Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-08-17
AN AUTOMATIC KILLING.
Burke and His Son-in-law Had
 Quarrcled.
AND BURKE SET A SPRING GUN.
When Bergman Opened the Door. He Was Shot Dead and Fell at HI. wife's Feet Near the Coffin Containing His Dead ChIIa-The "squatter King Arrested.

Shot Dead and Fell at His wife's Feet ChIIa-The .squatt.r King Arrested. NEW YORK, Aug. 17.-Frederick Berg man was shot to death by a gun planted in tho door of Thomas Burke's shanty at South Beach, Staten Island. Bergman fell almost at the feet of his wife who was mourning her dead, unburied baby. He was the husband of Burke's only daugh- | ter, Mary, and they, with Burke's wife. lived together.
 Burke, king of the squatters along | South Beach, Is 6s years old, his daughter is B., and Bergman was 35. Nearly all the | squatters hate Burke because he sold I them land lots to which he had no title. Though sturdy and cumulative for one of his years, Burke says that he lived in oon- stant fear of assassination.
 He was the first person to squat on South Beach. He selected n spot at the extreme south end of the beach for home because most of the driftwood came ashore | at that point. At first he built a one room hut of driftwood. With tho same | sort of material he from timo to time made additions until hc had a shanty con taining three rooms and an outside kitch- | en. It is neither clean nor comfortably | furnished. The house fronts on a track
 
 Bay avenue.
 Fortified His Hut. Though old Burke has been at war with | nearly every ono for n dozen years 1t was only about a month ago that he first spoke Of his fear of assassination. Then he be- gan making fortress of his home. He bought bear trap. n..revolver..and a shot gun. ,The trap. which looks as If 1t could snap of ones hand, was set in the yard | ha oh Vt that any ono climbing the hack fence could hardly escape its jaws. A bar of iron weighing 25 or 90 pounds was rigged l with trigger inside over the kichen door. 1 So when it was set any one opening the door would be felled by the falling weight
 But 1t was to defend the front door that he bent his best mechanical skill. There he rigged the gun. The inner wall along | side the mob odgc of the door Is sheathcd for a few feet. having an open space be- tween the sheathlng and the wall. In this hollow the gun was fixed. its muZzle resting in n hole in the door frame. The vent of this hole Is about m inch beyond the faco of the closed door. \ line guided by screw eyes ran from the trigger up the wall and then to the top of tho door where it was fastened The gun was | loaded with duck shot.
 When ready for business. the hammer was raised and the line made fast to the l trigger To open tho door six inches drew the line taut Another Inch and down 1 came the hammer, exploding the ehargc. 1 The measurements in this murdcrous con l trivancc wsrc mado with such nicety thnt n person opening the door was brought in direct range with tho muzzle of the gun. l If by any chance the gun or bar of iron failed to kill m invader Burke kept his revolver by him 10 do the rest. Tho pre- sumption was that these masked batteries were only tn bc rigged for service at night fall or when every one was away from home.
 ouarrcIed With Burke. There had been bad blood between Burke and Bergman for some time. They had fleroc quarrel In the house about o'clock yesterday morning. Then Berg man left homo to see Undertaken Martin 1 Hughes about burying his dead babe. Tho 1 trap could not have been riEgcd for firing when he left the hOusc. or he could not 1 have opened the door without detecting 1t. About an hour and n half later Berg man returned, opened the door and recciv- cd the full chnrgc of shot In his right side just above tho hip
 Plunging forward. he fell hcadlong into the room in which his wife was watching | the corpse of tho babe. The woman, too | frightened to speak, picked tho dead child | from the pallet and clasped 1t to her breast. while she stood gazing at her dy- | ing husband. Then Burke, who had gone into the next room few minutes before l Bergman reached tho door, camc in. Bergman tried to rise. Failing. he rolled over dead. The shot choked. making a l hole almost large enough to stick one's fist in. Blood ran over tho floor. The clothes of the dead man were set afro by the powder, and Burke extinguished the | flames.
 | An Accident, Says Burke.
 Burke was arrested soon after. and when questioned would only say:
 Set the gun to keep out my enemies. and thieves as well. This morning as soon as I got up I cut off the connection with tho trigger. and cannot imaigne how the gun went of. It must have gone of of its own accord-contrary guns dc that very thing sometimes when they re jared or he shot himself just to make | trouble for me:
 The police frankly say they think that
 Burke Is lying.
 | Mrs. Bergman made this statement tc the police Il can't tell how it happened, heard the shot, and then Fred fell in.
 Father was angry this morning because q man named Shanlcy wanted him to re
 turn money he had paid for a bit of land.
 He made such a fuss that Fred said
 Why on earth don't you shut up:
 Haven't we got trouble enough for onI day without your carrying on as you do | think you ought to havo that much To
 spect for our baby Father went out ant
 began hammering on the wall. Frct
 again told him to stop. Father said
 What does a dead baby amount to any
 way? It's past hearing Then Fred wen