The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-01-03
arADRuPLE TRAGEDY AT OMAHA.
Father. Mother, baby and Grand
mother Victims of the Deed.

|
mother Victims of the Deed.
/ OAIOHA, Dec. 21.-On marble slabs at
the city morgue lie the charred remains
of the family of John Cummings
Father. mother. baby and grandmother
are there awaiting the outcome of the
| inquiry which Coroner Maui has begun
into the causes of the tragedy which
startled the city this morning.
Nothing in Nebraska's annals ap-
proaches the deed for horror. Cummings
had been in i'll health for some time. and
according to twelve-year-old Tommy
Fox, who was present. he deliberately
set fire to his own house andecaused the
death Of his mother-in-law, his wife and
his one-year-old baby in the flames
/ The little boy tells a straightforward
/ story, and when asked how the fire
/ originated, he said:
! Cummings was sitting on the edge
OF the bed in a rear room where Mrs.
! Cummings also was with the baby
| Another person in the room was Mrs
/ Fox. the mother of Mrs. Cummings, my
aunt. There was a fuss about some
thing and Cummings upset the lamp
| and closed the door, compelling all the
inmates TO stay thers. They cried, but
! he refused to letany &C them out"
/ Philip Nathan. a next door neighbor
says that when he first saw the flames
| he noticed Mrs Cummings tying TO
! open the shutters TO the bedroom. He
heard her cry out and say: My baby
is aleady on fire" Soon thereafter he
! saw the woman enveloped in flames.
! Miss Nellie Fox, who is a relative of
| Mrs. Cummings, said she WAS a frequent
visitor to the house: that Cummings had
| been sick for quite a long time. She
| disputed her brothers statement about
| Cummings having purposely knocked
| down the lamp to burn the entire family,
| but the boy answered that he saw him
! do it, He also added that when he first
| took notice he saw Cummings sitting on
the bed crying.
The basement of the house was occu-
| pied by John Stuart, who has a contract
| for feeding the city Jail prisoners. Stu
1 art and his assistant, Denny Sexton.
were in that part Of the basement di-
rectly beneath the room in which the
| bodies were found up to the time the
| fire broke out. Sexton gave a vivid de-
scription of the scufie in the rooms
| above Immediately before the flames
| were detected, and confirms in many
respects the story of the boy who wit
messed the dreadful tragedy.
For several nights remarked Sex
| ton, as he stood in the wreck of his
| quarters, a few minutes after the fire
| was extinguished, the folks in the room
| above have been carousing. About mid
night they would begin TO quarrel and
| sometimes would fight among themselves
! for an hour and then quiet would be
| restored gradually as if they We're all
| exhausted. L knew they had great deal
of whisky up there several nights. Some
times both Of the men, Fox and Cum
mings would be quarreling and fighting
between themselves and then they would
| turn on the women.
1.-The trouble that resulted in the fire
up there began early Saturday night.
l heard them swearing up there all the
evening. The disturbance increased to-
ward midnight and frequently Oaths
were heard. ! distinguished the voice
Of a boy, a woman and two men. Final
| ly some time about O'Clock a terrible
| scuffte commenced. From the noise made
by the heavy shoes Of the men as they
pushed each other across the floor, and
| from the manner in which they cursed,
| | knew they were having a desperate
fight Suddenly there was a thud over
in the little room to the north in which
the bodies We're found. as If one of the
men had fallen. He did not attempt to
rise and / heard the other man take
several steps and then heard a woman
| scream. She yelled, MY God" and then
gurgled as if being choked. A moment
later another body fell on the floor.
This was followed almost instantly by
the crash of the heavy glass. and 1 saw
the flames breaking out through the
small window IN the room where the
bodies were found. For few minutes
a confusion Of oaths, screams and blows
could be heard in the little room, and
then all was still"
The police are working on the case,
but have developed nothing to dispute
the evidence that Cummings committed
the crime while in a fit OF insane rage.