The San Francisco call., 1908-08-16
EDITOR IS
SLAIN BY
ARMY MAN
Captain Hains Riddles William
E. Annis, Alleged Despoiler
of His Home
Shoots Victim on Yacht While
Brother Stands Uff Crowd
With Revolver
Nine Bullets End Romance That
Began With Love at
First Sight"
Avenger the Son of General and
Belongs to Aristocratic
Family
SPECIAL DISPATCH TO THE CALL

NEW YORK, Aug. 15.-Wil-
liam E. Annis, editor of Recre-
alton and the Burr Mcintosh
Monthly, was shot nine times by
Captain Peter c. Hams Jr., U. S.
A., in yacht beside the float of
the Bay Side yacht club in Little
Neck bay, Flushing, at ESQ
o'clock this afternoon and he died
at 7:15 o'clock in the evening in
Flushing hospital. While Captain
Hams was doing the shooting his
brother, Thornton ]. Hams, bet
ter known as 7. Jenkins Hains,
held off a crowd of yachtsmen
with a pistol, telling them the
tragedy was family affair, and
that if any of them attempted to
interfere he would shoot them.
Mrs. Annis' shrieks for mercy
were ignored by Captain Hams. who is
son of Brigadier General Peter c.
Hams. U. S. A. retired. until Annis
was shot in the right arm. once in each
leg and six times in the abdomen. The
slayer used a magazine revolver of As
ca1iber containing Is shots, built to fire
continuously from the moment the trig-
ger was touched until another finger
movement locked the hammer. So rapid
was the fire that the nine shots to ac-
customed ears sounded almost like one.
USES MAN FOR SHIELD
Hams shot Annis from a military
kneeIing position with his weapon
thrust under the bowed arm OF Lewis
Harway, whom the victim used as
shield Harway attempted to shelter
Annis from the rain of shots, but the
captains army training had given him
uuickness in handling firearms that en-
abled him to circumvent both men,
Annis after receiving the ninth shot.
toppled out Of Harway's yacht, the
Pam, into the water, whereupon Cap
tain Hains ceased firing. When club
members rescued the wounded and
drowning man from the bay the Hams
brothers tossed their revolvers on the
float and sat down to await the police
WHY HE SHOT ANNIs
"Pve been away on a cruise said
Captain Hams in Captain Ruthenberg's
private room in the Flushing police
station when asked by the precinct
commander why ne shot Annis. ~and
when 1 came back there was child
and my wife confessed that Annis was
the father When you hear my story.
In hn off
you'll be with me-"
L know why he shot me-" said Annis
to DR.. Harry A Houghton. a member
of the yacht club who bent over him as
he lay on the float after being lifted
from the water, but he shot the wrong
man. Those were Annis' last words,
except refusal in the hospital TO make
further statement
Whatever the truth of Annis' dying
assertion Captain Hams regarded him
as the despoiler of his home. Thorn
ton Hams told Captain Ruthenberg to-
night that in June last he served on
Mrs. Peter c. Hains Jr. the complaint
in a divorce suit and that in these
papers Annis was made correspondent.
The Hams divorce action is still pend
ing. Mrs. Hams denies her husbands
charges but her father IN law and
brother in law side with her husband
and the couples three children are in
the custody of General Hams at Fort
Hancock.
CAUSE NEVER SAW LIGHT
The police say the child of whom
Annis, according to Hams. was the
father never was born. After the cap
tain's return from his cruise" which
really was a stay in the Philippines.
they narrate. Mrs Hams lived for a
while in a house in Forty-ninth street.
New York, and the result OF his visit
to that place was that the blame1ess
cause of the parting OF the couple never
saw the light Hams began his action
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