This is a continuation of part 1: WILLIAM H. DeGRAAF, A BICYCLE TRIP AROUND THE WORLD, and MURDER
Cool, my Great-Great-Grandfather DeGraaf was quite the athlete. But this find detoured me from my original goals of finding a middle-name and cause of death for William. I was, for a moment, more interested in the question; did this Frank Lenz complete his journey of bicycling around the world? The first hit on NYTimes.com for the term “Frank Lenz” lead me to the article:
KURD MURDERERS ESCAPE.;
Slayers of Frank Lenz of Pittsburg
Out of Their Turkish Prison.
CONSTANTINOPLE, June 12.–Two of the Kurds who are supposed to have been connected with the murder of Frank G. Lenz of Pittsburg, Penn., the bicyclist who was shot and killed about two years ago while on a tour around the world, on the road between Kourtah and Zahar, have died in prison at Erzeroum, and other Kurds suspected of complicity in the murder have escaped from prison.
The United States Minister, Mr. Alexander W. Terrell, has appealed to the Supreme Court here to secure their recapture and trial. In all eleven men were arrested on the charge of being concerned in the murder of Mr. Lenz, and several of them escaped from prison some time ago.
1. “KURD MURDERERS ESCAPE.; Slayers of Frank Lenz of Pittsburg Out of Their Turkish Prison.,” The New York Times, June 13, 1897, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=990DEEDC1F39E433A25750C1A9609C94669ED7CF. PDF file: http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=990DEEDC1F39E433A25750C1A9609C94669ED7CF
Want to know more about the story of Frank Lenz? Check out Sports Illustrated article from October, 14 1974 found here: http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1089118/index.htm
