The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-11-19

was large owner of real estate in tie
immediate vicinity, the renting of which
was conducted in an office in the base
ment of his house. One night in the
early part of February 1888, three men
broke into the Smell residence by bort &
hole through a panel in the rear door
on the lower floor, and then s'ipp ng
the bolts. Their first move was to break
open and rifle small safe in the Office
in which it was supposed Mr.. Smell had
considerable money taken in for rentals.
Next they went up stairs to the parlor
floor where, in moving around, they
were heard by Mr.. Smell. The latter,
brave, daring, old man, came down
from his bedroom in his nightrobe, pis-
toll in hand, and cried out:
who's there? All, you id scum
drel''
AS he spoke Mr.. Smell fired a shot
in the direction of the back parlor, which
was answered almost in the same flash
by two discharges from the burglars
pistols. Smell dropped dead with both
bullets in his body.
KILLED BY TWO BURGLARS.
The autopsy revealed the fact that the
shots came from guns of different cali
Der, one being 38 and the other a g.
His body was found in the hallway, at
the foot of the stairs, the next morn
ing. Footsteps In the snow at the rear
of the house showed where the murder
ers had climl ed over fence in getting
into the premises, but there was no trail
of their exit beyond some blood on the
front steps. 1t was supposed that Smell
had wounded one of the men when he
fired, and that the blood had trick ed
from this wound as he made his way out
from the house by the front door.
The shooting had many mysterious
features. At the coroner's inquest one
of the woman servants, who slept in an
upper room, testified that she had he ard
the disturbance in the house during the
night, but had not tried to ascertain what
caused it. She heard Smell get up and
go down stairs; heard him cry out
who's there? All! you id scoundrel!"
And had heard the shots fired, and then
rolled over md remained quiet uni!
morning. When the shooting took place
and the trio of murderers made their
escape, a dancing party was just break
ing up not more than block away, a d
the streets were filled with people, yet
none of2 them heard any disturbance OF
| caught sight of the fleeing burglars.
A reward of $4,000 stimulated the reg
ular police and private detectives to I'M
usual efforts in trying to run down the
murderers, but nearly two weeks passed
without anything being accomplished. 1t
WIS settled by the sleuths that three men
were engaged IN the murQef, and tnat the
object of the raid was to rob the safe
which was thought to contain several
thousands of dollars in cash. This latter
part of the theory was plausible, but no
| explanation was ever offered for the be-
lief that any particular number of men
took part in the burglary and murder.
FIRST CLEW TO TASCOTT.
The first real clew to the identity of the
! murderers was had from the keeper of a
lodging house on West Madison street
Some two weeks or so after the killing
this woman in cleaning up the room of
one of her dodgers, who went by the name
of T. A. Scott, came across a lot of char
red papers in a stove. In pulling these
out she noticed that one of the scraps was
| the end of check bearing the signature
of A. j. Smell. She reported the matter
to the police, and a search of SCOTS"
| room brought to light a number of other
papers that had been taken from Mr.
| SHELLS safe. lot of stolen silverware
was also found in the closet. Scott had
| disappeared, but 1t took little work to
| identify him as Willie Tascott, the son
| of reputable paint dealer on the West
| side. Young Tascott was wild lad, well
| known in the vicinity of Latin and Madi-
| son streets, particularly at Woodbury. s
| billiard hail. where he was a steady pat
| ron. He was never known TO do any reg
ular work, and yet was always fairly well
supplied with money. Burglaries had been
frequent in, that part of the city that win
ter, and 1t was an easy matter for the