While the Stanfordville countryside slept fitfully in barricaded homes last night, police looked outside Dutchess County for slayer who sometime Wednesday evening, wiped out the simple farm family of James Husted Germond, father, mother, son and daughter.  Facing Dutchess County's most brutal crime, authorities feared that the unidentified foreigner who fled in a hired auto from Stanfordville the same evening is the man who cut down the four persons in an unexplained murderous frenzy and that he is now many miles from the scene of his crime after boarding a train at the New York Central Railroad station in this city.

Police will work on the theory this morning and if the stranger is found he will be charged with slaying JAMES HUSTED GERMOND, 47, farmer, his wife, MABEL GREGORY GERMOND, 47, their daughter, BERNICE, 18, an Eastman College student, and son, RAYMOND, 10.

The four were slain and brutally slashed, probably by a butcher knife in the hands of a man - whether a maniac or a man whose cold sanity enabled him to execute to perfection the most gruesome crime Dutchess County has ever known, authorities last night were uncertain.

The most definite lead in the task of apprehending the killer revolved about the mysterious stranger, now partially identified as "Florentine Chase"

"Chase" described as a foreigner between 20 and 30 was placed along the highway at various points from the scene of the murder to Clinton Corners, by witnesses interviewed by Sheriff ROCKEFELLER, Under Sheriff CLOSE, Deputy Sheriff HICKS and Sergeant KORMONDY of the State Police.

"Chase" made his first definite appearance in the vicinity before 8 o'clock Wednesday night within two hours of the brutal killings, when he entered the general store of OAKLEIGH ROBINSON at Clinton Corners.

 
He was said to be wearing a well made blue overcoat, tan shoes and a light hat.  He told Mr. ROBINSON that he was an employee of BORDEN'S CREAMERY at Stanfordville and had received a telegram from his family at Hudson that his mother was dying and that he had to get to her.

He spoke poor English.  He purchased a soda, paying for it with a $1 bill, and made repeated inquiries while drinking it how he could get to Poughkeepsie, how far it was and whether or not any buses ran at that time of night.

He paced nervously in and out of the store after drinking the soda, apparently in great mental distress.  Finally, Mr. ROBINSON told him he could get EDWARD WING of Clinton Corners to bring him to Poughkeepsie.  ROBINSON called WING and explained the situation to him.

Not knowing any crime had been committed, WING, acting on a suspicion, called BORDEN'S and found that they had no such employee.  Nevertheless, he agreed to take "Chase" to Poughkeepsie for $5 and brought FLOYD YOUNGHANS of Clinton Corners along as a companion.

On the way "Chase" identified himself by that name, as near as his companions could understand them.  He professed acquaintainship with some families in the neighborhood and said that at one time he worked for NARDONE-CIFERRI, gravel contractor, near Millbrook.  He said also that he knew another family and pointed out the house as they passed it.

But both YOUNGHANS and WING had strong suspicious that "Chase" was not all he professed to be, and at one time YOUNGHANS became so alarmed at the actions of their passenger that he reached down for the crankhandle in the back of the car and gripped it tightly all the way in, fearing an attack.

They finally reached Poughkeepsie and deposited their passenger at the New York Central station glad to be rid of him.

From there on the trail of "Chase" is cold.

While the disappearance of $100 from GERMOND's inside pocket and the rifling of pocketbooks and bureau drawers in the house gave an obvious motive of robbery, District Attorney SCHWARTZ, Coroner ROBERTS, and sheriff's attaches were loathe to accept it without reserve.

Instead they scrutinized every lead, endeavoring to fix the murders on a man acquainted with the daughter, probably one who had been repulsed by her.

 
This theory found plenty of foundation.  It developed that while the Mid-County highway was in the process of construction a number of laborers built shacks near the GERMOND farm which is owned by Lieutenant THOMAS WHALEN of the city.  Authorities were told yesterday that about two years ago one of the laborers, a Spaniard insulted the GERMOND girl and as a result was discharged when the GERMOND family complained to the construction company.

It is understood that this laborer threatened at the time "to get" the family.  He was being sought as a possible suspect because he fits in with one theory held by authorities that the murderer was known to the family and wiped out all it members to protect himself from identification later.

Two suspects were questioned yesterday by Sergeant KORMONDY, Under Sheriff CLOSE and Deputy HICKS but were not held.

They were STEVE LAKE, a Hungarian laborer and farm hand, who lives with the ALEX HOLLIS family in Stanfordville.

