The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-10-03
A Pittsburg Girl Kills Her
Mother in Bed
And Then Shoots Herself Four
Times.
SHE CANNOT RECOVER.
Was Tired of Life and Feared
Her Mother
Would Be HeartbrOken After
She Was Gone.

Pittsburg. Pa, Oct. S.-Bertha Bell
stein killed her mother yesterday, and
later put four bullets into her own
body. from the effects of which she can
not recover. The only explanation the
girl has given for her terrible deed were
these words:
Il was tired of life. Tt held no pleas
ure for me. I wanted to die and did not
want my mother to live and fret over
my death For that reason 1 killed
her"
The crime which was committed some
time in the early morning, was not dis
covered until late in the day, when
son of the murdered woman came to
the house to see his mother. He went
to her room and found her cold in
death. A bullet wound at the right side
of the nose told the story. The bed
was covered with blood, and there was
every indication that death has ensued
some hours before.
In a room adjoining that of the moth
er the son found the body of his sister.
She was lying in pool of blood and i'll
her right hand was clutched a revolver,
The Implement of destruction. An ex-
animation of Mrs. Beilstein's body
showed that she had been shot three
times with a SO caliber revolver. Ona
shot had entered at the right side of the
nose and had taken a downward course
through the neck and had cut the sew
enth cervicIe vertebra. This, the phys.
clans say, must have caused instant
death. Another shot had entered the
right breast and the third had passed
through the right groin
An examination of the daughters
wounds convinced the physicians that
g
short time. A bullet from a 38 caliber
revolver had torn its way through the
right temple and had passed out at the
top of the head. From both the en-
trance and exit of the wound the brains
were oozing. A bullet from the same
sized revolver had been fired into her
left breast near the heart, and she had
also shot herself twice in the stomach
with a revolver of q caliber.
To one of her brothers, during a per-
iod of consciousness, the girl told of the
shooting of her mother. She said she
went into the room with the revolver
in her hand. She had decided to kill
herself, and knew that the shock Of her
death would break her mothers heart.
and concluded death would be prefera-
BILE to her suffering on earth. Her
mother, she said, was sleeping when she
went into the room. She placed the re-
volver close to her breast and fired. On
the report of the pistol, her mother sat
up in bed and said to her:
Birdie, what are you doing?'
The answer was another shot, which
she says, was fired at her mothers
face. This was evidently the shot which
entered MBrs. Beilstein's face and re-
suited in her instant death. One more
wound was inflicted afterward
Frederick Beilstein, the father of the
family, was one of the best known res
idents of Allegheny. He died suddenly
in December last from apoplexy Since
then Birdie, who was 20 years old, was
said to have lost all of her youthful
beauty. From a Ight-hearted, happy
girl she became a quiet, depressed, des-
pOndent woman. Hence the friends Of
the family think she was temporarily
insane when she committed the awful
crime.