The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1894-08-14
SLAIN FOR PLUMBER.
Sordid Murderers Beat Mother
and Child to Death.
TWO LIVES TAKEN FOR $3.50.
Mrs. John miller Beaten Beyond Recox-
nitisn With . Hammer. Her Babe
Killed and House Fired.

caoCk fast evening. The victims were
Mrs. Philippine Miller and her son Fritz.
Is months Cd. The crime was committed
by az least two persons familiar with the
premises, and the motive was the robbery
of 500 belonging to John Miller, the hus-
band Of the woman. Not only did the
men commit murder to hide the robbery.
but they set fire 10 the house 20 hide the
murder.
At O'Clock in the evening Mr.. Miller.
who Is foreman Of the fermenfing depart
mens OF the Bay View brewery, left his
wife and three children and came to the
city to attend . meeting Of the Brewers
Union az the Western Central hall. Some
minutes after he left the house, hi. two
little girls. Annie. aged 8. and Lizzie. aged
:. began TO play in the roadway that skirts
the shore Of the bay in front
OF the house. and by degrees wan
dered quite q distance from the
house. firing of their play. they finally
returned, and were alarmed 20 find the
house full of smoke. When they entered
an awful sight met their gaze. In the
center of the little sitting room lay their
mother dead, her face hacked to bloody
pulp. and, unable TO endure the sight,
they ran from the house crying z, Mamma,
mammal
The agonized voices of the children at
tracted the attention of neighbors, who at
the same time noticed the smoke issuing
from the building. Little Jennie Clark,
aged II, ran quickly 10 the house. rushed
in through the smoke, almost stun bling
over the body of the murdered woman,
and snatched the baby from bed, where
she supposed it was sleeping peacefully.
The baby sighed as she picked it up and
FASTENED from the house threatened with
destruction by fire. She placed II in the
arms Of Mrs. Peters. Then il
was noticed by the horrifed girl
and woman that the babes face
Was bloody. On the left temple was a
great spiotoh of crimson; the left ear was
crushed in and q frightful wound was seen
on the left cheekbone just below the cor
ner of the mouth. The babe breathed
heavily few gasps and then its little life
went out.
While Jennie Clark was carrying the
mutiIated body Of the murdered babe to
the Peters house. Mrs. Mary Whipple was
| trsmpiing ont the fire that seemed to
doom the chamber of death. That ex-
tiaguished. she turned to the body of the
| murdered woman. 1t lay stretched out on
the floor, the feet we'll apart toward the
| west, the clothing dragged up so
as to expose the legs. The right
hand was extended in fiexed position
| from the body, the forearm covered with
blood, and the right drawn across the
/ chest gold ring on the second finger
| was mashed almost fat. The head was
| turned facing the south, and the face was
bruised and crushed into q revolving mass.
The room In which the bodies were found
Is the center one of small two-story
4 house OF three apartments down stairs and
TWO on the hoor above. fronting west with
/ q back door leading into the kitchen. In
this room are two beds. one in the south
east corner and the other in the northeast.
| Against the western wall Seth Thomas
/ clock ticks away over the scene of death.
This room opens into the kitchen, and In
the kitchen the murder was committed.
There Is now in the center of that room
! great clot Of blood, and everywhere are
to be found evidences of desperate strug-
| gle. A cloth saturated with blood lies
near the stove, the furniture is upset and
| dlsarranged, and scattered about are small
| pieces Of everlasting flowers, bunch of
which hung on the north wall.
The circumstances Of the case indicate
that the perpetrators of the deed entered
at the back door of the kitchen, and at
once attacked the unfortunate woman
with claw hammer. their victim evil
IDENTIFY resisting to the last breath The
mnrdsrers struck her repeated blows
until she sank helpless and
dead. The child. sleeping quietly in the
bed in the sitting room, was awakened by
the noise of the struggle and commenced
TO cry. Then the nameless fiends raised
their bloody weapon, and crushed the
skull of the child.
| The body of the mother was then
| dragged by the heels into the center room.
The clothing was taken from the bed in
| the southeast corner, where the two elder
children were TO have slept piled in
heap on the floor at the foot, and the con-
tents cf.a small kerosene lamp emptied on
the pile.
From the manner in which the house
was rsnsacked, two men seem to have
been engaged in the crime. One broke the
lock of trunk in the front lower room.
where $50 in gold was concealed. and
scattered the contents on the floor in his
search for the money, while the other man
went mp stairs and went through
the trunk in the rear room. The
two rooms ebove were occupied respect
lively py Louis Kiendl and Christ Schindel.
| The robber forced the lock of SchindeI's
trunk. and, like his companion below,
scattered the contents all about.
Sehindel kept his treasure in o small
toy safe, but last night there was only IS
remaining In IL, and this amount the rob-
Der took away. Two weeks ago Schindel
had $50 In the SAFE but drew out nearly
the entire sum. A single window to the
room was open.
The front room, occupied bv Louis
kiendl, was not disturbed. The trunk
stood at the foot OF a bed near the door,
and contained q sock having stored away
in II 500 IN gold. Both Kiendl and
SCHMIDT were at the meeting of the Brew
srs' Union with Miller.
As soon as the news of the murder was
spread abroad IL was conveyed as quickly
IS possible to the unhappy husband. lie
hurried home, and, entering the room
where his murdered wife lay. covered now
by g counterpart. he threw himself, help
less and PROSTATE. upon her body, and
groaned.
"oh. Philippians, come back to me. Come
back"
HE was raised by kindly hands and
taken to the Peters home, only to see
stretched on a cot the bruised and bleed
ing corpse Of his murdered babe. He vas
taken from the horrible and revolving
sight. 30 another room, where he lay
down, covered his face and groaned in
an sgony of woe.
GA sunday Miller and his wife attended
| . rfeofn x{xan he tha fieoerkYautx at