The Coconino weekly sun., 1894-12-20
A BANK TRAGEDY.
TWO Officials Severely Wounded
 by a Collection Clerk.
TIE PERPETRATOR THEN SUICIDES
The Afralr Caused by Questioning Him as to a Missing Check-The Young Man Had Been Living Beyond
 Ills Income.

o'clock yesterday tragedy was euact- ed in the private office of the Citizens State bank of Council Bluffs which may result fatally to three persons. John Huntington, assistant bookkeeper and collection clerk, shot C. A. Cromwell, of Minneapolis, and F. x. Hayden, of Chicago, repre- sentatives of the Fidelity and Casualty Co, of New York, and then emptied his revolver into his own brain, infictiug wound from which he died two hours later. Cromwell and Hayden, it is thought, will recover. Huntington was one of the best known men in Council Bluffs and numbered his friends by the hundred So far as can be learned he had no bad habits and this is what makes his act the harder to explain.
 On July 20 last check of $500 was turned over to him by Ira F. Hendricks, one of the employees of the bank, in the regular routine of business. Hunting ton charged up the check to the Union Stock Yard National bank of South Omaha, and from that day to this noth- ing whatever has been seen or heard of it. The day follow ing Huntington left for a vaca. tion trip of several weeks to New York city. The bank officials kept thinking the check would turn up sooner or later and deferred any action. As time passed on and it became evident that the bank was out $500 they sent a message to the Fidelity & Casualty Co. notifying it of the fact and sug- gesting the inspectors come on at once and make an investigation. The bank officials claim that at the time they had no charges to make against Hunt ington or any employe of the bank in particular. All of their employees were bonded in the Fidelity and they pre- ferred that the Fidelity company should make the investigation rather than make it themselves.
 Messrs. Cromwell and Hayden arrived in the city last Friday and took rooms at the Grand hotel. They cross-exam- ined each of the bank employees through whose hands the missing check had passed, and among the rest Hunting ton. They claimed to have discovered NAAiS AAC AifA bCCh than the salary of S45 month, which ho was receiving, would warrant, and on this fact, and the fact that the check had been last seen in his hands, they based their suspicious. Hunting ton and the representatives of the Fidelity company met Saturday night and made arrangements for another meeting at the bank Sunday morning, when the investigation was to be re- sumed.
 At the hour appointed they were to- gether and Cromwell and Hayden com menced to put the young man through running cross-fire of questions. Pres ident J. D. Edmundson and Cashier c. k. Hannah of the bank were present dur ing most of the interview. The confer ence had not been in progress more than fifteen minutes when Huntington rose from his chair, pulled revolver and commenced firing at the repre- sentatives of the Fidelity company. The revolver he used was a 44-caliber that belonged to the bank and had been kept in the desk of G. B. Spooner, the paying teller. The first three shots "tIt hICl GU "ilO hdu ldhch the lead in the interrogation, and all three took effect. The fourth struck Hayden, and then Huntington raised the weapon to his own head and fired. He fell to the floor unconscious, and remained so until his death, at 1:15 p m.
 The two wounded men ran out of the bank down First avenue and into the Grand hotel, blood dripping from them at every step. They were taken to their rooms and Dr. Donald McRae was summoned. He found that one of the bullets had taken effect in Crom- wells back, just to the right of the spine above the waist line. It was found about inches below the surface and extracted. The second bullet struck in the left side of his cheek, plowed its way around the right side of his neck and came to a stop after just missing the carotid artery. The third struck him in the wrist, he having thrown up his hands to strike the revolver out of Huntington's hand. It broke one of the bones of the forearm clear in two and imbedded itself in other bone, almost severing it. When the ball was taken out it was cut almost in two from the pointed end down. Cromwell will prob ably lose the use of his right hand on account of stiffening of the wrist joint as the result of the fracture of the bones.
 Hayden fared better. The bullet struck him in the neck and after pass ing around about quarter of the way, emerged and imbedded itself in panel of the door, where it was afterward found. His wound is not considered of serious nature, but variation of half an inch would have killed him. The bullet that took Huntington's life entered the skull just behind the ear and lodged back of the right eye, where its presence was shown by discolora- ton of the lid. His having the weapon in his possession showed he had planned 1t all out beforehand and his coolness In the face of the terrible deed he was meditating is surprising, all of the men