The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1889-09-21
MURDERED HIS FRIEND
Frank Johnson Shot Dead by His Room
mate at Butte.


special tn the standard.
BUTTE. Sept. 3.-At 9:.p o'clock to-
night Frank NJ. Lewis Wake up the steps
of the court house and into the shcriff's
office wlsers. Cndcr-Sherif Toms. Harry
Nichols and George Sproule were sitting
and said: 81 want To give myself mp. L
have shot u man and I am afraid hc il
dead. But il was i'm seif-icfcnsc." Lewis
carried i'm his hand "a :slcaliber smith 4
Wesson revolver, which he surrendered.
He was locked up i'm thu court house.
Down in N little two-story frame
house, No. Is South Montana street. lying
on the floor of ~ small room i'm the second
story with his head out i'm the hallway lay
Lewis victim, his room-matc, Frank
Johnson. He was "a tall, slender young
man of about 25, wearing ~ slight mus
tache. The two young men had always
seemed the hest Of friends and had not
been known to have IN quarrel until this
afternoon. Both work for Williams, the
Park-street butcher. Lewis il "a driver
and johnson ~ salesman. About
the middle of the afternoon johnson
was selling pork chops tai IA customer and
charEsa 10 cents "a pound; Lewis hap,
down for charging Is cents when the price
was one bit. After the. customer had
gone, Johnson upbraided Lewis for calling
hIm down before u CUSTOMER aud there
were hot words OH both sides. This evcn-
ing, when they were in their room to-
Rttller tIhe QuAfTch was feIlewtu. Lewis
claims to have acted in seif.icfcnsc, bat
am examination by the police failed to re-
veal any revolver or other weapon
In the pockets If the dead man or amy
where in the room. DIR. toward, the cor
oner, viewed the body mt lO:15 o'clock,
and il was taken at once To ~Shcrman's
undertaking. rOoins OH Granite strSeet.
The CORONER ordered all witnesses to r.
pair at once to the police court for AN inn
mediate inquest.
Al the police court the coroner immcdi-
ately summoned n coroner's jury. The
jurors were: =. Tucker, John &. Evans. J.
n. Firch. John g.. Elston, Samuel Price,
w. f. Headings. Mrs. Sarah McMastcr.
the iandlady where the young men BOARD
ed, said: 81 keep this house rs a
Of sep,e%Ssr decsas.d came -
room AT my house. The dead mans
name was Frank johnson. The two nen
seemed tn be very friendly until tonight,
when about ten minutes past nine, when
1 was sitting i'm the dining room, I heard a
room OK the deceased. Il sounded like a
scufiie. I heard no pistol shot. 1 heard
Lewis say: wha do you want in here
began. I arose and went to the foot OF
the stairs and asked, What is the trouble
up there I saw Frank Lewis standing at
frightened. ] said: Come down stairs
and stop scufiiing up there Lewis said:
Well, he sworc he would kill me and l
shot him. He is lying mp here now"
Cross-examined by Attorney f.. =.
Booth, the witness said: Tho dining
Ttbptn u right uI1us'f tne room wIlt'rr the
shooting occurred. / did not hear any
pistol shot. Mr.. Clifford. who rooms ON
thc lower hoor. went out and then several
came in. IL was Lewis who used the
words: He sworS. he would kill me-
They had only been i'm the room "a minute
together when the trouble occurred. The
dead MAJ was the last one to go into the
room. Frank Lewis was to leave by DE-
tober 1st. The trouble occurred in less
than a minute after the deceased came i'm
and went up. stairs. l Thought l saw "a
pistol in Lewis Ina nd as he stood at the
head of the stairs.
DIR. j. w. Gum said: ~ was called to
view the remains of the young man who
had been shot. just before. I was called I
was standing in front of my house. nearly
and heard two pistol shots i'm the direction
of that house. 1 then went down town,
and in a few moments Clifford, who rooms
at McMasters' house, came down and
asked me to come up quick. as u man was
shot. went up and found q
his head in the hallway. i exami"e the
body and found life extinct. When 1 WAS
examining the body, 1 heard a man say.
man then went into the bedroom and
brought out the pistol. This man also
said i am going to give myself up i
looked carefully in.o the deccased's hands
but found no weapon upon tho corpse.
The man who said he did the shooting
gave some reasons for doing the shooting
but the witness could not say just what
Harry A. Dcrring said: ~ was on the
StFttt DtlpW bsirt at "a low
minutes after . o'clock tonight, when I
heard two pistol shots that seemed to- have
come from Ne Master's house. Afterwards
came back in about IL minutes and en-
tered McAfastcr's house, where "A crowd
had already collected. / saw the de-
ceased. He was lying upon the floor up
stairs dead. I saw Lewis with "A revolver
i'm his hand. Lewis said: This il the re-
volver. I am going tn give myself up
Lewis went into the room and got his re-
volver after l entered the house."
Under Sheriff Thomas said: ~ was i'm
the court house at 9:5D. when
Deputy Sheriff Nichols and Frank
Lewis came in together. Lewis
said he had come to give himself mp
for shooting a man. l asked him who hc
had shot and where il occurred. He said
n man had come to his room and threat
ened to kill him and he, the prisoner, had
shot him. The prisoner did not say
whether the deceased had drawn any
Weapons OF not before the scuftie. When
Lewis came in the court house he had "A
pistol i'm his hand. Ibid not notice whether
there were any empty cartridges in the
pistol at the time" The pistol was shown
and identified.
Deputy Sheriff Harry Nichols vsaid: 81
was at the court house about 9:D o'clock,
when j saw Lewis coming mp the steps
with n pistol i'm his hand. He said: II
have come to give myself mp. ] guess
have killed a man down on Montana
street. asked him what the trouble
l rna He aaih thn man hax1 snts1 la ,,o.,ll