The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-07-20
WOMEN FIGURE IN TWO MYSTERIOUS SHOOTING CASES
Actress and Admirer Slain, Police Believe, By Jeal-
 ous Suitor
Liaison Disclosed In Fatal Shooting In Hotel In the
 Early Hours of Morning.


 Allentown, Pa. July 2o-Miss Lo- wanda Caynes, prepossessing young
 actress g years old. was found mur- dered in her apartments here, today
 A few feet away from her, William J.
 Free, prominent business man of South Bethlehem, was found lying, fa- tally wounded. Both had been shot, the police allege, by jealous admirer of the young woman, for whom gen. eral police alarm has been sent out. + A policeman patrolling his beat to- day heard five shots in quick success sion from the apartment occupied by Miss Caynes. As he started for the house, he says, "a member of thea trical company whom he knew, burst out of the door and ran down the street. He gave chase but failed to overtake the man and returned to the house.
 Miss Caynes was dying on the floor with bullet through her head. In an adjoining room Free was lying, shot twice through the body. Before an amb ulance surgeon reached the scene, the woman died. !.
 Free was rushed to the hospital and tors stated that there was no hope for him and that his death was only a question of a few hours
 District Attorney Rfupp was sum- morled and to him Free told the story of the shooting He said that he had called on Miss Caynes and they were conversing when the door, was broken in by the theatrical man whom the policeman said he saw running away from the house. Without word the man drew a pistol and fired point blank at them. He then made his es- cape The police say the men were rivals for the young womans affee- theatrical man, yesterday, telling him she wanted to have nothing to do with him.
 New York, July 2o-A young man who said. that he was George R. Hark- ness, living with his wife and family at Sea Cliff, EA l., was held without bail to await the action of the coroner in the West Side court, today, on a charge of homicide. He is charged with shooting Mrs. Florence c. Hopp, a decidedly prepossessing young wo- man whose home, the police say, was in Newburg, Pa, in a room in the Hotel York, at 7th avenue and 37th street, early today.
 Hardness admitted the shooting but insisted that it was accidental.
 Policeman Cunningham was on post outside of the hotel today, when Hark- ness, very much excited, ran out and accosted him:
 q have shot my wife in our room, 2 he said.
 The policeman sent in a hurry call for an ambulance and went to the room where he found Mrs. Hopp un- conscious with a bullet wound in her temple. She died shortly after being removed to the New Y ork hospital.
 Hardness admitted that he and the woman had been living at the hotel since the first of the month, registered as MT and Mrs Hardness. She was going back home today, he said, and was packing her effects. He had bought new automatic revolver. According to his story they were sit- ting side by side on the bed while he explained the mechanism of the gun to her. It was accidentally discharg- ed, he said. Hardness said he and the woman had been friends for years and that she was divorced from her husband more than a year ago. She came here, he said, more than month ago. He positively denied they ever quarreled.