Morning journal and courier., 1891-10-19
MAY RESULT FATALLY.

MAY RESULT FATALLY. Three Men Shot Early Yesterday | Morning in Hamden-One of the
 Trio Will Probably Die-Elmer A.
 Tho1mes, a Well-K nOwn Liquor
 Spotter, Uses His Revolver-He is
 Arrested With the Weapon Still in
 His Possession.
 At an early hour yesterday morning the town of Hamden was the scene of shoot ing affray as consequence of which one man lies probably mortally wounded in the hospital, another seriously injured at his home, third whose identity is not known is carrying around a bullet in one of his legs, and the man who did the shooting, | who is none other than Elmer A. Tholmes, | one of Judge Blydenburg's famous trio of | liquor spotterss is incarcerated at police headquarters and will this morning be called upon to answer to most serious charge which later may be changed to that of murder.
 The story of the affray as related by an eye witness, is substantially as follows About 12 o'clock Tholmes and two boon companions started from the corner of Church and Chapel streets in 8 hack, driven by Eugene McCabe, bound for the notorious resort known as the Red House, occupied by Frankie Raymond, and situated in the town of Hamden. Arrived at the place they | attempted to obtain admission but the house being full were denied admittance. In the meantime it is said that the hack drove away and after being refused admit 1 tance to the house, Tholmes came down 4ha 1a1 | with crowd of some twenty or more \ men, who were congregated about the outside of the resort. It is supposed that Tholmes was engaged in looking for his | hack and probably accused some of the men of having sent it away, Tholmes at the time being considerably under the influence of liquor. What actually did take place may never be known but few seconds later Tholmes whipped revolver out of his pocket and fired it at William Jones, who was standing immediately in front of and with his back turned toward him. The ball entered Jones' back inn mediately under the right shoulder and l the victim dropped to the ground.
 At this point in the melee one of the crowd named Frank Butler, who is a resi- dent of the town of Hamden, came up to Jones' assistance, when immediately there was another fash and Butler dropped to the ground probably mortally wounded, the bullet penetrating his left lung. Another shot was immediately fired, which some man, whose name cannot be ascertained, re- ceived the bullet in his leg. He was only slightly wounded, however, and succeeded | in getting away from the locality unaided
 After firing the last shot Tholme at once ran away and made 8 bee line for the swamps and thence to the city, coming down the tracks of the Northampton road to College street and thence to his room on Crown street near College, where he was morning by Officers Tripp and Watrous.
 picked up, placed in hack and driven to the residence of Dr. Miles Hotchkiss, 1886 Shelton avenue, where their injuries were attended to as far possible at the time. The doctor probed for the bullets, but was unable to find the one in Buffers lung. He did succeed, however, in extracting the bullet from Jones' back The serious condition of the men was such that Medi- cal Examiner White and Coroner Mix
 was also summoned and Butler taken to
 the hospital and Jones to his home at Al | Orchard sereet.
 Officers Tripp, Watrous and Curran are
 deserving of @ great deal of credit for the
 manner in which they effected the capture
 of Tholmes. Officer Tripp was the first
 officer who heard of the affray from one
 of the hack drivers who congregate al
 the corner of Church and Chapel streets
 and immediately reported the case to Ser
 geant Mcbride at police headquarters, talk ing with him to the police office the man from whom he had heard the story. This
 was about 3 o'clock in the morning After obtaining description of the man
 who fired the shots, Officers Tripp and
 Watrows were detailed upon the case and |, started out to locate Tholmes They went
 to several places where Tholmes was
 known to have resided, in one of which the proprietor, after telling them that the
 man had moved away from there, threat
 ened that if they did not get out of the
 house within four minutes he would throw
 them out. The officers finally succeeded in locating their man in room on Crowr
 street, where he was found lying in bed He was immediately placed under arres
 and when asked by one of the officers wha he had done with the revolver pulled down
 the bed clothes and disclosed thirty-twc calibre revolver, of which two chambers were empty, in the bed with Ihim. He die
 not deny the shooting, but claimed that ht
 did it in self defense.
 , out to Hamden and secured a warrant from the authorities in that town or
 which to hold the prisoner, as the oHense
 had been committed outside the jurisdic tion of the local authorities. They ther , returned to the city and upon examina , tion of the papers it was found that owing
 to the carelessness of the official who made
 them out they were defective, as any constable of the town of Hamden was f authorized to arrest the criminal but nc
 authority was given the New Haven off
 cers to do so The officers apain went On1 to Hamden and this time returned witt
 the papers in proper form.
 Tholmes claims in his own behalf tha the shooting was done by him in self-de
 fense, that crowd of twenty or more as saulted him and were getting the better of , him when he drew his revolver and fired
 one shot into the air with the intention oi F soaring them, but seeing that this had nc effect fired into the crowd in order to pro tect his own life.
 8 Frank Butler, who is the most seriously F injured of the men, lay at the hospital lat
 last night in very critical condition
 probing, the physicians were unable to To cate the ball and were obliged to dssist il their attempts as further probing woult entail severe hemorrhages. Butler is . married man and resides with his wife ant J three children in Hamden.
 William Jones was last evening in
 slightly improved condition, the ball hay ing been removed, and no serious result
 are anticipated unless inflammation set in. He is young man, employed at Win 9 chester's, son of William R. Jones, :, e joiner, and resides with his parents at A Orchard street.
 Union Meeting of City Clergy. ! l.