Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1946-03-02
Roomer, 81, Learns
He Must Move; Kills
|LandIady and Self

An 82-year-old retired District
government employee sent three bull
lets into the back of his landlady,
Mrs. Mabel Eula Kirby, 46, and
then shot himself to death yester-
day afternoon because he had been
told to find a new place to live,
police reported.
The bodies were found at 6:15
pm. by Mrs. Kirby's WAVE daugh-
ter, Seaman 1/c Evelyn Kirby, and
neighbors on the kitchen floor Of
the Kirby home at S street NV.
Detective Sergts. Bernard Crooke
and George Cooke, investigating the
double shooting, said five bullets
had been fred from the old style
.38-caliber pistol found between the
legs of James w. McConchie, the
roomer. One bullet was not &C
counted for pending autopsies which
DR.. A. Magruder Macdonald said
were to be performed today.
Husband of Victim Bitter.
HE was my friend, so I let him
room in my house Now he has re-
paid me by numbering my wife"
Howard Kirby, husband of the slain
woman, said bitterly last night.
DR.. Macdonald advanced the
theory that McConchie shot Mrs.
Kirby because the family had told
him to start looking for another
room because they were planning
to move to an apartment.
Neighbors told police McConchie
had seemed to be on good terms
with the landlady until he was told
to seek other quarters. Subsequently
he was heard to comment with Bit
terness on the prospect of moving.
Miss Kirby arrived at her home
at about o'clock last night and
was unable to get into the house,
she told police. She went next
door to the home of Rufus Christy.
IA S street NV, and with Mr..
Christy and his daughter, Dorothy,
Is, tried to get in the back door.
Saw Bodies on Floor.
Peering through the rear win
dow, the three saw the bodies of
Mrs. Kirby and the roomer lying
on the floor of the kitchen a few
feet apart.
Fearing that her mother and
McConchie had been overcome by
gas, the WAVE called the Fire De-
partment. Mr.. Christy, meanwhile,
forced the front door. He and his
daughter, tenth-grade student at
Mckinley High School, found the
bodies lying in a pool of blood and
called police
Mr.. Kirby, a plasterer, returned
home from a job which had kept
him working in Elkton, Va, for four
weeks, few minutes after the
tragedy was discovered. He told DO
lice he had known McConchie for
20 years.
Hadn't Been Satisfied.
He wasn't satisfied with the place
he was living" Mr.. Kirby told in
vestlgating officers, so five years
ago we let him come to stay with lis.
That's what we get for trying to do
an old man favor"
Mrs. Gertrude Christy, wife Of the
neighbor, told police she and Mrs.
Kirby worked at the Truxtun
Bakery, 1914 North Capitol street,
but that yesterday was Mrs. Kirby's
day off. Dorothy Christy said she
saw Mrs. Kirby enter her home at
BIS pm. with some groceries.
Funeral arrangements for Mrs.
Kirby have been delayed pending
receipt of word from a son, Signal
man &c Horace o. Kirby, now on
Okinawa.
Mr.. McConchie, who retired from
the purchasing department of the
District government IL years ago,
has one son, Elmer McConchie, 1845
Calvert street NV. Summoned to
the scene by police, Mr.. McConchie
could offer little aid in the investi-
patiO0