Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-27
PANTHER HUNTER
TAKES OWN LIFE
AIphonSe NJ. Gautier Shoots
Self as Three Visitors
Look On.

A bullet which had lain, weeks be-
fore, in the chamber of a revolver
while the guns owner tramped the
fields and woodlands of Northeast
Washington and nearby Maryland. his
trigger finger itching for a shot at the
panther" took the life of the most
picturesque of all the huntsmen who
went on the Capitals famous hunt.
Alphonse Marie Gailtier, a French
Canadian, who covered many an acre
of land in his search for the panther"
under the incognito Of Mr.. Peter"
and whose novel ideas on the technique
of stalking the panther gave the rest
of the vast army of amateur panther
hunters something to think about, died
last night when a bullet from his own
gun crashed through his temple.
Dogs Guard Body.
Gautier shot himself while three
visitors to his quarters at Chevy Chase
Lake swimming pool, where he is a
night Waterman, looked on. The re-
volver exploded after Gautier is re-
ported to have clicked the trigger sew
eral times with the weapon pointed at
his head
AS they stood by him when he went
to search for the panther, ready to
fight with the panther for their mas
ter, if need arose, so, at his death.
Gautier's two faithful dogs stood guard
over his body when Montgomery
County police arrived to investigate the
Gautier's body is being held at a
Rockville undertaking establishment
while States Attorney Robert P. Peter,
ir., investigates the shooting.
With Gautier when. he shot himself
were James A. Waugh of Kensington,
Charles Pulliam Of Chevy Chase Lake
and Washington Hodge, colored, of
Chevy Chase Lake.
Thought Gautier Pooling.
The three men told Sergt Leroy
Rodgers and PvtS. Joseph Oldfeld and
j. E. Shoemaker of the Montgomery
County police that they thought eau
tier was fooling them when he put
his pisto to his head and pulled the
trigger several times. When the gun
finally exploded, they said, they were
Mortified and ran out of the little room
the man occupied in the swimming pool
pavilion.
Gautier had been employed as night
Waterman at the swimming pool for
about a year. Little is known of his
former life. Papers in his possession
showed he served with the Canadian
expeditionary forces during the war and
that he has relatives in Ontario, Canada.
Gautier, giving the name of "Mr.
Peter" made his first appearance on
the scene of the panther hunt at the
farm of Harry Fowler, who lives on the
Marlboro pike about miles from the
District line He arrived one Saturday
night about six weeks ago, after having
walked through the snow from Fifteenth
and H streets northeast, and announced
to Fowler that he wanted to hunt the
panther on Fowler'S property. Some
beast, believed to have been the panther
had killed one hog and cut up nine
others in the pigsty on the Fowler
farm
Mr. Peter" was given permission to
hunt the panther as much as he cared
and, with his dog, mongrel beast, but
well trained, he went into the fields.
His method of hunting the panther
was unique. He trailed, across a wide
stretch of open land, some strong SMELL
ing meat After leaving a sufficiently
odoriferous train for the marauding
beast to take up, he set the meat out
in the field, tied length of string from
the meat to nearby fence post, and
along the string tied first dinner bell
| and then his dog, on a short lead
Then Mr.. Peter" dug hole in the
| snow near the bait and calmly went to
| sleep. He did not get the panther, but
| stuck to his methods of batting the
beast through several subsequent pam
Their hunts.
Several times during the time the
! beast was reported to be in or neal
! Washington Gautier appeared at the
eleventh precinct with suggestions fol
catching or killing the marauder.