Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1882-08-24
DlABOLISM.
An Attempt to Murder an Entire
Family.
Three Mysterious Strangers Place an
Internal Machine in the Hands
Of an Unsuspecting Wo-
man.

.0oruMBcs, August 2S.-one of the most
infamous attempts at murder ever occur;
ring in this city was made last evening at
the residence of Norman Stomp, a carpen-
ter, paper hanger and glazier in the rear
of 81 Grove street. About 9:45 o'clock last
night, her husband being absent, some one
raped on the kitchen window, and the
hand of man was thrust in. Mrs. Stomp
attempted to close the sash, bu' the man
pulled it open and thrust box toward her,
saying:
"Here Is a Present for You and the
Children"
As soon as he had paced the box in her
hand, he ran or walked rapidly away. Mrs.
Stomp then saw that there were
three men, but her view of them in the
darkness was so indiStinct that she can give
no accurate description of them. Several
neighbOrs came in and were shown the
mysterious box. 1t was about nine inches
long by five wide and about eight inches
deep. Around it, lengthwise, was pasted
strip of wall paper, and on the top was the
Following Note:
Mrs. STOMP: The contents of this box is
a'nicc present for you and your little boys.
nice present.
The neighbors advised Mrs Stomp not
TO open it, saying it might contain snake
or some dangerous thing. Mr.. Stomp,
earlier in the evening had gone over to the
house OF his brUther-in-law to see about
some work in which he was interested. He
returned about 1920 and was shown the
mysterious box, but concluded not 10 open
il last night. This morning, however, he
procured knife and pried the lid ~ from
the side, and there was revealed one of the
most
ever constructed. On the under side OF
the lid was pasted piece of emery paper.
Around the edge of the box was 8. layer of
cotton, while the interior was filled up to
the top with gunpowder. Peeping up
through the powder here and there
were percussion match heads, eleven
in number, SO arranged that
upon drawing out the lid they would have
been ignited by contact with the rough
emery paper To make explosion more
certain, a small piece Of pine wood an inch
and half long, perhaps, was placed upon
wire spring, and match-heads inserted in
such way that the spring would keep them
Pressed up Against the Emery Paper.
Upon pouring off the powder false bot
tom, OF wood, was discovered ABOUT tnree-
fourths Of an inch from the top. Holes
had been bored in this for the insertion of
the matches other than those placed in the
spring In the centre OF this false bottom
was hole, in circumference about the size
of a silver five cent piece. Through this hole
cotton was visible beneath, leading to the
supposition that the space beneath was fill
ed with powder or other explosive material.
The presumption is that the person who
invented the contrivance found it necessary
to have a solid foundation for the matches
and the spring, connection between the
two explosive deposits being effected by
cotton fuse through the central aperture
above mentioned.
The Devilish Ingenuity
of the pretratOrs is plainly apparent in the
wording of the note, in which they said the
box contained present 'for her and little
boys" They expected that, mother-like,
Mrs. Stomp would collect her little ones
around and they would watch her open the
box with childish expectations. The de.
struction of mother and children would
thus be accomplished at one fell blow. The
box was handed over to the police. There
is no clue to the originators OF the internal
machine,