The San Francisco call., 1908-09-01
WATCHMAN HEARS THUD
OF MURDERER'S SPADE
Evidence of Police Shows Mrs.
DOnOHue Was Pursued by
VI vSferfOuS Man

: While the murderer of Mrs. Alice
/. DOnohue was digging her shall
low grave beside the Western furni-
ture companys factory Deputy Mar
shal Lippi. who had heard the thud.
was peering into the front windows
He thought the noise had been made
by thieves.
Flashlight in hand Lippi looked long
into the vacant factory. The sound
which had caught his ear as he walked
by the place was too Enthusiastically
that OF some midnight prowler. But
no thief showed Then the officer
stepped TO the west side of the fac
tOry-the side on which the murderer
was crOuching, shovel in hand, beside
the warm body of the woman whom he
had slain. Lippi turned his hashlight
toward the buildings rear-its rays
pointed at the two beings, the thick
breathing man and the woman in
whom there was no longer breath.
But neither showed They lay i'm
mobile, silent, indistinguishable from
the clay they pressed. The light
showed nothing. There are no senses
10 tell A man Of what turks hidden
from eye and ear, though the air it
self may want to shout murder. Lippi
went on up SiXty-fourth street. And
the murderer leisurely finished dig
ging the woman's grave.
Something had been moving against
Mrs Donohue that night-fate or cir
cumstances or chance, or what you
chose to call it. Twice she had been
in sight Of those who might have
helped her. And, when she lay dead,
the one man for whose aid she had
fed passed her and her murderer by
q hairs breadth. The whole story
Of that flight teens with the pathos
of what might have been. The. very
fS
eloquent of il.
FRIG HTENED AWAY FROM HOME
In detail, pieced together from the
bits of circumstantial evidence in the
hands Of the police this is what hap
pened. Mrs. DOnohue was frightened
away from her home in SiXty-second
street near Eighth by the entrance or
approach of the murderer. II was early
ia the evening. She ran from the front
door and crossed the street. There she
stopped She was not in strong health
and the shock had. made her weak. She
leaned a moment against corrugated
iron shedr- Mrs Ahrenstahl and her
boy, Alexander were sitting on the
back steps Of their home at the corner
of SiXty-irst and Eighth streets They
saw the woman and thought her atti-
tude strange.
From the shed Mrs. Donohue walked
down SiXty-second street toward
Eighth She wandered about for some
time, not daring TO 90 back to her own
home. and probably fearing TO go far
iftC tise darkness Later she plucked
up courage and made her way to Mrs
Vera 5 home one door east of the
Ahrenstahl house 1t was dark now
And she was in great fear. She crept
To the window beneath the front steps.
the window of Mrs Nerra's bedroom
and she tapped on the pane. It reused
Mrs. Vera and her little girl They
lifted the shade TO see what the sound
meant. But they were too late. Mrs
Donohue had fed
She went down Sixty first street west
again. The murderer must have stolen
almost around the block and come upon
her from the east. She ran north on
Eighth street. And it was hard for her
10 run. Once she stopped and then
she hurried on again. looking occasion
ally over her shoulder and quickening
her pace. Mrs. Ahrenstahl saw her at
this time. The murderer, probably still
lurking on Sixty-first street, was not
IN sight.
SOUGHT NIGHT WATCHMAN
Mrs. Donohue had one idea in taking
the direction she did-it was to the
northwest now-across the vacant lots
She was running toward the refining
plant in Sixty-fourth street near the
Southern Pacific tracks where Deputy
Marshal Lippi makes his headquarters
st night. The neighborhood knew Lippi
could be found here. and Mrs. Donohue
knew. She ran straight toward him.
and she ran away from houses where
lights burned into black empty spaces.
where there was no friendly hand. In
this blackness the murderer was safe
from sight Of men. He dared run at
last. And he overlook the woman.
II was about midnight, according to
the time placed by Mrs. Vera when
she told Of the window tapping. And
when Lippi heard the spade striking
the board wall of the Western furniture
cOmpany's building IL was 1870 o'clock