Bridgeton pioneer., 1903-01-29

committed before fifteen minutes after
i've when people are beginning to stir
about. Again the doors of the house
were found to be locked upon the in
side and again the wound in Nichols
throat indicates that it was clean
slash and not made accidentally in a
scuffie or fight. If murderer had
thus inflicted the wound while Mich
OILS was upstairs. why should the body
be found lying downstairs? And fur
ther the feathers, which evidently
came from a feather bed, must be ac-
counted for.
The evidence at hand seems to in
dlcate that Nichols had partially
dressed himself and then. it is more
than likely, in sudden insane
condition, attacked his wife. He may
have cut her throat. That will not
likely be known from the fact that
the burned trunk will not reveal this
fact. But the probabilities are that
be did cut his wife and that in the
struggle the feather bed was opened
allowing the feathers to escape and
they stuck to his clothing wherever
there was blood. 1t may have been
that after killing his wife and resoly-
ing upon burning the house he ripped
open the bed to find a good place to
apply the torch.
A razor was found in a drawer in a
bureau downstairs 1t was in case.
There was no blood upon it. An
empty razor case was also found in the
same drawer. The probabilities are
that the razor is in the ruins.
County Physician Diament ordered
an inquest which will be held. JUS
tice Hall spent all the morning GET
ting the names of all possible wit
nesses. Undertaken Charles Tomlin
was directed to care for the bodies
Prosecutor j. Hampton Fithian and
his clerk, Mr.. Albert S. McAllister.
arrived upon the scene and began a
personal investigation, but neither ex-
pressed any opinion upon the tragedy.
Thursday afternoon the Coroner
caused jury to be empaneled, and
at night the following gentlemen
were sworn to make the INQUEST
Isaac 7. Nichols, Eli E. Rogers, j.
Thomas Schiller, Ed L. Matlack,
Samuel F. Bard, William H. Ballen.
ger.
Thursday night the jury visited the
undertaking establishment and viewed
the remains of Frank Nichols and the
woman, victim of the crime, and ad
journed until Tuesday afternoon.
as During the day careful search was
made through the ruins of the burned
house and there was found a razor
blade. This was picked up very near
where the body of the woman was
found and indicates that the crime
was committed upstairs, and the razor
dropped there. The handle was
burned from the blade 1t is sup
posed that this razor was the one that
had been taken from the empty case
found. early in the morning
One man, who has known Nichols
all his life, said this morning that the
first wife of the dead man was still
living, and that he had never been
married to the woman whom he is
supposed to have killed. The first
wife fed from Nichols years ago be-
cause he had threatened to kill her.
and she went to Delaware because she
explained at that time, he would not
dare follow her To many it has long
been known that the authorities had
suspicion that years ago Nichols killed
child in Delaware and burned the
body. AT any rate he never would 90
to Delaware, nor would he talk about
tie Diamond State.
1t is declared that the woman who
met her death yesterday morning has
for some time been fearful of her life
and so expressed herself to number
OF friends. To one person she recent
ly said that Nichols had been very
ugly recently and had treated her
shamefully. Owing to his illness she
had been obliged to look after the
farm, the stock and was doing laun-
dry work to support herself.
The more the authorities look into
the case, the deeper it is probed, the
more conclusive is the evidence that
Nichols is alone responsible for the
tragedy: That he had quarrel with
his wife seems certain. In his rage
it is quite likely that he cut his wife IS
throat with razor and fired the
room. Then came the self-infiicted
~1Aaf a