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Show Rancher's Body Found in Well Discovery Climaxes Weird Mystery More Baffling Than Fiction. San Francisco, Calif. As a climax to one of the weirdest murder mysteries mys-teries tlint ever baffled fiction detectives de-tectives or flashed on the movie thriller thrill-er screen, the body of Frank Roderick, Roder-ick, forty-year-old prosperous rancher of Sun Mateo county, has been removed re-moved from the bottom of a well 20 feet deep on his ranch on the Alpine rond, one mile south of La Honda. As a result of the discovery of I'od-erlck's I'od-erlck's body, his crushed skull showing show-ing how his life bad been ended by A powerful blow from behind, the rancher's wife, Minnie Roderick, thirty-three, and the "hired hand" of the ranch, William Woodrlng, forty-four, were In Jull at Redwood, City. A "Red-Haired Gal." Although the Roderick ranch Is only a few mlnutes'by automobile from the heart of sophisticated San Francisco, and In the center of a vacation and summer home territory, the history of the disappearance of Roderick and the events preceding and following It are such as might be expected of the days of GO years ago when California was frontier land and life was held cboaply. Cattle rustling, In which a nine-year-old son of Roderick's helped him drive off steers from neighboring ranches jealousy of a wife over a "red-haired gal" glances of affection exchanged between the boss' wife and the cowboy from distant parts battle bat-tle to the death betrayal by confederates confed-erates In crime the astute sheriff who solves the mystery all the requirements re-quirements of the "western thriller" are present In copious quantity I Cattle Rustling Hinted. The story dates back eight months when Sheriff James J. McGrath went Into the Alpine country to investigate reports of "cattle rustling." There had been complaints from the Gallagher Galla-gher & ZInk ranch and the LIUicote ranch near the Roderick ranch that cows and steers bad mysteriously disappeared dis-appeared on dark nights. A dozen head were missing altogether. The sheriff -was unable to pin anything on anybody, but he closely questioned Roderick and Woodrlng at that time. The next chapter came May 20 last, when Mrs. Roderick came to visit District Dis-trict Attorney Franklin D. Swart at Redwood City. She said her husband had beaten her severely, had dressed up In his "store clothes," had put $2,S00 in his pockets, and had disappeared dis-appeared with a "red-headed gal." Swore Out Complaint. On Swart's advice she swore out a warrant for her husband on a battery bat-tery charge. But Sheriff McGrath, remembering re-membering his suspicions of a few months before, questioned Mrs. Roderick Rod-erick closely when she asked him to . Ber"e the warrant. McGrath finally elicited information from the wife which led him to visit the Mindlgo ranch, also In the Alpine district. Burled under the floor boards of a ranch outhouse he found many - steer hides unmistakable signs of cattle rustlers who had run off steers had butchered them, had sold the beef, and had hidden the evidence of the branded hides. Again the sheriff questioned Wood-ring Wood-ring Roderick of course was missing but again he was baffled. Sheriff McGrath continued to brood over the story. He was nonplused, and McGrath Is a man who llkos things open and above hoard. So be returned to the Roderick ranch and found young Filbert Roderick, nine-year-old son of the rancher, alone. He adroitly engaged the lad in conversation. conversa-tion. A few minutes later the sheriff had drawn from the boy the Information that he had accompanied his father "und another rancher" when they drove off a big roan steer from the Gallagher and ZInk ranch one dark night. Father Killed Steer. They had taken the steer to the Mindigo ranch, where the father had killed It with a .22 rifle, loft it to dry In the ranch house, and the next day had sold the beef. After his talk with the boy, McGrath Mc-Grath arrested Ernest Hildebrand. owner of a nearby ranch, and took him to Redwood City for questioning. Hildebrand was not charged, and was released after a few hours. But that afternoon the sheriff confided to Un-dersheriff Un-dersheriff Edward Farrell that he "had a tip" Roderick had been murdered mur-dered and his body buried in a well near his home. The two went to the Roderick ranch and found Woodrlng busy in the vicinity vicin-ity of the ranch house with a borrowed scraper. He had been plowing and scraping several acres of land near the house which was not used for agriculture, although grain in the fields, according to the sheriff, was in need of attention. The sheriff looked for the well. It was nowhere to be seen. All the land near the ranch house had been plowed and scraped, and showed no signs of a well ever having existed. But McGrath was determined to find the well. By searching through county records, he discovered that Roderick had purchased the ranch several years ago from George Steinberg, now a road superintendent with the county. He took Steinberg out to the ranch in his automobile and asked him where the well had been. Steinberg stood at a corner of the house, squinted a sight on alignment with a tnl! tree, and walked 100 yards from the house. "The well should be right here," he said. McGrath returned to the ranch, bringing with him Farrell, Deputy Clarence Wyckuff, Constable F. B. Grill, Eddy Chalmers and Charles Roberts. Armed with shovels, they attacked the spot were Steinberg said the well had been. At dusk they had dug down six feet, and there they found unmistakable unmistak-able evidence the earth bad been freshly disturbed. Unrusied pieces of iron, bits of automobile tires and tin cans showed that anything and everything every-thing had been used to fill In a hole. Find Man's Foot. They again attacked the job the next morning. Down und down they went. Chalmers and Roberts were at the bottom of the hole, while McGrath Mc-Grath and Farrel were at the top lifting out the earth. Suddenly came a shout from the bottom: ' "We've found a man's foot !" The two diggers were just twenty-six twenty-six feet in the earth. "Come up a minute," ordered McGrath. Mc-Grath. When the two men gladly enough had arrived at the surface McGrath went to the ranch house and placed Woodrlng and Mrs. Roderick under arrest. Then they returned to the well. It was 8 o'clock past dusk when the body had finally been freed from the soil and brought to the surface. It was that of Roderick. It was plain enough how he had come to his death. A heavy blow from a bludgeon had crushed his skull from the back. He wasn't dressed In his "store clothes," as his wife hud said. He was wearing his overalls and rough shirt and shoes. There, wasn't any $2,S00 In his pocket, and the "red headed gal" also remained a mystery. Questioned Long Hours. Sheriff McGrath took the body to Redwood City for a postmortem Investigation. In-vestigation. In another car came Woodrlng and Mrs. Roderick, guarded by the'guns of the deputies. In a third car rode Mr. and Mrs. F. E Anderson, Ander-son, neighbors of the Rodericks, who volunteered to take care, of little Filbert, Fil-bert, the boy rustler, and his six-year-old brother, Donald, until the children could be turned over to their grandfather, grand-father, John Fayall, Redwood City rancher, at whose home Roderick courted and won Minnie Fayall There was no charge placed against Mrs. Roderick and Woodrlng at the county jail. Deputy District Attorney Attor-ney Richard Bell and Edmund Scott questioned them into the small hours in the morning, but volunteered no Information as to what their Inquiries had disclosed. |