Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1911-12-27
NABBED WHILE COMPOSING
Andrew Mcconnell Taken in Charge
in Newspaper Office.
SAID COMPELLED TO SHOOT WIFE
Declared she HAD Tried 60 viIlify
an InnOcent woman-wife said
to he Not In Critical
Condition.

NEW YORK, Dec. @.-Andrew Me-
Connell, magazine writer and lecturer,
was arrested at a reporters desk in
morning newspaper office tonight. while,
Il is alleged. he was writing a confession
OF shooting and wounding his divorced
wife. Mrs. Marion ID. Mcconnell, at
Ocean Grove, N. J. The shooting Is said
to have occurred late Saturday night.
Mcconnell was operating q typewriter
in the Times office when detective ar
rested him. The paper In the machine
bore these words: Il was forced 10 shoot
the woman who was my wife Absolute
divorce was obtained last spring. Not
one word was said regarding the divorce
the night l shot her. She has tried TO
villify an innocent woman"
Beside the typewriter the detective found
o paper upon which was written in an
almost illegible hand; EVERY person who
has helped to build my work has been
villified by a woman who Is either hope
lessly insane or designing flend. When
1 made discovery IN tho electrical basis
Of life. of which Ithree illegible words)
years later"
Woman ViIIified Him.
The detective said Mcconnell had am
hAhANN hAAtbNQ CbnAtHhloh ny utIlhI"
ing he shot his wife because she was
always making me believe was insane.
She villlfied me to different people and
has run my character down"
Mcconnell was locked up on a charge
OF felonious assault lie gave his age
as 81 years and his address as the Grant
Park hotel, Chicago. He appears In bio
graphical records as author of a volume
Of poems. a work on organic electricity
and another on scientific mind healing,
In 1928 he was proprietor OF the Alkahest,
a magazine published at Atlanta, Ca.
He was the founder OF a consumers
cooperative union for reducing the ex-
penses of workingmen and also estab-
lished a lyceum system of popular and
educational entertainments I'm southern
towns. For many years he made Birmlng-
ham, Ala, his home. lie came to New
York in 1905
1t was said at the Times tonight that
Mcconnell drlfted in there making inquiry
as to what he had better do regarding
stories appearing in local papers regard.
ing the shooting of his wife. It was sug-
gested that II he were guilty he should
confess and be arrested. lie agreed to the
plan and was engaged on the confession
when the detective was called.
Woman Not I'm Danger.
1t was learned from Ocean Grove late
tonight that Mrs. McConnelPs wound is
in the neck. 1t is believed she is in no
great danger. She was able to talk some
what and said that she and her husband
had been separated for several years, and
that he had been DESTROYS OF obtaining an
absolute divorce in order to marry again.
CHICAGO, Dec. 25.-Andrew Mcconnell
had rooms at the Grant Park hotel here
from October to December %, on which
date he departed, saying he was going
out on lecturing tour. Attaches of the
hotel said tonight they knew little of
Mcconnell aside from what they had read
in pamphlets which he distributed to
guests. During his stay OF two and one
half months at the Grant Park hotel.
Mcconnell was frequently absent for two
or three days at time. His wife was
not with him here.