Los Angeles herald., 1891-12-02
John KormOs Tells About
the Shooting.
The Wounded Slav Is in a Pre-
carious Condition.
He Claims That Leffler Had Abused
Him and His Companion.
Kandelar Shot the Watchman-Kormo os
Was Shot by Leffler-A Claim That
the Affair Happened In
Self Defense,

Who murdered Leffler? That is the
question the police are trying to solve.
Many are of the opinion that Kandelar
shot both men. Their theory is that
while Kormos was struggling with the
watchman Kandelar grabbed the re-
volver which Leffler was trying to use.
and that he fired two shots in rapid
succession, the first one taking effect on
Kormos instead of Leffler. The two
shots were fred in rapid succession, and
the story told by Kandelar is not gen.
orally credited.
1t was reported yesterday that the
condition OF Kormos was very critical.
Chief Glass decided that it would be
expedient to secure a dying statement.
Last night, after considerable trouble,
an interpreter was secured. There are
probably not more than six people in
Los Angeles who can speak the language
OF either Kormos or Kandelar. The
wounded man made the following state
ment at 10 O'Clock last evening in the
receiving hospital, to Chief Glass, Dep
uty District Attorneys Phibbs and Mar
BILE, Coroner Weldon and several news
paper men:
John Kormos is my name. / was
born in Szobb, ten miles above Pseth,
in Hungary, 81 years ago. Business is
that of laborer. Arrived in America
on the 18th of March. am married.
have five children. Came to California
on July 18th. Came to Los Angeles on
Friday last from Gila City. know
Kandelar. Have known him since
March. He is no relation OF mine. First
met him in New York. We went to
ella City together. We arrived in Los
Angeles on Friday morning. / arrived
on Friday and went to sleep on Satur-
day evening in the car. Kandelar slept
with me. The watchman found me in
the morning and hit me once then
grabbed his pistol and shot me. This
was Sunday morning last. 1t was about
8 O'Clock. After the watchman shot me
/, in trying to defend myself threw
my arm around and hit his
pistol and it fell and went off. Kande-
lar was standing near the car when the
watchman shot me. He then ran to
to prevent him from shooting any more.
. hO WauChlioh W6o VI ihS w SiOOb IAdn-
dalar. When the watchman shot me,
Kandelar ran up and grabbed the pistol
and shot the watchman. The watch
man was trying to shoot Kandelar when
he shot him. mean by ''he," Kande-
lar Kandalancza. He grabbed the pis-
tol from the watchman and shot him.
Kandelancza threw the pistol away.
dop't know where the watchman was
shot. After the shooting we went to
the place. l don't know the name
of the place. l went to a
zanja, where l washed myself. We
did nothing with the watchman's body.
We left it there. / saw nobody there.
tainted and fell down when the watch
man was shot. / fell on the planks.
The watckman kicked Kandalancza and
hit him, and then tried to shoot him. /
don't know what became of the pistol.
The watchman fell down after he was
shot. don't know where the watch
man was when the shooting occurred.
They were struggling. put my hand
on the watchman's shoulders and then
my hand to one side to keep him from
shooting me. | did not throw him
down. He fell down himself, when
they wrestled together. The watchman
fell on the ties. This was at the time
when he shot me and Kandalancza
shot him. 1t was about three
minutes intervened between the
shots. / did not see what occurred after
that as l fell down. l did nothing to
the watchman. On Saturday night l
and Kandanlancza were at the station.
The watchman then acted as if he was
drunk. He kicked me and threw me
down. After we washed we went into
yard and put our valise down, and then
the police brought us here. When we
left the watchman was lying on the ties.
When the police took us back he was
spread out on the ties. We came here
on our way to San Francisco. That is
all know about the case. / have told
the truth and all know.
Kandalancza was then examined, and
repeated his testimony given at the in
quest.
Kandelar made long statement just
before midnight. At first he said that
he shot the watchman after the watch
man had shot Kormos. Later he denied
that he did the shooting. The state
ment is very contradictory and is not
worth much.
Those who heard the statements of
both men think the story told by Kor-
mos is probably the correct one.