An immediate search for him was instituted at noon time yesterday when it was found he fitted the description of the man known to have left Clinton Corners soon after the Killings.

The search for him was given added impetus when Dr. H. A. RICHARDSON of Stanfordville, one of the first to reach the scene of the murders, asserted that he had seen LAKE walking on the highway near the GERMOND home soon after the murders.

His house was searched for bloody garments or any other clues but none was found.  But LAKE lied repeatedly to the investigators and appeared at one time that he was definitely covering something.

When his vigorous denials to being in the vicinity of the GERMOND house on the night of the murders were transmitted to Dr. RICHARDSON, the physician, according to Under Sheriff CLOSE, said the he made a mistake, that it had been Thanksgiving morning when he had seen LAKE on the road near the house.

LAKE finally admitted this, saying that he had walked down the road past the house Thanksgiving morning.

Another suspect questioned was FRED WHALEY, a farm hand of Stanfordville, who was seen near the home that night.  However, he convinced authorities that he had merely passed the house on the way to the gasoline station.

 
An escaped inmate of MATTEAWAN INSANE ASYLUM at Beacon, WILLIAM NELSON, who got away a week ago was turned to later in the day as a possibility.  Dr. MAC NEIL, acting superintendent, declared last night that NELSON, who was committed from New York, had not been found.
"He was committed for robbery" the acting superintendent said.  "I don't believe he is of vicious enough character to do a thing like that.  I don't believe he had any connection with the case."

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A ten year old "buddy" of RAYMOND GERMOND was probably the most affected by the scene of the GERMOND murder yesterday.

He was picked out by R. P. VAN VLACK photographer, as he sat near the barn crying.

"What is the matter, sonny?" queried VAN VLACK.

"I knew RAY," sobbed the boy.  "I played with him."

He wept bitterly by the barn as the crowd milled about the barnyard.

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After a day of the hardest sort of work on the GERMOND murders, Sheriff VERNARD J. ROCKEFELLER appealed last night to the people of Dutchess County for any information they might possess to solve the mystery.

With no survivors of the ill-fated family to assist, and the crime 40 hours old when the investigation started, the authorities found themselves last night facing a stone wall.  Any man or woman who can offer any clue, however slight, is requested to get in touch with the sheriff's office.

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Dutchess County will be asked to offer a suitable reward for the GERMOND family slayers if he is still free by Tuesday.

 
District Attorney SCHWARTZ and Sheriff ROCKEFELLER conferred last night and announced that they would ask the board of supervisors to appropriate a suitable sum for reward when they meet on Tuesday if the killer is still at large.

"Dutchess County wants this man brought to justice" said Sheriff ROCKEFELLER.  "Every incentive must be offered for his arrest."

Every assistance at the command of the grange organization in Dutchess County toward the detection and prosecution of the killer was pledged last night by FRED P. PULLING of Arthursburg, master of the Dutchess County Pomona Grange.

When called by THE EAGLE NEWS last night for a statement Mr. PULLING was shocked to hear about the fate of the family.  "I knew the GERMOND family," he said, "and this is certainly a shock to me.  This is the first I heard about it.  All I can say until I have time to collect my thoughts is that the grange will do all in its power to aid in the prosecution of the murderer."

Mr. PULLING was asked whether the grange would post a reward but was unable to say whether that would be done.
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POUGHKEEPSIE EAGLE NEWS
Wednesday, December 3, 1930

GERMOND FARM TO BE DESERTED
A Cheerful Home a Week Ago, It is Now Place
Of Mystery and Dread to Countryside
By Charles G. Murray

The homely Germond farm house on the Salt Point Turnpike that carefully guards its murder secret, a secret so angrily sought by scores of state and county police, may hide forever the tragedy of suffering and horror enacted in the kitchen and barnyard on Thanksgiving eve.  It may become Stanfordville’s house of mystery – a haunted house.

When police of the county solve the mystery of the gruesome killings or place the case in the limbo of unsolved mysteries, the windows which once glowed with the light of home and shelter, will be boarded up against the gaze of the curious public.

Lieutenant Thomas Whalen of this city whose memories of the now forbidding date back to 1898 when the farm first passed into the possession of the family, said yesterday that he would barricade the windows and close up the farm, “for the time at least.”

“If they find the murderer,” he said yesterday while sitting once more in the living room of the unostentatious home, “It won’t be so bad. But if they don’t, who would come here and live.  I know I wouldn’t.  Think of a family living here now, and the father going out at night and leaving his wife alone.  No, that cannot be.  I must close it up for a time at least."

