Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1903-04-10

Suicide Brought to Light by Find
ing Of Body in Missis.
sippi.
MARKED END OF MUMME PETERSON
Took His Own Life After Attempting
to Kill His
Wife.

The finding of body in the log
runway at the Mueller lumber mill in
Davenport yesterday afternoon un-
murder which took place Feb. 2. The
body was that of Mumme Petersen.
who. after attempting to kill his wife
on that date, disappeared and was
supposed to be out of the city.
The body. which was discovered by
George Kramer. log boss for the lum-
Der company, was taken to Runge's
undertaking parlors. Although ii
was considerably decomposed there
was no difficulty in identifying it
from the articles that were found IN
the clothing. The evidence of sui
eide was so plain that the verdict of
the coroner's jury was to that effect
ouarreled with His Wife.
Petersen, who lived with his wife
and two small children at 900 Ripley
street, left home about week before
the tragedy, after having had domes-
tic trouble. Mrs. Petersen saw moth
ing of him again until that Sunday
night, when, about o'clock. he sud-
IDENTIFY entered through the front
door. 1t is said that he entreated the
woman to make up the old quarrel,
but she refused. However that may
be. the quarrel was reopened and
suddenly, without a moments notice.
he drew a revolver from his pocket
and started to fire at the defenseless
who had risen from her chair.
The first bullet whizzed close by the
right side of her head, cutting away
a quantity of hair. The woman sank
to the floor, weak with fear. The sec
ond bullet went wide, penetrating
stove pipe. Hearing voices without,
Petersen desisted and turned and fed
down the street. Ed Winters and an
other man heard the fusilade and
took up the pursuit. They stopped
when Petersen turned and fired point
blank at them. ~
ea Thought to Have Left Town.
1t was1supposed that Petersen had
gone tort almar. Iowa, as trunk of
his clothing was found at the ChicH4
go. milwaukee, q ST. Paul depot ready
packed for shipment there, and it
was thought that he had set his mind
upon that point. But instead of GO
ing to Calmar it seems that he must
have ran straight from the scene of
the shooting on Ripley street TO the
river and possibly jumped immediate
l.v i'm and drowned, his1i dead body
drifting down the stream till it found
it's lodging place in the raft of logs.
or it may have been that he wandered
or ran down the bank of the river
with ther thought of the murder
which he had committed. so far as hei
knew, haunting his over-burdenetf
mind iuntihq hRicame to the raft of
logs. and. SseeingCin them good place
from which to- make his dive from
the world into eternity, took the
chance. Petersen at times was of
morose and melancholy temperament
and it was spell of this that seized
upon him the Sunday before the af-
fair ON Ripley street and held him
bound secure throughout the week
until. with the burden of his real and
troubles, his mind gave way
and caused him to commit the rash
acts of which he was guilty.
Watch shows Time.
The tragedy was committed about
s: 30 and the watch on the body had
at 9:15, showing that the
suicide had followed shortly after
the shooting. The revolver the dead
man had used was also found in one
of the pockets. The wife is now sup
porting herself and family working
in the country as housekeeper, sew