known to comment: “I keep young because I associate with the young.” The
Q servants said these young-men callers never behaved boisterously. All
were decorous and well dressed. [A small proportion of cultured
androgynes who live alone in their own homes entertain there adolescents
who bear the earmarks of trustworthy gentlemen. X’s murderer could have
been of no other type, but was in addition an extreme prude so far as
concerns homosexuality. The cultured enjoin extreme noiselessness so as
not to arouse suspicions of co-tenants of the same apartment house. The
uncultured commonly receive any adolescent at all in their homes because
having no fear of disgrace and blackmail. By “young men” the author of
the excerpt evidently means those from eighteen to twenty-five, the
age-group preferred, and almost exclusively cultivated, by androgynes.]
[Sidenote: _Androgyne Stamping Grounds._]
The Q servants further said that X frequently started alone on strolls,
many times, however, returning with a youthful companion, who would
spend an hour or two with the elderly host. [The favorite New York
localities for evening “strolls” of cultured androgynes for scraping
acquaintance with a strange Hercules or Adonis are, in cold weather, the
Broadway and the Fourteenth Street Rialtos and cafes; and in summer,
Madison Square, Union Square, the southerly quarter of Central Park (the
three park spaces most frequented at night by idle adolescents who would
be glad to pick up a few dollars), the Battery (because frequented by
common soldiers), and other localities frequented by uncommissioned
warriors, the ideal occupation, as I have already said, for a real man
in the eyes of androgynes. In the case of X, the Q men-servants probably
saw through everything. The servant class often respect a cultured
moneyed androgyne who treats them well, and they act only in a
protecting capacity.]
Of woman visitors, there could be recalled but one—whitehaired, a few
years older than X, said to be an aunt.
Investigators were astonished by the nicety, the fond care, with which X
had done his own housekeeping. Floors, rugs, and every article were
flawless of dust. In spick and span appearance, thoughtful and orderly
arrangement of utensils, neatness of china closets, refrigerator and
provision store-room, a feature of which latter were shelves lined with
jars of homemade preserves labelled in handwriting, the [Sidenote: _Bent
for Woman’s Toil._] bachelor’s kitchen was fit to excite a housewife’s
envy. [Androgynes take naturally to woman’s tasks.]
DISCOVERY OF THE MURDER
It was not discovered until many hours after commission. At noon of
[date omitted by author of THE FEMALE-IMPERSONATORS] the Q janitor saw a
light shining out of a transom of X’s. He was immediately convinced such
a methodical man would not have gone away leaving the light turned on.
He tried X’s entrance and found it unlocked. He went to the room where
the light was burning. Stretched on the floor beside a divan, with a
couch pillow resting on the face, was X. A few feet away was the sabre
with which he had been murdered.
The divan covers were half ripped off where the falling man had clutched
them as he was repeatedly felled—repeatedly, for it was evident X had
fought hard for his life against the sabre-armed assassin. The sabre had
been ripped off the wall of the hall-way of the apartment. The retaining
wires were strong and the hand must have been strong that snapped them.
[Androgynes cultivate only the best physically developed.]
The deduction was made that the assassin had not entered X’s home with
the intent to murder. He was pictured as having, in all probability,
left his host in the “den” and started down the hall to make his exit
from the flat when the resolution to attack and kill—a resolution which
the weapons on the wall may have suggested—came suddenly upon him.
Ripping the weapon from the wall, he is pictured as having dashed back
to the “den” and surprised X with a fury of murderous [Sidenote:
_Prudery Gone Insane._] attack. [X probably entertained at his home for
the first time that night his well dressed and apparently trustworthy
assassin. Only when the two adjourned to the “den” did X probably
disclose his desire, so nauseating to the unsophisticated and those
ignorant of abnormal psychology. Doubtless a minute after the
disclosure, the prude left X’s side in insane disgust, and on passing
through the hall entertained his first thought to do his “duty by
society and put this monster where he could corrupt no more young
men”—an absolutely unfounded way of looking at the matter. I have myself
scraped acquaintance with a youthful Hercules, who would lead me on
hypocritically, and when he got me where there could be no witnesses,
has half-murdered me because of disgust at androgynism. My adventure
with Harvey Green is an example.]
