Denton and Haughton Examiner, etc. — 1888-02-18 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

MURDER OF A MILLIONAIRE BY  BURGLARS.  The shooting of Mr. Snell, the Chicago millionaire, is one of the most startling instances of a murder by burglars which has happened for many years, though it is by no means rare for murders of this kind to be committed. It was not till four hours after the consummation of the crime that the police heard of it. When they reached the house they found little to aid them in their search for the murderers. All they could learn with certainty was that the house had been broken into, that the safe had been ransacked, that the owner had tried to drive off the intruders and had been killed, that several shots had been exchanged, and that a servant in the upper rooms had heard the noise of the affray, but from 2.30 until daylight no effort had been made to warn the authorities of what had taken place. The police learned, too, that the house was the third the burglars had visited in rapid succession. Mr. Sneils residence is a substantial structure, and the neighbourhood is a highly respectable one. Mr. Snell went to bed about ten o'clock, the servants following half an hour later. A little after two o'clock the cook was awakened by the sound of five or six pistol shots, fired at short but irregular intervals. Between the shots she could distinguish Mr. Snell's voice crying, "Get out, get out." She jumped out of bed and aroused another servant Both crept into the hall on the fourth floor and listened. They could hear nothing, and no answer was made to their calls. Half an hour later they thought they heard a door slowly opened and closed in the lower hall, but they made no attempt to investigate the noise. A little after six o'clock the coachman came to the house to light the fires. He went to the basement door and found that just above the latch an oblong block had been cut out of the door by boring 18 holes with a half- inch bit, and through this the burglar's hand had been inserted and the bolt pushed back. The door stood partly ajar. The coachman entered and passed gummy through the hall to the front room in the basement which Mr. Snell used as an office, having it fitted up with a desk and a safe. Here he saw that the safe had been ransacked, while the floor was strewn with papers. He ran to the hall passage on the parlour floor, where ho stumbled and almost fell over the dead body of his employer, who lay there cold and rigid. A revolver was lying on the floor beside him. It had five chambers, four filled and one empty. There was a bullet wound in the head, and another in the heart. His nightshirt was stained with blood, which was in little pools on the floor. An examination of the preinises revealed the manner in which the murder was committed. The double parlous. doors had been locked. By means of a chisel the burglars had broken open the doors and secreted themselves in the parlour. On hearing Mr. Such descend the staircase—for the noise they made in opening the doors evidently awakened him—theyshut the doors and took refuge behind them. This was after they had opened the safe. Coming down with a loaded revolver, Mr. Snell discovered the presence of the thieves. He shouted to them to get out, and fired a shot through the panel in the door. The bullet lodged in the wall on the opposite side of the room. Two other bullet holes were in the door, having been fired from the inside by the intruders. Then it appeared that Mr. Snell attempted Co force open the doors, when another shot was fired from within, ploughing a small furrow at the edge of the door as it swung ajar, and probably entering his body. While he was reeling along the hall from this fatal wound the assassins must have stepped out and sent another bullet through his brain. They then walked out of the house as they catne, taking their booty with them, and leaving no trace behind.