The Ghost of William Radloff

The police officers still preserve the strictest secrecy in regard to the information they have obtained on the Radloff mystery, but it is evident that they believe William Radloff is as lively a corpse as ever was seen. It is likely that he is living in comfort somewhere on this earth, waiting for the life insurance companies to put up $55,000. Radloff lived on a small clearing in the woods, just far enough from the city to be secluded. Here he superintended the hatching of chickens by his poultry, while he hatched other things in his mind. The theory held by authorities is that he insured his life for large sums, placed a corpse from the neighboring Greenwood cemetery in his house, set it on fire, and then disappeared. The remains found were nothing more than a brief apology for a human form; the skull was devoid of animal matter and the limbs were too frail to be picked up. Radloff had even shown a $1,500 roll of bills to neighbors in the days leading up to the fire, seemingly to build a narrative of robbery and murder. Police discovered traces of a heavy wagon having entered the cemetery, which is located near the northeast corner of Woodland Park. While the investigation continues, it appears the 'remains' may never have been Radloff at all.