The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-05-11
SVETZ GIVEN A HEARING.
Admits Shooting the Child, but Says II
Was Accidental-..Not the Father
OF the Infant.

1t now transpires that circumstances
leading up to the shooting of the infant
child by it's supposed father John
Svctz, Sunday morning in Dunmore,
show that Svetz may have deliberately
murdered the baby but the evi-
denCe seems to contradict any
likelihood of deliberate killing. As
told in The Tribune Svetz gave
himself up to PX-Constable BILLY"
Skipper at $50 O'Clock Sunday night.
He was lodged in the county jail and
yesterday morning County Detective
Leyshon went before Alderman John
r. Howe and swore out warrant for
the formal arrest of Svetz on the
charge of murder
John Humaer, the Hungarian tramp,
who fired the shots from the porch be-
fore Svetz took the revolver from him
was arraigned before Alderman Howe
charged with carrying concealed weap-
ons and dscharging the same on the
public highway. He was held in $500
and in default was committed to Jail
to await trial by court.
The details of the shooting as re-
ported in The Tribune upon a second
investigation proved correct. Svetz
and it now appears that the revolver
used was q self-cocking weapon. This
makes the accidental theory the more
possible.
Accompanied by ex-Constable Skip
per, a Tribune reporter went to the
house yesterday. 1t was once a fine
building but now the steps in the dark
Railways are broken, vermin is seen
-Irr nd RI Il
aggressively apparent.
In the upstairs room a half dozen
persons were found. one woman
emptied some cut bologna from a filthy
pan on the stove and placed the dish
with other similar side-plates before
John Grubinak and one other man. A
big two-quart bottle of beer was the
washable and only one tumbler was
used for all.
The dining room contained two beds
and the cradle in which the baby while
sleeping was shot. John Grubinak
tells of the shooting as he got it from
his wife. This is one of the two wo-
men who were in the room at the time
of Svetz's act. Grubinak calls the wo-
man "wife" although she was arrested
about two years ago for leaving her
husband who now lives at Taylor. Af-
ter spending a period of nine months
in the county Jail she returned to John
Grubinak
1t is known that SVetz has been in
America for the past eight years and
that his wife did not come here until
little over eight months ago. She
left three children in the old country,
Russian Poland. two of whom SVetz.
her husband, has never seen. One
child is 10 years old, born before Svetz
came here. The other two are aged 5
and years.
Mrs. Svetz had been in America only
a few days when the child who was
shot Sunday was born. For the first
month, says John Grubinak, Svetz and
the woman quarreled over the child.
From these circumstances it was sup
posed that Svetz in a fit of anger shot
the child out of pure hate for its illegtt-
imacy.
This however, will prove unbacked
by any substantial evidence. Svetz had
been drinking; he heard the shots out
side he disliked Humear; he took the
revolver from him; he went upstairs
and in exhibiting the revolver he pulled
| the trigger twice, too drunk to COM
| prehend what he was doing.
The child was buried yesterday in
| the German Catholic cemetery, South
| Side.
At $50 o'clock last night Svetz was
taken from the county Jail and given
a hearing before Alderman Howe. He
admitted shooting the child, but said
! it was an accident Svetz was COM
mitted to the county Jail to await ac-
tiOn in court County Detective Ley
shon has secured the revolver. 1t is a
self-cocking weapon.