The San Francisco call., 1898-07-08
Horrible Murder at the
 Almshouse.
STICK AND KNIFE ARE USED
LOUIS PERRITT THE VICTIM
 OF HENRY WILLIAMS.
The Deed Was Premeditated and No One Was an Eyewitness to Its Accomplish
 ment.

Two old men, inmates of the Almshouse, each over 70 years of age, had a fight yesterday morning, and one murdered the other in cold blood.
 The murdered man was Louis Perritt, 70 years of age, who entered the Aims house in 1894. All the attaches say that he was an inoffensive old man. He spent his time in attending to small garden patch in the canyon about half 8 mile from the Almshouse, and had a shanty where he kept his tools.
 The murderer is Henry Williams, 73I5 years of age, who was sent to the insti- tuition six years ago. Unlike Perritt, he was always cranky and quarrelsome, imagining that there was a conspiracy to harm him. He worked on a garden patch about a mile from Perritt's.
 The dinner hour at the Almshouse is II o'clock. and yesterday, just as Perritt had left his work to go to dinner, he met on the road Williams, who had purposely gone there to kill him. Williams carried a heavy stick, and struck Perritt on the head with it, knocking him against the fence at the side of the road. Williams then jumped on Perritt, and they grap- pied with each other. Perritt was the stronger of the two, and was getting the better of the struggle on the ground, when Williams pulled out a tableknife, which had been specially sharpened for the occasion, and drew it ac~oss Perritt's throat. He cut him also at each side of the mouth, infiicting long, deep ,gashes, and finished by thrusting the knife down his throat. The knife was broken with the force of the thrust.
 Nothing was known of the affray till Williams walked into the office of Super intendent Reddy and startled him by say ing, "I have beaten the old Frenchman down there" indicating the garden patch. Special Officer Julian and three others rNaH akaaV md n they reached the garden patch they found Perritt stretched out against the fence, weltering in his blood. They carried him to the hospital at the Almshouse, and pr. W. E. Conlan did all he could to stop the hemOrrhages, but it was useless, as Per ritt expired in about twenty minutes. Be- fore he expired he told the special officer that Williams jumped" him and knocked him down. and he could easily have killed him had he not used the knife.
 Superintendent Reddy notified the Morgue and Captain Gillen of the Seven teenth-street station, and the captain de tailed Policemen E. F. Bode and c. W. Brown to arrest Williams and take him to the City Prison, where a charge or murder was booked against him.
 At the prison Williams, who is little old man with mild blue eyes, talked in rambling way about nurses, laundrymen and others. including the old Frenchman, charging him with being a spy and us- He had it in for Perritt because Perritt was cultivating poison flowers in his patch to use upon him. He did not deny going to Perritt's patch to have it out with him.
 "Perritt struck at me first with stick" he said. "and I parried the blow. Then I struck him with my stick and knocked him down. l jumped on him and he was Cettrg a good hold on me when ] used the knife He didn't say anything"
 Williams said he was born in Cardiff, Wales, but his parents came to this coun- try and settled in Hackensack, N. J.. when he was 2 years. old. He came to this coast in 1852. and tried his luck at the gold mines. Then he bought a ranch at Grass Valley and worked it for tif- teen years until he was robbed of all pos sessions. Since then he had been en- ployed at gardening in various places until he was sent to sthe Almshouse. He was never married and has no friends living He is a Quaker.
 When searched at the prison he had 75 cents In his pockets and several small packages of herbs. which he said he used in doctoring other inmates. The broken knife and stick were booked as evidence against him. They were both marked with blood. and the stick is cracked with the force of the blow.