New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-01-28
CAT TRAPS SLAYER
OF GIRL AND MAN
Pair Beaten to Death with
Hammer-PriSOner
Accuses Wife.

Joseph Kriegleder and his wife. Ella
Frances Kriegleder janitOrs Of the
apartment house at 145 East lllth ST.,
were arrested yesterday after the
bodies Of two persons VINO had been
beaten TO death were found in the
house. The man was charged with
murder and the woman was held as =
material witness. The bodies were
identified as those Of Miss Marian j..
Franklin, whose home was said to be IN
Wilkes Barre. and John Christopher,
ffty-eight years old, an engineer, Of
Union Course, Long Island.
Mrs. Kriegleder summoned Lieuten-
ant Mcknight and PatrOlman King. of
the East l04th ST. station. AT 2:43
o'clock yesterday morning, telling them
woman in her apartment needed
medical assistance. They found Miss
Franklin's body in pool Of blood,
near which lay blood stained hammer.
Attempts had been made to remove the
stains with peroxide. Mcknight and
King descended 70 the cellar. and dis
covered Christopher. his skull crushed.
lying in an sshpit. lie had been dead
several hours.
The purring Of a small cat was in
directly responsible for the capture OF
Kriegleder. Frederick Bernstein. as
sistant janitor Of the adjoining apart
ment house. l43 East Hath ST., hearing
the sound as he was about to shake
the furnace at $3.50 o'clock. opened a
door and found the man crouched III
the elevator shaft. lie had run from
his apartment TO the roof and had come
down on the dumbwaiter Bernstein
suspected nothing, and Kriegleder said
something about a quarrel with his
wife and left ,the building. Half an
hour later he was arrested at Madison
av. and 18TH ST.
In an examination before Assistant
District Attorney Murphy yesterday
the man accused his wife Of the double
murder. while she held him responsible.
She was so badly beaten that she was
sent to Bellevue Hospital for treat
ment. She told the Assistant District
Attorney she had been subjected to
several beatings, and Miss Franklin,
who boarded with her. suggested that
Christopher might come to protect her.
He arrived on Tuesday afternoon. and
on him was found later the letter writ
ten by Miss Franklin.
The woman said her husband took
the visitor downstairs to see new
furnace attachment, but when Krieg-
leder returned later alone he locked
her in a room. from which she escaped,
to find Miss Franklin dead and her
husband gone. She then notified the
police
Kriegleder told Mr.. Murphy his wife
had done the killing. and explained
bloodstains on his shirt by telling how
she had knocked him down in the pool
on the floor He added that Chris
topher's watch and other property,
which. the police say, were found on
him, were given to him by his wife.
He was committed 10 the Tombs.
Christopher's body was identified at
the Harlem morgue by his son, Henry
Christopher. of 40 4th ST., Union
Course, Lons Island. He had lived
there for twenty-five years and leaves
a wife and four children. He was en-
ployed by the Hecker-Jones-Jewell Mill
ing Company. Of Brooklyn. and was a
member Of the Woodhaven Exempt
Firemen's Association.
Wilkes Barre, Penn, Jan. 27.-Marian
j. Franklin. who was found murdered
in New York, is unknown in this city,
and it is the belief of the police she
never lived here.