St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-01-05
A Brooklyn Anarchist Stran-
giles His Little Child With
a Clothesline,
Gives His Wife Paris Green at
Her Request, and Then
Shoots Her,
And, After Two Days, Puts a
Bullet Through His Own
Heart.
A Deed Which Has Few Par
allelS in the Annals of
American Crime.

New YORK, Jan. I'm Brooklyn
to-day, the discovery was made that
Louis NJ. Franklin, an anarchist, had
choked his child to death, poisoned and
then shot his wife, and, when discovery
made the laws retribution certain, sent
41-caliber bullet with unerring
aim through his heart. Death fol
lowed instantly. For two days and
nights he had eaten and slept
alongside the decomposing bodies of his
wife and child. 1t was shortly after 9
O'Clock this morning that Edward Katz-
enstein reported to the police that there
was something in the little shanty at the
rear of $50 Maujer street. He had gone
there to get weeks washing-the Gead
woman was his laundresS-but could
get no response to his knocks.
Officers went to the spot and raped at
the door of the shanty, but received no
response. An officer raised the front
window and climbed in. AS he
did so a maniac with matted
hair and beard, and wild,
rolling eyes, bounded from the
rear room. In his hand was a
huge revolver. 1t was levelled
at the officers head. ''Get out
of here" cried the mailman, at the same
time swapping the trigger. The officer
reTreated, but pistol shot was heard
within the shanty, and he returned. A
terrible discovery was made. In the
rear room. there are but two, lay the
bodies OF the suicides wife and child.
One the wlfe-had been killed by him
AT HER OWN REQUEST.
The child he had strangled to death
with rope, never once needing its pit
eous cries. Franken, who had done it
all, besides being an anarchist, is some
thing of an artist. and also has been as
slstant to his wife in her laundrywork.
His artistic ability ran in the way
OF painting pictures of Herr Most
and others of that ilk. He never
made anything out of his painting.
Over his mantel hung photographs of
the anarchists hanged in Chicago.
Around each was a border of black.
The shanty in which the family lived
gave evidence that Mrs. Franken was
neat, thrifty hOusekeeper. She sympa-
TINED with her husband, and when he
said the entire family would be better
oil dead than alive. she agreed with
him, but she wanted to die easily. She
suggested that he poison her. With
this end in view he purchased Paris
green. He tells this in one of the let
tiers he left. In it he also says his wife
died at precisely o'clock on Tuesday
afternoon. In another letter he SAYS
that he is insane, driven so by
.,N Is
being able to better his condition.
Franken and his wife discussed this
matter calmly, and finally agreed to 90
out OF the world together. The child, a
pretty blue-eyed thing, not quite three
years old, they decided TO take with
them. The husband and father be-
came the executioner. On Tuesday the
wife lay down upon the bed in the rear
room She had previously cleaned up
the rooms. The husband brought her
A DOSE OF PARIS GREEN
in water. She drank it. When she
began to suffer, rolling on the bed in
intense IN. ;, agony. she begged piteously
for relief. Frankan hnrriedIy load
ed his revolver and placed the
muzzle against her right temple.
Another cry of agony from the
woman and the report of the pistol rang
out simultaneously Relief had come.
The child was next called into the room.
1t had been frightened by the noise and
was crying. The father cut piece
Of clothes line. Holding the child
in his left arm he grasped both ends of
the rope III his right. He sat on the
edge of the bed. Placing the rope
around the childs neck he drew it
taut. Instinctively the little ones
chubby hands raised in defense
OF its life. But the murderer's work
went on. Tighter and tighter the rope
became. twisted by the muscular hand
OF the father. The child gasped
and struggled feebly. 1t was go
ing fast. Tighter and tighter
was the cruel rope drawn, until il cut
into the yielding flesh. Tying the rope
thus. the father laid the now dead
babe besides its mother. Presently its
clothing was stained by its mothers
blood. Here the coward in Franklin
manifested itself. He failed 10 carry
out the contract, for he did not kill HIM
self. Since Tuesday night he has re-
manned in the rooms with his murdered
wife and child. The last time he
was seen by any of his neigh
bOrS was on Tuesday. He cooked his
own meals and lived alone with death.
In the inner room. where they had been
laid when killed, the police found the
body of the mother and babe.
Decomposition had already set
in. The stencil was frightfuI.
Franken had killed himself instantly
and fallen i'll the center of the front
room. The life blood married the white
ness of the floor. The bodies were re-
moved and powerful disinfectapt was
sprinkled about.