Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-11-28
KILLED HIS WIFE
AND THEN HIMSELF
Thanksgiving Tragedy in a
New York Hotel.
RICH BUT PROBABLY CRAZY
Shot Sleeping Woman and Sprang
From a Window.
MONEY TROUBLES TO BLAME
Body Found on Sidewalk by Cab
man Gives First Clue to the
Murder Overhead.
RICH BUT PROBABLY CRAZY
MONEY TROUBLES TO BLAME
Special Dispatch to The Star.

NEW YORK, November 2S.-John Whit
lyn. shot and killed his wife Elizabeth
while she lay sleeping in her room on the
tenth floor of the Hotel Belleciaire, at
took the revolver in one hand and mirror
in the other SO that he might the better
shoot himself by the reflection, changed
his mind, crawled out on a narrow ledge
bordering the tenth-foor windows on the
nth street side, and leaped to his death on
the asphalt far below. There the body
was found by a passing cab driver, and
through him the hotel management dis
covered what one of the guests had done
on Thanksgiving morning.
George w. Preston, cab driver, was Jog
ging slowly along 77th street at $3.50
o'clock this morning when he saw the
body of man lying on the pavement
under the westerly windows of the hotel
The man was dressed in striped flannel
pajamas.
Preston called the attention of Police
man Cavanaugh. who was on post in the
nefghborhood, to the circumstances. Cav
anaugh had an ambulance there within a
Few minutes. and as the surgeon had for
mally recorded the fact that the man
was dead on arrival" the body was re-
moved to the West 6Sth street station.
Night Supt. Blackburn of the hotel
was not certain at first that the man
was one OF the guests. for the face was
battered almost out of recognition but
when he was certain that the man was
Whitley beyond doubt. he went to suite
i42 on the tenth or top floor. The Whit
They went to the Belleclaire on the sec
ond OF the month. having lived prior to
That time at the Hotel Martinique.
Found Woman Dead.
Mr.. Blackburn found the door locked.
He raped and listened for some re-
eponse. There was none. Then he forced
the door. He started back as he came
upon the body Of Mrs. Whitley, who
ehot twice. She was In her night cloth
ing. There was a bullet wound in her
left eye, another in her mouth. On a
dresser in the same room was a new
32-caliber revolver with which the shoot
ing had been done There were three
loaded shells in it, two empty ones lying
beside It.
1t was not hard for the police to piece
dence found In the rooms. Whitley after
killing his sleeping wife with a strange
tenderness put his bathrobe carefully
over the body. Then he took the re-
volver and slipped into the bathroom,
taking a hand mirror from the dresser
as he passed 1t. Turkish towel and
the mirror were found on the bathroom
noor. The way the empty shells were
placed side by side indicated great in
decision. Evidently he hunted for paper
TO write about his deed. for there was
q rummaged drawer from which an en-
velope had been taken. Finally he
scrawled in hand the nervousness of
which was apparent at a glance, II can't
write. and left the envelope lying on
. table. 1t was stained red with bloody
flngerprints.
After this Whitley got out on the ledge
and plunged down IN an unbroken fall
to the pavement far below.
No shots were heard by any one in the
hotel There was no clue to explain the
shooting and suicide further than the
envelope with its hardly decipherable
words. The police found out. however.
that Whitley was an excee dinghy nervous
Funds Were Gone.
He had ben under treatment by DR..
Walters of the Hotel Ansonia. and it is
ranged at the time Of the shooting.
Among the womans effects was found
Q card on which was written, I'm case of
ACCIDENT please notify Mrs. E. Logan of
841 18th avenue, Brooklyn" On the wom-
ans right hand was two-karat diamond
ring and on the left q plain gold wedding
ring with her initials on the inner side
OF the band. diamond sunburst with a
large center stone and eighteen small ones
clustered around II lay near.
Whitley was engaged in the heating and
ventilating business with his brother.
Their store was on Fulton street, Brook
lyn. he was about sixty years old. and
his wife forty-ive.
No motive for the murder and suicide
could be discovered. but financial troubles
are surmised. In the room occupied by
Mr. and Mrs. Whitley was found check
book on the Franklin Trust Company.
showing that all the funds were ex-
hausted. The couple had always lived
Ia wi