The Hancock Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Ohio) 1857-1870, 1869-03-19

catch Hlm tiIt got clear nome, anO
l'll whip him more yet. Say, is my
eye very black rs
Air-Gun AssaSsins.
! Over a year ago, at one o'clock il
the mornlng,a Brooklyn police Officer
was carefully sauntering down his
usual beat when lie observed man
partly hidden away on the opposite
side of the street. The officer stop
ped and carefully observed the mans
movements. In few moments the
man was observed coming up the
sidewalk opposite. The man behind
the tree stepped from his place OF
concealment, and walked down the
street TO meet the stranger, the police
officer still closely watching him.
When the suspicious person was with
IN twenty feet of the stranger, and
near q gaslight burning brightly he.
meath the trees, the stranger suddenly
slapped his forehead with his righ.
hand, and fell to the pavemeBt--s
dead man. His murderer began to
rifle his pockets I he officer hasten
ed to the spot, but the assassin saw
him and fled.
The officer. pursued him. The
chase was hot Around a corner,
across half-paved streets; through
slums and alleys, over high bosr,i
fences and past fickering gaslights-
the murderer fled, but keen eyed
hunter was on his track He was
captured. On his line of flight an
air gun of peculiar construction was
found. 1t did its deadly work silent
ly and effectually. 1t was of simple
mechanism, and could hsr.;ly be con-
sidered a marvel of mechanical skill
The assassin turned out to be one
Skidmore, a discharged policeman.
In his house evidence was found
which proved that he had been en-
gagged for several wears in nefarious
schemes of burglary and murder
Brooklyn was thrown into 8 state OF
nervous excitement. Every undis-
covered murder was thrown on the
shoulders of Skidmore. He even
accused of being responsible for the
profoundly mysterious East River
my ystery,, where a mans head, pierre
ed with two bullets. wrapped in a
piece of oil silk, was found floating
in a Brooklyn dock, the thighs and
legs similarly wrapped, being after
ward picked up near Gowanus.
On his arrest Skidmore became as
silent as jungled tiger. Crowds of
citizens swarmed to look at him, and
loud whispers of lynch law tloated
about his ears. He kept up bold
front, but occasionally a Jwinge was
visible on his countenance as be lis
tened to the positive evidence before
the coroner. The crowd surged
about him as at one of the trspped
anthropophagi. The air-gun was
regarded with the greatest curiosity,
and those inspecting it regarded it
with circumspectiOn, fearing that q
silent bullet was only awaiting a sig
nal TO add another to Its roll of vic
tins.
The coroner's jury found Skidmore
guilty of the murder, and the grand
jury brought in a true bill of indict
ment against him.
Back to his cell went the murderer,
not a ray of hope in his heart. The
popular excitement did not abate
His speedy trial Sas demanded. His
lawyers could not obtain postpone
ment- The trial came on the evi-
dencc was overwhelming; the people
throDged the court room. Skid
more's defiant front failed him at
last, and at length in despair he cut
his throat in his cell, and escaped the
gibbet.
We do not know what became OF
the air-gun, but We do know that for
weeks atterwsrd many of the citizens
of Brooklyn never dared to go from
their houses at night for fear of q
silent struggling bullet.
Again we have accounts Of shoot
ing with the air gun-this tine 10 New
York. A week or two sgo we had to
announce the serious injury by pis-
toll shot OF a Young man walking at
mid day on the corner OF Broadway
and Canal streets. The cause is a
mystery which has never been ex
planned On Tuesday afternoon, in
two diverse localities, there occurred
circumstances fortunately less inja
riohs in their effect, but hardly less
my sterious in their nature, which
seem TO point with equal assurance 10
thai diabolical agent, an air-gun.-
Two bullets in quick succession,
crashed through tie windows of a
grocery at the Intersection of the
Bowerv AMI Bond streets. With as
little warming a pistol ball entered
through the piate-glass doorway OF
$40 Broadway, with dangerous force.
A young mau employed in Chitten
dens dry goods store was walking
down Broadway Wednesday alter
noon, and felt som mething hit his arm
On arriving in his store he ascer
tanned that he had beenshot through
the arm by bullet, which bad lodged
and remained IN his side Where
tie bullet came from, who fired it, or
for what-all these points remain o
secret. On Mo day an air gun bul
iat uae fired throuUh a DaUuhroLer,s
window on Center street. On the
same evening one of these silent
messengers of death came through a
window in the Suns editorial rooms.
and one evening last week two bullet
holes were found in the panes in Mr..
Thomas Hitchcock's residence ,at No
s East Twenty ninth strest.--N y
Sun.
The number Of children attending
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