Los Angeles herald., 1908-06-01
WIFE'SASSAILANT
FIGHTS WITH MOB
MAN STABS WOMAN EIGHT
TIMES
TRIES SUICIDE TO AVOID BEING
ARRESTED
Desperate Mexican Captured After a
Struggle and 10 Brought to Los
Angeles, Bound Hand
and Foot

Robert Gonzales, a Mexican 27 years
of age, afer stabbing his wife eight
times yesterday afternoon in an eff
fort to murder her, stood at bay a
crowd composed of the entire popu-
lation of Rincon, small Latin set
tlement two miles north OF Whittier,
and was overpowered only after des-
perate struggle.
Before being captured Gonzales en-
deayored to commit suicide by cutting
his throat with the same knife he had
used with such terrible effect upon
his wife.
The woman, wounded unto death,
lies at the home of friends near WHIT
tier, and Gonzales, in serious con-
dition from loss of blood, is prisoner
at the county jail.
Gonzales is laberer employed In
ranch work near Whittier. For sew
eral weeks he has acted in peculiar
manner and has kept his wife, pretty
young Mexican woman, terrorized by
his threats to do her bodily harm.
She had been importuned by her
friends to leave him or have him ar
rested, but as he had threatened her
with instant death in case she either
left him or reported his actions, she
was afraid to take their advice.
Absent from Home
Yesterday Gonzales was absent from
home the greater part of the day, but
returned home about o'clock. From
his appearance and actions he had
evidently been drinking, and his Wife
tried in every manner to avoid giving
him offense.
He was sitting at a table in the
kitchen of their little home and or
dered her to bring him g. drink of
water.
In passing him a dipper of water
she spilled some, and with torrent
of Spanish oaths he is said to have
seized butcher knife and sprang at
her.
The woman screamed and tried to
escape from the room, but he caught
her by the arm and threw her to the
floor.
With the butcher knife, which has
a twelve-inch blade, the man attacked
her. The woman struggled desperately
but the man plunged the knife re-
peatedly into her breast and back,
stabbing her three times over the heart
and stomach and three times in the
back.
AS she struggled loose from him he
slashed her twice in the right hip, but
she managed to get through the door
way and screamed for help.
Almost the entire population of the
little settlement responded to her cries,
and in few moments fifty men were
gathered at the scene.
Gonzales, by this time literally
crazed, secured an ak and cried to the
men that he would kill the first per-
son who approached him.
In this manner he kept the men at
bay for several minutes, but finally
the crowd rushed him and he was
borne down by weight Of numbers and
disarmed.
Struggles Desperately
He still struggled desperately, how
ever, and managed to draw from the
waistband of his trouers the knife
with which he had stabbed his wife,
and made an attempt to cut his throat.
Three gashes in his neck were in
flicted before the knife was taken from
him, and while none of the men In
the party who captured him were Sc
riously hurt, a number of them re-
ceived minor cuts in the hands and
arms.
Gonzales was tied hand and foot
with long rope and Constables r. B.
Way and F. p. )liver sent for. They
took the prisoner to the county jail,
where. after he had received medical
attention, he w.ss locked in a cell.
Mrs. Gonzales was carried to the
home of friends and physician sent
for from Whittier, who dressed her
wounds.