The sun., 1905-10-13

tary NJ the nrptlilicnn County taps
mit,rr wou,h Us,c Hal 10 Face tho
Testimony VI Three Already Exposed
tcrpnplicrp ~ the i,ooiinE NJ the
Wcisrii Estate. snh the Trisi wou'd
Have Exposcti Others VINO Are Now
Secure -Grief or Iiis Friends. and
short. solemn scrnr inC Court - Abraham
Grubrr to speak at n Memorial Meeting.
Two hours before he would have gone TO
trial yesterday OH a charge Of conspiring
with set of rocues TO loot the Welsell
estate, Amitagc Mathews, secretary OF tho
Republican county committee and Aba
Gruber's right hand man in the Twenty.
first Assembly district, was taken up dead
in the yard Of his house under tho bath
room window His friends sa.d that no
had accidentally fallen from the window.
and Coroner Brown officially subscribed
to that statement. Disinterestesi persons.
including the police, said that it was q sui
eide.
RoGCEs ESCAPE.
1t had been expected that the trial III
Mathews would be the most sensational
event Of MIR. Jerorne's administration and
would blacken mon in his circle who will
now escape. Whether or not it was from
any of them that special delivery letter
came to him yesterday morning early,
an hour after reading which he killed him.
self, will probably never be known, for he
seems to have destroyed the letter. With
his death what prospect there was OF ex-
posure of any OF these men has been dis
sipated. Without Mathews as a connecting
link it is impossible to use the evidence
against those who would have been hit the
hardest. The death OF Mathews wipes out
whatever chance there was Of other prose-
cutions in connection with the plunder
Of the Weisell estate. The men who are
not already indicted or convicted are safe.
FIGHT FOR DELAY LOST AT LAST
For months Mathews had been fighting
of the trial that was set for yesterday
morning. He had been indicted with
David Rothschild, wrecker Of the Federal
Bank; John W. Wooten and Samuel I.
Ferguson. for robbing the estate of 81, 500.
Wooten was convicted on a different in
dictment-for stealing a 81, 900 check from
the Weisell estate plot was introduced
that Justice Davy said on the bench that
if the jury found Wooten guilty Mathews
was guilty. The jury found Wooten guilty
and steps were taken for the trial of
Mathews.
Mathews's lawyers say that they told
him on Wednesday night that he was sure
of acquittal and that he had nothing tn
fear. His friends picture him as having
been in cheerful spirits, little worried
and harassed about his trial but conf
dent that he would be acquitted He
went home TO the Florence apartment house,
at 335 Central Park West about II 80 o'clock
on Wednesday night. His apartment was
on the second floor. 1t was $50 yesterday
morning when he went out Of his bathroom
window, an ordinary narrow bathroom
window with sill more than waist high
and sasn that can be opened only half at
once.
THE SPECIAL DELIVERY LETTER.
About o'clock in the morning post
Office messenger had called at the house.
The messenger had special delivery letter
for Mathews. Mary Kane. an old Irish
woman who had been in the employ OF
mother and father died-he lived with a
sister and an aged aunt--et the messenger
in. She took the letter and hammered on
Mathews's door until he got up. He took
in the letter and closed the door. Mary
Kane didn't see him for an hour. Then he
came out of his room and went to the bath
room. He had the letter in his hand. She
had started the water running in the bath,
as was her custom every morning, and she
expected to hear nothing more from him
until she got a call for his breakfast
OLD SERVANT HEARD HIM FALL.
She went ahead getting the breakfa,t
and paid no more attention to Mathews
until she heard the bathroom window
OPEN The bathroom is next to the kitchen.
after the window was opened
there was a crash in the courtyard. She
threw up the kitchen window and saw
the body of man in a bathrobe on the
tagging twenty-five feet or more below.
She didn't recognize Mathews, but shs
ran to the bathroom and knocked on the
door, When she got no answer she pushed
open the door and found the room was
empty. From the window she saw that
it was Mathews lying below.
Some one in the Mathews house tele-
phoned to Police Headquarters at once
and message was sent to the West Tooth
street station. A policeman ran down
Central Park West. An ambulance passed
him. The ambulance stopped to pick up
the policeman on post, and the two police
men and the ambulance got to the house
about the same time.
STRUCK HEAD FIRST.
DR.. Charles A. Manson lives at West
fourth street, back Of the Mathews
apartment. He saw Mathews fall on tho
Tagging.
A young man named Goldsmith, who
was delivering parcels in the Alclyde apart
ment house, in which DR.. Manson lives,
says he saw Mathews dive from the window.
struck on the back Of his head
and lay with his legs stretched away from
the wall. He died almost instantly. Aside
from the fractured skull he had no injuries
but broken wrist.
Almost with the arrival Of tho ambulance