New-York tribune., 1916-07-28
If He Dies, She Says, 1t
Will Be Because He
Loved Truth.
COULD NOT BETRAY
CHURCH OR WORK
Detective Thought Little Girl
Had Been Snubbed-Court
Test Was His Hardest Trial.

"If my father dies, it will be be-
cause he loved the truth so much that
he could not bear TO have folks think he
could be false, either 20 his Church or
to his work. He was the best father
that ever lived. and the best man, and
one of the best Catholics"
A slender girl, with gray eyes, red
and swollen from much weeping, yes
terday in her home, at 81 Lott Avenue,
Forest Park, told the story of some
Of the psychological causes that had
led her father, Detective John j. Ken
mel, to shoot himself in the wire-tap-
ping room Of the Hudson Terminal
Building on Wednesday. AS she spoke
her father was still clinging to his
chance for life at the Volunteer Hos
pital and her mother lay prostra.ed
by sorrow and anxiety.
81 hope those whose unkindness made
him feel that he didn't want to live
will be troubled all their lives by the
thought Of it," said Frances, his twen-
ty-three-year-o daughter.
Thought Girl Was Snubbed.
That he believed this little girl" had
been snubbed after he had reported in
court the telephone conversation of a
priest Of his Church. was perhaps the
sorest point of all with Detective Ken
mel. Frances had been his chum, and
he felt for her the worshipping and
protecting love a father often has for
an only daughter.
He had son, too, but disgrace does
not matter so much to boy. His giri
must never be made 70 feel that her
father was a renegade. That was un-
doubtedly how the detectives troubled
thoughts ran in the days before he shot
himself.
The Kennel home yesterday, cool
and white walled. with its closed shut
ters, had something Of the air OF a
sanctuary. All about it was the
atmosphere of place where religion
Is not taken lightly. A crucifx on its
rosary protruded from under a pillow,
and pictures of the saints hung at the
foot Of the bed where slept the man
who day by day had tapped a tele-
phone wire and listened to a priests
Those pictures may have troubled
him with their placid faces and their
holy eyes in the days when others
were telling the detective that his
Church and his work could never be
reconciled.
Prosecuted for Doing Work.
Indeed. there were people who per-
secuted him because of what he had
done, although he had only done his
work, and told the TRUTH" said his
daughter, sopping her eyes. Who
were they? cant tell you that. We
don't want to get into any more
trouble. We have enough trouble,
now. We are heartbroken.
"No, il wasn't the neighbors who
lived about us here at Forest Park.
They knew my father, and they liked
him. Ask any of them what they
thought Of him. Ask them if he wasn't
a fine, good man. They were all right.
but other folks-I'm not going to tell
YOU who-made my father feel he had
done a terrible thing. He used to talk;
but we didn't know he was so worried
about it,
"The thing that bothered him most
Of all was the way he was treated -
court, think Why. he was watched
rs if he had been a criminal, and sent
from the room like a child | know he
felt disgraced and humiliated. 1t
wasn't fair. He was q good officer,
and he had only done his work.
"And he kept thinking and thinking
and thinking about it. We see that
now. He couldn't sleep. He believed
we were all goinc to be disgraced for
life because Of MIN. And he thought
it would be better if he didn't bring
anything else like that upon US. My
father would have done anything in
the world for his family"