Los Angeles herald., 1907-04-15
SAY NO
CRIME COMMITTED
DECLARE PALPABLE MURDER
IS SUICIDE
Brother Of Dead Man Says There Was
No Reason for Self-Destrue-
tion--coroner inquest
Today

Enraaed at the publicity given the
story of the murder of Albert Mac
Mlllen, who was found dead in his bed
at the Hudson rooming house, 244 East
Fifth street. Saturday morning, and
which they endeavored to suppress, the
police appear to have ceased all work
on the case. Beyond saying they are
confident the man committed suicide
and did not meet his death at the
hands of an enemy the detectives who
were first detailed to investigate the
Despite their statements to the con-
trary, the case takes on more and more
the aspect of q murder. The body still
lies at Bresee Brothers undertaking
establishment, the three bullet wounds
back of the right ear giving grewsome
evidence of how the man came to his
death.
Position of Wounds Peculiar
From the position of the wounds, one
hole being fully two inches below and
to the rear of the ear, it Is evident the
man could not have shot himself. The
holes were made with a 32-calber bull
let, and revolver with three empty
shells of that caliber was found lying
beside the body on the bed. This does
not signify that the man killed him
tell Of numbers of instances where the
murderer has tossed his gun by the
side of his victim in order to make it
appear that suicide was committed.
All efforts to make the police pay the
amount of attention to the case 1t de-
serves have failed, and it Is now prob
able nothing will be done until after
the coroner's inquest this morning.
Deputies from the coroner's office have
al L. a.
understood, have gathered a large
amount of evidence. Il it is found at
that time that the case was indeed a
murder the police will then be forced
to take some hand in the matter.
In this case, as In nearly all others,
the police followed their usual rule to
suppress the news. AS late as 8 o'clock
Saturday night they refused to admit
that they had even heard of shooting,
and insisted that neither suicide nor
murder had been committed. At $3.50,
however, it was admitted by Sergeant
Moffat of the detective bureau that
there was report in that department
of suicide, and he at last admitted
that detectives were working on the
case. He\denied that the officers had
learned anything which would cause
them to suspect that murder had been
done, while other officers Of the de-
partment claimed the same.
Try to Suppress Case
1t was learned that the detectives
had instructed all those who knew any
thing about the affair not to speak OF
1t, and in each case efforts were made
to follow these instructions.
This Is the plan followed by certain
officials of the department who seen
at all times to feel that the public has
no interest in the workings of the de-
partment or what is being done by the
men. Patrolmen are instructed at all
times not to talk, and fear Of losing
their jobs consequently compels them
to keep their mouths shut.
If it is found at the inquest today
that MacMillen came to his death at
his own hand it will be one of the
most unusual cuicides in police history,
and physicians who have been spoken
to about it say it was almost an i'm
possibility for the man to shoot him
self in the head three times with the
make of gun which was used. The
revolver was an ordinary double action
revolver and not an automatic.
If it was a case of murder the police
have wasted two valuable days, when
they might have been hunting down
the slayer and bringing him to justice.
Brother Hears of Death
w. G.. MacMillen, It's East Fifty
second street, brother of the dead man.
was one Of those who called at Bresee
Brothers, underta-in, parlors to view
the body yesterday morning.
''I read of my brothers death in The
Herald" he said, ''and was greatly
shocked. = did not l;now my brother
had an enemy on the earth, and there
was no reason why he should have
killed himself. He had plenty Of
money and has not been i'll. 1 was
with him when he rented the room at
the Hudson, but have not seen him
since. He was not married and has
many friends in Los Angeles"