David Herlihy

by The Lost Cyclist: The Epic Tale of an American Adventurer;His Mysterious Disappearance

  While his chicken was being prepared Lenz fell asleep, but he was rudely awakened by the two sons of Alayee Chavdar, who were among the crowd of visitors with Moostoe. Lenz's revolver was lying by his side on the floor. Moostoe tried to pick it up, and Lenz wished to stop him; but Moostoe already had it in his hand. He asked Lenz to open it, which Lenz refused to do. Moostoe became angry, cursed Lenz in Kurdish, and threatened to kill him; which of course Lenz didn't understand, and the Armenians could not explain it to him. Lenz ordered the Kurds out of the room, but they wouldn't go so he curled himself up and slept.

  The priest, as well as other Armenians said to Moostoe "Why do you treat a stranger like this—a Christian gentleman who is traveling in our country[?]" "Is he a king," said Moostoe, "that he cannot sit up and talk with us?" Lenz was probably irritable for the priest had tried to find out where he had come from on that day, and Lenz tried to explain but couldn't and became out of humour.

  While Lenz was quietly sleeping through that fatal night, Moostoe had a gathering of his minions at his own house. Besides himself there were two sons of Alayee Chavdar, Nabone and Hamid, the two sons of Moostoe's brother, Nabone and Hodo, the servant of Moostoe, Simbelzor Mamoud, and Dahar, the son of Gallo Tehroukh. Under the guidance of Moostoe this gang plotted the foul murder. Their plan was simple enough. They left the village before daybreak to wait for Lenz on the road. Their object was plunder as they had seen Lenz's money, revolver, watch, etc. They imagined his camera contained money and that the nickel plate on his bicycle was silver.

  The following morning, May 10th, 1894, Lenz asked for another chicken. When it was ready he drank the broth, then pulling some rice out of his pocket, he asked for some. They had none, so he rolled the chicken up in a bundle and made ready to depart. It was also a rainy disagreeable day. The crowd pressed around him to see him ride, but it was probably too muddy for he even threw stones at them to get them away. And he also put water on his tires to keep the mud from sticking in the crotches. The soil here is dark and loamy, very sticky in muddy weather.

  The natives saw him pushing his bicycle a long way off across the plain.

  About five miles from Chilkani is a place called Topik, which means a knoll. This was on the highway and marked the division between the towns of Chilkani and Mussuri. Beside this mound ran a small rivulet. In the spring of 1894 all the streams of Alashgerd were unusually high and the rivulet was swollen to quite a stream several feet deep. Lenz could not ride his wheel in the deep mud. After this knoll the seven murderers awaited their victim. Lenz arrived at Topik and was preparing to cross when the Kurds attacked him. One of them drew his sword and severely cut Lenz in the right hand, breaking his arm, so that he could not draw his revolver.

  Lenz begged them not to kill him, saying "ben mussulman—I'll be a muslim. Take all I've got but spare me." Moostoe said: "Don't kill him, I told you to rob him!" Thereupon the Kurds seized him and his baggage and took him, wounded as he was, across the fields about twenty minutes walk to the right bank of the Hopuz river about halfway between Chilkani and Shamian. Here they robbed him of everything, and at Moostoe's order put him to death with their knives, so that he would not reveal their names. They buried him and his bicycle on the bank.

  Sachtleben had, by this point, done everything in his power to ensure a conviction in the upcoming murder trial in Erzurum, even if a favorable outcome was still in considerable doubt. He had also done his level best to advance Mrs. Lenz's case for an indemnity from the Turkish government, though that, too, loomed as a large question mark. Sachtleben was confident that he had, if nothing else, assembled sufficient evidence of Lenz's death to enable Mrs. Lenz to collect on her son's life insurance policy. Still, he knew that there was only one—albeit faint—hope left to crown his mission with at least a resemblance of success: the recovery of Lenz's remains.

  The investigator was now convinced that Lenz had been buried, in all probability, near the spot where he had been slain, and he was determined to make one last heroic effort to recover the remains. "Before leaving Chilkani for the last time," Sachtleben related, "I had it announced throughout the village that I would give $50 to any man who would show me where Lenz's grave was, but it was of no use."

