New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-04-07
POLICEMAN KILLS
SLEEPING WIFE
AND HIMSELF
Andrew Zaleha Joined
Force in l909-Report-
ed Sick on Monday.
TWO PET DOGS ON
BED GUARD DEAD
Woman Had Told NciGhbOr That
Husband Recently Threat
ened Her Life.

Andrew Zaleha. young patrolman
attached to the East lO4th Street sta
tion, put an end yesterday to months
Of illness by taking his own life and
that Of his wife. While the woman lay
in bed asleep. Zaleha arose got his re
vo.scr. crcrt back into bed, put the
muzz'c 20 the back Of his wifc's head
and fred. Then he tJrred the gun on
himself.
Failing 10 lose consciousness ius tal.l>.
he raised the gun again with his la,i
effort and fred another shot. The bul-
let struck him above the right eye lie
died in a few minutes. surgeons say.
From between g and 10 o'clock yes
terday forenoon until 3 o'clock last
evenin,. the bodies lay undiscovered in
the Zaleha apartment, al 234 East
Sixty-third Street. 1t was Mrs. Zaleha's
custom to visit Mrs. John Rossl, ten
ant, every day cbout noon. When she
did not appear yesterday, Mrs. Ross1
went up TO the Zaleha apartment, which
was on the top floor, rear, and knocked.
There was no answer, and she re-
turned to h own fiat.
Neighbor Finds Bodies.
At . O'Clock she made another call,
and at another. Then she recalled a
remark Mrs. Zalcha had made several
DAYS ago about her husbands melan-
choia and his threat TO kill her and
himself. Mrs. Rossi hurried across TO
the apartment of Mrs. Mary Plazo and
told her Of her suspicious. Mrs. Plazo
said she haC heard what sounded like
revolver shots between Q and 10 O'Clock
l. so hrt that chn had
thought at the time that the noises
probably were made by children in the
street.
Mrs Rossi again went up to the
Zaleha apartment and tried the door
Il was unlocked. and she ventllred in
dc. The hallway was dim, but as she
entered two pet dogs Of the IalehaS
vhmcd and ran out into the hall. Mrs.
r sci went few steps further and
peered into a bedroom opening Oft the
han 10 the right She took one look,
then nan screaming from the apart
mout.
2 lghC. Of Inspector Wakefield S stan.
and Patrolman Schneider, who took
charge and called an ambulance from
Flower Hospital.
When Coroner Hoaly arrived the
Zalcha dogs. an English bull terrier
End q spaniel lay on the foot Of the
bed and snarled a. him and the police.
j. took all their persuasion 10 get the
animals out of the room.
both Dead in Bed.
Mrs. Zalcba lay on her side. with her
face toward the wall. Her arms were
uboyc her head or the pillow in a
natural position and there was no in
dication Of struggle The coroner
believes that Mrs Ialeha never walked
and that her husband scarcely changed
HI po,iticn IN bed az he fired the shots
that killed him. An agent for the So
clctv for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals came and took away the dogs
and two cats.
Zaleha entered the Police Department
in November. 1909. Last December he
became i'll from an attack Of malaria
and was off on sick leave all during
January and February. Since then he
had worked intermittently, the last
time on Sunday. He reported sick Mon
day. and that evening police surgeon
visited him. He and a small boy Ialeha
sent for newspapers early yesterday
were the last persons to see the couple
alive
The pOliceman's rather arrived last
night from Astoria, Long Island, and
conferred with the police. He SAID his
son had seemed IN good spirits lately
end was to have visited him to-day IN
Astoria.
Zaleha was thirty-three years old and
his wife was forty. Nothing rs known
Of her relatives.