The Savannah morning news., 1902-02-09
CRIME OF THE BIDDLEs.
Attempted 10 ChIOrofOrm Mrs. Kah-
ney and Killed Her Husband.

neY ana Her HuSDanOs
From the New York World.
The crime for which Edward and
John Biddle, the Pennsylvania desper-
ADDE'S. were to have been hanged in
atrocious one. In the dead of night on
April 10, 1901, the Biddles, together
with Walter Dorman, the leader OF
their gang, entered the home OF
Thomas d. Kahney, a crippled grocery
man. in Mount Washington, Allegheny
county, attempted TO chlOroform Mrs.
kahney, and when she screamed for
help shot down her defenseless hus-
band.
The gang had been committing nu-
merous burglaries in Allegeny county
for three months. They operated IN
one town after another and secured
rich booty. The police seemed power
less to prevent the burglaries or to
apprehend the burglars. Householders
were terrorized and went to sleep IN
fear that they would be the next vic
TINS. No one felt safe from the daring
robbers.
They We're skillful and bold and sue
ceeded in covering their tracks so well
that the police were completely at
fault.
They were reaping a rich harvest
from their robberies, and there is no
knowing how long they would have
kept it up had it not been for the muir
der they committed on the night of
April 19, 1901. On that night Dorman
and the Biddles undertook to rob the
grocery store and living rooms of
Thomas d. Kahney. a crippled grocery
man of Mount Washington. They er-
fected an entrance by boring through
shutter and lifting the catch with a
piece of wire.
The first room they entered was the
bedroom of Mrs. Kahney where she
and her son, Earl, were sleeping. The
burglars attempted to chloroform Mrs.
Kahney, but she awoke and screamed
for help. Her husband, who was sleep
ing in another room, heard her cries
and ran to her assistance. The mo-
ment he entered the room one of the
burglars fired revolver at him and he
fell dead. According to the story told
by DOrman at the trial of the Biddles,
1t was Jack Biddle who fired the shot.
AS soon as this murder was commit
ted, and while the heartrending cries
of the widowed wife and orphaned
children were ringing in their ears,
Dorman and the two Biddles coolly
walked out of the grocer's house and
made their way back to Pittsburk,
where they were living. Dorman went
to his room in a clearinghouse, where
he was living with Jennie Seebers, the
wife of a railroad brakeman in Mil
Waukee, and the Biddles went to their
home nearby. where ED. Biddle was
living with Jessie Bodine, a
Milwaukee girl, with whom
he had run away at the
same time that Dorman eloped with
Mrs. Seebers.
The murder, however. aroused the
police of Pittsburg to great activity,
and the next day the chief of police
of this city learned trat three sus-
picious characters were living on what
was known locally as THE Hill" The
chief sent for Detective p. e. Fitzger-
aid, who was asleep after a hard
nights work, and directed him to ar
rest the three men. Fitzgerald took
with him Police Inspector r. S. Gray
and County Detective r. G. Robinson.
They went first to Dormans house
and arrested him and Jennie Seebers
and sent them to the station house
Then the officers went to where the
Biddles and Jessie Bodine were living.
They caught Jack Biddle on the first
floor and secured him without much
difficulty, but Jessie Bodine ran up
stairs and warned Ed Biddle that the
officers were after him. He opened a
second-story window and was about
to jump from 1t, when he was stop
ped by the revolver of a policeman
who was stationed on the outside of
the house. Fitzgerald and Gray ran
upstairs and burst into the room. AS
they did so Ed Biddle fired and killed
Fitzgerald. Gray then shot the bur-
glar and wounded him. Biddle was TAX
en- to the hospital, but recovered suffi-
ciently a couple of weeks later to be
taken to the jail
On the trial of the Biddles Dorman
turned states evidence to save his
own neck and the Biddles were found
guilty of murder in the first degree for
killing Kahney. The killing of Detec-
tive Fitzgerald was reserved In case
Ed Biddle should manage to escape a
conviction on the Kahney charge. The
brothers were sentenced TO die Dec.
u, but their lawyer took an appeal
and the execution was put Off They
were again sentenced to die on Jan.
IA and 16 respectively, Ed having ask
ed that he be not hanged on the same
scaffold with his brother.
A few days before the second date
fixed for the hanging a woman visited
Gov Stone and begged him to com
mute the sentences of the brothers to
imprisonment Tor llte, out he refused
to interfere. A day of two later, how
ever, he put off the executions until
Feb. 25 and 27 in order that the Board
of Pardons might pass on the cases.
The Governor exposed himself to much
adverse criticism by this action and
the popular Indignation found express
sion in the newspaper. Dorman, who
pleaded guilty of murder in the first
degree, has not yet been sentenced.
The prosecuting attorney wished the
Biddles to be hanged before Dorman's
punishment should be fixed. He, too, will
be sentenced to be hanged, but, as a
reward for the testimony he gave
against the Biddles the Board of Par
dons will assuredly recommend that
his sentence be commuted to impris-
onment for life.