  Finally, on the evening of October 11, Sachtleben made one last desperate bid, with the help of Aram. "We stopped at a place on the Hopuz river where the articles had been found," Sachtleben re-counted, "and near which it was almost certain that the body had been buried." The American began to case the barren field, looking for any hint of a grave. He would later assert that he had probably walked over Lenz's bones "many times"—but, alas, "there was nothing to mark the spot." Aram, meanwhile, showed his unwavering devotion, "digging in any place where a grave might be." As the sun began to set, the sullen investigator reluctantly gave up his quest.

  Sachtleben paused to take a photograph of the eerie setting. "It was at the close of a beautiful Indian Summer's day," he would later reflect. "A brilliant sunset left a thousand varied tints on plain and mountain alike. A beautiful panorama met my eyes. As I stood at that lonely bend in the river looking at the sparkling stream wending its silent way eastward, a most somber sadness affected me. I pictured to myself that awful, cold-blooded scene that had probably been enacted there. Here my investigation came to a close."

  14. ERZURUM

  October 19, 1895

  SACHTLEBEN WAS GLAD to return to his little room in the mission house after a three-week absence. Although he was deeply disappointed by his failure to find Lenz's remains and worried about the fate of his Armenian witnesses and their peers accused of the murder, he nonetheless informed Graves that the mission had been "partially successful." The arch-murder Moostoe was, after all, in captivity and awaiting trial, even if his accomplices were still at large, with the possible exception of Dahar.

  The American was still hopeful that he could secure a conviction against Moostoe and return home with his head high. At the same time, of course, he also hoped to protect and exonerate the Armenians. He was equally determined to secure an indemnity for Mrs. Lenz. Perhaps he could even find Lenz's grave after all, if Moostoe or his fellow Kurds were eventually forced to reveal its location.

  Sachtleben recognized, nonetheless, that his situation was precarious. He had little faith in Turkish justice and was certain that the Turks would do everything possible to pin the crime on the innocent Armenians rather than Moostoe. Moreover, there was no telling when the trial would actually start. Worman had already withdrawn his financial support, and Sachtleben himself was increasingly eager to head home. He resolved to do the best he could to help the American legation prepare for the trial for as long as he remained in Erzurum, even if he did not stick around for it.

  A week after his return to Erzurum, Sachtleben sent Terrell a long report detailing his trip to Alashgerd. He gently reminded Terrell: "I rely on your zeal to push American interests, which are at the same time Mrs. Lenz's interests." He included a copy of his final account of Lenz's murder, marked "Confidential," and defended its reliability. "I have not assumed any one point without a witness," he insisted, adding: "For me it is a matter of indifference whether Armenians or Kurds murdered Lenz. I am after the murderers, and I don't care who they are."

  To clear the way for his return to America, Sachtleben asked Terrell to send an official representative to Erzurum as soon as possible—someone who could ably manage the upcoming trial. Affirmed the investigator: "This man ought to be a lawyer, well versed in the practice of Turkish law." Still, the investigator insisted he was not about to run away from the matter: "I am perfectly willing to remain here and help such a man in his difficult task. I shall watch the case very closely as long as I am here."

  Chambers, meanwhile, was also readjusting to life back in the mission house. Upon his return, he had happily discovered that he was not the only one in the household defying his age. Neelie, his forty-four-year-old wife, revealed that she was expecting their third child. "You cannot be more
surprised than I," she wrote her brother Talcott. "I had given up all thought of welcoming another little stranger to our house. Who would ever imagine such a thing at my age! Two or three years ago I'd have been very glad at the prospect, but at this late date, it has been hard to make myself accustomed to the thought. To be sure, I feel as young as ever. But I know I am not. I try to be glad for the sake of the little one and I am taking every care."

  The personal anxieties pervading the Chambers household were soon superseded by the terrible events of October 30. That morning a horrific massacre, similar to those that had visited other Turkish cities, came right to their doorstep. "Reports that the Kurds were coming flitted through the city like lightning," Sachtleben recounted, "and the greatest excitement prevailed. The Armenians knew well the awful intentions of the invaders, and they fled for their lives in desperation. They barricaded doors and windows and hid with their families. But the Turks and Kurds fell upon them before they had taken any steps for defense."

