Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-05-04
HOMICIDE.
DESPERATE ENCOUNTER WITH A CHI
NEsE CHIcKEN-THIEF.
A Fight in the Dark-The Thief Killed
Coroner's Inquest-The Jury
Justiies the Act.

! the upper part or the city between Martin V
Jurgens and All Chez, Chinaman who was
caught in the act of stealing poultry from
the premises of the former Mr.. Jurgens i:
German residing on 2 street, between
Thirty-frst and Thirty-second, where he
keeps a poultry ranch, adjoining the
slaughter-house of Chris. Weisel, who
is his brother-in-,aw. In common with
the people generally in Sacramento
who have sought to keep poultry upon their
premises, Mr. Jurgens has suffered continual
| depredations from chicken thieves until he
determined to put an end to the robberies by
! ferreting out and arresting the parties en-
gagged in it. This his continued losses COM
PEELED him to do or else give uI altogether
| the business of carrying on a chicken ranch
as he has heretofore been doing. Accordingly
for some time past Mr.. Jurgens has been
carefully observing his premises and sleeping
watchfully, hoping to hear any noise that
| might accompany nocturnal visits, but still
! his chickens and his ducks disappeared, and
were so skillfully taken and removed that he
could only know of further depredations COM
mitted upon his fold by tracks and removal
of boards about the roosts, and the inevitable
reduction in numbers at each additional
| count. Finally as a last resort to detect and
| apprehend the thieves he resolved to sleep in
the chicken-house, where he would hear the
slightest disturbance and be on hand for ac-
ton should occasion present itself. This I'M
pleasant task he had been carrying forward
! for the past four nights, when at last he was
| greeted with q watched-for visit, which re-
| suited in the sudden termination of the ex-
PLOTS and career of the chicken thief, and
! MIR. ,Jurgens himself narrowly escaping with
his life. His testimony before the Coroner's
| inquest, held yesterday afternoon at A. j.
| Vermilya's Office, gives the facts connected
with the occurrence, and which is substan-
tally as follows
Monday [ found that | had been robbed
again, and | watched in the hen-house.
found that the boards had been taken off the
back side, and hung up loosely. the old nails
sticking in the scantling. Last night [ was
sitting in the chicken-house watching, and |
| think it was about l o'clock, and [ saw a
! light, and all at once l noticed the boards
! fall The moon was not up, but it was star
! light. All at once heard hen squat, and
| saw dark object take something down
from the south part of the west department
of the building. l then took up my club,
which had carried there with me, and made
strike at him and hit him, but not hard
enough, as nit too high and struck the
roost. He ehsn made run towards the east
department, but he could not get out there,
when he turned and ran at me- throwing his
arms about me. Then | made for the door,
to get a Ratchet which [ had there, and
where / also had a knife, in case anything
should happen. 1 did not know whether it
was a white man or Chinaman, but I
| intended to arrest him, and l wanted
to get hold of the Ratchet to de-
fend myself. When | got to the door l
reached the Ratchet with the right hand and
had my arm around him as | went out the
door. At first did nothing with the Ratchet.
| hit him in the face with my left hand. He
spoke my name and said, "Me go homep l
said mo; [ am going to tie you and take
you to Sacramento" | had rope and was
! going to tie him. He did not have hold of
me at this time. He was striking at me until
we got out by the windmill and got down.
did not drag him, but | would not let go of
him, for l wanted to arrest him. | called for
! help and the Chinaman wanted to get away,
and | would not let him. Then all at once,
| in our struggle, we both fell down and l on
top. We rolled over and he came on top of
me. We rolled over three or four times in
this way while thus on the ground. Finally
| / lost the Ratchet and he got hold of it.
L struck him with my hand, and he struck
me with the Ratchet. l thought then that
my time had come and had to do something.
! / called out Murder" and called for help.
He was on top at the time, and l cannot tell
how many times he struck me with the
Ratchet 1t was several times. He hit me
on the head several times, and also on the
hands. There were two marks on my hands
made with his teeth. [ at last got the
Ratchet away from him and began to strike
him. did not kill him the first blow. l
jumped on him with my knees and tried to
-, t,,,4 7 Ia, 80. i
it was not necessary. | told him before l
struck him with the Ratchet that wanted to
tie him and take him to Sacramento, and he
said he did not want to go and then began to
| fight me. [ had the rope tied around my
body and did not remove it until after the
fatal blow was struck. [ afterwards tied the
rope around one of his wrists, bpt found he
was so weak did nothing more.
Thus far MIR. Jurgens is the only witness
of the transaction, but his cries for help hav-
ing been at last heard by Nicholas Nohn, who
lives near by, he testifes that he went to the
place where they were upon the ground, and
as he did so Mr.. Jurgens said, 81 am glad
you came, for | am most given out" The
| Chinaman at the same time was scuffling
with him. Mohn struck a match and saw
| both were bloody, and could not tell one from
the other. Immediately afterwards Mr.. Jur-
! gems brother and g.. G.. Heissenbuttel came.
and they found that the Chinamsn was most
| dead. They then went after horse and
wagon to take the Chinaman down town be-
| fore he died, but when they got back there
he was dead. At Mr.. Jurgens' request his
| brother and Mr.. Mohn Immediately pro-
ceeded to police headquarters and gave notice
! of the affair, whereupon officers Campbell,
| Smith and Thorpe went to the scene of the
| encounter and found the Chinaman dead as
stated, and lying in pool of blood near the
| chicken-house, his face and head horribly
mutilated by the repeated blows from the
Ratchet 81r. Jurgens gave to them full
statement of the entire transaction. and after
wards accompanied the officers to the station
house, where he was placed in cell to await
| the Coroner's inquest. AT the same time
| Coroner VermilYa was notified, and had the
| body of the Chinaman taken to his rooms on
J street, where large crowd of Chinese and
others continued to gather throughout the
| day.
After the defendant had been placed in
keeping at the station-house, physician was
called and dressed his wounds, when it was
! found that there were three upon the fore
head, where the Chinaman struck him with
the hatchet-one upon the temple, from
which he only escaped immediate death by
| its being but slight blow. His left hand
was also hacked badly upon the back from
| the Ratchet, and the outer part of the palm
of both hands were bitten through and por-
lions of the flesh torn out by the teeth of the
deceased.
The head and features of the Chinaman
were so disigured that he was not identified
until in the afternoon, when he was recognized
as All Chez, who had been employed at the
slaughter-house of Chris. Weisel, and was
also identified by Chief Karcher as the same
party, and of whom he had photograph in
his gallery at police headquarters among the
list of old offenders.
At the inquest the testimony of defendant
NJ. V. Jurgens, Nicholas Mohn, DIR. w H
Baldwin and c. G.. Heissenbuttel was taken,
and was substantially as given by defendant
and included above.
g. G. Heissenbuttel, in his testimony,
states that upon examination of the premises
two burlap sacks were found at the chicken
house, one outside the hole where the en-
trance was made, and the Chinaman's hat
also lay by it. The other was inside the
building and had chicken in it. The Chi
naman had lot of strings in his pocket.
In the examination the prosecution was
conducted by District Attorney Buckley and
City Attorney Anderson, and Matt. johnson
appeared for defendant. After full consid-
Grafton of the case the jury returned the fol-
lowing verdict:
At an inquest held on the body of Chinaman
killed at or near street and Thrtieth street. this
Monday morning May 3. 1880, We, the Coroner's
jury, summoned by the Coroner to inquire into the
cause of said Chnaman's death. do find said China