The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1925-01-22
WRITES FAREWELL
LETTER TO SISTER
Tony Le0netti Ends Lovers
Quarrel With Tragedy
in Oregon.
GIRL IS IN HOSPITAL
Coroner's Letter, Enclosing
Farewell Note, Is Received
by Suicides Sister.

81 am sending this letter to you to
let you know that in little while
will be in the other world and not be
any more with living people. ! will
not explain but newspaper stories
will tell you how and why did it.
'sYour unlucky brother,
"Tony."
| So read the farewell letter received
Monday by Mrs. Luigina Principe.
| go Market street, Kenosha from her
brother, Tony Leonetti, aged SS, for
many years a resident of Kenosha but
| Oregon. The farewell note came with
letter from Justice of the Peace
H. M. Cox, of Arlington, Oregon, this
latter letter telling briefly how Leon
ETH had carried out his threat and
had died suicide after shooting and
seriously wounding his sweetheart.
The tragedy occurred on last Tues
day, January 18th, in Arlington but
the letters received in Kenosha yes
terday brought the first news of the
| tragedy to reach Kenosha.
Coroners Letter Brief.
The letter from the justice of the
peace, who is evidently the core Ter in
the community, told only briefly of
the tragic lovers quarrel. Wires
were sent today to Arlington and to
Silica, a nearby village, asking for a
| E 80 fpooodxy
I The letter from the Arlington off,
cial read as follows:
''The enclosed letter appears to have
been written by Tony Leonetti as 1t
was left with letter of information
for his associates to read. We sin
cerely regret that it is our duty to
inform you of the tragedy of yester-
| day afternoon.
"He quit work before noon and
some time in the afternoon he shot
at girl, hitting her twice, and then
shooting himself in the chest killing
himself instantly The girl lives but
was rushed to Dalles, Oregon, to
hospital with her sister in attend
ance. aNThe two are the only witness
cs to the tragedy.
eve have not yet had an opportuni-
ty to talk directly with these women
but as both sides say it was lovers
quarrel, it seems that there is no
question can be raised otherwise.
Gle had no funds on hand-only a
few invaluable things. He had a good
suit Of clothes in which he was bur-
led. Such things as he had will have
to be turned over to the county court
with the verdict of the coroner's jury.
sour sympathy goes with this let
ter"
The farewell letter from the suicide
was written in Italian. He had evil
IDENTIFY been very nervous when the
| letter was written as the handwriting
at first did not appear to be the same
as that of former letters. Closer in
vestigation, however. showed that
these differences probably came from
the fact that he was in nervous
state of mind when the letter was
written.
Planned to Return Here.
The news of the attempted murder
and suicide ended hopes which rela-
tives of Leonetti here had had that
he would return to Kenosha shortly.
In his last letter he had given mo in
timation of his love affair and OF his
disappointment and had promised that
he would return to Kenosha in time
to spend Easter here.
Tony Leonetti came to America
when he was young man and had
l1ived more than ten years In Kenosha
before going to the far west. He had
worked at the N. R. Aliens Sons Tan
merry here for a number of years and
had been known as most industrious
workman. Two years ago he left Ke-
nosha for the far west to work for
a railway company and he had been
in Portland, Oregon, much of this
time. Only a few weeks ago he went
to Silica, village near Arlington,
Oregon, and had presumably been
working there since that time.
Recall Strange Coincidence.
The death message raised some
doubt in relatives minds as to its au-
thenticity because of strange coin
cidence with an incident in the history
of the family many years ago. More
than thirty years ago Leonetti's ia
Their left his home in Italy for anoth-
er part of that country to work; a
few days later his parents received a
letter stating that their son had been
killed. Investigation in this instance
had shown that the death message was
false, having been sent by some rival
to cause the family trouble.
This led the family to believe that
perhaps a similar thing had happened
in the report of Tony Leonetti's death
but all investigation tends to prove
the authenticity of the death message.