New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-02-04
TWO KILLED IN A BRAWL.
CANALBOAT CAPTAIN CHARGED WITH
DOUBLE MURDER
HE DECLARES THE MEN SLEW EACH
OTHER-WIFE OF THE PRISONER
SERIOUSLY STABBED

HE DECLARES THE MEN SLEW EACH
oTHER-wIFE OF THE PRISONER
SERIOUSLY STABBED.
Every once in a while fight takes place
among canal boatnen. Murder is done then.
These do not fight with fists or to leave
little marks. but fight in desperation. This Is
what happened yesterday. Two men murdered
is the result
The victims are Elmer z. Kipp, thirty-six
years old, of Saugerties, N. Y. captain Of the
canalboat C. H Voorhis, and Joseph Victor.
twenty-three years old, helper on a canal
boat, and said to have lived in East Forty
rinth-st. Victor was stabbed and Kipp hit in
the head with some blunt instrument.
Captain Alvin o. Collins. forty years DID, of
Cape Cod. typical weather beaten, cookbook
ing canal boatman. master of the Thomas
Slowey, is the man accused of the double muir
der. and he was arrested on the charge while
his wife and fourteen ycar-old son were de-
tanned as witnesses. They declare that Victor
and Kipp got into a fight between themselves,
but Mrs. Kipp says that Is not so.
The fight took place on the Thomas Slowey, at
the end of East Third-st
1t early last evening when DR.. Samuel
Falk, OF No. 1856 East Fourth-st., was informed
by canal boatman that rs services were
needed for "a sick man At tin end of East
Third-st- The doctor hurried down and found
Kipp dead in the cabin of his boat. He
going, after declaring the man dead, when he
was called over to the Slowey to attend another
case. He found Victor dead there. The
geon examined the injuries and he found that
Victor had cut the right side Of the head
The cut had been made. he thought, by some
sharp instrument, and the instrument pene-
trated 20 the brain. Kipp had fracture of the
base of the skull and slight cut in the face.
These things led Dr. Fak to inform the Cor
oner and the police of the Union Market station.
MRS. KIPP's STORY.
Detectives Miles. Sheridan. Vaughan and
Henry and Captain Schultz took charge of the
case. Their investigation led them to arrest
Collins and his wife and the boy, and they also
sent Mrs. Kipp to the police house in Union
Market
Mrs. Kipp told a story of the trouble which
the police put more faith in than any other. and
which they believe to be true. She said:
Twas between dunk and dark when Collins
crossed our boat with can of beer to go to his
own on the other side. He called out to my
man (Kipp) to come over and have some, and
my man went over. Back he comes and tells me
to come over and have some beer, and goes
over.
Collins's there, and SOS Victor and Mrs Col
Inns and my man and meself. had some beer.
Captain Collinss dog Gyp there, too, and
Victor kept foon with him.
wouldn't stop. and Collins told him to stop again
and Victor wouldn't. Collins gets up mad. and
Victor jumps up and Collins hits him and Victor
goes down. Up jumps Mrs. Collins and gets be
tween her husband and Victor. Victor getting
up again his feet But he goes down again
| Collins doing IL, though my man had Collins by
the two shoulders and draggin' him back
Then Collins turns on my and hits him
in the head. He goes to the floor I didn't
I was in terrible state, but Mrs. Colnsi Oh
she was awful! She fell on her knees and
begged me not to tell. She says not to say any
thing, and I volunteers to say TO the police
how it all happened before I got TO the boat.
Then Collins and his son Lawrence took my man
and carried him over to our boat and left him
there. Victor is on the Slowey.
Mrs Kipp said she told the first people who
| came around after the murders were heard of
that Collins and her husband were on the pier
and she knew nothing about 1t.
The woman told her story somewhat ex-
| citedly, but with seeming truthfulness and il
inspired the police with enough confidence in
| her to lead them to accept her story as the
| truth of the case
Two men at work about the pier saw the
! blood and the bodies. and one of them told Dr.
Falk of the sick The police then took
| all those the two boats to the station
MRS. COLLINS ALSO WOUNDED.
While Mrs. Kipp was telling her story Mrs.
Collins sitting with pale face in the rear
an hour that she felt sick, and then she declared
| she thought she had been stabbed. The police
wanted to examine her. but she insisted on wait
ing for the ambulance surgeon, and when he
/ arrived he found stab wound over the heart.
The surgeon, DIR. Cunningham, said the wound
! was only half inch from the heart The
woman showed remarkable strength and cour-
! age. surprising the surgeon. who said that the
wound was a bad one.
! The woman declared she stabbed while
separating Victor and Kipp she and her hus-
band insisting that the two men had fought
| each other Mrs. Collins taken TO Bellevue
| Hospital.
| While searching the party on their arrival az
the station house knife with long blade hac
been taken away from Mrs Kipp One of the
detectives now pulled out knife and showed II
Mrs Kfpp at once denied that that was the same
knife The detectives said 1t was the same TIL,
woman cried out that Ii was not the knife anC
she turned on Captain Collins saying:
You're a murderer. Your son will prove YOU
a murderer You did It."
II swear TO God I didn't do it," said Collins
That's lie and you know IT." said the ex.
|