OCR Text |
Show FRIPLE MURDER 1 A LONEl. . - . RANCH NEAR " SANTA ROSA, CXt. Japanese Is Being Searched for as Murderer of Three Members of a FamilyBones of the Dead Found in Ash Piles-Sheriff Finds a Home Deserted . last. March they took possession oi the Starbuck ranch. Frequent quarrels between tbe Kendalls Ken-dalls and the owner of the land an known to have oeurrcd. Mrs. Star, buck frequently had gone into court seeking injunctions to pi event the sale of her livestock and had asseil-. cu, it Is said, her intention to oust the ttr.ants from the place. Regarding the missing t'apanesc, Mrs. Starburk has made a lengthy statement to District Attorney Lea tium her home in Oakland. She say.' that Yamagachi had secured permission permis-sion to go up on the ranch and cut lanbnrk. "About two weeks ago." she narrates, "the boy came to my home in Oakland and told me that Kendall bail attacked him. Ills facrt was all cut up a:id bruised, and bis e jos were blackened. He said he bad been beaten and shot by Thomas Kendall, who had tiled to drive him eft the place He said that Kendall's bullet struck a metal mirror in bis pocket nnd had been deflected, lie did not tell me whal he had done t Kendall, nor did he express a desire 1o get cen. He threatened to kill himself, however, and acted so strangely that I called up the chic I 01 police of Oakland and asked him to look after the boj When I returned re-turned to resume my talk with the Japanese, he had gone and 1 have not seen him since." District Attorney Lea is expected ti visit Oakland loday to have a long talk with Mrs. Starbuck and investigate investi-gate other circumstances of the case. Santa Rosa, Cal., August -1 L5y the . Apprehension oi a Japanese boy, Henry Hen-ry Yamagaehl. of whom a vigorous search Is being 'made, Sonoma county olficials hope to obtain the key to a gruesome triple murder enacted on a j lonely ranch near here, the elements of which parallel in certain respects tiie gruesome tragedies oi the Guu-ness Guu-ness farm In Indiana. The crime was revealed yesterday when tbe county authorities, investigating the mysterious disappearance, of a family.! of three, discovered the charred bones ! of Knoch Kendall, Mrs. Ura Kendall, his wife, and Thomas A.. Kendall, their son, in the yard of their canyon home ou tho Starbuck ranch, near u summer resort known as Crospers, just north of Santa Rosa. The ring- j or of suspicion, according to the au- I tiiojitles, is directed toward tbe nm.v iog Japanese as the perpetrator of the wholesale crime, Yamagachi oc rnpled a cabin on the ranch and is l.iiovn to have had a violent quarrel with Thymus Kendall, manager o! il.e place, and who is said to havt hi aten and shot at the bow Nursing his grievance against Kendall, Yam-t Yam-t pachl Is said to have acted like one demented. . The ranch on which the Kendall family was slain Is owned by Mrs. Margaret Starbuck. wife ot a prominent promin-ent Oakland architect, and w ho r -sides in that city. On Monday. July 2'., Yamagachi called at the Starbuck hime and told Mrs. Starbuck that he bud had a fight with the elder Kendall Ken-dall and his son. On the same day. a guest at the summer resort, accompanied accom-panied by two boys visited a cabin on the Starbuck ranch and entering by a window -came upon Yamagachi crawling out from under a couch willi an open knife In his hand The Japanese Immediately left the cabin but xas seen again on the lanch the next day for the last time,. A few days ago neighbors, noting that nothing had been seen ol the Kendalls for more than a week and believing that something was amiss, railed the attention of Cue authorities authori-ties to the matter. Yesterday. Sheriff J. K. Smith, accompanied by two court officials, visited the rlace. At the rar,ch house the investigators found everything In good order. Ou the dining room table diolies had letn set for a meal, but the food ha. I rot been touched. In the barn the tninily horse was tied In his staP, perihing of thirst and hunger. Pign : v. ere starving In a pen. I No light was shed on the mystery rntil the kitchen stove was opened. In the ashes of the grate fragments of I bones were found, revealing the lirst h'nt of foul play. It was seen that u ll?ht trail ot" cinders IrJ from the love through the door to the yard. Pollowing th is trail to a point soni" distance from the liouse, the searc h- ' ;ra came upon an ash pile which was found to contain a large mire bi-r of human bones and several blackened pieces o iue!rv among vhlch was a plain gold wedding r i : i tint bore the initials "T. A. K" tho.,.j or the young Kendall. Later a:i-ether a:i-ether ash pile was discovered that ccnecaled pieces of human skulls, a llr of gold spectacles and many barrel bones Lying on the gras.- l eorby was a breast pin that held miniature of Thom.v Kendall and which was identified by neighbors as 1 aving been constantly worn by Mrs. Kendall. A fearch for the instrument with hlcli the murders bad been committed, com-mitted, brought to light a heavy stone icvered with blood and which lay In :n adjoining garden under a fence. It is th belief of the authorities that ike crimes were actually commuted with knives or gunB and that th" : tune was subsequently used to dlv jr.tph the dying victims. Ami be-cj'v.se be-cj'v.se of the magnitude of the trag Mly. it Is the theory of District At t rney Clarence F. Lea that two or tos.sibly three men were implicated i;i the murders. Pnoch Kendall was sixty years old. bis" wife fifty-five and their son Thomas abant thirty-one. A year ago |