Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1882-05-02
MYSTERIOUS SHOOTING
A Young Man Seriously Wounded
While Buggy Riding
With Another Mans Wife-Contradictoy
Versions of the Affair-The Wounded
Man in a Critical Condition, and
not Expected to Recover
OTHER CRIMES AND CASUALTIES.
.Ss,eci1I Dispntch 10 the ReGiSter.

IS1BPC11t I)tSDutcn 20 the fItgtSl~Fs
NEw CUMBERLAND. W. Va, May 1.-Geo.
Fickes, a young man about q, while out
enjoying buggy ride in the country late
Saturday night in company with married
woman named Hanly, was dangerously, II
not fatally wounded in the neck by shot
from a pistol ball. AS the affair Is yet
somewhat enshrouded in mystery, 1t is
pretty difficult to get at the real facts.
Neither OF the parties give the same version
as to how the accident occurred, If accident
it was. Fickes states that in passing farm
house a big dog came bouncing out at the
buggy, and in bis hurried attempt 70 shoot
the dog he accidentally shot himself, but
the dog story is not generally credited
The woman AYERS that when she informed
the young man that she intended joining her
husband at Pittsburgh; that it seemed to de-
press him very much, and upon her repeat
ing her determination, he declared his in
tention to "Shnffle off, and Immediately
drew pistol and shot himself as stated.
Friends of young Frickes assert that a
quarrel arose between the Two and that the
woman done the shooting, but the young
man fails to Criminate her in any way with
the accident.
Another version j. that the husband Of
Mrs. Hanly was concealed somewhere IN
the neighborhood OF the shooting, which
may be the correct theory.
1t seems that great intimacy has eX-
listed between Fickes and Mrs. Hanly, which
relation was deeply deplored by relatives
OF both parents. fearing that trouble would
ultimately ensue. Mrs. Hanly, the woman
is the young and rather handsome wife Of
James Hanly, a sober and industrious shoe
maker. who left here some months ago to
seek employment ut his trade, leaving his
wife with his father here. Finally secur-
ing good situation in Pittsburgh, he en-
treated his wife to join him there, which
She has Tor some reason failed to do.
Communication has been kept up between
young Fickes and the lady by regu-
lar correspondence through the pOstOttice,
and in this way appointments arranged for
clande>tine meetings which were OF fire.
quent occurance in the woods near by: A
twenty-five calibrc pistol belonging to Mrs.
Hanly was afterwards found in the buggy,
but whether this was the one the shooting
was done with or not, has not been learned.
After the accident occurred, which was
about . o'clock Sunday morning, the woman
drove the buggy containing the wounded
man to town and left him at DR.. MCLanc's
office, when she skipped out to her fathers
and went to bed. ItwaS upon examination
found that the ball had entered the left side
of the neck just grazing the jugular and inn
pigning on the carotid artery and pro-
baby lodging in the region of the
vertebra. The doctor prObed for the
iy-l-- ----.--I-, -. s~-'I-I CT -.
whereabouts, as some obstacle had caused
a sudden detection downwardS, after pene'
trating to the depth Of over three inches.
The young man is in a critical condition,
and no investigation has been ordered or
information made against any one.