The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-03-12
Prominent Figure in BurdiCk
Murder Mystery.
DID THE MAN SEEK DEATH?
An Autos Dash through Rain and Gloom Ends
With Mad Plunge Into Quarry
Pennel's Wife Possibly Fatally
l. iured.
(By the Associated Press.)

Buffalo, N Y, March 1O-More terri
Bile almost than the death of e. l.. Bur
dick, was the tragedy that occurred late
/ this afternoon when Arthur X. Pennell
one of the chief figures in the investi-
cation of the Burdlck murder, was
hurled headlong into eternity.
Mr. Pennell was riding in his electric
automobile with Mrs. Pencil. They We're
on Kensington avenue near Fillmore
avenue, skimming along the edge Of the
deep stone quarry, a huge rock-ribbed
hole in the ground. Mr. Pennell's hat
flew off, the automobile swerved and in
some ineXplicable manner ii leaped over
the curb into the abyss below.
Pennell was killed instantly, his head
being crushed to an unreeognizable
mass. Mrs. Pennell was injured so Sc
verely that the surgeons at the Sisters
Hospital to which she was taken, say
Ger chances of recovery are very slight.
Two boys saw the tragedy. They were
too far away to know positively just how
it happened Mrs Pennell when found,
was unable to speak. She was only
semi conscious when taken to the hos
p1tal and could utter no coherent words.
After the operations performed imme-
diately by DR.. Eugene Smith in the hope
of saving her life, she lapsed into I'M
consciousness, hence there can be no true
version of precisely how the affair oc-
Cured.
Mr., Pennell left his office in the Aus
tin building at 4:O5 this afternoon and
went to his home at % Cleveland avenue
A III bo IA
the telephone about 5 o'clock, was in
formed that Mr.. Pennell was in but that
he was going for drive. Mr.. Pencil
himself answered the telephone and said
that he would be back between $50 and
7 o'clock, making an appointment with
his friend for mat hour.
Would o'clock do?' he was asked.
ooh, well you might come at O'Clock,
but you better make it later" said Mr..
Pencil.
Those were the last words Pennell was
known to speak to anyone except Mrs
Pennell. save that he went back to the
stairs and called out to Lizzie Romance
the maid; Lizzie, we will be back be-
tween and o'clock"
Then he and Mrs. Pennell rode away
in the automobile.
It was learned tonight that the matter |
mentioned in the telephone talk was
something he considered most serious
and which weighed heavily on him. 1t
was in connection with the Burdick muir
der,
Recently Mr.. Pennell made the follow
ing statement:
About this case of Burdick l have
York before the murder and that l net
Mrs. Burdick while I was away. In fact
saw Mrs. Burdick near New York two
or threee days before the murder of Mr.
Burdick. l came home again Wednes-
day, the day before the murder. have
told 1t frankly and the meeting was a
proper one. But they seem to be de-
termined to drag all this business out in
the papers. l would do anything to stop
it."
Pennell and his wife left their home
at 4:50 O'Clock or one or two minutes
before that time. 1t was a gloomy af-
telnocu and rain was falling. 1t seemed
a strange day for a man to take his wife
automobillng in the lonely northeast
section of the city at such an hour.
Pennell was not a veteran at auto
MODELLING, yet he was an expert at hand
ling the machine and was experienced
as to its management
What was unusual about todays pro-
ceedings, according to the maid, was that
Mrs. Pennell had always before told her
when they would return. Today, how
ever, said the girl, when they went
out it was Mr.. Pennell who told me-"
The route of their ride no one can
tell in detail Captain Gable and the
police were trying tonight to trace the
cute of the automobile.
Mrs. Pennell has been loyal to her
husband throughout his trying exper
fences during the last ten days. She fire.
quently said that her faith in him was
mistaken and that she would stick to
him to the end.
Pennells body was received at the
morgue shortly after $3.50 o'clock. The
features of the dead man were distorted
and out of all semblance to their nat
ural character. In the pockets were
found some money and newspaper clip
pings and Identification cards from two
life insurance companies.
Some of the newspaper clippings were
time worn and stained and had the APP
pearance of having been carried in the
case for months. They were interest
ing as expressing various emotions, as
possible index of the character of the
man who preserved them. The titles of
some of the verses were: Until You
Come, That Which is Lost" "1he
Fates," 1.-THE Unlaid Ghost" ''Undistin-
guished Dead" "A Night in June" "Op-
portunity."