The San Francisco call., 1895-07-19
A FA|THLESS HUSBAND.
for His Landlady'S
Daughter.
The Curious Letter Sent to the
Coroner Telling of His Pro-
posed Suicide.

About ten days ago q letter, so poorly
written as to be almost illegible, with no
signature to identity it, and containing
the ominous intelligence that the writer
was about to commit suicide, was received
by the Coroner. 1t has since been learned
that the man referred to in the letter is
Edward Pitts, and subsequent stories serve
only to give it all the earmarks of the put
up job of runaway husband anxious to
avoid pursuit.
Ed Pitts, as he was known, was barber
who for a good many years kept shop at
1866 Folsom street. He was married to a
woman formerly a Mrs. Cram, and lived
with his wife Just over the barber-shop, in
house kept by Mrs. Techlenberg and
her daughter Laura. 1t was known to a
few of the neighbors, but to no member OF
either family except the principals, that
the unmarried daughter of the landlady
and the married lodger were rather more
friendly than such relation generally in
dicates, but Mrs. Pitts and Mrs. Techlen-
berg only learned of it one morning in No.
was gone and so was Miss Laura, and since
then the winds of this City have not blown
in their faces.
There was terrible time in the Techlen-
berg household when the absence of the
pair was discovered, but Pitts never allowed
his whereabouts to be known, and even
now letters go to and from him by devious
ways and through many hands. He writes
to few of his friends in the City and the
last letter from him was to Jake Levernich,
who was formerly a workman under him,
and has now succeeded him as proprietor of
the barber-shop on Folsom street. 1t ar
rived three days before the letter to the
Coroner was announced in the papers and
it contained of more suicidal nature than
a request for money.
The letter to the Coroner briefly stated
that the writer was about to commit sui
eide, and asked that the body when found,
be given to Jacob Levernich for burial 1t
was not in Pitts handwriting, nor in any
handwriting that any of Pitts friends
recognize. In addition to that Pitts body
has not been found and his friends here
have every reason to believe there is plenty
of life in it yet. The question as to who
wrote the letter is still an open one, but it
is believed that Pitts himself wrote it in
order to spread the belief that he is dead.
Mrs. Pitts, the one deserted, is living in
this City. She lived with her husband for
nineteen years, and he has left her prac-
tlcalIy without means. She says he tried
at one time to get divorce from her, or at
least he spoke of trying, but that is as far
as he ever went in the way OF securing any
kind of a separation. He was living with
her right up to the time he left the City
with Laura Techlenberg, and during all
the time he was paying attentions to the
girl, but she never suspected he was de-
ceiving her. She says she does not know
how much money he took with him, but
she knows he had some property in Anti
och upon which his relatives are now liv-
ing, and she thinks she should have a
share OF this, as it is all community prop
erty.
Those who know Pitts say he must have
taken between six and eight thousand dol
lars with him, as he but recently sold out
his shop and drew all the money he had
laid away from the banks. In writing, he
sends all his letters to his mother in Anti
och, and she forwards them, and all letters
to him go through the same process. She
is about the only one who knows where he
is, but there is no one who thinks he is
dead,