Waterbury Democrat., 1901-12-09
MARX REACHES HOME.


 Grove Shoting.
 NEW YORK, Dee. 9.-Ierbert Marx, who on Tuesday night last shot and killed William Taylor and, William Hefilin and seriouslly wounded James Q. Stiff at his fathers plantation house near Oak Grove, Va, has reached his home, 139 Sixth avenue, Brooklyn. He left Oak Grove immediately after his exoneration by the coroner's jury and reached Washington on Thursday. As to his whereabouts since Thursday nothing was obtainable
 Abel E. Blackmar, 10I4 Bergen street, Brooklyn, Sf the law firm of Baldwin & Blackmar, 31 Nassau street, Manhattan, gave out the following statement of the affair:
 "Wednesday morning I received a telegram asking me to come to Virgin ia at once and stating that Herbert Marx was in trouble. I started at once, accompanied by Herbert's broth CT Ernest. We reached Eredericks- burg on Thursday and found that Her bert had come up the Rappahannock on steamer. We found him on board the boat and took him to the hotel. After hearing his story of the shooting we decided that it was best for him to go to Washington and call on Repre- sentative Jones of his home district and give him a4full account of the mat ter. This he did and placed himself in the care of MT. Jones.
 Ernest Marx and myself drove to Oak Grove and called upon the com monwealth attorney, Colonel Robert !. Washington, descendant of the half brother of George Washington. After a conference with Colonel Washington we decided to thoroughly inspect the premises where the shooting occurred. The next day we went over to the place and found several things not before no- ticed. We found that Taylor evidently had fired two rifle shots through the window One of these had passed through the window of the back room on the ground floor and the other through the second story.
 .When the first shot was fired, Her. bert secured his revolver, threw open the door and confronted q man wearing a mask. He called upon the man to speak and say whether the affair was q joke. Receiving no answer, he fired. The man, who afterward proved to be Stiff, fell on the porch. Stiff is said to have stated that he was shot by one Of his own party, but Herbert says that he shot him. Heffiin fell next, and aft CT his second shot Herbert started across the front yard toward a fence about 250 yards away. After climbing the fence he turned and saw another man, carrying rife. Herbert fired, 1 and this man also fell. The third man afterward proved to be Taylor, who apparently had crossed the yard and climbed the fence on q parallel course l with Marx, Herbert ran half mile to | Griffith's, the nearest neighbor.
 Securing lantern, q party hastened ! back to the scene of the shooting and found that Heffiin and Stiff had crawl l ed into the front room, where both lay on the floor unconscious. One myste- rious feature of the affair was that the lamp which had been burning in the back room had been removed to the l front room.
 fiMarx secured horse and hurried away to the home of Dr. Washington, l five miles distant, and soon returned with the physician. Tayler's body was not found until an hour later. Upon searching further about the premises q bag of straw. large bundle of rags l and 9 bottle of kerosene were found, 1 together with large braided whip. l 4 quarter of mile down the road two buggies were found, in which were q can of tar, q rope twenty feet long and several rife cartridges. A man known 1 as Douglas was found in one of the buggies. He ran away and, together with a man known as George Thomp- son, was caught later Both declared that they knew nothing of the matter both had been pressed into the affair upon the assurance that there was to be no shooting. An examination of Taylor's rifle showed that the maga- zine contained thirteen undischarged cartridges. The eJector of the rife was down, and a cartridge was found jam med i'll the breech, preventing further use of the weapon.
 Marx remained that night in the house in the custody of Mr. Griffith, who had been deputized as special constable. Next morning an inquest was held over Taylor's body. Thomp- son testified that he had understood the party intended to chastise Marx He had been picked up on the road, and he knew nothing else about the matter. Douglas told a similar story to the jury, on which were two rela- tives of one of the dead men. Colonel Washington told Marx he could make a statement to the jury if he desired, and Marx did so. A verdict of justifia- ble shooting was at once returned. Marx was advised to leave the county in the interests of peace. He was talk en to Leedstown, on the Rappahan- nook, and boarded a boat for Freder- icksburg, where we met him,
 nAfarx deeply depiores the publicity given the young lady in the case and who has since stated that he had never offered her an insult"