The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-09-23
KILLED WIFE AND BABY
AND THEN CHARLES PFEIFER HANGS
HIMSELF WITH A CEOTHEsLINE.
Triple Tragedy i'm Brightwood Some
Time Monday Night-So Cause
but Insanity Known.

morning by the report that an awful trag-
edy had been committed Charles Pfeifer.
a telegraph operator, had murdered his
wife and infant child and then committed
suicide.
The terrible tragedy was discovered at
about 7 O'Clock, and in a short time the
whole community knew of it and the scene
of the crime was visited by hundreds of
curious people The tragedy was commit
ted in the home of Charles Pfeifer, II Pop
lar street. 1t is the first street east OF the
Brightwood station, extending north from
Warren street.
Pfeifer cut the threats of his wife. Jen-
ME (Kirk) Pfeifer. and their two-months-
old babe, and then ended his own life by
hanging himself to the transom of a door.
Mrs. Richard Kirk, mother of Mrs. Pfeifer.
was the one to make the discovery that the
tragedy had occurred. She went over to
her daughters house on some errand and
entered the house by the kitchen door, The
first thing that met her gaze was the body
of her son-in-law hanging in the doorway
between the kitchen and the dining room.
Without stopping to make further inves-
tigation and frightened almost into hys-
terics over the possibility that harm had
befallen her child. she ran into the street
and gave the alarm. In moment dozen
neighbors had collected and then the full
horrors of the crime became known.
Passing through the kitchen and dining
room into the only bedroom the thoroughly
alarmed people saw horrible sight The
room was spattered with blood. 1t was
upon the walls, on the floor and the bed
was almost completely covered Upon the
bed lay the pretty young wife with her
head almost severed from the body and
with her life blood saturating the bed
clothing. In a little cradle near the bed
lay the dead baby. Its throat, too, was
cut from ear to ear, and apparently every
drop of blood its little body had contained
had run out upon the pillow which made
it's bed. The sight was an awful one;
women grew sick and men turned pale.
With the first alarm some one telephoned
for Coroner Castor. and he arrived before
the first shock of the tragedy had worn
off. He at once took charge of the house
and set about making examination. He
found that the bodies were cold and that
rigor mortis had set in sufficiently to in
dictate that death had taken place several
hours before he arrived. 1t is the general
belief that the crime was committed be-
tween 10 and II o'clock Monday night. DR..
Castor was unable to find anything which
would serve as a basis for cause for the
husbands acts. His only theory Is that
the man must have been seized with a fit
of temporary insanity.
1t was suggested that Pfeifer and his
wife might have quarreled and that the
murder committed as the result of it.
Mrs. Pfeifer's portion Of the bed, however,
destroys this theory. She was lying on her
right side in the natural position of her
sleep, with her right arm under the body
nd ha Loft he hrao
The features bore a calm. peaceful ex-
preston. denoting that the woman was
asleep when the razor. which brought
death, passed over her throat.
CAREFULLY PLANNED MURDER
Everything points to the greatest DELHI
GRAFTON on the part of the murderer. He
evidently waited until his wife was asleep.
then got up and dressed in MS undershirt
and trousers. Securing a razor from the
dresser drawer he took position close be-
side the bed, where his wife lay asleep.
The great amount of blood upon himself
and his clothing shows that he stood close
to the woman to make sure that the blow
should be rightly directed. Then he drew
the razor quickly across his wife's throat,
and, seeing the death struggle which fol-
lowed, took it as an indication that the
blow was not fatal and two more times
he slaShed the white throat.
The woman must have scarcely moved
after the first blow, for the bed clothing
was not disarranged. She wore nothing
but some gauze underwear, and the upper
portion of this, which was probably not
protected by the bed clothing, was satur-
ated with blood. The blood must have
spurted in strong stream from the ghast-
ly wounds, for it struck the wall some six
or seven feet away. and fell in great pools
upon the floor. All over the bed the blood
flowed, saturating the clothing and form
ing in sickening clots at places.
With his hands covered with his wife's
blood, the murderer passed over to the
cradle where his child was sleeping. 1t is
known that the wife killed first. for
can be seen upon the cradle. One stroke
of the keen-edged razor was sufficient to
cradle, which was also the buggy, made to
answer the double purpose. standing
close to the bed-close to where the mother
was lying. In the little fellows hand was
clasped half-empty bottle of milk, show
ing that the child had gone to sleep while
taking nourishment and, with stomach full,
enjoying a sound sleep from which it
was never to awaken.
The bloody tracks of the murderer tell of
razor across his wifes throat until he
ended his own life by hanging. His shoes
were off, and in his stockings
blood and smeared his feet with
it. From his babes cradle he walked
into the dining room and out into the
kitchen. A number of tracks by the door
on the white, bare kitchen floor show that
he paused there a moment. 1t may have
been that he had trouble unlocking the
door. There was the ma k of his bloody
hand on the door casing. 1t may have
been that he deliberated whether he should
end his own life with the razor, and it
may be that he recovered from the tenn
porary insane spell ana contemplated the
awful work he had done.
AT any rate he paused there and then
returned to the dining room, put his
bloody feet into his shoes and went out
into the yard. where a clothesline was
stretched. Grasping the line with one
bloody hand he cut off a piece about ten
feet long and returned to the house. He
under the dining table. Then he laid the
razor on the cross piece over the door. and,
after making a moose in one end of the
rope, tied the other end around this cross
piece with the moose close up.
DELIBERATELY HANGED HIMSELF
Then the great nerve of the sane man or
were manifested. With his hands he drew
himself up to the cross piece and stuck his
head through the moose and then let him.
self down to slowly strange to death. His
The indications are that he did not even
drop the few inches which he could have
dropped had he let go his hold suddenly
after getting his head in the moose. This
short drop might have paralyzed the nerves
and made death easier: but the skin of the
slowly lowered himself until the weight of
his hO1V his neck and had