Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1902-12-11
A scandalous Affair at Hancock.

penlnS C0aI HAS WTeCheu tWO Homeei
cast into the dirt pretty woman and
rnined a man prominent in his profess
sion and in society. The affair Gre
ated the most intense excitement in
Hancock and the adjacent towns, and
gossips have more to talk about than
they have had for many day. The
parties involved were DR.. ]. S. Diehl,
dentist, and DR.. P. E. Stigers, the
well-known physician. The woman in
the case was DR.. Diehls young and
attractive wife, the mother of one boy.
DR.. Stigers is married and has two
children. Both families were promi-
nent in Hancock, which is their native
place. The Hagerstown Mail gives
the particulars of the affair.
On Wednesday at about seven
o'clock in the evening DR.. Diehl went
to his home. He went up stairs to
his bedroom for some purpose and
found his wife there. There was some
conversation, and the closet door was
noticed to be open by DR.. Diehl and
he walked to it and pulled it wide.
There was revealed what he least ex-
pected, the form of DR.. Stigers, and
he was the more surprised as DR.. Stl-
gers leaped upon him with the feroc-
ity of tiger. Nothing was said by
the men. there was nothing to be said.
The undressed condition Of DR.. Stigers
refuted the idea that he came profess
sionally. Both, Infatuated beyond the
power of speech and well matched in
strength, with DR.. Stigers slightly the
larger, grappled fercely. The wo-
man was partly undressed, it is said,
and she ran away while the enraged
cambatants tore at each other and
with every muscle in their bodies
fought for the lettering Of the other.
They rolled Cd the floor and bed, they
upset the chairs and furniture, and
they bit and tore at each other with
many desperate but hindered blows.
They flung drops of blood about liber-
ally. 1t was marked almost every
where. Before the woman left DR..
Stigers cried out to her to take his
coat and shoes out of the room, he be-
ing at this time gaining O. Dlehl, who
was winding fast and not much longer
able to hold his own against the more
powerful DIR. Stigers. She picked up
the clothing but left the shoes, which
were found afterwards, and left the
house for that Of a neighbor, but did
not give any alarm. DR.. Stigers in
the meantime had wrested himself
loose from DR.. Diehl and left him
painting and exhausted for time on
the floor. DR.. Stigers was badly beat
en-, and his thumb was chewed up and
his eye was bunged and gouged where
Diehl got his finger in it. Diehl
had about one-third Of his right ear
taken off and his body was bruised
as we'll as his face. Stigers dressed in
the hall and hurried out. DR.. Dlehl
rallied when his breath had returned
and he ran to the window with his
pistol and fired one shot at DR.. Stigers,
who was then passing out of the house
and out of range. So he missed him.
Diehl then went to the drug store OF
DR.. West and had his injuries dressed.
Then the doctors son and others went
back to the house and up into the
room that was scene of desolation
and ruin and fury. They found the
piece of ear in the bed, the upper tip,
and found the bed spattered with
blood and a terrible witness of the
fight that had taken place between the
two men, the one fighting for the hope
of his injured home and misled wife
and the other in the desperate frenzy
of detection that meant the closing
knell of a busy and useful life and
character in that section. 1t took all
day to get the room in anything like
order. That night Mrs. Diehl came
home, having no place to go. The
family is reticent as to what is being
done as far as the domestic peace of
the two is concerned. The woman is
still at home. DR.. Diehl asked that
it be kept from the papers, as he first
wanted to catch DR.. Stigers on the
warrant he swore out for assault and
battery, mayhem and assault with in
tent to kill. The latter is now over
in Pennsylvania and has not yet re-
turned to the bosom of his old home.
Col. Buchanan Schley was summoned
to come and see him as his attorney.
He went to Hancock knowing nothing
Of this trouble and with light coat.
To his amazement he was driven FIVE
miles out into the country and had all
this revealed to him.
DR.. Diehl is in a distracted condi-
ton. He is very fond of his wife,
who was Miss Crowel, Of Frederick,
and is of an esteemed family. He
does not know what to do or what
way to turn. He knows the unwrit-
ten law of the land called for the in
slant Staying of the intruder to his
happy home, and yet he feels that the
sentiment of religion is against en-
brewing hands in blood. Heis wiry
and strong man but smaller than Sti-
gers or the latter would not have
lived to recall that night for his re-
volver was handy. Stigers is heav-
lily built and athletic man and was
able to wrest himself away.
Stigers went to his home and thence
to some place in the country just over
the line. Constable Rhodes upon
warrants by Squire Harrison went to
the Stigers home and did not find the