The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-07-30
HUNTINGTON DIES.
The Son Who Tried to Kill the Family
Attempts Suicide.

Versailles, July 3O.-The death of the
aged American soldier himself and an
attempt at self destruction on the part
of his son Henry, who shot his sisters
and brothers on Sunday in the last
hours of his dying father, impaired adj
ditional sadness to the shocking trag-
edy in the home of Major Henry a..
Huntington, which has caused a SEN
sation in the American colony and di-
plomatfc circles of France.
Major Huntington died last evening
of his son Henrys unsuccessful atterrfpt
al suicide but the father was spa red
the anguish of knowledge of this in
cident and the terrible crime w hich
shattered his household, as he was un-
conscious to the end.
The prostrated wife, his dal ighter
Edith and his son Douglas, whose slight
wounds permitted them to pay he last
honors to the dying man, were present
in the chamber when the end came.
According to the police, F.enry at
tempted suicide in his cell W ith a silk
handkerchief, which he tied round his
neck and fastened to the bfirS seeking
to strangle himself slowly by means
of tourniquet. The Jail er, who had
closely detected the act IN time to pre-
vent serious result, ami it was an
nounced that Henry hail not succeeded
in injuring himself.
The swift sequence of tragic Incl
dents in the Hunting on family which
is one of the best known here, has
cast a gloom over Versailles. Though
plunged in grief at the death of the
head of the household the mother and
children have had time to interpret
Henry's effort at self-destruction as
additional evidence of the mental ire
sponsibility which they say he has
manifested for a long time in certain
directions.
His wife. however. declared it was
the natural re suit of remorse at the
dreadful acts which he committed in a
sudden THIRST of Ia hla fI1rV
at the interference of his brothers
when he hurried to the bedside of his
dying fatheI'.
The French judicial authorities feel
that searching probes alone will bring |
out the exact happenings in the Hunt |
ington villa which antedated the shoot |
ing.
On the, subject of just what occur
red on the night of the tragedy there |
is a cordlict between the story of the |
Eton family and the statement |
Henry S wife says he made to her, |
but both agree that the man was car
ried away by passion which unbal-
ance his mind.
Condition of the Wounded.
'7he condition of Alonzo. who was
sl1 .ot in the head and Elizabeth. who
was shot in the region of the heart. is
SERIOUS AlonZo it is believed will die. |
They are being treated in their home.
Edith, who was wounded m the arm,
and Douglas, whose head was grazed
nv bullet are not seriously hurt,
and were able to watch over the moth /
er who retired to bed orostrated by
the horror of the events which Gull
minated in the death of her husband.
No direct message from the prisoner
has come from the Jail except a letter
to the manager of the hotel where his
wife is staying, praying him to send
information as to the condition OF the
members of his family.
''I beseech you," the prisoner wrote,
.fin the name of humanity send me
news of my wife and those 1 have
wounded in the madness of my de-
spair."
Huntington's wife has made public
an account of the things she says her
husband told her before he was lock-
ed up in which he declared he had
lost his head during words with his
brothers and had fired wildly and
recklessly. Young Mrs. Huntington
asserts there was a complete rupture
between Henry and his family on ac-
count of the trea tment of her by his
sisters. and that Henry smarted under
the refusal of his family to receive her
into their home.
Another development was the state
ment made by the hotel manager. who
claims to have conversed with Henry
when the latter visited his wife. He
asserts that Huntington told him that
his brothers had attacked him, seiziHg
his beard and thrusting him toward