure party at that hour, had entered his father’s chamber to deposit the front door key there, and had made the horrible discovery. This young man, a steady, reliable, and devout church-member and Sabbath-school teacher, had then aroused the house, and communicated the ill tidings to the terror-stricken family.

At the Coroner’s inquest I was present, and there the son, after repeating substantially what has been said above, called the attention of the jury to the following additional and important facts: That on entering the chamber he had found everything undisturbed and as usual, that the bed-clothes were not rumpled, and that the position of the deceased, as he lay, was so natural and easy that was not until he had noticed the absence of deep and regular breathing of the sleeper that he suspected for an instant, that… Read More