The times., 1898-05-15
KILLED WHILE At PLAY
Little G0ldie ClantOn Meets a
Mysterious Death.
STRUCK WITH A HATCHET
The Dead Infant Was Left in the
Care of Older Children. and the
ing From Wound i'm the Head
No CIeH to the Perpetrator.

Little AJDlGlt ( ldilOu. tLlt w G.1i -blN
daughter OF William and Rosa Clanton,
colored. who live in Northeast Washing
ton, was found sweltering in a pool Of
blood in the agonies Of death at her
home IN Bassett's alley last night about 9
O'clock
The death Of the child is shrouded in
mystery, but everything connected with
the affair points 10 a most brutal and
wanton murder. The Clantons, with their
three children. occupy the front room
on the second floor of No. ia Bassett's $
alley, and at the time the child received
her death wound there was no one on
that floor except the three children, their
parents being out shopping.
On the first floor John and Mollie Mar
shall live, but they claimed to be totally
ignorant of the whole affair until the
parents returned home at o'clock ana
discovered their child in a dying condi-
tion AS soon as the Clantons saw the
condition of the child, DR.. Boyd was sum-
moned.
Before medical assistance could be rem
| dered, the child expired.
Policeman Stoll, of the Ninth Precinct,
was notified and Immediately begun an
investigation of the manner of the kill
| ing but was unable TO discover anything
which would lead TO the apprehension of
| the person who committed the crime. The
coroner was notified at an early hour
| this morning and viewed the body.
To a reporter for The Times Rosa
Clanton, the childs mother, said that
she and her husband left home about
| 6 o'clock and did not return until few
minutes before clock. The eldest
| child Richard who is eight years old,
| said that about half hour before her
| mother came home he and his two sis
| ters were at the window watching for
her coming. when all at once Goldie fell
backward and blood began oozing from
a wound over her left eye.
The Marshalls, who occupy the room or
| the first floor directly under that in which
| the children were said they remembered
| hearing something fall upstairs, but paic
no attention 10 1t at the time, thinking th'
sound was caused by one of the children
| falling off the bed.
The only person who seemed to know
anything concerning the killing of the
child Is Alberta Perry, six-year-old col
ored girl who lives next door 10 the Clan
tons. When a Times man called there she
was asleep and could not be seen. 1t wa:
said. however, that Alberta had stated I
few minutes after il was known that Gold
ie was dead that she had seen boy run
ming out of the yard. Albertas parents
| however, denied that she knew anything
about the case.
Mrs Perry said that she was ironing
with the front door and window open, bu
| that she noticed no one about the place
If the child was killed with stone
which seems to be the general belief, i
would have been a physical impossible
| ity for the deed 10 have been committed
by Alberta Perry, for she would hav'
been unable TO hurl any missile to tn
second story window where the childrel
were. with sufficient force to infiict tn
wound which caused the child's death.
DR.. Boyd, who attended the child, is o
the opinion that the death blow was mad
by the blunt end of either hammer o
a hatchet. The skull. he said, was frac
| tured over the left eye and there was a.
indenture about an inch In diameter
which could only have been inflicted wit
lust such an instrument used with grea
| force This theory is borne out by tn
fact that there was hatchet seen in tn
| yard. in front of the window, where tn
child was just before she was killed.