The San Francisco call., 1896-04-04
REVENGE OF A
STOCKTON WIFE,
Vaccaressa's Brutality the
Probable Cause of His
Death.
HAD QUARRELED DAILY.
The Bootblack's Helpmeet Driven
to Desperation by His
Cruelties.
INSULTS HEAPED UPON HER.
The Woman Believed to Have Killed
Her Husband After an
Alteration.
INSULTS HEAPED UPON HER.

STOCKTON, CAL, April S.-New evil
dences of the guilt of Mrs. Vaccaressa,
whose husband was murdered Wednesday
morning, are fast coming to light. 1t has
been discovered that the musket that a
boy named Hall saw Vaccaressa carrying
into the bedroom is bespattered with
blood, and the screwdriver lying in one of
the rooms fits the mark made on the front
door near the lock.
The officers are now confirmed in their
belief that the murdered man was first
struck on the head while asleep, and then,
while half-dazed from the blow, was stran-
gled to death. They believe that the
woman had a violent quarrel with her
husband earlier in the evening, as the tes-
timony at the Coroner's inquest showed,
and that she waited until he was asleep
before striking him with the barrel of the
musket.
Mat Foppiana, a cousin of Vaccaressa
to-day secured the services of Attorney
Frank D. Nicol to defend the woman, and
she was closeted in the jail with him and
the attorney for long time this morning.
A warrant was issued for Mrs. Vacca-
ressa's arrest on a charge of murder this
lOiCilOOHs dC SHdlS &c w LII piOUdOly DC It,
duced to that of manslaughter, as the
facts that are coming to light indicate that
the woman killed her husband during or
after a violent quarrel. The District At
torney seems inclined to this belief and
has arranged to have the charge changed
to manslaughter if certain clews the OFF,
GERS have prove to be correct, and Mrs.
Vaccaressa will be admitted to bail in tue
sum of $4,000.
A CALL correspondent visited the woman
at the Jail to-day, and through an inter-
prefer learned that the story told by her
to the District Attorney and to the Cor
oner's jury was not true. Several times
she was on the point of telling all the
events of the night OF the murder, and she
told the circumstances that led up to the
time of the fatal row; but each time she
would stop and refuse to talk when she
came to the circumstances of vaccaressa' s
death.
According to the story told by the
woman to-day her husband had been
abusing her shamefully for the past few
weeks and had threatened to kill her. He
told her that all she was trying to do was
to save up enough money to get divorce
from him and that her treatment of him
was slowly killing him. She replied that
she was fast breaking in health through
his brutal treatment of her and that she
could not stand it much longer.
Vaccaressa was lying on the floor of
the house in one of his sulky moods Sun
day afternoon and would have nothing to
say to his wife. She tired of this treat
ment and, dressing the children, went over
to a neigh boris for a few hours. On her
return Vaccaressa was in the front yard
cutting hay for the cows He called her
a vile name, and said that she was init
mate with all the men of the neighbor-
hood. This led to a quarrel and they had
fight that night. From that on to the
time Of the murder they had frequent
quarrels. Vaccaressa was continually tax
ing his wife with being unfaithful to him,
and when she resented the insults fight
followed.
Mrs. Vaccaressa to-day told an interpre-
ter that her husband threatened to shoot
her and took up the musket for the pur-
pose of doing so. She said that they had
a row shortly before 8 o'clock and that he
threatened to kill her. When she got to
this point in her story Mrs. Vaccaressa
stopped and would give no further par
ticulars of how she killed her husband.
Her attorney had instructed her not to
talk, and although she seemed to want to
un burden herself she obeyed the injunc-