The evening world., 1890-01-23
SHOT BY HER CRAZY SISTER.
Mary POlt0TS Almost Miraculous Is.
cape from Instant Death.
A Bullet Fired at Close Range Flat
tened on Her Head.

Mary Potter. a dressmaker, was shot
by her sister Ellen this morning at 1853
East Thirty -second street. The bullet
struck her squarely in the head without
harming her. Ellen is crazy. She in
tended to murder her other sister. Eliza
beth. who slept with Mary.
The three sisters live together on tho
third floor OF the house in which the
shooting was done. They are Dress
makers.
Since their father died. fifteen years
ngo. the sisters have struggled along earn
ing their living by the hardest kind Of
work.
Mary, tho youngest, is twenty-four.
Ellen md Elizabeth are thirty-two and
twenty-eight years old respectively.
Ellen and Elizabeth were devotedly at
tached to each other.
Six months ago Ellen broke down from
overwork and suffered from nervous
prostration.
The other two sisters paid for her
treatment at n sanitarium in Geneva,
N. Y. She improved, but did not re-
cover.
Five weeks ago she cnme here to her
sisters Her dementia had taken q new
new form aud had turned her old affec-
ton for her sister Elizabeth into sus-
picion and hatred. :
She believed she had been bewitched
by two silver quarters she had taken from
her sisters pocketbook. Ind that midi
rectly the sister had brought the trouble
upon her.
She brooded secretly over this fancied
wrong, but little attention was paid to
her mumblings.
Ellen asked her sister Mary for IS
yesterday. to buy a bonnet. With the
money she bought an American bulldog
revolver, 49, cal ibre, every chamberloaded,
and ready for use. She3 said nothing OF
this to her sisters.
All three slept in one room. the two
sano ones on he floor, Ellen on o lounge.
In the gray dawn Ellen arose Htealthily.
locked the doors and went to the bedside
of her sisters. Elizabeth. the fanoied
cause OF her troubles. slept nearest the
wall, but Ellen did not know it.
There was just light enough for the sis
ters. who had awakened. TO see her raise
the pistol and fire straight before her;
The report was followed by their wild and
frightened screams.
The powder flash had set the bottom OF
the crazy woman's skirt on fire. She
stamped il ont and called r~eassurlngly.
even coaxIngly: Elizabeth. where are
your"
The sister did not answer. She had
feared from the bed and crept behind b
sewing-machine. finding the door locked.
A. the second shot rang out, Mary.
weak aud covered with blood, but des-
perate with fear for her life. sprang from
the bed and rested the weapon from
her.
Policeman James Kivlen and Rounds
man Moran heard the shot and ran to the
scene.
When they got in they found the elder
sister with a bullet wound IN the top or
Ellen looked on with idiotic indif-
ference.
1t was On accident. A" she kept saying.
''She will forgive me and take me back"
The policeman took the wounded
woman To the stat on in Thirty-ifth street
and SUI moned ali ambulance from Belle
vue Hospital. The surgeon, after a care.
iul examination. to the utter astoniAhment
OF the police officials. dug out the bulles,
fattened to the size of a hye-cent nickel
against the skull.
II had. to all appearance. broken no
bone, though it had been fred at such
short range that the powder blackened
the arm which she drew NJ TO shield her
self. The bullet weighs nearly an
ounce. aud Mary Potter's escape Is little
short of n miracle.
She was taken to Bellevue Hospital.
however, as a measure of ~precaution. 1
Ellen was locked up. She paced the !
floor of the station house. mumbling to
herself with a vacant stare, but to al
questions returned: Will she forgive .
meP II was AZ accident"