The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1902-01-15
HARVEY BRUCE CONFESSES
He Tells the Story Of the Murder of
Peter A. HalIenbeck.
DEED DELIBERATELY PLANNED

The Confession Describes How Bruce and
the Three Nephews Assassinated the
Old Man in an Atrocious Manner
Foreclosure of Mortgage Held by Him
the Motive For the Crime.
Hudson, N. Y.-Harvey Bruce, agec
'twenty-one, in the form of statement
to his mother and aunt, witnessed by
Mayor Charles S. Harvey and County
Treasurer George n. Macy. confessed
that the murder Of Peter A. Hallen'
beck, the wealthy farmer of Green
port, was committed by himself and
Willis, Burton and Fred Van Wormer.
The Van Wormers are brothers, and
are twenty. twenty.three and twenty
six years old. They were nephews
of the murdered man.
The confession shows that the MUIR
der was planned deliberately. 1t tells
how the prisoners, who all live in Kin
derhook, eighteen miles from the Hal.
lenbeck home, rode in the cool air OF
Christmas Eve to the scene OF the
crime, tied their horse to the barn OF
the victim, walked to the rear of the
house in the bright moonlight, raped
on the door, and when the old man
opened 1t, shot him to death, firing
thirteen shots, eleven penetrating the
body. =
The crime was witnessed by Hallen-
beck's wife and his old mother, the
other members of the family being at
church, less than mile distant, at
tending Christmas Eve services.
The Van Wormer family lived until
last fall in q house In Greenport, mort
gagged to Hallenbeck. The boys, being
indolent and troublesome, the mortgage
was foreelosed and the family evicted.
This caused their ill-will for the victim.
The shots were heard by the neigh
bors, who saw the fleeing men and
gave the alarm. Suspicion soon rested
on the Van Wormers.
Christmas Day, with Bruce, they
were arrested at Kinderhook. Their
mother and friends tried hard by tes-
timony before the Coroner to establish
an alibi, declaring the boys were at
home by 8 o'clock on Christmas Eve.
The officials had strong evidence
against them. The horse which they
drove had peculiar shoe with a short
cork, the same impression being In the
soft earth at the barn where the horse
was tied up. The wagon wheels meas
ured the same as the tracks In the
snow leading from the Hallenbeck
house.
One footprint was made by foot
wearing q bulldog shoe, another by
shoes having steel heel plates. The.
shoes of the prisoners when arrested
had those characteristics and fitted the
snow prints exactly. The bullets In the
body were 32 and 3S-calibre, which
were the same as revolvers found In
the prisoners home. They purchased
masks from q notion dealer at Kinder
hook the afternoon of the murder,
and the men who did the shooting
wore masks.
Four revolvers were found in the
boys home. The mother In her testi-
mony, swore they spent the day Of the
murder cleaning them, that they
were good boys, but never left home
without putting the revolvers in their
pockets. Describing which revolver
belonged to each boy, she said the 49,
calibre one was Harvey Bruce's, the
smaller calibres were those Of her
three sons. The physicians who held
the post-mortem say the 3S-calibre
one produced the fatal wounds. the
minor wounds being by the 32-cali-
bres.