The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-06-03

Mary Quinn, comely unmarried
woman of about 80 years, was the VIC
tim.
Some unknown fiend seized her as she
was crossing field near her home on
Twenty-fifth street, crushed in her
skull in two places, probably with a
stone, and then ravished her.
At 9 o'clock this morning the ply
sicians said she could not live many
hours There is not the slightest sus-
picion as to who her assailant can be.
Miss Quinn lived with her brother,
Hotel Keeper John Quinn and her sis
ter, Anna Quinn, in one Of the small
company" houses just beyond the
large pasture field OF the Delaware,
bounded by Luzerne street on the
north, the Keyser Valley branch of the
Lackawanna road on the east and the
lane leading from Luzerne street to the
Continental, on the west.
WENT FOR YEAST.
Shortly after o'clock last night,
she discovered that she was in need of
yeast, and started with a bottle to a
house on Washburn street, near the
Hyde Park colliery, to procure it.
1t is supposed that in returning home
she took a short cut across the pas
ture field, as was her WON'T and that
her assailant, espying her from the
lane, crept up behind her, felled her
with stone, and finding that he had
completely silenced her, struck her
again while she was PROSTATE. Her
underclothing was torn and blood
stained.
Between II and 11.3O o'clock, Joseph
Frudowski, blacksmith at the Con-
tinental, and John Lukas, a miner,
both Of them Polish, were coming
along the lane when they heard a
woman moaning. They crossed the
fence, when they came opposite to the
point whence the means emanated, and
began a search.
On the far side of small bush, five
yards from the fence. they found a
large lock or switch of woman's hair
matted with blood. Twenty yards fur
ther on, in an almost direct easterly
line, towards the center of the field,
they found woman, with her up
turned face covered with blood.
Lukas, stayed near by while Frudow-
ski fastened to give the alarm. 1t so
happened that the first house he came
to with a light in it was the Quinn
home.
When John Quinn was told that a
woman was half murdered down in
the field" he would have suspected
probably that it might be his sister for
whom he was waiting, but Frudowski,
in giving the news, said it was a GER
tain other woman, the wife of a neigh
Dor. /,
Quinn accompanied the man back to
the field and was Mortified to find that
the misgivings he was unable to dis
miss We're realized. The night was so
dark and the spot so removed from
an electric light that the features
could not be discerned. When a match
was struck and the face disclosed, a
glance told Quinn it was his sister.
WAS UNCONSCIOUS.
Neighbors quickly gathered and on
an improvised stretcher made of fence
boards she was carried to her home.
Telephone messages brought DR.. j. ].
Brennan and DR.. l.. ii. Gibbs and Rev.
p. Il. Lavelle. She was unconscious and
motionless, and the only evidence OF
vitality was constant moaning. The
doctors said that even though she
might live for several hours, she would
never recover a moments conscious
ness.
On the left side of the head where
the forehead meets the hair the skull
was crushed in for space of four
square inches and the crushed frag-
ments not only rested on the brain but
lacerated 1t. Above the right eye, the
sKull was also crushed in but not so
seriously as on the top of the head.
The blows We're inflicted with terrific
force. The doctors inclined to the be-
lief that heavy stone with a Jagged
edge was the. weapon used.
Whether or not there We're other
slighter wounds the doctors did not
stop to ascertain, bending their efforts
to relieving the brain of its depressing
sections of skull. They worked zeal
ously but with no. hope of saving the
woman's life.
1t Is not impossible that the woman
was attacked on the lane and dragged
into the field, but the general belief in
clines the other way because ii was
customary for her and her neighbors
to cut diagunally across the pasture
when returning from Luzerne street
rather than to go around by way of the
dusty lane.
COULD FIND NO CLUE.
Lieutenant John Davis and PATROL
men Collins and Mcdonald obtained a
lantern and made an examination of
the field i'm which the body was found
with view to discovering something
that might give a clue to the identity
Of the person who committed the aw-
full crime.
Where the head of the woman rested
here was a pool Of blood, but not "a