Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-09-18
SHOOTS SWEETHEART
Jealous Lovers Bullet Will Be
Fatal.
HAD LEFT WIFE FOR HER
Romance Begun in Austria Ends in
New York Room.
GIRL REFUSES TO ACCUSE MAN
She Is a Dressmaker, Who Would
Have Inherited a Fortune at
Age Of Twenty-one Years.

Special Dispatch TO The Star
NEW YORK September 1s.-For a full
half hour Julius Hoffman held a revolver
pressed against the breast OF woman for
whom he had given up his wife and family,
In his room at 215 East 31th street, this
threatening her in his effort to get from
her the name of a man whom he imagined
had supplanted him In her affections. While
he did this the woman knelt on the floor
beseeching him not to shoot her. He fired
one shot over her head to fr;ghten her, and
at the end of the half hour, when his argu-
ments had availed him nothing, he shot her
twice where she knelt Then he put the
point of the revolver in his mouth. The
woman, sorely wounded, seized his hand
with her last strength and pulled it away,
crying:
Julius, don't kill yourself"
Then followed a struggle for the weapon,
in which another cartridge was discharged
while the two wrestled over it. This last
bullet passed through the woman's neck,
lodging somewhere in the back of her neck.
She was removed to Bellevue dying.
Other tenants of the house, reused by the
shooting, notified the police, who arrested
Hoffman as he was leaving the building.
Confesses His Crime.
Hoffman. who is thirty-four years old. is
a bcokkeeper employed by a candy manu-
facturer on Vandam street. The woman he
shot is Draga Seigel, twenty years old, a
dressmaker of attractive appearance.
When the prisoner was led, handcuffed, be-
fartt hcA
street station. he said
II gave up my life, my wife, my family
and my calling for her. and found her IN
love with another man. 1 then decided to
that ! did not succeed
When the detectives took Hoffman to the
small top aoor room At 2l9 East 37th street
the bed all but dead. they asked her IL she
would identify him the man who did
the shooting. She replied: Il won't say
what Julius did. 1 loved him. but he
would not believe me-" Then she became
unconscious.
The Hoffmans and the Seigels were
friends in the province OF Croatia, Hungary
IN IN those days Hoffman was lieutenant In
the Austrian army. Draga Seigel's father
was colonel Of a cavalry regiment. and
Hoffman was in his command. Hoffman
married a young girl Of his home town. a
modiste. When Draga Seigels father died
she went to live with the Hoffmans In
January. 1905, he gave up his command in
the army and they all came to America
Mrs. Hoffman established herself as
mOdiste in East 30th street. The daughter
OF the colonel was employed by her.
Gradually Hoffman turned away from his
wife and devoted himself to Draga Seigel.
year ago Mrs Hoffman began to sea a
light. When she was quite sure she dis
charged Miss Seigel.
Wife Sues Her Rival.
Hoffman did not change, and his wife
went to Branford. w. Va, where she began
proceedings for divorce, coupled with suit
against the Seigel girl to recover $4,000 for
alienation Of the affections of Hoffman
The Seigel girl was as yet a poor dress
maker, but when she reached the age of
twenty-one she was to fall heir to a snug
fortune.
Miss Seigel took a room at $40 Lexington
avenue, while Hoffman rented the small
hall bedroom on the top floor of 2l5 East
37th street.
Hoffman gradually worked himself into
a frenzy approaching insanity over the
thought that there was another man in the
case. Friends of the Seigel girl are sure lis
suspicious were unfounded, but he bought a
cheap revolver and loitered for hours about
He finally met the girl emerging from the
house at o'clock last night He induced
her to go with him to his own room whe re
the shooting occurred shortly after mid
night.