Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-05-02
MURDER OUT BY TELEPHONE.
\ Girl Hears the Fatal Quarrel of Her
Brothers.


Brothers.
Il heard strange story today" said
the doctor in his Office late at night.
You remember" he said, when
Frank Broter was found in the hall Of
my office with q bullet through his
brain and a pistol by his side?"
The reporter nodded in affirmation.
You know" ne continued that
everybody thought it was suicide, for
Frank was then under treatment by
me for a nervous affection that made
him wild at times. l thought he had
taken his own life, as every one else
did, and he was buried under that inn
preston. The coroner's verdict was to
the same effect also. Well, today his
sister died. and before she crossed the
dark river she asked to see me alone,
and now l know that we were all mis-
taken about poor Frank.
There was another brother, if you
remember, named George, and he was
the black sheep of the family. A bad
boy from the beginning, he grew worse
when his widowed mother died, and
for five years before Franks death he
and his sister, who worked as you
know, in the central office of the tele-
phone company, supported him. They
boarded him in the same house with
themselves, and, as far as appearances
went, he had quite as much Of the
worlds goods as either of them. He
drank and gambled and was in trOu-
bic all the time, and often threatened
them if they did not give him more
money. This they did but the more
he received from them the more he
asked, and finally he made such de-
mand upon Frank that he refused to
do anything for him except to board
and clothe him. The sister joined
with Frank in this resolve, and George
threatened to kill them both No one
knew of this except the brother and
sister, for the girl was sensitive and
shrank from telling her troubles to her
friends
ION the day of his death Frank
came to my office to see me, and there
away suddenly, and had taken my as
sistant and my door-boy with me, as
[ expected to return shortly. I did
come back, and when | did | found
Frank lying in the hall with the pistol
by his side. 1t was his own pistol and
you know the rest-up to today.
To-day the sister told me that
George had killed Frank AS far as
she could determine George had fol-
lowed him there, and had quarreled
with him in the hall. To satisfy him
self that George was telling the truth
he had gone to my telephone and
called up his sister at the central of
flee. Evidently the two brothers were
near the instrument, for as Frank
called she heard the voice of George
ordering him away. She could hear
the struggle, as it continued in the
hall, and then suddenly came the crack
of a pistol, and Frank screamed: "Oh,
George! George, brother, you have
killed mer That was all she could
remember, except the Slamming of a
door as George hurried out of the hall,
for she tainted. When she was re-
stored to consciousness the sister as
serted itself first, and she felt
that before she told her dreadful story
she must first know what had hap
pened. She was not strong girl, and
the fainting spell excited little or no
alarm, so that no one thought of con-
Meeting the fainting with the tragedy.
In fact, l had never heard of it until
she told me SO herself WI en- she
learned that Frank had committed
suicide, and she alone could bear wit
ness to the contrary she closed her
lips for the sake of her brother, and
she has never spoken of it until today,
and only now because George is dead
and she told me that she owed it to
Franks to let some one know he had
not taken his own life.
That's what killed her, 1 said,
Mortified at the story.
I'm sure of it." replied the doctor.
''She has declined since Franks death.
and nothing 1 could do for her ap-
peared to have any effect.
And yet" he concluded, eff George
had been living she would have taken
her secret to the grave with her.
Detroit Free Press.