The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-09-04
KOCCIS NOT TO DIE
Court of Pardons Reprieved Him
Today but Would Not
Save AItenberger.
FIVE MURDERERS IN OUR JAIL
All Were SIayers Of Women-To.
days New Accession Takes His
Position Coolly.

Thursday will be hangman's day in
New Jersey and unless the Peshall
trick of appealing to the United States
Court is resorted to in the last days,
Two men will suffer on the gallows in
different parts of the State at about the
same hour.
Down to today, it was expected there
would be three executions
New Jersey has been slow of late years
in melting out Justice to the murderers
that have infested her area. This year
she is reclaiming the reputation of the
State for quick Jersey justice. Two men
have already suffered the death penalty
Three go day after tomorrow. Two more
are under sentence of death awaiting
an appeal to the United States Court,
and seven more are awaiting trial in the
various county jails. Nearly all the
murderers that have been committed
have woman at the bottom of the affair
All three of the men who are doomed
to hang on September murdered women
with whom they had been living.
Wesley Warner. when maddened with
jealousy and rum, stabbed the young girl
who had followed his errratic course
from city to city. He was Burlington
from family outside of Mount Holly.
The Peak family were unfortunate. Bar
clay Peak is serving a twenty years
sentence for killing Katie Anderson, his
cousin, because of jealousy. Lizzie Peak
was murdered by Warner. There were
four sisters in the Peak family, who
were all pretty. Lizzie was a pretty girl,
but not as good looking as the others,
Warner was a prisoner that had to be
watched at times. He was sullen and
profane. He refused spiritual advice
and only recently threw his Bible out of
the cell window.
John Koccis. who is in the Mercer
JAIL left wife and three children in
Hungary, and came here and made the
wife of his boyhood friend his mistress.
She was Mary Magolas, a middle-aged
woman. When her husband came back
from the West she wanted to get rid of
Koccis. He became insanely Jealous, and
on August 5. 1892, he shot her in the
heart without a word of warning. His
lawyers have worked hard to save him
from the gallows, and many citizens
signed petition to have his sentence of
death commuted to Imprisonment for
HE. Inc success Oh THESE GlIOTlS Is Te-
corded below. Koccis is very religious
and spends his time at devotions and
prayer
Bernard Altenberger is in the Hudson
County Jail for the murder of Katie
Rupp. After spending nearly all of her
savings he enticed the girl to New Jersey
and brutally shot her SO that he might
be relieved of her and be able to devote
his time to another girl Altenberger is
young German, and it is claimed that
he is subject to fits of insanity. If any
of the three murderers temporarily
escape execution it will be because
Charles T. Peshall has become inter-
ested in the case and threatens to make
q move at the last hour that will delay
the execution. Peshall has indicated
that he will make move on the errors
in the record of the case, violation of the
treaty between this country and Ger
many and the fact that his client is sub
ject to temporary fits of insanity.