  Hearing the clamor, Sachtleben, Chambers, and Graves rushed to the rooftop of the mission house, where they became "eye witnesses to the fearful massacres." Sachtleben watched below in horror as the attackers "burst through doors and windows and threw the inmates of the houses into the streets, where they were shot to death and brutally mutilated. The murderers were everywhere. The riflemen and swordsmen went in first to conduct their festival of murder and pillages, then the thieves followed closely behind, stripping the dead of valuables and robbing stores and homes."

  The trio soon realized that they, too, were targets, as bullets began to whiz by their heads. They scurried into the building, but even there they came under fire. "I saw soldiers suddenly turn and discharge their guns directly at the window at which I was standing," Sachtleben recounted. "Before I had time to dodge, one of the bullets struck the casement, about an inch and a half from my head." The murderous rampage raged for two hours and claimed nearly a thousand lives, "leaving the dead where they had been killed."

  The next day, Sachtleben visited the Armenian cemetery, where many of the victims' bodies were stacked in preparation for a mass burial. "He counted three hundred and fourteen bodies," Mrs. Chambers wrote her brother, adding, "The scene is too horrible to describe, so many marks of hellish cruelty." With the help of an Armenian photographer, Sachtleben photographed many of the mutilated bodies belonging to men, women, and children. "A crowd of a thousand people, mostly Armenians, watched me take the photographs," Sachtleben recounted. "Many were weeping beside their dead fathers or husbands. The Armenian photographer recognized one of his own relatives among the dead children." The Graphic, a London weekly, would soon publish a selection of Sachtleben's grisly images.

  Suddenly, Sachtleben had ample material for a lecture on Armenian massacres, which he hoped would underscore the diabolical complicity of the Turkish government. "If he succeeds in escaping with his plates," the Telegraph reported, "he will have several hundred splendid pictures of the murderers and the unfortunate people murdered. He will hasten home with his materials just as rapidly as possible, and the people of Alton will be the first in America to see pictures of the terrible doings in Armenia, and hear them described by an eye witness."

  A few days later, Sachtleben ventured out into the streets with a foreign friend when shots suddenly rang out again. The terrified pair ran for cover. "Had we been caught out a little later when the fire became general and the fanaticism fully aroused," Sachtleben wrote home, "we would have fared badly." For some weeks after that, he dared not leave the mission house without an armed escort. "The city is ruined," Sachtleben wrote to his father. "Nearly every store has been robbed or burned and trade has almost ceased." Added the investigator: "The horrible scenes which I have beheld will haunt me through life."

  The week following the massacre, Sachtleben tried valiantly to refocus on the Lenz case. His hopes for a successful conclusion, however, were rapidly fading. In his weekly report to Langhans, Sachtleben wrote: "The only hope of seeing Moostoe condemned is to bring the proper pressure on the Porte and the Sultan. But it would seem, from the lack of aid from Mr. Terrell, that I am destined to see this trial slip through my hands and the blame fastened on innocent Armenians. My witnesses are in the terror of their lives all the time."

  On November 8, Sachtleben appeared before the examining judge to accuse Moostoe and his men of the murder of Frank G. Lenz. The judge agreed to indict Moostoe but dismissed charges against the other Kurds, citing lack of evidence. Against Sachtleben's vehement protests, the judge also indicted the five Armenians in custody. The general prosecutor accepted the judge's findings and scheduled a trial to be heard in Erzurum by the Criminal Court of the First Instance.

  Before long, Sachtleben suffered another jolting setback: the awful news that Moostoe had somehow broken out of his cell in Toprakaleh and was nowhere to be found. The Armenian suspects, meanwhile, had been marched to Erzurum and were now languishing in the local jail. As he explained to Langhans: "Prisoners in a Turkish jail are not fed by the government. Their friends are supposed to feed them. I must send them some bread and cheese occasionally so that they may live." Sachtleben's star witness, Der Arsen, was likewise in a terrible bind, though Sachtleben had managed to keep him out of prison. The priest's family, fearing the revenge of the Kurds, had been forced to flee Chilkani to start life in a new village.

