The San Francisco call., 1908-09-03
QUARREL ENDS IN
DEATH OF BARKER
Mrs. Founts Kills Farmland
With Charge From a
Shotgun
Victim Was Intimate Friend of
Couple and Woman Claims
Killing Was Accidental

SAN JOSE, Sept. 2.-The body of
William Barker, middle aged la
borer, is at the morgue, and young
married couple who are believed to
have been lifelong friends of Bar
kers are in separate cells in the
county Jail as result of quarrel
between Barker and Founts tonight
which was ended by Mrs. Founts
shooting Barker with a shotgun and
killing him instantly. Barker is al
legged to have been pursuing Founts
with an open pocket knife In his hand
when the fatal shot was fired. Mrs.
Founts admits that she killed Bar
ker,, but claims that the gun was dis
charged accidentally. Besides the
principals there were three witnesses
to the tragedy, but none of them over
heard the words which passed be-
tween Barker and Foluts prior to the
shooting. The three principals to the
tragedy came to this acounty from
Merced about five weeks ago, and
three weeks ago contracted with Sal
vatore di F'iore to pick the prunes on
his Agnew RANCH.
The work Vas to have been COM
pleted tomorrow. Barker and Mr. and
Mrs. Founts occupied the house and
the woman prepared meals for the two
men.
Sheriff Langford. accompanied by
Coroner Kell and two deputy sherifs,
arrived at the. scene of the shooting
within a half hour in an auto. The
body of Barker was found lying where
he had fallen within 90 feet of the
doorway from which the woman had
fired the shot. An open pocket knife
lay on the ground by the body. The
couple were found inside of the house.
The woman was crying and her youth
full husbands was attempting to comfort
her.
The man was closely questioned by
the officers, but did not talk willingly.
The cause of the quarrel between him.
self and Barker is still unknown.
Mrs. Founts stated that she heard
loud talking in the yard when her
husband and Barker returned from
work but she could not distinguish the
words. She was in the house at the
time. She went out into the yard to
see what was happening and saw Bar
ker chasing her husband with large
cooking. pot in his hands. She re-
turned Inside of the house and in a
few minutes her husband also came
inside. He went outside again, while
she went to her bedroom to place some
money under the pillow on her bed.
Her husbands shotgun, which was
cooked at the time, was lying under
meath the pillow and she took 1T out
and laid it across a chair. In the
meantime the quarrel in the yard was
renewed, she said, and she went to
the door with the shotgun in her bands
to see what was happening. She saw
Barker chasing her husband, she said,
with pocket knife in his hand. The
gun in her hands was too heavy to
support and 1t fell against the. door
jam at this moment and the jar dis
charged 1T, the shot penetrating
Barker's right side.
While returning from the scene Of
the shooting Coroner B. E. Kell res
cued Pete McKenna, an Alviso rancher,
from drowning in a pond on the Alviso
road. McKenna's horse had run away
and plunged over a bridge about three
miles north of San jose throwing him
out of his buggy and pinning him un-
derneath In about three feet of water.
Kell heard the splash in the darkness
and ran to the scene. Believing that
there must have been some one iny>the
rig he ran to a reighboring ranch house
and attempted to get light No one
was at home, SO he sprinted to the
scene of the accident and entered the
pond. BY ducking his head under the
water and feeling underneath the rig
he managed to, get hold of sMcKenna's s
leg and with considerable exertion
pulled him from underneath the wheels.
McKenna was revived by physicians at
the Belvedere hospital in this city,