The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-04-19
SHOT BY MANIAC
IN N. Y. CHURCH
Dr.. Markoe, Well Known Surgeon,
Killed and Other People
Slightly Injured

3 NEW YORK, April l9.-Dr James W.
Markoe, well known surgeon, was shot
and killed yesterday, when taking up the
offering at the morning service in fashion
able st. Georges Protestant Episcopal
church, Fifteenth street and Stuyvesant
place in the old aristocratic district OF
New York.
His assailant was captured after short
chase by a group of parishioners headed
by William Fellowes Morgsn, president
of the Merchants association Of New
York; Dr. George E. Brewer and j. Nor
gan Jones. At the East Twenty-second
street police station the prisoner gave his
name first as Thomas w Shelley and
later as Thomas w Simpkim The police
said he told them he had escaped from
the Eastern State hospital for the In
sane at Williamsburg, Va.
DIR. Markoe, a wealthy vestryman of
the church., was friend and personal
physician to j. Pierpont Morgan, also a
parishioner there He was So years old.
The church was crowded with parshion-
|ers. many Of them representatives of the
wealthiest families in New York, when
the shooting took place DIR. Markoe was
walking down the left aisle taking up the
collection while the choir was singing an
anthem As he reached the 18th pew
from the rear and leaned over TO pass the
plate, Shelley, who was seated next to-
the aisle. whipped out revolver and
fired at the physician. The bullet struck
him over the left eye and he collapsed
in the aisle.
Several women screamed and men
rushed from their seats, some to the aid
u ~ nit Nf
his assailant Shelley, with the smoking
revolver in his hand, leaped over the
body of the physician and started to run
Charles Stafford, continued singing IN an
effort to quiet the congregation.
Shelley continued shooting. His second
| shot, directed at members of the congre-
CATION who were pursuing him, went wild.
John c. Tiedman, the sexton, dropped 10
the floor in time to escape the third bull
let, which grazed the cheek Of j. Morgan
Jones.
Shelley then ran from the church into
lStuyvesant Square DR. Brewer was the
first man to reach him. He grabbed the
mans arm but Shelley managed to wrig
gle loose long enough to fire another shot,
which grazed DR.. Brewers thigh. By that
| time several Olnef members Oh slIe CoH-
gregation had thrown Shelley to the
ground and were holding him down when
a policeman arrived, handcuffed the pris-
oner and took him to the police station.
Meanwhile, DIR. Markoe had been car
ried out Of the church and placed in an
automobile As he was being lifted into
the car he regained consciousness long
enough to say, Il will be all right soon, :
and then collapsed He was rushed in the
Lying-in hospital at Eighteenth street and
Second avenue but was dead when brought
into that institution
| Shelley freely admitted that lIe had
shot Dr. Malkoe, according TO t1erpohce.
There are a lot more who are going to
get it too he is reported to have said
| when questioned by police detectives.
Search of a suitcase Shelley had checked
at the Pennsylvania terminal, revealed,
the police say, several radical papers and
pamphlets He also had draft card show
ing he had registered, September L, 1918,
under the name of Thomas w. Simpkin,
203 Fourth street, Sank City, Wis. There
were also several business cards reading
Thomas w Simpkin' and in the lower
corner Representing Swift County Print
ling company and 'Kerkhoven Banner,