The Washington times., 1901-10-15
A MYSTERY IN RICHMOND.
Second Man Was Wounded in tie
Locomotive Works.
Bullet Hit Nanny Parker Minute
Before the Superintendent of the
ShOP Was KiIIed-Nnture of the In
jury Not Known Until Yesterday.

RICHMOND, Va, Oct. 1.-THE mystery
surrounding the instant killing of John
| T. y Brien at the Richmond Locomotive
| Works on Saturday morning intensified
| today with the discovery that hardly a
| minute before he was shot through the
heart, Nanny Parker one of his machin-
lists. who was standing about fifteen feet
behind him, inside the erecting shop, was
shot in the back OF the head.
| Parker is at his home, 2O17 Venable
| Street. conscious and complaining of
nothing more than a dimness of vision,
| but there is hole in the back of his skull
| and no one knows whether the bullet is
! inside or where it is.
| If the killing of C'Brien was done with
| deliberation, the first shot missed, and
that was the one Parker received in
| the back of his head. The second shot
could not have been better aimed, for it
| pierced the right ventricle of the heart.
ranged through the lungs, and curved
back to the ribs.
Parker was in the line of the rife for
there is every reason to believe that a
rife was used. O'Brien had gone to the
entrance of the shop to answer the appli-
cation of George Myers. a stranger ma
chinist, for chance to work. The en-
trance to the shop is twelve feet wide.
The stranger was standing about three
feet to one side of the superintendent. and
the watchman, A. ]. Williams was about
three feet to the other side. Back in the
shop and at work was Parker distance
of about fifteen feet.
The shot in the back of his head did
not send him to the ground. He telt the
jar and the sting and then the gush of
blocd, and believing that piece of flying
steel hGd struck him, he went into the
stoTeroom. He was not there a minute
when the superintendent's corpse was
brought into the room, and in the excite
ment he and his wound were forgotten.
After an examination of the body the
ambulance surgeon dressed Parker head
He did not know until Saturday night
that he had been shot and found it out
when Dr. w. II. Parker. the well-known
Church Hill physician, was called in and
examined the wound, and then called for
Parker's working cap. In the back of the
cap was neat hole and one that only
bullet could have made.
1t seems miracle that both men were
not killed instead Of only one. Parker
says that the bullet is in his head. The
hole is there and there is every trace of
the wound having been made by a bullet.
but the only effect he has so far felt has
been slight falling in his eyeSiSht.
When seen by reporter the wounded
man said that the shooting of himself and
the superintendent is more of u mystery
to him than TO anyone else. He cannot
imagine how 1t was done or by whom.
The inquest into the superintendent
death was held this morning at the Hen
rico County Courthouse The result was
a verdict that he met death from a bullet
wound inflicted by a party or parties un-
known.
DR.. w. w. Dunn testified that the bull
let had pierced coat waistcoat. linen
shirt, a red flannel underShrt. white
flannel undershirt. and a red flannel pad
used as a chest protector. The hole
through this mass of clothing was clean
and straight. and DIR. Lorrimer James,
who studied the case and made the post
mOrtem examination with DR.. Dunn, said
that the bullet came in IA straight line,
could not have been a spent bullet and
came with a great momentum.