“I don’t mind the money loss, But it is horrible to think of the terrible thing that happened here.  It was my own home.”

The house that was gripped in the ghastliness of four murders while the rest of the world was giving its thanks to a just guardian last week is experiencing today a way of popularity – if it can be called that – that will end perhaps in a few days more.

Daily since a creamery employee burst in on the property last Friday morning to discover the killings, the farm has been a focal point of interest in the county.  Deputy Sheriffs by day and by night guard it from  molestation by a public curious to point of bursting.

These men who will also soon be withdrawn to leave the farm to the ravages of time so that it may decay as its memories in the public mind wane, have been carrying on where death beckoned the Germond Family.  The house has been cleaned daily.  Fires have been lighted and the chores have gone forward almost as thought nothing happened.

To the uninitiated there would be nothing, or at least very little to call his attention to the crime.  True, there are still a few blood stains on the floor.  But they are rapidly disappearing.  The wagon shed where the killer dragged the bodies of the father and son, lifts a friendly head over the blood stains that are only a disheartening few facts of the killing.

But the farm already finds itself shoved behind a barrier.  Those who have to pass it at night, hurry by and don’t stop.  They look at it askance in the day time.  The residents are a bit resentful perhaps, that the farm buildings have guarded so carefully their secret.  They have yielded up not a fingerprint, nothing in fact that is worth a thing in bringing the murderer to justice.

That is why Lieutenant Whalen realizes that he must board it up.

The Germond homestead a week ago was the quiet retreat of a hardworking farmer family.  Today it is the master of mystery that will not, cannot surrender.

The community of Stanfordville which has suddenly been thrust into the limelight by four murders that have left the county shocked and it police authority at sea in search for the killer turned out almost in its entirety yesterday to pay final homage to the memory of the four stabbing victims.

The last earthly remains of James Husted Germond, his wife Mabel and children Bernice and Raymond were whisked away to a vault in the Pine Plains Cemetery after final services had been held over them in the Stanfordville Christian Church, packed to its doors by hundreds who wept at the solemnity of the rites that marked the finish of another chapter in the inquiry into the fiendish killings.

Starting at 1 o’clock the mourners began an endless procession past the four caskets, arrayed in the flower-banked rostrum of the small church.  The mourners were mostly middle aged persons who came from miles around for the final rites.

At 2 o’clock services were conducted by the Rev. Arthur Fieberger, rector of the church, and 20 minutes later, when the greater majority of those assembled had passed outside the church, further brief rites were conducted only in the presence of some score of relatives who sat in the front of the church.

“Let not your heart be troubled, if ye believe in God, believe also in Me.” Mr. Fieberger said in opening the brief ceremonies.  Then he read the 23rd and 27th Psalms and a poem, “Say Not Good Night”.

“We cannot choose the time of our entrance; we cannot fathom the time or manner of our departure,” he said in opening his funeral oration.  “We are living in an age of uncertainty, but one thing is certain; the fact of Christ.  That is inescapable.  Love is Life.  The power of his resurrection and the promise of life eternal have given hope, strength, and comfort to all generations for the past 1900  years”.

“Only through Him will you find peace and comfort.  For we know if our earthly house, this tabernacle, were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house made with his hands, eternal in the heavens.  Through Him many have been called to God throughout the ages  in time of trial and need and have found Him sufficient.  He has given strength to the weak, courage to the fearful, comfort to the sad, and hope to the faithful.”

“I therefore commend Him to you this day friends and love ones of this family.  If ye believe Jesus died and rose again, even so then also, which sleep in Jesus, will God bring to Him.  And we say: Oh Death where is thy sting? Oh, Grave where is thy victory?  Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord, Jesus Christ.”

Then Mr. Feiberger read a short  poem, “Mastering the Clouds”, and after he read the words of the 14th Chapter of John, he read another poem, “Let Love Will Dream” by Whittier.

He spoke a prayer for the souls of the dead, and then consigned them to their long rest in God’s name.

The services were conducted without any unusual occurrence.  All through the early part of the afternoon, Byron Hicks, salesman at the DuBois Supply Company, who sold the murder knife sat near the door with Sheriff Rockefeller to identify the purchaser should he attend the rites. But such a person did not appear.

Some dozen state troopers in uniform and plain clothes were on hand to direct traffic and handle the crowds.  Near zero weather aided in quickly dispensing the crowds after the funeral services were finished and by 3:30 o’clock the entire vicinity was cleared of onlookers.
Four funeral coaches transported the bodies to Pine Plains and a large procession of cars followed for the brief rites there.