Physical examination disclosed that despite his fifty-six years, X
possessed the preservation of a man of thirty-five. [Perennial youth is
an earmark of ultra-androgynism.]
The autopsy showed that every character of blow had been inflicted—deep
stab wounds, slashes, and fracturing strokes on the skull either with
the broad side or dull back of the sabre. The coat of X, who was fully
clothed when killed, had been slashed to tatters. [The assassin wished
not merely to kill, but to hack X to pieces because of his loathing of
androgynism. I myself have not alone been half-murdered, but mutilation
has been practiced for its own sake. See page 132 of my AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
AN ANDROGYNE.]
[Sidenote: _Murdered by a Guest._]
A MIDNIGHT CALLER
X’s condition of being fully clothed proves of course that he had not
yet retired. [It also indicates that his assassin had repulsed his
amorous advances immediately after the pair entered the “den.” On such
occasions, androgynes usually undress.] Further evidence was that his
web system of alarms had not been set. It was his invariable custom, on
retiring or when he went out, to do this. There was no sign of forcible
entrance of the ground-floor apartment. Therefore X is believed to have
freely admitted the man who was to murder him—probably such a chance
acquaintance as he appears frequently to have made in his saunterings
through the city’s streets and visits to its resorts.
The examination of medical experts resulted in the hour of the crime
being placed between nine and eleven of the evening previous.
MADE NO OUTCRY
It being evident that X had survived the first attack at least for a few
minutes before he finally succumbed under the raining blows of the
sabre, the police were puzzled to understand why, with his life at
stake, the man did not make an outcry. There was only a single wall
separating the scene of combat from the public lobby where were
stationed throughout the night a telephone operator and an elevator
attendant. Tests made showed that a shout of medium volume from the
“den” could be distinctly heard in the lobby. The attendants were
positive they had heard no calls for help.
[Sidenote: _Death Preferred to Disclosure._]
One of the puzzles, therefore, was to determine the character of X’s
murderous guest and the circumstances of his visit. Had X reason so
grave for concealment of the presence of his slayer as to prevent him
from calling for aid even with death immediately upon him? [X’s
consciousness of being a sexual eccentric would likely be an inhibition
to his alarming those who lived in the same house. He probably did not
suspect that the servants saw through everything. Between death and the
disclosure to his co-tenants that he was a sexual eccentric, he probably
chose the former.] None of the wounds was in his throat. The blow that
fractured his skull must have been among the last as indicated by the
evidence that X had fought his slayer long and hard.
MOTIVE NOT CLEAR
A diamond ring, whose value must have been close to $1,000, habitually
worn, together with X’s gold watch and chain, were taken. Very little
money was found in his clothing, whereas it was known he usually carried
large sums. But there were at hand heavy solid silver articles, and gold
ornaments, and valuable jewelry in a frail desk—none of which had been
taken. Only X’s body had been stripped. The police were convinced that
the robbery was committed to conceal another deeper motive, as suggested
by the savage maltreatment of X’s body.
Whatever the motive, the murderer entered the apartment unseen that
night and departed unseen. The police made haste to interview all
persons whom they could trace as having been associated with X. There
was a young sailor whom X had lately befriended [Sidenote: _A Secret
Guest._] and who had been his guest for several days. This youth was
traced to his ship and his presence aboard the night of the murder
established.
One clue was a bit of cardboard on which was scribbled, in X’s
handwriting, the latter’s address. It looked as if made hastily for the
guidance of the stranger guest to X’s apartment. [And in the apartment
thrown away as being no longer of use.]
No slightest clue to the identity of the slayer was uncovered.
* * * * *
THE MURDER OF Y
On the night of [date omitted by author of THE FEMALE-IMPERSONATORS]
just twenty-nine days after the murder of X, Y was slain in his home
nearby. The two murders instantly linked. For the two crimes presented
an almost perfect parallel. The scene was the same—an elaborately
furnished “den.” As with X, Y’s murderer had been his guest. A secret
guest—in that nobody saw him enter Y’s residence, no sound betrayed him
in the act of killing, and he managed to leave the “den” and Y’s house
unobserved.
