Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1915-03-23
BANKER KILLS WIFE
ANDENDS OWN LIFE
Murder and Suicide Occur in
Music-Room of Palatial Boo
cock Home.
NO KNOWN MOTIVE FOR ACT
Double Tragedy Enacted in Cen
ter OF Fashionable Resider-
tial New York Section.

al
COCK, treasurer OF the As,or Trust Com
pany. tonight shot ana killed his wife
as she sat at the plano in their beauti-
rul nome at No. SO East Seventy-fourih
street then turned the revolver against
MS own forehead and blew out his
brains.
The murder and suicide occurred in
the music room OF the Roocock home
me curtains from the room onto
seventy fourth Street were not shaded
ana had any one passed the house AT the
moment OF the tragedy he might have
looked into the brilliantly lighted. lux
nriouslv furnished salon and hay. seen
all that occurred
NO motive has been discovered for
Mr. Boocock's act, hut It Is known that
during dinner hour he and his wt,.
auarrelled. The couple appeared In tho
wide dining hall. which is on the Same
hoor An the music room, and .mmedi
ate!y In the rear Of It, at a few min
utes before O'Clock
Mrs. Boocock, who was about thirtv-
five years old and very handsome wa.
dressed In soft pink evening gown. 4
huge bunch OF pink flowers was pinned
at her girdle.
10Th SEEM AGITATED
AS DINNER is SERVED
Mr. Boocock wore his evening suit.
Two maids. Anne Magnussen and IJnna
Johnson, served the dinner. They ,olJ
coroner Healey after the trauedv tbot
they had observed Mr.. and Mrs Poo
cock both seemed very agitated. Their
voices would rise as soon as the maids
shpped from the room, but would drop
again when they reappeared.
Finally. after the dessert had heen
served. the meal was suddenly termI-
mated. Mr. Boocock rose abruptly from
tne thnie and ordered that his coffee be
served TO MIN alone In his library. lie
left the room without word TO his
wife.
She. in turn, rose after he Ind disan-
peared and went into the music roon,
where she seated herself mt the njano
and commenced to play. From IN. n
orary. which is just above the music
room, Mr.. Boocock must have henrd h, ,
"ifes music as he slipped his coffee
some time before $50 o'clock he de.
scended from the library and entc,ad
'he room where his wife snt playinp
me piano sits at the north end OF IN.
room. Close beside IL is a handsome
leather divan.
on DIvAN FOR AWHILE
As WIFE Is PLAYING:
AS Mr.. Boocock entered the room his
wife was playing Beethoven's Sonata
No. 3. Her back was turned. He walk ed
across TO the leather divan, stretched
himself full length upon 1t, and lay
there for perhaps five or six minutes.
Then he must have said something
TO her for the bullet wound in her fore
mead indicates that she turned around.
lie lifted himself on his elbow, whipped
out n heavy .45-caliber revolver from
under his coat and fred polntblank.
The bullet pierced her hend She tun-
bled Imply forward. and when she was
found her body was suspended across
the top OF the music bench on which
she had been seated
Then without rising from the leather
divan Boocock turned the pistol against
his own temple
Both shots were heard distinctly in
the servants quarters, but they were nj
first believed to be the crack of auto
mobile tires on the street outside Tho
sudden interruption, however or the
sonata Mrs. Boocock had been plavinR.
and the silence that followed alarmed
Mary HagSerty. the cook She waited
for few moments and then tiptoed
into the brilliantly lighted music hall,
where her eyes rested on the lifeless
forms Of Boocock and his wife.
CALLS FOR "MoTIIEI,y
AS COOK STANDS ny
There were uneasy footsteps sound
ing in the hall above, and. while the
cook stood mutely looking upon the
dual tragedy. she heard a child above
calling uneasily to Mother
Mary Hnggerty rushed back TO tho
telephone and called the home OF II. II
Dawson, a partner OF j. F. Morgan. who
lives at No. 10 West Fifty-second
Street Mrs Dawson, n warm friend of
both the dead man and his wife. was
told OF the tragedy and leaped Into her
automobile TO make her way to the Boo
cock home
After she had surveyed the scene In
the music room she called Dr. Norman
Ditman, Of No. "a East Forty-eichth
Street. and he in turn notified the coro-
ner's Office.
investigation.
There are two children left orpbaps.
One is boy OF eight and the other is n
girl OF twelve Both were in the home
at the time.
The Boocock home is in the center ne
one OF the finest residential sections OF
the city. Francis Lynde Stetson live,
at No. East Seventy-fourth Street.
Others who live on the same block are.
Dr. Howard tilienthal. John a. McKim.
Samuel NJ Schwab. Jr.. Herman NJ. Mem
del. George w. Spitzner, Myles Standish.
George M. Clarke, Edward MilIus, Try-
ing j. Kempner and Melville Scholle.
HOMES or pnONINI,y,r
PEOPLE CLOSE TO BOOCOCIts
The home of Mrs. Joseph Pulitzer, at
No. IL East Seventy-third Street, and
that OF Mr.. and Mrs. Ralph Pulitzer, at
the same address. almost back up on
the Boocock home. Other prominent