The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1914-08-17
FOUR WERE SLAIN
AT "LOvE COTTAGE"
Negro Set House on Fire and With an
Axe Struck Victims as They
Tried to Escape.

SPRING GREEN, Wis, August Il |
A mad negro, armed with an ak, Sat |
urday ended the romance of Mamah |
| Bouton Borthwiek, formerly Mrs. Ed
| win II. Cheney of Oak Park, Ill.,, and
/ Frank Lloyd Wright, wealthy Chicago
architect with whom she has lived as
| a wife since 1911.
Setting fire to the elaborate bunga
| low built by Wright for Mrs. Borth
wick here after his enlargement from
| his wife, the negro stood outside and
attempted to brain Mrs. Borthwick and
! eight occupants of the building, mem
bers of the family and employees, as
they fled from the flames.
He succeeded in killing her and three
others, probably fatally injuring three,
and seriously wounding the remainder.
Mrs Borthwick is said to have repri-
manded the man, Julian Carlton, chef
of her kitchen. He brooded over this,
it is thought and became insane.
The dead are: Mrs. Mamah Bouton
Borthwick; John Borthwick Cheney,
her 13-year-old son; Emil Burdell, aged
l 80, craftsman; Martha B. Cheney,
> Mrs. Borthwick' 10-year-oId daughter,
2 who died Saturday night
Fatally injured: David Lindbdum,
a gardener badly cut about the head !;
Ernest Weston, farm hand, burned
about the head; Tom Brunkhard, labor
er, cut and burned
t The seriously injured: William Wes-
0 ton, carpenter, cut about the neck and
+ burned; Herbert Fritz, cut and burned,
arm broken.
- Used Fire to Drive Out Victims
Carlton, with his wife, had been in
- Wright s employ :hout four months,
coming here from Chicago. Mrs. Carl
Il ton was found dazed after the tragedy
walking along the highway, and was
e taken into custody. She denied any
o participation in the affair
= The negro Displayed fieudish ingenui
n ty in arranging the victims slaughter
, All were in the dining room when he
e lighted rug soaked in gasoline II
\ front of the door, according to William
e Weston, the least seriously hurt. In .
+ moment the room was in flames. Only
e one means of egress, a window, was
e left.
Mrs Borthwick was the first to put
- her head through the window. The
negro, whiting outside, struck hel
d down with one blow, crushing hel
4 skull, then dragged her body out aHo
D. waited for the next. Little John Che
n ney followed. His head was split open
n Then Burdell fell
5; As each one put his head out, :
ze said Weston, ''the negro struck, kill
sol ing or stunning his victim. / was tbs
IL last The ak struck me in the neck anc
knocked me down, but left me con
ic conscious. | got up and ran, with th'
al negro after me.
st ''Then | fell and he hit me again
r, guess he thought he had me, because
as he ran back to the window and / go
n up and ran When | looked back HI
es had disappeared. :
10 The fire was confined to the bunga
low, and when it had been eontrolle'
neighhors joined the posse in search o
the murderer.fs
ne Carlton disappeared after the killing
is but after a search of several hour
he had been mf.de for him, reappeare
es and surrendered. He was hurried int
1t an autoip0bile and rushed to the low
in county jail. IS miles away.
,ir While neighbors guarded the ground
and the men with the hounds wer
w searching the countryside, Garlic
-. crawled out of boiler He was near
os " suffocated from the heat and appear
ps ed exhausted.
a. He said he had taken poison, bu
would not give any reason for tn
VI crime.
~ Word reached here Saturday nigh
~ that Wright had left Chicago fo
Spring Green. He had not been her
since Tuesday when he left for Chico
~ 90. Assisted by Burdell, he did niue
-, of his architectural work here.