New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-09-23
A CIGAR-MAKER'S RAGE.
TWO MURDERS AND SUICIDE

ATTEMPTING TWO MURDERS AND SUICIDE
SHOOTING WIFE, HER FATHER. AND HIMSELF
NONE OF THE WOUNDS sERIoUs-THE RESULT
or DRUNKENNESS AND FAMILY TROUBLE
Frederick Lotthammer, age twenty-six, cigar
maker, shot his wife, Pauline and her father Henry
Miller, yesterday at No. 43J West Thirty-nlnth-st'
and when hunted down by the police fired two shots
at himself He failed equally in his purposes OF muir
der and suicide neither of his victims being fatally
injured and his own wounds being slight. He was
taken :, the Roosevelt Hospital prisoner Drunk
enness was the sole cause of the triple crime
Iotthammer and his wife are of the same age
They were married four years ago and lived inbar
moniously together until the beginning of the last
month, when the wife took refuge with her two
children in the house of her father, thrifty Ger
man tailor occupying rooms on the top floor of the
four-story tenementhouse No. 49, West Thirty
ninth-st., being forced to do this by her husbands
increasing drunkenness and violence. EARLY in the
spring the couple had been elected by of the
cigar-makers conduct from their rooms in his father
in-laws house. and later for smashing the furniture
and beating his wife. Lotthammer had been sent to
prison. He came out after ten days stay in
wise improved and the separation of the couple fol-
lowed. Left to himself, Lotthammer went from bad
to worse and his wife was warned that he was GO
ing about armed seeking an opportunity to Kill her
She endeavored to avoid him by visiting her sister
in Jersey City, but the cigar-maker followed her,
ana was discovered IN an apparent pitn 10
her and his children there. He escaped the pursuit
of the police and for some weeks was
not heard of. Mrs. Lotthammer returned to
her fathers house. but she had not been there long
before she was told that her husband again
about, armed with pistol 1t was resolved on
Wednesday night to appeal to the police in the
morning.
In the night, while the family were asleep Lott
hammer gained access to the house, armed with
md ta1
the landing in front of his father-in-laws kitchen
door. HIS wife opened it in the morning at halfpast
o'clock to go to the bakers for bread, and the
cigar-maker crowded past her into the room. He
demanded glass of water, and when his mother-in-
law, who had come in upon hearing the noise,
ordered him out. he turned to his wife and
demanded angrily if she would not abandon her
purpose not to live with him again. She replied
that she would not unless he stopped drinking.
Maddened by rum and rage Lotthanmer pulled
his pistol, and shaking Off the grasp of his two
sistersin law, who endeayored TO stop HIM, pushed
into the front bedroom where his children slept.
Miller met him ON the threshold and vainly strove
to prevent him from entering.
The cigar maker sprang over the bed of his little
fired at his shrieking wife three times
in succession. The two first bullets
struck her head. one cutting wound in her scalp,
and the other lodging III the muscles of the face the
third went amiss, but grazed the breast of Mrs.
little girls Was running out A bullet was sent
after her i'll her flight but it went wide of its mark
S MSh his Slfs lying bleeding upon the floor Lott
him down, two bullets striking him in the face aud
shoulder; Then diIcharging the seventh and
open door at his wife's family in
the kitchen, Lotthammer ran out in the hall and
climbed through the scuttle up TO the roof, having
snapped the pistol at his head without effect
1T being unoaued. The tenants in the house were
aroused and were running up the stairs when Lott
hammer gained the roof. Before they dared follow
he had descended through another scuttle three
houses away and reached the street. Here he was
q excited hut
holding them at bay with the pnloaded revolver he
walked toward Ienth-ave. and ESCAPED.
Word was hastily sent to the police station in
Thirty seventh-st., and reached there just as the
? atoon going off duty was on the floor. Captain
murderer, and telegraphed for ambuances to take
the wounded persons to Roosevelt Hospital. The
ran to his fathers house i'll the rear of No. 45I
West Thirty-seventh-st almost opposite the police
ton, and made Oft again. The was started
that he had :. attempted to shoe, his
mer was anxious to escape, and as he
ran he reloaded his pistol, having his pockets full
OF cartridges. From Thirty Seventh-st. lie FASTENED
TO his brothers house III Eleventh-ave. near Fifty
trstSt., where he borrowed 20 cents, going away as
hurTiedly as he had come The police reached
the house just as the cgar-maker had left it, and
found that he had turned back toward his fathers
house IN Thirty -seyenth-st They followed, gaining
on him, until at Ihrty-eishth-st they were hard
minute behind him. Policeman Andrew Smith
turned the corner of Thirty seventh-st. just as
Lotthammer had entered his fathers yard
and, guided by the signals of some of the
Deighbors who had seen him, ran in after him. He
reached the door of small shed i'll the yard as il
was shut with great force. With tremendous kick
the policeman burst it open. Two pistol shots re-
sounded through the yard at the same moment and
Lotthammer was seen lying on the floor of the shed
bleeding from two wounds, one i'll the head and the
other ill the abdomen. He had attempted self
murder.
4 he cigar-maker was carried across the street
to the station and another ambulance was sent for
When 1T arrived le was found thai of the bullets
had entered his cheek and the other merely grazed
his abdomen. Neither wound was at all dangerous
wounds inn Iott-
hammer refused suilenly to answer the questions OF
the police; he admitted the shooting, and said that
his father-in-law knew the provocation. In his
pockets were found thrtyone cartridges for his pis-
toll and some pawn tickets for recently pledged
clothes. lie was sent to Roosevelt Hospital a p. is
oner ana there was pronounced by the physicians to
be still under the influence of liquor.
Henry Muller was sent back to his home at his own
request and prepared amid the lamentations of his
family ito die there "a contingency not at all like
y to happen His daughter renamed in the hospital
1t Is probable that the would-be assassin will be in
condition to be put on trial i'll week or less. 1t
was ascertained that he had not worked at the fac
tory IN Vesey-st., where he was employed Tor sew
erai days, but had been drinking heavily.