Of astonishingly the same stamp were X and Y. Both were elderly
bachelors and art connoisseurs. [The latter an earmark of cultured
androgynism.] Both had specialized in the collection of ancient and
curious weapons. Both were addicted to an extravagant display of jewelry
on their persons. [Androgynes are loud dressers.] Both lived in dread of
attack in their homes and had made elaborate preparations against the
possibility. Inspection of the lives of both found them oddly empty of
attachment to or [Sidenote: _Loathing of Androgynes a Murder Motive._]
association with women. Both had a disposition for the society of much
younger men, and had many such acquaintances.
Living in the same neighborhood, frequenting the same hotels and
restaurants, visiting the same art galleries and antique shops as they
were tireless in doing, it was rather to be expected that they were
found to have been close friends.
The indicated motive for both murders was robbery but in both cases only
the valuables used in personal adornment were stolen, while other
jewels, and silver and gold objects of art and service, plainly in
sight, were ignored. [Robbery being only a blind, loathing of sexual
eccentricity being the true motive.]
In only two particulars did the crimes differ: X was hacked to death; Y
was strangled by the bare hands of his assailant. The marks of
relentless fingers were deeply imbedded in the victim’s neck. The other
difference was that in Y’s case, there had been no struggle. He had had
no chance to put up a fight for his life. He had been taken by surprise
and the strangler’s grip been clamped on his throat before he could make
outcry.
Y was fifty-nine years old, and a native of rural Illinois. He had
prospered as owner of a fashionable ladies’ dress-making concern in New
York. But he had retired and at the time he was murdered was renting an
ex-mansion of a millionaire, where he conducted a boarding house of the
highest class. There were twenty lodgers, but scores of additional
persons living in the aristocratic neighborhood took their meals at Y’s.
He frequently organized card parties and dances for his guests, and to
these were always invited freely [Sidenote: _Murderer Mandatory of
Society!_] young men in war service on leave in New York. [Warriors are
androgynes’ special heroes. A common soldiers’ and sailors’ club was
situated next door, where Y apparently made many acquaintances.]
Y’s body was found at seven A. M. [date here omitted] by George, one of
Y’s eleven negro servants. [Y conducted his establishment on the plan of
a multimillionaire’s residence.] It was George’s daily duty to go to his
employer’s room on the first floor, directly over the kitchen, awaken
him at seven, and serve him breakfast in bed. On that morning, George,
receiving no reply to his knock, pushed the door open and entered the
elaborately furnished “den” and bedroom.
STRANGLED TO DEATH
The bed was in order, and the body of Y on the floor nearby was clad
only in pajamas. [Apparently the assassin had pretended he was going to
retire with Y. Therefore Y got into his night clothes, as also probably
the assassin. But just before the bed covers would have been turned down
the latter fulfilled his mandate from society by “ridding New York of
the monster!”] An autopsy showed that indubitably Y had been strangled
to death. The deep, purple marks on his throat were valueless as
furnishing finger-print evidence, but they did stamp the murderer’s
hands as large and very strong. [Androgynes cultivate only the best
physically developed.] Y had been suddenly attacked by the strangler and
immediately choked into helplessness, for nothing in the room had been
disturbed. He had been borne down to death on the very spot where
seized.
[Sidenote: _A Trusted Murderer._]
Y’s “den” was the scene of many late-hour parties, in which young men
figured exclusively as guests. Frequently also he returned very late
with a single companion. His late-hour guests were never boisterous and
never gave cause for complaint by Y’s refined lodgers.
As in the case of X’s apartment, Y’s house gave no evidence of a
forcible entry. Physicians determined that Y’s death had occurred at
eleven the night before the body was discovered. At that hour the outer
doors of the house were always locked. Many of the lodgers and some of
the negro servants had not yet retired, and must have heard, it would
seem, a ringing of the door-bell. None did.
PROBABLY AN EXPECTED GUEST
The conjecture was consequently made that Y had appointed a late meeting
with his murderous guest and given him a key to his house that he might
enter quietly. Of fully twenty-five persons in the house at the time,
not one heard the slightest sound of distress or noise of any kind from
the “den” at the hour of the murder.
Even more futile than in the case of X were the efforts of the
investigators to round up the many young men [evidently bachelors from
eighteen to twenty-five] whose acquaintance Y was constantly making.
Three diamond rings of a value of $2,000 had been stripped from the dead
man’s fingers, and his gold watch and chain were taken. But as at X’s
assassination, many articles of jewelry and of gold and silver easily
accessible were not touched.