  Sachtleben made a spirited effort to recapture Moostoe and find his accomplices. "After things had quieted down somewhat," the Telegraph reported, "Mr. Sachtleben attempted to recapture the Kurds. But Mr. Terrell shows no disposition to help him. Will is well-nigh discouraged, being powerless to work alone. The guilty men have friends everywhere who would willingly kill him should he become too aggressive in his eagerness to imprison the Kurds again."

  Meanwhile, Shakir sent his report to the grand vizier upon his return to Erzurum:

  Four Armenians and two Muslims have been arrested as suspects. The interrogations were made in the presence of Mr. Sachtleben and his interpreters and he signed the documents. Up til then, he had claimed that Kurds had murdered Lenz, but he now admits that some Armenians were also involved. Nevertheless, the evidence against the murderers is not decisive on legal grounds. There are signs that the Armenians may have commited this murder for political fodder to be used against Muslims. Obviously, this is a grave matter, and it will be necessary to expand investigations to reveal the truth so that no one can object to the outcome.

  Clearly, Shakir and the Turks were determined to pin the murder on the Armenians at all costs. Admitted Sachtleben to Langhans: "Conviction of the Kurds depends on the finding of the exact spot of Lenz's grave." And although the investigator claimed to have "located it within a radius of several hundred square feet," he conceded that the recent massacres would make it "impossible for some weeks to hold any secret conversation with Kurds and Turks who are the only people who know definitely about Lenz's murder."

  On December 7, Sachtleben sent the Pittsburgher more troubling news. Graves's replacement, Henry A. Cumberbatch, was threatening to skip the upcoming trial unless he received explicit instructions from Terrell asking for his presence. The American minister, however, was still holding his silence. Meanwhile, the Armenian prisoners were growing weaker by the day. Even Dahar, the only Kurd still in captivity, was ailing. His father and uncle had come to Erzurum, demanding his release, but Sachtleben refused to comply. He nonetheless admitted to Langhans: "Dahar is not the main agent in the murder, so far as I know."

  Sachtleben wrote yet another lengthy letter to Terrell imploring him to take an active role in the Lenz case. "I cannot understand why you have not answered my letters," the investigator complained. "You have asked me to inform you of my progress, and I have done so. But I have no answers from you. What is worse, I see no evidence out here that you are using your influence to assist me."

  Writing to Langhans on December 14, Sachtleben expressed his growing frustration with the ever-silent minister. "He tried t
o call me back three months before I got permission to go to Alashgerd," Sachtleben recalled. "If I had followed his advice, I would have been in the United States long ago, completely outwitted and suckered out of everything by the insolent and corrupt Turkish officials." A week later, Sachtleben vented to Langhans: "It is a great pity that after all the labor which has been devoted to this case, and all the time and money spent on it, that it should be allowed to drift along in such a disgraceful fashion by our Minister at Constantinople. His conduct to me I consider little short of insulting."

  In fact, Terrell wanted nothing more to do with the Lenz case. Following a fresh wave of violence in Constantinople, he affirmed to the State Department: "Every moment of my time is employed in safeguarding the lives of our countrymen." Added Terrell: "I deeply sympathize with the feeling that prompted Americans to send Sachtleben on his mission. But they surely cannot understand his situation. Out there, he is surrounded by lawless Kurds, the Apaches of Asia. Neither the Turkish Government nor our own has any ability to protect either him or the four Armenian witnesses he has discovered in his zeal. His persistence can do no good." On the contrary, the minister predicted, Sachtleben's blind perseverance "will end in his own destruction." Terrell saw no prospect for a legal victory in the Lenz case until "the dawn of a new peaceful era."

  Terrell at last wrote Sachtleben, bluntly explaining why it had taken him so long to reply: "The events which led to a massacre of many thousands in Asiatic Turkey, the pressure on my time during the last sixty days to provide for the safety of our people while a Christian race is being butchered and missionaries are in danger, and other pressing duties have left me with no time to correspond with you." Far from offering support, Terrell suggested that he had already done all he could for the beleaguered investigator: "I obtained every necessary order to facilitate your inquiry into the question of who killed Mr. Lenz. If you have not been able to find his bones or secure punishment for his murderers, I do not perceive how this Legation can further assist you."