The Providence News

STOOD OVER HIS DEAD WIFE

Stamm Had Pistol In Hand When Neighbors Arrived.

CLAIMS IT'S CASE OF SUICIDE.

Friends of Mrs. Stamm Say She Was Ill-Treated and Forced to Work to Support Her Children.

Chicago, April 27.—A woman dead from bullet wound, her husband standing over her, and with all indications pointing to murder, is a case which came to the attention of the police.

Mrs. Wilford Stamm, mother of two children and said to have been of a hopeful disposition, despite ill-treatment by her husband, was the victim of the tragedy. Neighbors scout the idea that she killed herself.

Stamm, the husband, insists that it is a case of suicide. He was arrested and is being held pending action by the coroner's jury. The police are not satisfied with the story Stamm tells.

FIND INDICATIONS OF MURDER.

Mrs. Stamm met death in her home at No. 478 Crystal street. Neighbors heard revolver shot, and when they went to investigate found Stamm standing over the prostrate form of his wife, who had been shot through the temple. The police were summoned and their investigation led them to believe the woman had been murdered.

There were no powder marks on the woman's forehead, which precluded the possibility, the police say, that she fired the shot which ended her life.

Mrs. Stamm was right handed, and had she shot herself, it would have been natural for the bullet to find a resting place in her right temple. The wound, however, was in the left temple.

Another circumstance that leads the police to believe that Mrs. Stamm did not kill herself is that the revolver with which the shot was fired was found on the floor at some distance from the body.

Mrs. Stamm must have died instantly, the police say, and they do not understand how the revolver could have been found so far away from the body had she fired the shot herself.

HUSBAND'S VERSION OF TRAGEDY.

According to Stamm, he was not even in the house when his wife met death.

"I awoke shortly before 3 o'clock in the morning, feeling ill, and stepped out on the porch to get some air," he said. "I had no more than left the house than I heard a shot. I rushed back and found that my wife had killed herself. I was not surprised, as she was of an unhappy temperament, and often had threatened to end her life."

Stamm is the only one who could be found who had any knowledge of threats to commit suicide. On the other hand, neighbors say Mrs. Stamm was much attached to her two children, Jessie, aged 8 years, and Norman, aged 6, and often had said: "I live for them alone."

The children were in the house at the time of the shooting, but they could give the police no light on how their mother met death. Jessie, the girl, said:

"We heard the shot and ran to see what was the matter. Then we found papa standing beside mamma, who was all covered with blood. He said to us: 'Your mother has killed herself.' We screamed, and then the neighbors and the policemen came."

SPREAD NEWS OF "SUICIDE."

Stamm was not arrested till some time after the shooting. When the neighbors reached the house and before the police arrived he disappeared and was lost sight of till he returned of his own accord some time later. He said he had carried the news of "the suicide" to Mrs. Stamm's father, Christ Bonfield, who lives in Hoyne's avenue.

According to the neighbors, Stamm has mistreated his wife on many occasions. He failed to provide his family with adequate support, it is said, and Mrs. Stamm was forced to work as a seamstress to provide for the needs of the children.

A circumstance that is puzzling the police is a stock of firearms that was found in Stamm's house. There was a shotgun, a rifle and four revolvers.

Stamm explained this by saying that he used the rifle and shotgun for hunting purposes and that his wife kept the revolver to protect herself from burglars.