The evening world., 1912-11-29
SM|L|NG'BARBER'
GETS R|CHESLEFT
BY FIRES VICTIM
TONY" Tells Why Woman
Who Died in Squalor Made
Him Her Heir.
He WITNESSED HER WILL
Rich Woman Was Overcome
by Smoke as She Cooked
Thanksgiving Dinner.
HE WITNESSED HER WILL

Ten cats. singed. grimy. mewing dol
os0usly. crawled and shifted to-day like
persistent wraiths of evil over heaps Of
chasTed RAGS and refuse in the room
where Miss Octavia Friedrich, the aged
ed crippled miser, was burned to death
yesterday. And while fire marsaals and
dftsOtives booted and shooed the cats
thsy got deeper every hour into a story
the like Of which has rarely been told
in Brooklyn.
Voiy one man was sponsor for the
tile OF Octavia Freidrich's Me during
the past twelve years, of her boarded
nestune and the appalling loneliness of
her twelve years of absolute seclusion
s9od rags and tin cans and cats In
TIVE ill-smelling. dark rooms. That
maa Is Anthony O'Reckinto, the barber
w0o by the will left by the agee
spinster becomes sole heir to her
estate. valued In the hundreds OF
thoWsanda .
while the smiling O'Reckinto shipped
vltA his shears and stropped his razors
= ne ltttie shop directly beneath the
rooms where tragedy had stalked yes
ter1ay. no told q straightforward story
Of how he had become legatee under the
la0t testament of the loveless woman
woho was burned. and Of her life of pain
IN N. two hla,k rooms above
FIRE THAT CAUSED DEATH WAS
AN ACCiOeNT.
But before Fire Marshal Thomas L.
Brophy and detectives from Brooklyn
Headquarters drew from the barber his
exclusive knowledge OF the character
and habits Of the dead woman they es-
tabliyhed conclusively, SO they declared,
the fact that the fire which took the
lie OF Octavia Friedrich was not set
nv any human agency. but WAS the re-
suit Of accident. susplcion po,nts IN no.
boAv 40 f,ronhv stated inter- having
been all over the ground to-day.
Mise Friedrich was sixty years old
sno hao oeeh para'yuc SINCE chiio-
49, sne useu pa', VI snvr' oru''nes
psr' ., vac ue a,'o 40. '"e tes' '"s
- s 80, W, So.''s
S..,,S,r IL, 60, W.. 49,
,,,.,h.r a,aa To-. 800 .h, ,o,, 49,
',.,,nr,s,ng rho row =, ,ur,h,.JoIyp
i. ,ses he,vsen M .. and No 40 ON
,t,r,t strect. extending N Livingston
street Alphonse and Emile. two other
children. ouarrelied with their sister
Ootavia about the dlsVosit.on OF this
<,roperty. made valuable because OF its
location In tho heart OF the depa rtment
store district ..,..
Miss Octavia threw the question Of
a dtvision into litigation and as a re
suit she was given a lie interest In the
Hoyt street property, as well as in q
house worth $1,000 on Madison street.
az had besides. stock and securities
-, 80, :. - ,,horx.anoa
~1. - ,,,
After TINS iitsaeoh' 80 'ne oa.per saia
to-day. Alphonss and Emile abandoned
their crippled sister to her own devices
ssd went to Los Angeles to live.
akAnsn TIE oNiy pERsoN shE
y.
WOULD SEE.
Mis-, Octayia took up her residence in
a, +.hs four rooms on the second
- 49,. ~ o, liz,
"oor v. '"e Wv -
sueet tweiVe years ago ana from 'ha'
time unul the DAY or her death she saw
the sunlight only through the grimy
windows of her soualid rooms. No one
.,c.n, O,Recssn<o. the barber. aver
Nv her;
Wnen tne grocery woman AZ the corner
brought . loaf OF bread eaoh DAY she
isft It outside the door at the head Of
Tho statrs; the mailman did the same
Ouiy the barber had access to the rooms
vh.ra ths m,ssr woman Lived. Ha rad
1000 Co. no. a. -n..re,ve- and
$500, 80.
" ""oa 10 "," ~. ;
~ ~ efs" o'uor sho INST h',,, WIN
more important commissions recent
yeefs hao seen MIN her collector OF
rsets ana business agent.
worheu TOT the poor woman -
my years without reward why shouio
no. % .ns .penency unues .ei