Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1901-07-26
A MYSTERIOUS MURDER
NEAR Holidays COVE.
John LIPTAC, An ITALIAN MINER,
FOUND DEAD FROM SHOT
Gun WOUND.
FAITHFUL DOG STOOD BY
HAD LEFT COMPANIONS TO AID
DOGS IN CAPTURING
GROUNDING.

Special TO the Register.
STEUBENVILL.E, o., July 70
Brooke county, w. Va, has another
murder mystery added to its history.
In an orchard on the Forester farm,
close to the Panhandle tracks. about
one mile east of Holidays Cove sta
ton and about two miles from the scene
of the Van Baker tragedy, the iifeiess
body of John Liptac. an Italian miner
was found this morning.
He was lying face downward close to
q groundhog's hole, where foyeral COM
panions had left him alive on last eve
ming. Beside the body were ais two
faithful dogs, who had stood guard
there all night. A great gaping hole
in his back showed where a heavy load
of shot had entered at short range and
ended his life.
Liptac was employed in the Blanche
coal mines and boarded with his
brother-in- law, Andy Swartz. in u two
story brick house Just west OF the
shaft. Last evening about 80 o'clock
he and three companions, Sam Boca-
noe, Mike Lucush and Joe Barniaky,
started to walk down the railroad
tracks towards Holidays Cove TO meet
some friends who had been attending
the circus in Steubenville. They had
proceeded about half mile when they
came to the Forester orchard and ber-
ry patch, and knowing there was an
unusually cool spring in the orchard.
the three companions of Liptac say
they went up there to get drink.
They further say that while there Lip
taos two dogs
Found Groundhog's Hole
about twenty-five feet east and a little
above the spring. Liptac went up to
where the dogs were, which was about
100 yards from the Forester house.
His companions waited for him while
and then fearing they would miss their
friends called to him to come on. He
replied he was going to stay with the
dogs and help them get the grounding.
They left him there, and as they came
out on the railroad track they say they
saw Jim Brown, a sonin-law of Mrs.
Forester, who is employed as lamp
lighter on the Panhandle. According
to their story, he demanded to know
what they were doing up in the orchard
and when they told him they were get
ting a drink he sarcastically wanted
to know il that other fellow was get
ting one too, pointing to Liptac, who
was near the berry patch, just above
the spring. They said yes, and Brown
went on towards his home, short dis
lance away. Liptac and the dogs fall
ed to return to the Swartz residence
last night, and this morning at $50
o'clock his brother-in-law started out
to look for him, and when he reached
site the orchard, the dogs, who had
scented him, came leaping through the
weeds and commenced jumping upon
him, then running back in the direc-
ton from which they came. Swartz
followed them and they led him to the
grounding hole. There he found his
brother-in-law's body.
Liptac Was Lying on His Face
with his arm folded under his fore
head. His slippers were about three
yards up the hill and from the look
OF the ground he had rolled that dis
lance after being shot. In his back
there was a gunshot wound over an
inch in diameter, and his chest was
full of scattered shot holes made by
the shot which had passed clear
through his body. The spot where
Liptae was found is about 100 yards
from the Forester home where Mrs.
Nancy Forester and her two sons,