The Weiser signal. [volume] (Weiser, Idaho) 1890-1904, 1894-12-20
John Huntington, a Bank Clerk
Fires on His Inquistors.
A LOST CHECK TIE CAUSE
TWO Agents or the Fideii and Cas-
ualty Company X ce.ve S--
we're Wout d..

fatally Tor three persons. John Hunt
ington, assistant book-keeper and col
lection clerk, shot c. A. Cromwell of
Minneapolis and f.. N. Hayden of Chi
cago, representatives of the Fidelity &
Casualty Company of New York, and
then emptied his revolver into his own
brain, infiicting a 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 hundreds. So far as can
be learned he had no bad habits, and
this is what makes his act harder to
explain. On the goth of last July
check for $500 was turned over to him by
Ira f. Hendricks. one of the employees
of the bank, in the regular routine of
business. Huntington charged up the
check to the Stock National bank of
South Omaha, and to this day nothing
has been seen or heard of it. The day
following Huntington left for II vaca-
ton trip of several weeks to New York
The bank officials kept thinking the
check would turn up sooner or later,
and deferred action AS time passed on
and it became evident that the bank was
out $500. they sent a message to the
| ing it of the fact and suggesting that
| the inspectors come and make an nves-
| tigation. The bank officials claim that
at the time they had no charges to
make against Huntington, or any en-
ploye of the bank in particular. All of
| their employees were bonded in the FL
| deity, and they preferred that the FL
| deity company should make the inves-
| tigation, rather than make il them
| selves.
| Messrs. Cromwell and Hayden arrived
| IN the city last Friday and took rooms
| 1t the Grand hotel. They cross-exam-
ined each of the bank employees through
| whose hands the missing check passed
! and among the rest. Huntington. They
| claimed TO have discovered that he had
| been spending more money than his
| salary of $45 month, which he was re-
| ,eiving, would warrant, and on this
| 7aot, together with the fact that the
| check had been last seen in his hands
| hey based their suspicious on Hunting
| ton, and the representa- tlyes of the FL
| lelity company met Saturday night and
| made arrangements for another meet
| ing at the bank Sunday morning, when
| The investigation was TO be resumed.
.GOADED- TO MADNESS.
| At the hour appointed they were to-
| gether and Cromwell and Hayden com
nenced to put the young man through
| 4 running cross fire of questions Pres
| dent j. d. Edmonson and Cashier c.
| A. Hannah of the bank were there dur
| ing most of the interview. The confer
snce had not been in progress more
| than five minutes when Huntington
rose from his chair, pulled a gun and
| commenced firing at the representa-
| tives of the Fidelity company. The
| revolver was of 44-calibre and belonged
to the bank and had been kept in the
| desk of the paying teller. The first
three shots were fired at Cromwell, who
| had taken the lead in the Interrogation,
| and all three took effect. The fourth
| struck Hayden and then Huntington
| raised the weapon to his head and
| fired. He fell to the floor unconscious
| and remained so until his death at 1920.
TERRIBLY WOUNDED.
The two wounded men ran out Of the
bank and into the Grand hotel, the
blood dripping from them at every step.
| They were taken to their rooms and
DR.. McRae Jr. summoned. He found
that one of the bullets took effect in
Cromwell's back, just to the right of
the spine about the waist line. II was
found about four inches below the sur
face and extracted. The second bullet
struck in the left side of his cheek,
ploughed it's way around to the right
side of his neck and came to a stop after
just missing the carotoid artery. The
| frd CT n m m he rio vrie he
having thrown up his hand to strike
the revolver out of Huntington's hand
It broke one of the bones of the fore
arm clear in two and imbedded itself
in the other bone, almost severing it,
Cromwell will probably lose the use OF
his right hand on account of the stiff
ening of the wrist joint as a result OF
The fracture of the bone.
Hayden Jared better. The bullet
struck him in the neck and after
passing around quarter of the way
| emerged and imbedded itself i'm the
panel of the door, where it was after
wards found His wound is not consid.
cred of a dangerous nature, but the
variation of half an inch would have
killed him. The bullet that took Hunt
ington's life entered the skull just be
hind the ear and lodged back of th'
right eye, where its presence was
shown by the discoloration of the lid
His having the weapon in his posses
sion, showed that he had planned ii al
out beforehand and his GOODNESS in the
face of the terrible deed he was meditat
ing was surprising, although the mel
present at the interview testified tina
they had not the slightest idea tina
anything out Of the ordinary wa
thought of by the young man.
THE PRESIDENTS STORY.
Major Edmondson, president of tn
bank, was seen and asked for his Yer
10 sion of the affair. He said: Hunting
ton. Cromwell. Hayden and l were sit
ting in the private office. Cromwell wa
in the northwest corner of the room.
in the northeast. Hayden about the cen
ter and Huntington between Haydel
= and myself. We were seated about tn
=. table that stands against the mort
e wall Mr.. Hannah, the cashier. ha
= been sitting between Hayden and Hunt
i ington until a few minutes before tn
shooting took place. when he went ou