New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-09-14
QUEERLy SHOT IN AUTO
Mystery in Wounding Of Hammer
and Wife in TonaWanda.
THINK CHAUFFEUR WRONG
Police Say Shots Could Not
Have Been Fired from Lum-
Der Yard, as Claimed.

Buffalo. Sept l3-The police OF Tona-
wanda practically abandoned to-day the
theory that the person who shot George
Hammer and his wife late last night
while they were returning from Niagara
Falls TO Bulfalo in an automobile was
secreted I'm a lumber yard at Tonawanda,
where it was declared by Cleo Chambers
the chauffeur, and Mrs. Hammer that the
shooting occurred.
There we're many developments that
caused the police TO turn to other chan
nels in their search for the assassin. The
surgeons who removed the bullet from
Hammers head found that II had fol-
lowed course directly from the back OF
the skull toward the frontal bone. dip
ping slightly downward. If the shot came
/ from the side of the road. the police
maintain, Hammer must have been sitting
sideways In the car. while. according to
Chambers and Mrs. Hammer, he was at
the wheel and guiding the car through
the dark streets at a rate of twenty-five
miles an hour.
The course OF the bullet in Mrs. Han
ners leg was downward, the bullet enter
ing Just above the kneecap and coming
out back Of the knee joint. The automo-
bile had a high side door, and the police
experiments show. il is claimed, that the
door would act as shield to a person
sitting in the tonneau if shot came
from the lumber yard.
Watchmen on duty in the lumber yards
al the alleged time Of the shooting told
the police they heard nothing like re-
volver shot.
Chambers, the chauffeur stated to-day
that he did not hear shot after Hammer
fell forward on the wheel. Two miles
north of TonaWanda, at the Log Cabin,
he said, there was an explosion that
caused him TO think tire had blown out.
lie brought the automobile TO standstill
and jumped our to examine the tires. lie
found nothing wrong.
At this time Hammer expressed desire
10 take a turn at the wheel Chambers
allowed him to 40 so, and when they re-
sumed the journey toward Buffalo he sat
on the left front seat, the machine haV-
ing a right-hand drive. Mrs. Hammer sat
I'm the right hand side Of the tonneau. and
her four-year-old son was asleep at her
left
Opposite lumber yard in Tonsvanda,
chambers said, there was another deafen-
ing explosion. Hammer fell forward on
tho wheel and then slipepd TO the floor
OF the car. The automobile swerved TO
the side OF the road. and Chambers
9rasped the wheel 10 prevent the machine
hitting the curb. When he realized that
Hammer had been shot he started FOR
hotel, and from there called the police.
He did not know until they arrived at the
hotel that Mrs Hammer was wounded, he
said.
The chauffeur declared his belief that
the shots were fred from the top Of a
lumber pile a short distance away.
Hammers condition tonight is critical.
He was unconscious most Of the day, and
AZ no time was able 20 make statement
TO Coroner w. A. Scott, who remained at
his bedside. The bones in Mrs. Hammers
knee are 40 badly shattered that amputa-
ton of the leg may be necessary.
So far az the police could learn to-day
Hammers relations with his wife were
euicable. The couple lived az Niagara
Falls. Ontario. up 10 three weeks ago.
whom Hammer came 10 Buffalo and In
,eS,cd i'm automobiles. which he kept for
lire. Mrs. Hammer had been visiting her
relatives at the Falls for few days. aud
Hammer went there yesterday TO bring her