The Penn's Grove record., 1908-05-22
PATR|c|DE AND SUICIDE
TO STOP A WEDDING
George E. Sterry, Millionaire Mer-
chant, Killed by Son.
OBJECTED T0SEc0ND MARRIAGE

Murderer Had Been Drinking Heavily
Father Was Soon to Wed a
School Teacher Half His Age
Son Leaves Odd Letter.
New York City.-George Edward
Sterry, president of the Weaver &
Sterry Company, wholesale druggists,
a director of the Princeton Theologi-
cal Seminary, an elder of the Fourth
Avenue Presbyterian Church and a
man of wealth, was shot and killed at
noon as he sat before his desk in his
old-fashioned private Office at No. 70
Pine street. The murderer was his
second son, George E. Sterry, Jr.,
aged forty-three, the secretary of the
drug company. After shooting his
father the son walked to q chair a few
feet away, spread a newspaper OF his
lap and then fired a bullet into his
own brain. There were NO witnesses
to the shooting.
The elder Sterry was seventy-two
years old. On June 3 he was to have
married Miss Rachel Briggs Blake,
a school teacher, of East Orange, for
ty years his junior. 1t was his sons
objection to tits marriage that led to
the tragedy, as was shown conclusive
ly by the following letter, written
presumably at the cons desk in the
office adjoining his fathers a short
time before the crime and found af-
terward in his coat pocket by Coroner
Hamburger:
ITO whom it may concern (the Cor
oner, first, l presume): l took a SOL
emn oath to myself that my father
should never disgrace the memory of
my sainted mother. There is not a
faint of selfishness in me, and had my
father engaged himself to a lady of
mature age, l would not, and certain
ly none of my brothers would nothave
done else than bid him good luck, and
certainly trust that he should live for
ever. 1 always desired a long and
happy life for my old mana term
which I frequently and affectionately
used toward him. This is now IL
o'clock, May 10. No one is in my
confidence, but mybrothers may draw
a conclusion from my double murder.
There is q point which struck me
as particularly interesting. While
riding down On the Ninth avenue ele-
waited l passed casual glances on those
around me, as they doubtless did on
me, and the thought that l desire to
convey is this: How many thousands
would have stared me out of counte-
nance had they known of the prom
inent captions mydouble crime would
warrant in to-morrow's papers.
There is a comical and laughable
side in this. l would willingly give
$500 to Rachel B. Blake to hear
the beautiful and touching prayers
for the salvation of my soul that she
will offer up. Of course, I am under
a violent strain. Many of my SEN
fences may not be grammatical and
may be crude.
1T seems to me that God has told
me to do what | propose doing. I
prayed to God no less than twenty
times a day to show me some other
way out of this trouble, and | truth
fully believe he has shown me the
proper way to ave my family from
disgrace. GEORGE E. STERRY, Jr.
"P. S.-Another point l desire to
mention. Two seconds after my faith
er starts 1 will follow, as the poor
old man needs a guide and a guard
ian. Should we run across some of
that East Orange bunch, we will glide
up a side street"
This letter vas written on blue
note paper of the Manhattan Square
Hotel, where the dead SOL had been
living for three years with his wife.
How near was the old gentleman's
marriage, which the sons bullet frus-
trated, was shown by a slip of paper
found carefully folded in his wallet.
On it was written this in the senior
Sterry's handwriting, evidently in
tended for the newspapers:
Married, at Englewood, N. j., on
June 8, 1908, at the residence of Mr..
and Mrs. Careero Blake, by the
Rev. Brewer Eddy, of East Orange,
Rachel Briggs Blake to George Ed
ward Sterry."
Mr.. Blaikie is a brother of the
woman Mr.. Sterry vas to marry, and
he had turned over his house for the
wedding. Mr.. Sterry had intended to
start Immediately after the ceremony
on a European trip, and had his tick
cts bought. Their destination was
Italy, and a letter telling of rates at
a hotel at Leghorn vas found opened
on his desk in front of him.
Mr.. Sterry was a particularly hale
and vigorous old man. His first wife,
the mother of the son who murdered
him, died three years ago. Since
then he had rived with two of his
sons, John and James, at his house at
No. FL West Seventy-fourth street.
The news that he had decided to
make Miss Blaikie his wife was first
broken by the father to his sons last
January. The sons opposed it, it is
said, owing to the disparity in ages.
According to the story the police and
the coroner got the leader in this
opposition was George Sterry, who,
beside having a rather irascible dis
position, had been a rather heavy
drinker in recent years. The other
sons are William Dewitt, the eldest
of the family, John and James. An
other son, Wallace, died a few years
ago. George Sterry was forty-three
years old. All four of the sons have
been helping their father in his drug
business.
AUGMENTATION EoY Tapapyc Jfo;r