[Sidenote: _A Conscientious Murderer._]
Alike in mystery, the cases of both X and Y manifest the strong
likelihood that the same man effected both murders, with a suggestion of
a deeper motive than robbery, of a desire to do violence aroused to
frenzy, judging by the stark ferocity with which both crimes were
committed.
[The motive of course was to rid New York of androgynes; at least,
extensively promiscuous ones. It is quite likely the same prude was
guilty of both murders. Perhaps at first the assassin had known merely
through hearsay that both X and Y were sexual eccentrics. But he was
reasonable and merciful enough not to put them out of the way until he
possessed ocular evidence. (I have myself associated with torturers who
would act only on such.) For X’s and Y’s murderer was solemnly and
conscientiously acting as the mandatory of society.]
[From the murder of X he had learned that an androgyne might put up
resistance. Therefore in the case of his second quarry, Y, he must adopt
a safer, more sudden, and an absolutely noiseless means of execution. In
sabre-slaughtering, there was too much risk of the victim calling for
help. Moreover, X lived all by himself, whereas Y’s residence was alive
with people. Androgynes like to be treated by their virile associates as
if women, and the ultra-virile always humor that liking. The assassin
probably started in with a pretended “love” embrace, and, before Y could
realize, turned it into a strangling death-grip.]
[Sidenote: _X and Y Offenceless._]
[I will admit that X and Y were extensively promiscuous. But they could
not have been particularly intemperate because my own experience proved
that excessive venery soon wrecks the health of an androgyne. As both
were close to sixty, their lives had doubtless been temperate. They had
probably indulged (the more humiliating role in fellatio) not more than
once a week throughout their adulthood. But although they apparently
sought intimacy with almost every adolescent Adonis or Hercules (only
one out of every twenty adolescents could qualify under either of these
types) whose acquaintance they made, they harmed these youthful rakes
not in the least; nor did they, throughout their lives, bring detriment
to any one else since all androgynes possess the inoffensive psyche of
women. For proof of the harmlessness to an adolescent of an androgyne
intimate, I refer to my AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN ANDROGYNE, pages 88, 89, and
194.]
[Far from the adolescent suffering harm, he is loaded with material
benefits by the well-to-do androgyne who worships him. He is
pre-eminently a “lucky dog.”]
[X and Y were entirely irresponsible for being androgynes and sexual
eccentrics. Absolutely no harm came to any individual or to society
collectively through their condition or instinctive functioning. They
did not deserve that any one interfere with their life, liberty, and
pursuit of happiness.]
[Sidenote: _Newspaper Accounts of Murders._]
II. Z Mystery Baffles Inquiry at Every Angle.
(Much condensed, and slightly edited for diction, by author of THE
FEMALE-IMPERSONATORS, from article in a New York daily.)
NO PROOF OF SUICIDE AND NO MOTIVE FOR MURDER FOUND IN CASE OF YOUTH
STRANGLED ABOARD HIS OWN POWER YACHT—FRIENDS INSIST DEATH WAS AN
ASSASSIN’S WORK—DRESSING OF THE BODY IN WOMAN’S CLOTHING FURNISHES
NO CLUES TO FAMILY OR POLICE—FULL DETAILS FOR STUDENTS OF CRIME TO
STUDY
After two weeks of many-sided investigation, the death of Z remains as
great a mystery as on the evening of [date omitted by author of THE
FEMALE-IMPERSONATORS] when his mother discovered him strangled aboard
his power yacht in New York Harbor dressed in woman’s apparel.
“No reason for suicide and no motive for murder—no proof of suicide, no
positive evidence of murder.” Such is the conclusion reached by the
police, private investigators employed by Z’s family, and by newspaper
reporters who have worked on the baffling case unique for its mass of
contradictory theories and circumstances.
[Sidenote: _A Psychopathic Individuality._] [And to the present writer,
himself an androgyne and instinctive cross-dresser, the strongest of
reasons for suicide and the strongest of motives for murder! Androgynes,
because so terribly misjudged by their associates, are the most
melancholy and prone to suicide of any class of mankind. Moreover, they
are often murdered on the strong motive of intense loathing felt by
prudes ignorant of abnormal psychology, in whose eyes the androgyne is a
“sodomite,” with all the terrible, though false, connotation of that
term. Such prudes believe themselves mandatories of society to rid the
world of the “monster.” The present writer did some detective work in
this case “on his own hook.” He ascertained that in the circle of those
who knew Z by sight but were not personal friends, he had the reputation
of being a fellator. I interviewed several of this circle, but did not
dare thrust myself into that of Z’s close friends.]
