Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-16
W. H. Won Bayer Writes
Checks for Debts Before
Shooting Himself.
SHE APPEALED IN VAIN
AGAINST SUICIDE PLAN
Failing, Asked That She Be Killed
Also-Ill Health Is Blamed
for Tragedy.

Convinced that he never would re-
gain his health, william H. Won Bayer,
so years old, associate forester in the
Indian Service, Department Of Interior,
early this afternoon sat down with his
wife, Mrs. Crete Won Bayer, well known
local pianist, carefully wrote out checks
covering all their debts, then shot her
and turned the gun on himself,
When police broke into their fash
ionable Chevy Chase circle apartment
they found Won Bayer dead on the
floor and Mrs. Won Bayer lying across
his body with bullet wound in her
back.
Won Bayer was pronounced dead by
DR.. Thomas K. Conrad, 1904 Connecti-
cut avenue.
1--WE agreed to do it. Mrs. Won Bayer,
40 years old, gasped to policeman as
he lifted her to a stretcher.
A neighbor told how after the first
shot Mrs. Won Bayer ran to the front
door of the apartment and called, I
nave been shot"
Falls Across His Body.
The stricken woman then shut the
door and ran back to her husband,
falling across his PROSTATE body where
it lay on a rug beside a grand piano
in the living room.
The first policeman to enter, Jere-
miah Mills of No. IA precinct, found
Mrs. Won Bayer, clad in negligee, Sob
bling historically across the body OF her
husband. Coroner j. Ramsay hewitt
issued a certificate Of suicide IN the
case of Mr.. Won Bayer and ordered the
body not to be removed from this 1urls-
dictlon pending the outcome OF MIS-.
Won Bayer's condition.
The story Of how she had pleaoea
with her husband not to shoot himself
and of how she asked to share his fate
when she saw his resolution could not
be shaken, was related in a whisper to
police by the badly injured woman.
Mrs. Won Bayer said her husband had
been too Ill to work for several weeks
past, and today he told her he had
made up his mind to kill himself.
Mrs. Won Bayer told police that her
husband informed her this morning OF
his resolve to do away with himself.
She told him she couldn't go on with
out him. she said, and asked that she,
too. be victim of his pistol.
Two shots were fired from the a.
caliber gun, an old horse pistol, be-
lieved picked up by Won Bayer on an
Indian reservation inspection trip. The
pistol was picked UP from the floor
beside Won Bayer's body and was so
badly rusted from disuse that police had
great difficulty in unbreeching 1t.
Was Talented Pianist.
The Won Bayers apparently had spent
zone time this morning putting their
ants in order. A number OF checks
10 Inns which had rendered bills were
laio cut on the grand piano.
MRS: Won Bayer, VINO came to the
United States from her home in Ger
many to become the forester'S bride,
was talented pianist and taught pupils
in the large living room Of her apart
ment, which she uGed as a studio.
Won Bayer, graduate OF Cornell and
Yale Universities, met his future wife
while taking postgraduate work in
Germany. 1he well educated and tai
ented couple had a large number OF
friends in the city, and their apart
ment often had been the meeting place
of a congenial group of men ana wom-
en- in scientific and musical circles here.
JanitOr Summoned.
Mrs. Won Bayer was hit in the right
side of the back and the bullet pene-
trated her body and right arm. The
missile which Won Bayer turned on
himself pierced his right temple and
later was dug from the piaSterlng near
the spot where his body lay.
When Mrs. Won Bayer called to Ter
neighbor the latter summoned Emmet
Crawford, colored 1anitor. Crawford
ran into the street and located Officer
Mills, who was the first to enter the
apartment.
DR.. Thomas K. Conrad of 1904 Con-
necticut avenue arrived few moments
later and pronounced Won Bayer dead.
Mrs. Won Bayer was given emergency
treatment by Dr. Conrad and the
physician who responded with the
Emergency Hospital ambulance, DR..
w Bruner. The injured woman then
was taken to the hospital.
Headquarters Detectives Harry Cole,
Carlton Talley and Thomas Sweeney
assisted DR.. hewitt with the investiga-
ton. They were unable TO find any
notes or indication that Won Bayer had
contemplated suicide other than the
checks which he had written out.
The couple had been living IN their
spacious and attractively decorated
apartment on the fourth floor OF the
Chevy Chase Apartment for the past
three years. They both were faVorites
with the other tenants, and were on
friendly terms with a number Of them.
They had no children.
At Emergency Hospital Mrs. Won
Rayer was given first-aid treatment by
Drs. Lloyd Eastlack and Thomas Brad
ley of the hospital staff, and MIS-. Won
Bayer's personal physician, DR.. Charles
Stanley White, was called TO attend her.
After the first examination the nos
pital physicians said Mrs. Won Bayer
has a good chance to live. Only one
bullet wound was found in her body.
A bullet had gone through her body
from the left arm to the back Phys
icians were unable TO say whether the
bullet had entered the arm or the back.
She remains in a seni-conscious state