Evening journal., 1912-10-18
INSANITY IN
SCHRANK LINE
ancestors Of ROOSeVelt'S As
SaiIant Died Crazy in
Bavaria
CALLED ERRATIC BY
NEW YORK FRIENDS

+ NEW YORK, Oct 1S.-lnvestiga-
ton into the movements of John
Schrank who shot Colonel Roosevelt
resulted in the discovery Of valise
containing property deeds and mort
cages and a number of letters ad-
dressed to him.
Hearing that Schrank had made
frequent visits TO a house at 443 East
Eighty-first street in Manhattan, de-
tectives went there and were told
that the house was owned by Schrank
and that the rents we're paid to Ed
ward Lauringor. proprietor of hotel
in Queens Borough. At Lauringer's
place il was learned that Schrank
lived al the hotel for some time last
year. and until January last When
he went away he left valise in Lau-
ringers care.
Lauringer said that after Schrank
left he did not see him again until
September ,. when Schrank appeared
i'm the neighborhood, and according
10 Lauringer. borrowed $3.50 of some
one i'm that vicinity. Detectives be-
licve that il was with this money
that Schrank financed his trip.
Lauringer had heard, he said, that
Schrank had been translator for some
German newspapers.
Considered Erratic.
Schrank did not follow the impulse
Of a moment when he attempted the
life Of the Progressive leader He
was obeying the mental tendency OF
three and perhaps more generations.
His father, who died in Bavaria
when he was a mere child, had long
shown traces of insanity. and his
grandfather. John Schrank l.,
wealthy brewer of Edding. Bavaria,
in the declining .ears of his life ex-
hibned the same unsoundness of the
mind
John Schrank third was considered
erratic by his friends in New York.
They said that he was the last man
in the world they would have thought
capable of committing so desperate a
deed
He must have been crazy when he
shot Roosevelt" was the unanimous
opinion of his former neighbors on
East Tenth street. where he lived Tor
. II years with his uncle and aunt, Mr..
and Yrs. Dominick Flammang, both
OF whom are dead.
John Schranks mental irregulari-
tics. inherited and accentuated by a
strange manner OF living, received an
additional impulse in the death of his
auut 20 whom he was psssionately
devoted five years ago, and again in
the death Of his uncle in February
1911
secret About His Hatred.
Where he conceived the hatred Of
Colonel Roosevelt is nowhere disclos
cd in a searching Investigation int
his life and habits. The secrecy n
which he hid his thoughts on tina
subject are regarded as an indication
of his tendencies to insanity. II II
known. however, that for severa
months he had determined TO kill Mr
Roosevelt at the earliest opportunit,
and that he followed the former Pres
ident from this city, overlook him II
Charleston S. c., but had no chance
at his life and then arrived in Nil
waukee. where he used the revolver
which he had carried with him from
New York
Scbrank is not a Socialist He Il
simply a morbid, brooding man, witt
few friends and no intimates. Whel
his aunt died in 1907, shortly afte
his thirty-frst birthday, he showers
his affections on his uncle.
when the uncle died last yea
Schrank developed a hatred for Col
Roosevelt and devoted all his tim
and most Of the income from the es
tate Of his uncle, to which he was tn
sole heir, TO the consummation Of hi
object
In all the years of his life he ha'
never had an intimate friend saw
his relatives. and though he was lik
cd by the young people of his neigh
borhood he always declined TO joii
them in any pastimes and eithe
spent his time behind the bar %
the Flammang saloon or in his roor
ponderinE He read great deal.