Albuquerque evening citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1905-1907, 1907-05-03
Posse Kills NOblemdn at the
willows After Desperate
Running Fight.
MYSTERY SURROUNDS
Won VALDST|N'S ACTIONS
Something Besides Unrequleted
Love Drove Count From Austria.
Was of Historic Family.

San Francisco, May 3.-The Exam'
iner says today:
The supposed desperate who was
shot and killed at willows, Cal, Mon
day night, after q running fight with
posse of officers, has been identified
as Count Otto Won Waldstein, of Au2-
tria, a scion of a noble family of his
tory, a nephew of the Prince of War
tenburg, one of the richest men in
Franz Joseph's empire.
The identification is complete and
there can be no mistake.
Count Otto died fighting, believing
that he was attacked by a band Of
robbers.
The posse thought it had run down
Smith, the murderer of John Marco
vich, of Oakland.
The count left Austria six years
ago because of a love affair He
fought in the Boer war, at the close
of which he wandered to America.
He followed the reclamation service
through the west and left 1t in Placer
county the day before his death.
He was walking toward San Fran
cisco when attacked by the posse.
How Mistake Was Made.
The count brought the mistake in
identity upon himself by acting pc
culiarly.
lie was HTSl seen dl oTlduus Slh-
teen miles above Willows, on Sunday
morning He appeared at a restaur-
ant there and bought several loaves
of bread and q big piece of ham.
These he ate with the avidity of a
starving man. From Orland he drift
ed down to Germantown, where he
was first noticed at II o'clock in the
| forenoon.
Man Was Insane.
~f,,.r aRgr
the police of Glenn county that the
man was insane. His extreme objec-
ton to being taken, while at the same
time he did not appear to be anxious
| to avoid the fight, seem scarcely the
action of a rational being. During
the three-hour pursuit he had plenty
| of opportunities to sneak off to one
| side or the other and temporarily
throw his pursuers off the track, but
he clung steadily to the railroad and
| highway.
If Brother Was Willing, He Was.
When he made his last stand, on
the outskirts of Willows, during one
| of the pauses in the fight, he cried
out:
"I want to get to a telegraph office
and wire my brother in New York.
If he says it's all right, 1 will give
up"
| Another evidence of insanity was
his desire to remain unknown even
after death. 1t is thought probable
that during the chase he stopped Ions
enough to burn letters which he had
Soon after leaving Germantown he
stopped buggy and obtained a guam
tty of matches but these were not
found on him when taken, and there
| was nothing to indicate that he had
been a smoker,
The Count Was Poor Shot
During the three hours running
battle, which terminated in the
| counts death, he fired at least fifty
times, and his pursuers were often
within 100 yards of him, yet none OF
them received a scratch. He did not
appear like a yeggman, his face eX-
pressing little of the brutality usually
seen in that class, and his hands were
soft and smooth, showing no evidence
of manual labor.
These appearances assisted I'm the
search which led to the identity OF
the body, as did a druggists pre-
scription found on the body. 1t bears
the name of Ed Curtis at the top and
is signed by II. f. Andrews NJ. d
| 1t was indorsed on the back, "Sar
| Bernardino Drug Company, Third
opp. Southern Pacific Depot" and
bore the stamped number 24,173 and
| lHe udJe l-4-Oi. The prescription
was for a simple tonic. This would
indicate that the man had beer
known as Ed Curtis, a name the
count may have assumed to hide hi;
identity, which there is every reason
to believe he was trying to conceal
as not one scrap of paper other than
the druggists prescription was found
in his pockets.
Active search is still being made
for information that will solve tho
mystery of why he made his melo-
dramatic moonlight stand, his deter.
mination not to be known and hi;
final determined suicide.
1t is thought that something be.
sides unrequited love drove the count
from his native land and into obscur-
ity in America. This mystery vii
likely be solved If the dead count,
brother in New York will tell