The view of the police generally is that the death was clearly suicide.
But as to how the suicide was accomplished, police officers hold
theories no two of which agree.
FAMILY SURE Z WAS MURDERED
Z’s family, his closest chum, and his friends generally, maintained from
the first, and still believe, that Z was murdered aboard the yacht by an
assassin who secreted himself in one of the cabins and afterwards
escaped in a fashion equally mysterious.
The fact that young Z wore woman’s clothing is to the police the
strongest evidence of suicide and supplies to them evidence of a
psychopathic individuality. [That fact is to myself the strongest
evidence of murder since I have repeatedly witnessed the intense
revulsion of prudish bigots at any cross-sex phenomenon, and have been
myself half-murdered solely on this incentive.]
[Sidenote: _Families Ignorant of Bisexual Members._]
Opposed to this is the most positive assertion from Z’s family and
friends: (1) That he was a normal boy in every respect. [In nearly every
case of a cultured androgyne in the past, his family have never
suspected anything because of the veil of silence that the deluded
public has insisted be thrown over the phenomenon of androgynism and the
consequent absolute ignorance of the _truth_ about this phenomenon on
the part of the entire Overworld excepting a handful of sexologists.
Just to throw their associates off the scent, some cultured androgynes
purposely do some courting of females, and have even contracted a
marriage (of course, Platonic) as mentioned by Phyllis in the last
chapter of PART FIVE. Moreover, some androgynes are psychic
hermaphrodites and capable of sincerity in courting a girl, while at the
same time Nature insists on occasional female-impersonation sprees. Z
might have been a psychic hermaphrodite.]
(2) That he had never shown any suicidal tendencies. [Readers of my
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN ANDROGYNE know that I probably showed more suicidal
tendencies than almost any one else who has failed to carry them out;
yet I always hid them absolutely from my family and every-day
associates. Androgynes, because they do not want their friends to become
aware of the cause of their melancholia (fearing it would alienate them,
as at present no one can forgive cross-sexism in an intimate) habitually
suffer in silence and seclusion the most intense mental torture.]
[Sidenote: _Many Female-Impersonation Explosions._]
(3) That no kind of woman's wear was ever known to be in his possession.
[For years together I have myself kept woman’s wear under lock and key
and occasionally put it on, but none of my every-day associates ever
discovered these facts. Cultured androgynes always conceal such
practices because their every-day bigoted circles would make them
pariahs.]
And as yet nobody has been able to find where Z got the feminine
apparel. [It was later discovered he had bought it of a ladies’
outfitter.] Nearly every article found on him was soiled and showed
unmistakable signs of wear. [He had probably worn the articles on scores
of female-impersonation sprees. Cultured androgynes never let their
families get an inkling of these psychic explosions.]
Z was twenty-one. The boy received a common-school education, but left
high-school in the second year to work in the large manufacturing
establishment of his father. He had a strong bent for mechanics. He took
care of the family’s three automobiles, as well as a motor-cycle. Three
years ago his father gave him a motor-yacht, which he himself took care
of.
During the World War, Z enlisted as mechanician in the navy, but was
assigned to shore duty near New York throughout the war.[48] [There
exist all degrees of psychic effemination in androgynes. I estimate my
own proportions as woman, 80 per cent; man, 20. Evidently Z was around
60, woman and 40, man, judging by his willingness to take a fire-arm
into his hands, a thing which I would never do, even as a child
shrinking from a cap-pistol. X and Y likewise were less extreme
effeminates than myself. They would put up a resistance if attacked,
whereas I depended for escape merely on entreaty or flight (Nature gave
me [Sidenote: _Androgyne Expedients._] the legs of a gazelle); or if
they failed me, I pretended loss of consciousness after the first
terrific blow. Through this complete passivity, I came out far better
than if I had shown fight, and probably saved myself, on several
occasions, from being one hundred per cent murdered.]