The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-08-19
DEATH. ENDS IT.
Scandal Which for Years Has
Attached to the McCOrmickS
Brought to a Close by a FL ight-
full Auto Accident.
MACHINE HIT A BUGGY
While Flying Over Country
Road 40 Miles an Hour.
Woman Killed Instantly and
Her Husband Fatally Hurt.

New York. Aug. 19.-The scandal
which for years has hung over the
names of the young millionaire Paul
Mccormick and his wife, formerly
the beautiful society matron, Carrie
Converse, wiped itself out in death
when she was instantly killed and he
was fatally injured in a frightful auto
wreck at Darien, Conn. Two other
women were badly hurt in the tragic
ending of the romance"
Racing sixty miles an hour with an
other machine from New Haven to
Stamford, young Mccormick hurled
his great Ford car into the rear of a
buggy; then crashed from the road
into a maple tree.
When the coroner reached the
scene, two hours later, the woman sat
bolt upright in her seat, her head lalo
open and a great hole gaping in her
side. Forty feet away upon the Mill
side lay Mccormick, his skull frac-
tured, both legs broken, unconscious
and upon the point of death. me
stopping to learn that death had end
ed the race. The two women who oc-
cupied the buggy escaped with frac-
tured shoulders and arms.
E1oped in 'Red Devil"
The violent finish of the notorious
been predicted by those who knew the
history of its beginning. Mccormick,
the scapegrace scion of one OF the
richest and oldest families in Pough-
keepsie, became a speed mend the
first day that auto racing was intro
duced in the country.
His reckless driving in his mann
moth RED Devil won him many
fines, narrow escapes from death and
the heart of Mrs. Carrie Converse,
back in 1901.
She was the wife of a wealthy mer-
chant in Poughkeepsie; but in spite or
her social leadership and the family
to which she had hitherto been de-
voted, she eloped with the rich young
chauffeur in the RED Devil four
years ago. They toured the coun-
try at break-neck speed while the
husband sued Mccormick for $780,
600 damages and his wife for di-
vorce.
Finally Mccormick paid $4,000 for
the release of Mrs. Converse from her
marriage vow and married her him
self Since then the two, socially os-
tracized from theirgformer home, had
lived either at No. 316 West 95th
street, this city, zor at their summer
home in Liberty Hill, Conn.
Yesterday afternoon, with his wife
handsomely dressed at his side, Nc
Cormick pulled out of New Haven for
New York in his new six-cylinder
Ford racer He had been in the ma
chine but twice before and he told
friends before starting that he would
towns.
He had hardly left the Connecticut
metropolis behind, however, when an
other big car of eighty horsepower,
carrying two men and a woman, drew
up alongside and tried to pass.
Mccormick, always a daring chauf-
feur eagerly seized the opportunity
for race. Mile after mile the great
machines sped at top speed through
the countryside. They dashed through
villages and small cities at forty miles
an hour.
They were so evenly matched that
not ten feet separated the unknown
car ahead from McCormick's hood as
the two whirled into Darien, and out
of it a second later, just after five
O clock.
1t is four miles from Darien to Nor |
walk. and the road is curved and hilly |
and very rough. Half way between |
the little villages a double carriage.
driven by couple of women, doomed |
ahead, ambling toward the autos.
Mrs. Henry Norton and her sister.
of Stamford, in the wagon, saw their |
danger and tried to pull out, but were |
too late.
McCormick's machine crashed into |
their vehicle. cut the two wheels from |
II as COMPLETELY as though the car |
had been a shot, flung the women from |
the wrecked carriage. careened up the |
bank at undiminished speed and dash |
ed head-on into a great maple at the |
summit.
Crashes Into Tree Trunk.
The racing car crushed in like an |
egg shell against the two feet of tree |
trunk. Mrs Mccormick, caught fun
in the terrific impact, met deatn IN
stantlv without a move. Her head /
was literally impaled upon the low lowest st
her side by blow from the steel |
wheel of the wrecked machine.
Her husband, flung through the air
hfteen feet dropped almost as fright |
fully wounded in pasture over the
hill. He lay there bleeding and uncon-
scious for hours. for the other ma
cine sped off without so much as CIV
ing a warning of the accident.
But Mrs. Norton and her sister stag
gered or crawled as best they could to |
a farm house and soon afterward DR..
or aries Keller, of New canaan.
drove by and saw that Mrs. McCorm1ck
was dead and her husband peyonq AID.
Ambulances were summoned and NC