New-York tribune., 1918-06-23
Wife at Door
HearsHusband
Kill 3Children
Thomas j. Shelley Then
Ends Own Life Behind
Locked Barrier


Thomas ]. Shelley, joyial Tammany
politician until a few months ago, when
an attack of melancholia sent him to a
sanatoriurn, shot his three young chill
dren yesterday and killed himself
while his wife beat frantically at the
locked door of their apartment at 1929
Madison Avenue. On the other side
Of the door she could hear the children
screaming and a frenzied scrambling.
Then came five shots and silence.
When she succeeded in entering the
rooms with the help of John Caldwell,
superintendent of the apartment house,
her husband and their youngest child,
Dora, twenty-one months old, were
still breathing. Grace, six years old,
and Thomas, jr., four, had been killed
outright. Mr.. Shelley and the baby
died shortly afterward in Flower Hos
pital.
1T was just before / o'clock when
Mrs. Shelley rushed downstairs from
her apartment on the fourth floor and
met Caldwell.
Found Dead on Floor
Hurry and get into my rooms," she
terrible has happened. l just found
the door locked and heard shots and my
children screaming"
Caldwell, closely followed by Mrs.
Shelley, fastened to the fourth floor,
where he failed in an effort to unlock
the door. He entered the adjoining
apartment of Daniel OLeery. father of
Jeremiah A. OLeary, crawled out onto
the fire escape and entered the Shelley
apartment through window.
Grace was lying dead in the hall.
floor between the two parlor windows,
where he had been building a toy cas-
tie with blocks, and Mr.. Shelley was
lying on the floor of the back parlor,
mis- body almost concealing his baby
girl.
Caldwell stepped to the door and met
Mrs. Shelley. He told her two of her
children were dead and that her hus-
band and baby we're dying. She was
assisted into the O'Leary apartment,
where she told what she knew of the
tragedy.
Had Hidden Revolver
"He had revolver in the house and
! hid it where l didn't think he could
find it," she sobbed. "Oh, why didn't
/ throw it away? Our friends told me
to throw the weapon away, but my hus-
band was so good and kind and gentle
that / didn't dream he ever would do
anything like this"
Caldwell said the position of the
bodies indicated that Shelley had first
shot the little boy as he sat by the win
dow with his blocks. He then shot
Grace, who apparently had run into the
hall in an attempt to escape through
the door, and moment later. turned
the gun on the infant, who, it is be-
lieved, had been following her father,
and then shot himself and fell across
the baby's body.
Grace was shot twice in the breast;
the other two each were shot once in
the left breast, and Mr.. Shelley was
shot in the right temple. He emptied
fve-chamber revolver, which lay beside
him.
Mr.. and Mrs. Shelley had lived in the
same apartment eight years, going
there Immediately after their wedding.
The three children were born there, and
were favorites among the other apart
ment dwcllers.
Born in Yorkville
Mr.. Shelley was born in Yorkville and
had been associated in the real estate
business in an Office at Eighty-fourth
Street and Lexington Avenue with his
brother, Edward J. Shelley, for twenty
years. until he suffered nervous break
down about year ago. He virtually
retired six months ago.
he apparently recovered, but suffered
g second breakdown and was taken to
kivercrest Sanatorium several months