Show GHOUL ADMITS CRIMES Killed People Solely to Sell Their Bodies LEADER OF GANG CONFESSES x t Rufus Cantrel King of Murderers Mur-derers Former Soldier Was at One Timo In Service of United States and Stationed at Fort Douglas Indianapolis Aug 13olth a boldness unprecedented In criminal annals an-nals an organization of murderers and cutthroats has operated Indianapolis I for nearly three years unknown to the police and unmolested by the officers of the law To the fact of the existence of this organization or-ganization Is duo the mysterious disappearances disap-pearances that from time to time baffled the citys police officials and the members mem-bers of the detoctlvc department To the successful operations of the or ganisation can be charged nearly a score of known murders Yet even this number num-ber docs no cover the extent of the crimes that can be laid to the door of the leaders and mrmbers of The Sign of the Cross Such In fact was the organization or-ganization dubbed by those numbered among Its trusted members With their boldness bound no longer by restraints of caution or the dictations of prudence the organization even rented a house established ablished and operated a rendezvous where under the eyes of the police who patrolled the district night and day while even they stood within sound of a voice calling for protection murders were committed with a startling regularity regu-larity and the bodies of their vlctimo disposed of in a manner so new and novel that the methods almost challenged chal-lenged belief CANTRELIS CONFESSION The confession of Rufus Cantrell King of the Ghouls as made public throws some new v light on the operations of the gang Cantf ells confession has been supplemented by the narrative of other murders he and his associates have committed He declares he was implicated In the murder of Patrolman Watterson several years ago This was hIs first murder he says No clue hns been found lie declares that one of his accomplices was William Harris colored col-ored now living in Philadelphia He next tells of the murder of Walter Johnson John-son Cantrell says MURDERED FOR MONEY Johnson had 300 or 100 He was murdered for his money By previous arrangement he with William McElroy and Wlllllatn McElroy cousins and Garfield Buckner drove out to a clubhouse club-house I had preceded them and met them on the way Buckner engaged the attention of Johnson McElroy the elder struck him over the head with a rail knocked him down and hit him several times and killed him We robbed him and took his body to the Eclectic Medical Medi-cal college where his skeleton now Is The skull shows fractures PENNSYLVANIAN SLAIN The next murder was a man from Pennsylvania 1 believe Scranton This happened about two years ago His first name I believe was Claude The rest of his name I do not know Ire was about 23 years of age about five feet nine Inches tall and of clark complexion He had an expensive gold watch a bank check for some 5300 on the Englewood bank Chicago and had also f2S0 in cash He had also a picture of a woman In his pocket which had been taken In Brooklyn Brook-lyn I Introduced this man to Lucius Stout a white man living In Hamilton county After a few days this unknown man was by previous arrangement en I Iced by Stout to Beech Grove He was Jellied with a club The kllllnr was done jy Stout and Walter AVllllamB tho latter lat-ter n colors man WOMAN CHLOROFORMED On March hilt In tho year 1000 this same Lucius Stout and 1 were driving In a buggy When we met a woman coming Coward us She was bareheaded and wore a loose blue wrapper She tnllt dIn d-In a sort of foolish way didnt seem to have any home and at Stouts Invitation she got Into the buggy Stout then drove I I nc homo and took the woman to West Held the same evening This womans name was Selvage After she had been kept at the house In Wcstflold two or three weeks Stout chloroformed her at ny home in Indianapolis and we took her body to u college SOLD THE BODIES The next murder was that of a colored I col-ored man who was killed for the purpose pur-pose of blackmailing a doctor ot Indianapolis Indian-apolis This mans name was Jim I do not know his other name Jim was taken out In a buggy and struck In the stomach with a sharp Instrument used by undertakers The body wrs sold to Dr Thornton of Wostport Conn who was an undertaker underta-ker at that llmf In Indianapolis demonstrating demon-strating the embalming process and It was used by him In such demonstrations demonstra-tions All the above statements I have given voluntarily there are a number of other murders of which I have knowledge and which I shall detail when I am cfiered the opportunity SIGN OF THE CROSS Cantrells confession and the corroborative corrobo-rative evidence shows that the members of the ghoul organization were the members mem-bers of the Sign of the Cross Can trell was a loader The house rented and operated ns a rendezvous for the members of the Sign of the Cross Is a small frame affair close to the street and with an alley running In a convenient situation for the use of the members of the organization In the rear of the house Is a small yard enclosed by a high board fence Here also ithln the enclosure Is to be found tho exterior entrance to the cellar Down these deep slimy steps into this foul smelling hole 1C all the truth will ever bo known a dozen victims have gone to their slaughter Directly cross the alley way In a vacant va-cant lot which has since been enclosed by a high fence at 11 oclock one night a woman sat and coolly witnessed the murder of an Innocent victim who had for the time accepted the hospitality of I the members of the Sign of the Cross I BODIES IN CELLAR To this cellar also were conveyed the bodies of other murdered men and women wo-men who had been made away with by the organization From here a driver of a transfer wagon Illustrating with what boldness the gang operated conveyed con-veyed in broad daylight a barrel to a medical college which contained the body oC a man who only the night before had been beaten Into Insensibility by Cantrell and lrls owioclatcs and whose throat later hnd been cut from ear to ear Only a few squares away Is situated situ-ated the clubhouse where tho illgotten spoils were divided among the members of the organization In a small house abutting on the bank of the canal Cnntrclls mother sisters and hrothsrs reside Again within a stones throw of this location Is situated the saloon wherr many of the victims were found and Induced to accompany their murderers CONCEALED THE CORPSES In the cellar of this saloon there was stored at various times various bodies whose deaths had been consummated by the piano of thC Sign of tho Cross The cellar Is hot used extensively and It therefore afforded a comparatively safe hiding place lor the bodies that were consigned to its dark enclosures In this immediate vicinity also Is another an-other saloon facing the avenue whoso rear abutting upon an alley was the scene of at least one bold attempt on the part of Cantrell accompanied by a physician phy-sician to kidnap a girl and murder her to obtain the price her cadaver would brlng when placed In the dissecting room On California street and Indiana avenue is situated the building once occupied oc-cupied by the American Medical college It was in Its drtni basement where sunlight sun-light never creeps that Miss Carrie Sel cagc kidnapad from the Union State hospital was held a prisoner |