The San Francisco call., 1897-10-22
MURDER FIRST,
Then Suicide
A Tragedy in Low Life
Has Shocked
TaCOma.
Mrs. Frank Aylwin Decoys Her
ReCreant Lover to His
Doom.
Thinking She Has Killed Him She
Goes to a Hospital and
Shoo.s Herself.
Special Dispatch to THE CALI.

TACOMA, WASH. Oct. 2l.-Love, jeal-
ousy and remorse are responsible for a
sensational murder and suicide. Mrs.
Frank Aylwin, shot Pete Sweeney, with
whom she is alleged TO have been inti-
mate, last night. and later killed herself.
1t was not until this evening that Sweeney
vas found lying unconscious and nearly
dead on the second floor of an unoccupied
building on J street. He met Mrs. Aylwin
on k street, apparently by appointment, i,
about o'clock last evening and walked
down to the vacant building with her. A
violent discussion ensCed after they en-
tered and ended with Mrs. Aylwin firing
one shot at the man whose love she is
believed to have coveted. The bullet
entered his skull above the ear on the
right side, and is still EN- bedded there.
Mrs. Aylwin left him for dead and
locked the door when she returned to the
stree. Sweeney tried for some time to
open the door and failed, relapsing then
into unconsciousness. He remained there
twenty hours, being found this afternoon
by prospective tenant of the building.
About 10 O'clock last night Mrs. Aylwin
appeared at st. Joseph's Hos pital and
II
he answered that he was i'll and could not
come Mrs. Aylwin said she would stay all
night and asked the nurse TO give her
morphine TO allay pains.
As morphine had benefited her be fore it
was given her. The drug evidently had
no effect or else she was kept awake by
remorse. She had not slept when tee
nurse visited her bedside at o'clock. At
that hour she asked for a rubber blanket
and wrapped herself in its folds, drawing
the covers about her. She apparently
spent the next three hours summoning
courage for the fatal shot. Just after
3 o'clock a pistol shot was heard in her
room, and when the attendants entered
they found the bedc!othing on fire. When
this was extinguished it was discovered
that her breast had been burned and that
a bullet had penetrated her left lung, pass
ing through her back.
Mr.. Aylwin is night bartender at his
saloon, the Roxbury His wife had fire.
ouently been out late 10 parties, and her
absence caused no alarm on his return at
midnight. This morning he found on
their bureau letter from her, which was
probably written between the lime she
shot Sweeney and her departure for the
ospitai. TIE letter stated that she IN
tended to die by morphine and babe good
by to her husband ana eigRt-year-old
daughter. She directed her husband to
place the child in boarding-schooi, asked
for private funeral and requested that
her remains be not exposed to public
view. She stated that a burial robe would
be found in a bureau drawer. The shroud
was neatly folded. and pinned to it was q
paper bearing the words, Bury me in
this"
After his removal to ST. Joseph Hospi-
tai this evening Sweeney told his brother
and DR.. Brown how Mrs. Avlwin shot
him. He had left his wife at his brothers.
last evening and gone to a grocery-store
on an erIand when he met her. The rela-
tions between Sweeney and Mrs. Aylwin
have been the subject of whispered gossip
for some time. Mrs. Aylwin's attendance
at dances and parties without her husband
furnished an opportunity for their m eet-
ing. Recently Mrs. Aylwin became zeal.
Gus of Sweeney. 1t is believed that The
determined to Kill him and then herself
and that remorse caused her TO toss so
restlessly ali night at tn, hospital,
Sweeney has been a conductor on the
cable line for years, being considered the
most popular employe of the company.
Mrs. Ayiwin was 26 years old, blonde
and decidedly pretty