The sun. (Wilmington, Del.) 1897-19??, 1897-10-26
KICKED HER TO DEATH.
A Fiend Sweeps the House With the
Body Of His Wife.

Body Of His Wife.
NEW YoRK, Oct. 25.-John Williams
was a wife-beater. When business was
bad in his little feed store at 1414 Ave-
nue. A he beat his wife from exaspers-
ton; when it was good he beat her for
. recreation; when dinner was late he beat
her; when anything upset his temper,
and it did not take much to do that, he
beat her.
To-day he beat her again. She died
this evening, and now he is locked up on
a charge of murder.
Three years ago, when Williams mar
ried, he was twenty-three years old. His
wife, Catherine, was three years older.
She was a good-looking woman, plump
in figure, with bright, fresh face,
laughing eyes and handsome teeth.
As she lies dead to-day few could rec
ognize in her the bride of three years
ago. Her face is pinched and thin. The
eyes are sunken and around them are
big black and yellow spots caused by her
husbands fist. Her teeth, of which she
was once SO proud, are knocked out or
broken off-more work of her husbands
fists.
How soon it was after her marriage
that her husband began beating her
none but her husband knows She was
a proud little woman, and said nothing,
though long ago the neighbors noticed
that frequently she would hide her face
behind her shawl when she went to the
corner store for groceries.
Then for days at a time she would
hardly leave the rooms where her home
was in the rear of her husbands feed
store The neighbors thought it was
queer she should have lost all her light
ness of heart so soon after her marriage.
But they said nothing, for in tenement
house districts neighbors don't interfere
with one another's household affairs.
OF course, there were stories ahoat that
Williams beat his wife. But no one did
anything to interfere. 1t was no ones
business but the wife's, they thought,
and if she didn't like it she go to court
and get Il summons.
But Mrs. Williams wasn't that kind of
woman. She suffered in silence and as
long as she could. At last she spoke,
but it was only because she felt that she
would be killed sooner or later.
\ week ago she was lying half uncon-
scious on the sidewalk in front of her
husbands store.
Patrolman Barry found her and helped
her inside. Then he asked what the
matter was.
"Oh, John has been beating me again."
she said. ~ can't stand it now the way
l could. Some day I'll be found dead,
and you can know he's beaten me too
hard at last"
But she didn't want her husband ar~
rested, and Barry went away. Since
then the neighbors have kept closer
watch on what was done in the rooms in
the rear of the feed store. Two or three
times they have reported to the police:
Williams is beating his woman again."
He pounded her on Saturday. She be-
came unconscious, and since then has
not been out of bed. Just before l
o'clock this morning he swept the house
with her body. This afternoon two men
rushed into the East Sixty-seventh
street police station. "Mrs. Williams is
lead" they said.
The sergeant sent two men out to see if
;he story was true.
They found it was, and promptly ar
ested Williams. They had hunted up
witnesses among the neighbors to tell OF
he beating. They found plenty of them,
md all were taken to the Yorkville Pc
ice Court to testify against the man.