The San Francisco call., 1897-06-10
ACH THEORIES.
At the Scene of the Tragedy He
EndeaVors to Demonstrate
There Was Murder

There Was Murder.
Attorney Ach bases his pronounced
views OF murder in connection with the
death of Isaac Hoffman largely on the
evidence found in the Offices where the
merchant ended his life. While in the
premises with q number of newspaper
men he expatiated on this evidence. In
reference 10 the marks left by the first
bullet, which passed through the rim OF
Hoffm ans hat, he said:
II defy any man to put himself in a
position so that he may fire a shot through
the brim of his hat, either sitting down or
standing up, SO that il will make the hole
in the wall as you see it there. The police
claim that the ball came from directly in
front OF this hole. l hold that 1t came
from a direction much further to the left.
TO support their theory of suicide it IS
necessary to have the ball travel in an
almost opposite direction from that which
the abrasion in the wall proves that it did
travel, and so they assert that it came
from the direction in which they want it
to come"
Then to prove the correctness of his
view he illustrated with a revolver how
the shot might have been fired al Hoff-
man by some one so as 10 pierce the hat
brim and enter the wall, and from the i'm
pact with the lath in the wall rebound,
strike the wainscoting and fall 10 the
floor. He illustrated, also. how the shot
might have been hred al Hoffman from any
one Of several positions along the line OF
the police theory that the shot came from
! direction at right angles with the wall,
instead of from point only slightly re-
moved from the wall, the course forming
an angle of about twenty degrees more or
less, IS Ach contended IL must have come
to cause the linden ta;ion in the plaster.
He next directed attention 10 the dia-
gram OF the premises furnished by Chief
Lees and published in THE CALL on Tues
day. "In that diagram" he SAID, there
from the back office, where IL will be con-
tended all the shots were fired, into the
'front.' office, where the body was found.
This bloody trail would substantiat9
the theory OF suicide and the cain that
Hoffman, after shooting himself in that
room, walked into this one, sat down
in this chair, bled upon this desk and
then fell over in an easy, comjortabe
position upon his face, without damaging
his hat, without cracking its brlm. with
out removing it from his head. That
bloody trail does not and never did exist,
as an examination of the carpet now in
the hands OF the pol ce will demonstrate.
'Originally 1t was one OF the police
theories that Hoffman fired TWO Shots at
himself in the back room and one In the
room where his body was found. l. is
sufficient refutation of this to ask, How
dId the revolver get into the back room il
that is the case?
Then / ask you, II Hoffman's hands
were bloody enough 10 make all these
stains, how does it come that there are
none upon the stock OF the psto!P
"Ihese bloody footprints IN the book
keepers room-did the pol ce investigate
them2 What do they say or those-that
they were made by the officers IN walking
about? That is something they should
have looked out for. Here is this one by
this desk. Does it not seem TO have been
msde by a snoe with pointed toeT'
The attorney stopped and cut out a
piece OF inoieum upon which was the
bloody impress OF the toe CT a shoe, d.
recting that it be locked up for future
reference.
And here is something more want to
show you"
Taking lighted candle, he led his
auditors out OF the offices into the store
room and pointed to floods aims on the
platform leading 10 the offices, saying,
How did these get there 1 wunder?"
Thus he went about, explaining and
expounding his theory OF murder; how
the first shot of the assassin hao been
from behind, and ow it had failed of its
deadly intent, and how, though the pistol
was held close 10 the head, an invoIun-
tary movement on Hoffman's part spoiled
the aim; how the other two shots followed
quickly, and how the assassin fed.