The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-05-04
AGED BANKER SHOT
Murderer First Writes
a Statement and
Then Shoots.
MOTIVE A MYSTERY.
Victim is Alexander Mas
terton of New
York.

New York, May ALEXANDER Mas
terton, a director of the Farmers
Loan and Trust Company, and 70 years
of age, was shot and killed this after
noon by James Neale Plumb, in the
Burlington Hotel, West Both street.
Masterton was shot five times, and
died within an hour The murder was
premeditated, as evidenced by the vol
luminous statement written in advance
by Plumb and given. out after his ar
rest. The present motive for the crime
is unknown.
Plumb, in his statements, issued Ito
the public" and entitled why /, J.
Neale Plumb, shot Alexander Master
ton," declared that he had been actu-
ated to do this because of a system
attic bounding of him by Masterton.
Plumb declared further that Masterton
had not only ruined him financially,
fections of his wife and children and to
cause his social downfall. Plumb's
statements, one of which was adj
dressed to the Associated Press, dealt
with a period of his career embracing
the past 80 years. were rambling in
many places and concluded with the
following:
mo man has higher regard for hui
man life than /. But the just and
righteous punishment of Alexander
Masterton is decreed by an outraged
God and 1 am simply the humble in'
strument in his hands, as he has Sc
lected me as his chosen instrument of
wrathful vengeance. 1 have rid the
world of a man who was not fit to live
and whose death thousand times over
could never atone for the monstrous
wrongs done me-"
Masterton and Plumb met by agree
ment in the Burlington Hotel at 1.30 p.
M in the apartments occupied by Man
ager Cole. Thev had been there but a
short time when five shots were fired
in rapid succession. Plumb then came
out of the apartments and walked into
the reception room, awaiting arrest.
The murderer was then taken before
Police Captain Price, in the Tenderloin
precinct, of whom he is an intimate
friend He was later taken before a
magistrate in the jefferson Market po-
lice court and held. Nothing was
brought out at the hearing that could
be accepted as a reason for the killing,
beyond the statement made by Plumb
that Masterton had bounded him for
many years.
In his statement, Plumb wrote as
follows: THE reason for taking this
serious step was that for upwards of
35 years, commencing as far back as
1852, at the time of my marriage en-
gagement, this man has followed me
like a sleuth hound from that time to
this, and yet 1 was never able to dis
cover the cause or motive of his vim
dictive animosity towards me, as when
l,a 70 "a
err seen the man, nor ever heard of
him.
again in 1885, on my return from
California, after three years absence,
he at once renewed the intrigues
against me in my family, and in pub
lie, secretly doing me all injury in his
power, socially and financially. After
all these years down to 1876, this man
was constantly plotting and conspiring
against me, endeavoring to undermine
my Wife's confN90MRe in me by mean
and covert insinuations and endeavor-
ing in every way to ALLEVIATE the affec-
lions of my wife and children, and he
had a powerful influence being the
trustee Of my wifes large estate"
In 1877 Mrs. Plumb died in Paris and
Plumb returned here and went to live
at Islip L. l.. His statement recites a
number of Instances of MYSTERIOUS al
legged conspiracy to ALLEVIATE the affec-
lions Of his children, French maid
acting as a spy fos Masterton. 1t re-
fers to another conspiracy" begun in
1885, which it says, is known to
Plumb's friends in New York and
Washington as the Washington con-
spiracy," where his Oldest daughter
Minnie, laid a trap for Masterton and
his lawyers by means of decoy letters
and kilograms and that his enemy fell
into the trap and did not know he had
been trapped until his daughter dis
played the motive Of these kilograms
in Surrogate Rollins court during an
action brought in connection with the
case. After reciting the story of the
marriage of his son, ]. Ives Plumb, in
1885, with woman named Anna Bur-
ton, of whom he speaks in non compli-
mentary terms, and laying the blame
for this undesirable marriage at Mas
terton's door, Plumb refers TO what he
calls the last great conspiracy of Alex
ander Masterton, which has eliminated
his long years of cruel, VindictiVe op-
preston by his punishment decreed by
an outraged God"
He says that soon after his sons
"disgraceful marriage" he went to Eu-
rope intending to make his home in
Southampton. Eng. He next refers to
the alleged kidnapping of his daughter
Leonita in 1888 after they had returned
to New York. She was forced into
carriage by the agents Of Masterton,
he AYERS, and taken to the Victoria
Hotel Later she was taken to Troy.
She subsequently regained her free
dom. The object of this abduction,
Plumb claims, was to force the girl
TO give up her father. Plumb declares
that the wrongs which MastertOn had
done him no law could reach His
words are: THE man who brought all
this trouble in my declining years, no
law can reach"
Plumb did not add anything to his
statement prepared in advance re-
garding the events just. prior to the
shooting. He appeared cool on his ar
rest. but when at the police station
word came that Masterton had died.
Plumb broke down and said: 1T had to
be-" A chambermaid at the Burling-
ton, who was the only one near the
room in which the shooting occurred.
told the police that she heard the men
in angry conversation just before she
heard the pistol shots. One of the men,
and she was positive that il was not