The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1897-12-17
ALBERT HOFF
Charged With the Murder
of Mrs. CIute
THE EXPLANATION OFFERED
SERVED TO AROUSE SUSPICION
AGAINST HIM
Strong Circumstantial Evidence, Sup
ported by Positive Identified
ton by Home Inmates
Associated Press Special Wire.

Associated Press Special Wire.
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 16.-The mys-
terry attending the brutal murder of
Mrs. Mary c. Clute in a Guerrero street
fiat last evening has apparently been
solved. After a severe struggle she was
beaten to death with an iron coupling
pin. which crushed her skull, and the
police are satisfied that the man who
used the deadly weapon is now in GUS
tody. He Is Russian known as Albert
Hof, but his full name, as written by
himself, is Albert Frederick George Ver-
enssenockockhoff. He says that he was
born in Baden In 1880, but he does not ap-
pear to be 80 years Of age. He has been
employed byaNrs. Clute to help her move
and to make over some mattresses.
Knowing that he had been assisting In
the work Of preparing Mrs. Clute's newly
rented fiat for occupancy. and being sat
isfled that the carpet layers, Foley and
jackson, who had been there on the
same day, were innocent Of the crime
the police were on the lookout for Hoff
Greatly to the surprise of Chief Lees,
the suspected man walked into the po-
lice station and told story regarding
his visit to the Clute fiat which at first
seemed plausible. Clever cross-exam-
nation, however. soon involved the
Russian in q maze Of contradictions,
and he was placed under arrest as
suspect. Suspicion as to his guilt was
soon changed to certainty, for this even
ing he was positively identified by Mrs.
r~fn 1nn H.
rectly under the rooms where the MUIR
der was committed, as the man she and
her invalid father-in-law saw leaving
the house after they had been alarmed
by Mrs. Clute's dying calls for help. Mrs.
Legg asserts that she cannot be mis-
taken. While the aged Mr.. Legg was
trying to summon the neighbors, she
took her husbands revolver and went
upstairs. Here she saw Hoff, got good
look at him and saw him leave the place
after the carpet layers had gone, and
Just subsequent to the commission of
the awful crime. He has also been iden-
titled by Foley as the man who was in
the house when he and Jackson left.
Further strong circumstantial evil
Once that he Is the murderer Is furnished
by the fact that he Is left-handed and
that his left hand is badly cut. The
flange Of the coupling pin with which
Mrs. Clute was killed is sharp and
ragged, and held in tight grasp, could
easily have caused the wound, which he
says was made by tack. The police
surgeon, however, says it could not have
bene produced except by some heavy in
strument.
There was evidence of severe strug-
gle but no indication that the assassin
accomplished his evident purpose. That
robbery was not his motive is shown by
the large amount of money found in the
rooms. Hoff, who still maintains his in
nocence, Is a socialist and an anarchist
and Is reputed to be connected with the
nihilists. No faith is put in his state
ment that he is 81 years old. The ex-
PLANTATION Of his going to the police Of
fee on his own volition is found in the
fact that the other men on whom suspi-
cion at first rested did the same and
their statements were accepted by the
officers as satisfactory.