The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-12-06
LEYH GOT SAL AMMONIAC.
POLICE ACCEPT IDEA or Suicide
on THIS EVIDENCE.
Coroner and CorOncr's ply sician Agree
That This Chemical Won't XIII and
seei, Other Cause Of Death -Wcstphai
Caught, Questioned and Released.

way, Brooklyn, who died In his store on
Tuesday morning after drinking bottle OF
poisoned beer. was thought 10 be cleared
up yesterday when Joycph A. Daltzer, an
electrician Of ISL Broadway, all old friend
of the dead man. cane forward with -
b"lated statement that on the morning o.
MIR. Leyh's death he gave to the old man
several ounces of sal ainmoniac. which he
sad was deadly poison, although a. the time
ho had no idea why Leyh wanted It.
The police had secuted the idea of suicide
because there seemed to DO nothing on
which to hang such "A theory save that at
times in the past three years Leyh had
shown signs Of xfrme grief over the death
Of his vi ie
Incidentally il MAJ be- said that The police
had absow~lyro hand Il, f'adug out about
the sal amLorac. They aorc putting IA.
boy. Pober We ,phal, whom they caught f.
his HON" early yesterday morning. through
tn. third,osi.- int be 3odfort. aveI,Le ttticu
house, when a newspaper with NJ. Baltzcr'-
statement in il was handcd tothom. Ate
reading il tnoy Jet the Westphsi boy SO
home i'h his father and announced tina
~ MI lcyh was clearly suicide there Wa
nothing mote for th'm TO do
When Coroner Williams was asked last
night what he thought Of the theory thu.
Leyh had ended his life with the sal am
moniac which he obtained from Baltz.r H.
said that he took absolutely no stock in the
story for the reason that. so far az he knew.
tha' compound war not fatal in its effects.
lie added that he proposed to discard the
suicide theory altogether and would con-
tihue his invcstiga ion to-day TO the extent
OF Going to the brewery from which the
bottled bncr vas Obtained and find out If II
was possible for a bottle to be retilled before
having been thoroughly cleansed,
The Coroner stated also that it was his
belief that a worry powerful drug had ended
the trussmaker's life.
toroner-' Physician Wue.t, who made
the autopsy on Lcyh express d the opinion
last night that rt.l ammonia did not end
Loyh's life, because in his opinion ma com
pound given by Batter wac hot deadly in
it's ctfec,
According to sir Batzcr. he was behind
the counter Of hi, store on Tuesday morn
ing al 94S O'Clock when Mr. Icyh came in.
Batter says that he had Just Opcnnd a
barrel of sal ammoriac and was scooping
IT into u scales when MIR Leyh greeted him
and asked him what he " as doing. Baltz r
says that he told the old man that he USED
the sal afrmonisc in batteries.
IL II poison: asked IeNn.
The wors, kind II viii eat through
zinc and guess II wouldn't take more than
few drops Of II 20 eat mans insid-s out, "
Bait ger replied.
Mr.. Leyh then asked Batzer To give him
littlr Of the stI q. The electrical says
that he wrapped several ounces of II up IN a
pee" OF paper and gave II 10 the old man.
He mad negotiated with leyh several times
abCu, equipping his stor. with a new set
of burglar alarms, he said, and would have
given Loyh peck If he mad a KIDD for il
Mr. Baltzer says that he heard later of Mr.
Leyh's death but did not think it was by
violence Yesterday morning he heard Of he
circumstances and that white substance
had been found ~ the bottom % the bottle
Of beer which had poisoned him. He then
mac" MP his mind that the poison that killed
leyh was III" sal ainmOuiaC he had given
him, and NJ he old man knew the character
of the stun when he took il out and could
scarcely have taken IL by accident, he con-
Guided tina, ii was case Of suicide.
Me-. Raltaor was very much depressed over
the incident when seen Yesterday.
Il know thar the old man was ia bad shape
after his wife died" he said. but that was
tire" years ago, and ] never Thought h."
would take his life When Mr. Leyh came
into my store on Tuesday morning | could
See that h" had boon drinking but howa.. no
worse than have seen him scores of times
hetUr", and hs was perfectly well able to
take care If himself We talked about the
burglar alarms vas going To put III for him
and then ho got curious about the sal am
iuOniac and asked me for some. There il
no doubt that he had suicide IN mind when
he asked me 10 give him some of hat poison
lie must have gone right back to his store
mixed the poison in the beer and then drunk
n. IL Il hard on me- 10 have been the ono
TO furnish him withthr poison, but Of course
the only thought ! had was that he wanted
to llsn the stun IN a battery"
NiuiilD''f = IT i.tSh : tUIIlly said Yesterday
tho; they had believed all along that he
killed himself, bcCaus" they knew he had
fits of depression al times ovrr his wifo'-
death and that during NJ. week. before his
own death he was unusually despondent
For a time, they said, TIA, v had been almost
convinced by the police that a murder had
been comIuitted, hGt when they heard Of
Mr., BalZer's statement they were salts
fed with this explanation Of the tragedy.
Young Westphal, the precious Young
ster whose many lies and many names
made the polio" suspect that he knew more
Of the death of Mr.. Loyh than he had told
returned To his home n S O'Clock yester-
day morning and was promptly gathered
in by the police A dozen dete ctives under
Inspector Druhan pumped away at the
boy Yesterday and sucCCs ded in tanglirg
him UP n good deal, the boy being unable
To Straighten out the numerous inCnnsi--
trncies in his story. The lad declared that
he did not run away. hut that he had bust
ness in Manhattan to attend to and that
was why h" left the back door OF Levin :
store a. the detectives entered through the