The Newtown bee., 1889-10-25

N~Ns AAN A'SHASo up hf SdtblC duu would have thumped him, only that wo- man of his was back of a big rock with 1 pistol"
 S'Peck has threatened to break the | Dutchman's head,'' said Tyler.
 SVell, he no break dis Dutchman's head,' answered Rudolph, savagely.
 "Why not?'' "Oh,-you'll find out when the officers come down about o'clock"
 'Peck may come with them.'' | "No, he won'ti'
 But why nOt?'' | ''Oh, never mind have drink of ci- der brandy | Tyler drank. Rudolph fell back on the bed, on the side of which he had
 been sitting while talking and said again, | s'Oh, I'm so sick. Put your ear down
 here and I'll tell you why Peck won't come down.
 | Then, in the same loud tone, with
 scarcely pause, he added, with an oath, Because 1 shot him." Tyler could hardly believe it, although he knew the enmity between the men. "Be here at B. Rudolph went on, ito get me off when the officers come. You can say that I've been sick all the time" ''But," objected Tyler, ''people have seen you in Bridgeport and they know you were not sick" Rudolph continued to talk about Peck and presently said,
 II got where he could not see me and when he came out I let drive at him. You ought to have seen him jump when the shot struck and stung him; he jump ed about like q grasshopper."
 Tyler was called home by his son. John H., but it was not long before Rudolph came to the house, clad only in disar- ranged shirt and pantaloons, looking wild and frightened. He asked Mrs Ty- Ter if she had heard that Andrew Peck | was dead and added,
 ''He died at half past ,, this morning; I shot him.
 | He offered Tyler roll of bills, if he
 would go and find that Peck was not dead; on his refusal he said,
 | 'Well, take it and get Levi Edwards
 to bury him before he gets fly blown | Tyler told Rudolph to go himself, ad-
 ding that Levi Edwards was q pretty
 man for such a job. Rudolph followed
 Mrs Tyler about the house, pouring into
 her unwilling ears the story of the mur-
 der and at last asking if they were not going to the funeral. Receiving an af,
 firmative answer, he went home.
 Besides this conversation, all of which
 he heard, John II. Tyler was prepared
 to state that he had heard Mrs Stoeffel
 tell Levi Edwards that Mrs John Frank
 told the truth at the first trial. (She
 had said that Mrs Stoeffel told her that
 Rudolph left the house, before the mur-
 der, with gun and that she dared not
 stop him lest he should shoot her, he was
 so cross).
 | In confessing her husbands guilt, Mrs
 Stoeffel says that she is sorry she did not
 tell the truth at first, as that would have
 taken great weight from her mind. Rll-
 dolph had feared that she would betray
 him, for he told John Frank at the jail oht Ohtt Souiuh SCb "otb out of him, but that he was afraid of his
 wife and was sorry that he had brought
 her from New York. And yet, despite
 his boast, it was only through his own admissions and confessions that the over-
 whelming evidence against him was
 brought to light. = When Rudolph went home from Bridge
 port, the night before the murder, he stopped at several places and at each re-
 hearsed his quarrels with Peck and, with
 more or less distinetness, threatened him. Edward Lane was the last man
 with whom he talked and their converse
 tion was cut short by the stamping of
 the impatient horses. As Rudolph left,
 he said with savage force, referring to Peck, about whom he had just been talk
 ing, -... --...a
 sSI shoot him i''
 Lane was very unwilling to tell this, : however and not until he had been
 brought to Judge Beecher's office and
 sternly admonished of his duty did he
 consent to reveal Rudolph's last words I tO lllIll- 1tlGCI ohNiit lhuAoipil , drove home and turned out his horses then, taking his armament of gun, pistol and knife, proceeded to Peck's and waited : behind that wall from 12 o'clock at night : until 30 the next morning. Drunk al } Rudolph undoubtedly was, his brain wa ? still clear enough to enable him to riddle } Peck with shot and to watch and des 5 cribe the dying contortions of his victim 5 The State requires two eye-witnesses 0 } their equivalent to convict of murder il : the first degree and also requires that tn 9 murderer shall be sober enough to real l ize fully the consequences of his act Q And yet, according to his own story, Ru : dolph bad long resolved to kill Peck an s only awaited a favorable opportunity -i One night, some time before the murder s he went out with his gun and pistols t l waylay Peck on his way home. Just a b Peck approached, however, Joe Riespont g Rudolph's Frenchman, happened alon
 and the would-be murderer was forced l. by stress of circumstances, to desist, bu e in telling the story he simply adds, l. .sJoe's coming was all that saved Peel 7 that time.''
 t Peck was heartily disliked and feare s for his cruel and unreasoning temper t but Rudolph was nearly or quite as ba i, in the vindictive ferocity of his nature t At one time, he entered Victor Swartz r when he was absent and, calling MI V Swartz every vile. name that he coul t think of, declared, with many an oatl l, that he would cut her to pieces. Befoi h he could begin an amateur Jack the Ri $ per job, Levi Edwards arrived and thre [e' him out of the house. Again, he ocean