Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-02-09
A MURDERED MILLIONAIRE
SHOT DOWN BY BURGLARS WHILE
 DEFENDING HIS HOME.

They Arouse the Sleeping Owner While Engaged in Their Work of Plunder.
 The Duel in the Dark-Terror Stricken
 Servants and Children.
 CHICAGO, Feb y.-The murder of million aire A. J. Smell, by burglars, early yesterday morning, has created a profound sensation in this city. The entire detective force is mak- ing every effort to capture the murderers, ard several promising clews which have been discovered may result in this before another day has passed.
 It appears that the burglars entered the Shell mansion, on Washington boulevard, by cutting hole in panel of the kitchen door large enough to admit of the passage of a hand and arm. The catch was then sprung and the men stole into the house. Tiptoeing their way through the kitchen they crept into MT. Shells office in the front of the house and ransacked his safe, securing about g, 2,0OO. worth of county warrants, 5000 of negotiable paper and nearly $500 in cash. Then they ascended to the first floor, and find ing the parlor door locked broke it open with a jimmy.
 Mi. ,snell slept alone in a, room directly over the middle parlor. Quietly as the bur glars had worked, they had aroused the aged millionaire. He rose from bed, seized his 
 staircase, at the bottom of which he no doubt heard the thieves at their work. He was in his night robes The white figure had gone but half way down stairs when the parlor doors were closed by one of the men inside the room. It is supposed that the noise startled the old man. He leveled his pistol at the panels of the doors and fired. The bullet passed through the center of one of the doors, about five feet from the floor, and, crossing the parlor, pierced white silken banner, and struck the wall just above the marble fire place. It then fell upon the floor. MT. Shell fired again, but no trace of the bullet can be found.
 With an armed man standing at the doors through which they entered the room the burglars became desperate. One of them discharged his heavy weapon, and the bullet pierced panel in the door and lodged in the wall just above the banister post The three holes in the door tell the story of the blind duel.
 There was nothing about the white figure, lying in the middle of the richly tapestried corridor, with his gray hair matted in hood and his right hand clinched about the handle of a revolver, to give the officers any positive idea as to how the millionaire made his last stand for his life and his property. 1t is thought, however, that the instant the burg lars fired through the panel they opened the doors and, with the barrels of the revolvers and a flood of light from their lanterns lev eled at the bewildered man, shot him before he could utter word Their bloody work finished the assassins slipped out of a side door and disappeared.
 There were four persons in the house who heard the shooting but feared to learn its source lest they themselves might be killed They were Rose Burkssaller, the cook, Ida Berenstean, a second girl, and little Mildred and Christie Coffin, the 5 and year old grandchildren of the murdered man. All four slept in a suite of rooms on the third floor. Miss BurlSstaller ran to alarm Mir Shell, but just as she opened the door there were two loud explosions and the frightened girl retraced her steps. Servants and chil- dren screamed behind their barricaded door, but not one dared open a window to summon assistance. Exhausted by their exertions they at last returned to their beds, and it was not until hostler Henry Winklebook came to the house at 6 a. m. from the stable to attend to the furnace fire, and found the corpse of Mr. Shell lying on the floor of the hallway, that there was any knowledge of the tragedy. Mrs. She'll the wife of the murdered man was not at home, having gone to Milwaukee last Monday to visit friends Mir. Shell, although 63 years old, had the physical development of an athlete, and was noted for his fearlessness. He had acquired and estate valued at s3,O00,000.