Arizona republican., 1905-08-01
HIDEOUS THING
Hid Three Days in a Tempe
 School Building
SICKENING STENCIL
Led Searcbers to the Body of Prin- cipal $. 0. Lewis or the Public Schools Who Committed Suicide on Friday at Midnight.

The neighboring town of Tempe was mortified shortly after noon yesterday
 by the news that Prof. s. o. Lewis, the principal of the city schools, had com mitted suicide :n the school building some time after the preceding FriCny evening.
 | The discovery was made by F. $.
 Burgess of the firm of Burgess G. | Sterrett. of that place, painters and paperhangers. They had contracted
 to paint the public school building on
 the interior. and began the work yes terday morning. When the door was
 opened a very bad stench was no- ticed, but the work was continued un- til noon. when it became almost un-
 bearable. and MT. Burgess started out to investigate. He looked all oyer the
 lower floor, but found nothing. Notic-
 ing a few pigeon feathers in the build
 ing. he supposed that a bird had died
 on the upper floor.
 He went upstairs and traced the
 smell to a small room used for storing
 things. just across from the principal s
 IofHce. He pushed the door open a lit
 tie and a sickening sight greeted his
 eyes A man, or what was Ie1t or
 what had once been a. man, recined in
 a chair, his head a solid mass of wrlg-
 gling maggots. He did not stop mo- ment, but came downtown, giving the information. Justice Nelson was away at the time, and the marshal
 could not be found. but in a moment a number of people were at the , scene of the ragedy-murder or sui
 eide, whichever it might be. w. T. Cummings and a reporter for The Re . publican were the first on the scene after the discovery. and one glance al the gruesome sight assured the Tor mer that the remains of the man were , those of Prof Lewis. principal of the , school the past year and who had been ? re-engaged for that position for the I ensuing term.
 | A SCREENING SIGHT.
 The body was easily identified by a
 peculiar style of Iow-cut shoe worn ? and by his watch, chain and clothes 6 The smell was so unbearable that they - remained but a moment but one look 9 at the sight was enough to convince . them that it was case Of suicide p Apparently. MT. Lewis had walked , from his office, which was left open $ to the room. had seated himself in ar a ordinary chair little distance iron = the wall, and had deliberately bloNr a his brains out with a revolver The . chair then tilted back against the wall n as both feet were off the floor the q arms had dropped to the sides and th' s revolver had fallen into a half empty s box of chalk at the feet. The bod! Il vlas swollen to almost double It's nat f ural size the face was entirely hlddei I. bv worms and the hands were terrlpl! ', discolored. pr. Moeur later secured { V disinfectant and sprinkled It over LII = mass and in a short time enough O V the worms had been Killed to give
 view of the face. but it was decom f iposed beyond recognition, though l a was possible to tell where the sho if had taken effect-in the left temple n PREPARATION FOR DEATH. = ApparentIy the body had been ther If for a number of days, but it was toun o lthat Mr Lewis had been seen trlday If in fact the reporter had held conNer if sstion with him that afternoon at tn S. Casa Loma, and at the time nouce .s that he was not looking well. other .s had seen him later that evening, an - during the afternoon he had stoppe if at Rvder's hardware store and pro
 cured a 3S-Smith & Wesson reVolVe
 from Roy McComas. This act excite s- no suspicion, as he remarked that .~ was going on a short trip to Agu ,e Caliente the next day and wished ,d take a gun with him. There happene of to be no shells to fit the weapon in tn l. store and MT McCOmas was unabl of to get any at the other stores, so h "a took four shells from a private gun ( 1e the same size and loaded the revolve Id for MT Lewis The gun found in tn r chalkbox was immediately identifie y- as the one purchased by the dead maj Is Two shells were empty. It is SUI to missed that one of them was discharge
 in a trial of the weapon. MT. Mo e. Comas remembers now having note g. at the time the sale was made that u ,- purchase. seemed somewhat nervou ad and while he was loading the gu +o walked back and forth across tt w floor.
 m THEY HEARD THE SHOT. WV It could not be learned when he W. d. last seen Friday evening, but as ITS had announced that he intended lea7 re ing town the naxt da-1 there was I % comment when he was not seen agai te That evening there was a party jul 1g across the street, at the Gage res ,,a dence. where Mir and Mrs. TheO Dicl of inson are staying for the summer TT
 party broke up about midnight, ar ,w shortly after MT and Mrs. DickinsC ed had retired they were aroused by n shot At the time Mrs. Dickinson r ot marked that she wondered if that W. Iid q case of murder or suicide. Neither lie them could locate the direction of tl in shot, and after a little time paid l he further attention to it and the matt es was forgotten until the horrible fir d. of yesterday was made public.
 iii MT. Schmidt. who lives a distan he of a couple of hundred yards from u on schoolhouse, also remembers heariI cv a shot that night, but, like the other .e- gave it no further thought. They ft id ure that the fatal shot must nave De a fired between the hours of 12 and 1. mt CORONER'S VERDICT. la Justice Nelson was in Phoenix al
 was called m bv telephOne- UJnde