Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-12-17
KILLS GIRL AND SELF
Bert Wallace Shoots Another's ] Fiancee In a Cab In Brooklyn.
MOTHER HAD PREMoNITIoN.
Letter In sIayer's Pocket Tells of
 Quarrel. and of Girl Begging For.
 siveness and Pleading For Meeting
 Looking Toward Reconciliation.

Looking Toward Reconciliation. New York, Dec. T.-Driving along Eastern parkway, Brooklyn, in a taxi meter cab, which he had engaged at the Hotel Knickerbocker after sump- tuous meal, Bert Earl Wallace drew a revolver and sent bullet through the head of pretty Elsie H. Karlein, his twenty-two-year old companion. Then he placed the weapon in his mouth and blew out his own brains.
 Whether insanity, jealousy or de- spondency prompted the deed has not yet been ascertained, but it was learn ed last night that after having accept ed the attentions of Wallace for some time Miss Karlein had recently be- come engaged to another man. She was wearing the diamond engagement ring given to her by this suitor when carried dead into the Ralph avenue police station.
 A letter from the girl found in one of Wallaces pockets also indicated that they had quarreled lately, but in it the writer expressed regret for what passed between them and sought an engagement with Wallace, at which they might become reconciled. It end ed with a message of love.
 Attracted Attention at Hotel.
 At the Knickerbocker, too, they ap- ta ha ct nd f,,in and, both being young and well ap- bearing, their apparent affection at- tracted attention to them from the rather cynical groups that gather in the vicinity of Forty-second street and Broadway.
 When they left the hotel both seem- ed cOntented with themselves and all the world. He was smiling when he helped her into the taximeter cab. She accepted his attention with a win some grace that caused the cabmen to wag their heads.
 The first warning that Dan Kilmar- tin, the chauffeur, had of the tragedy was when the first shot rang out. They were then driving at fair pace along the Eastern parkway. Kilmar- tin stopped his machine and leaped to the ground in time to see Wallace put the barrel of the revolver into his mouth. Both man and woman died without a struggle or an outcry.
 Wallace was an employee of the Commercial Cable company at its main office in Manhattan and lived at 769 Jefferson avenue Miss Karlein lived with her parents at 1477 Bushwick avenue
 A strange feature of the tragedy is that none of Wallace's relatives knew of Miss Karlein or had ever heard of her, nor did any one at the home of the girl seem ever to have heard of Wallace before.
 Priest Guards Wallace Home.
 At the home of Wallace, when the police went there to complete the iden- tification of the young man, a strange situation was presented which may tend to bear out the theory that jeal- ousy, coupled with unrequited or dis carded love, had turned his brain.
 A priest guarded the door of the young mans home and would permit no one to enter Upstairs in darken- ed chamber Mrs. Wallace, a widow, was prostrated-not from the grief of her boys death-for she had not then and has not yet been informed of it, but from the fear that he had inflicted bodily harm upon himself. Since a week ago the mother has observed, it was said by those who came to the door, that the boy had been acting He had threatened to kill himself and had bought a revolver. His brother and his sister had tried to take the revolver away from him, and so had his mother, but he had re- sisted all their efforts.
 Mother Had Premonition.
 When he did not return at the ac- customed time his mother began to worry, and as the hours wore away