Man Fires on Pair in Car, Kills Self
Camden Courier-Post —
Woman is Injured When Hit in Shoulder But ’Supposed Rival’ Escapes
MURDER ATTEMPT FAILS AS REVOLVER MISFIRES
Former Boarder Leaves Note Saying His Attentions Were Spurned by Matron
MRS. SUE BARRETT / GEORGE DANIELS — Two bullets failed to discharge and three others missed their mark late yesterday when Charles Williams fired at the above couple as they sat in an automobile at Tenth and Cooper streets. Williams committed suicide. One bullet wounded Mrs. Barrett in the shoulder.
Maddened by his failure at both life and love, Charles Williams, 50, of 910 Point street, today had failed again.
When he drew a .32 calibre revolver from his pocket at Tenth and Cooper streets late yesterday, he intended to kill Mrs. Sue Barrett, 30, of 929 Carpenter street and George Daniels, 31, of 945 Linden street.
Unreciprocated infatuation for the young woman and unfounded jealousy for Daniels guided the muzzle of the gun, but fate and the jamming of the pistol saved the two lives Williams had sought to take.
Then, a failure once more in his last intended act, Williams succeeded only in ending his own life. He died in Cooper Hospital 35 minutes after he had fired two bullets into his chest.
Stories are Contradictory
Contradictory stories of the background of the attempted murder and suicide were provided today by a letter found in Williams’ pocket and by statements made by Mrs. Barrett. Williams’ letter asserts the young woman had accepted his attentions and his money, and relates a story of his sympathy for her because of her husband’s neglect.
Mrs. Barrett categorically denies all these statements, declares that Williams caused her husband to lose his job and adds that “it’s a shame that Mr. Daniels, who is just an acquaintance, was dragged into this.”
Mrs. Barrett has been working for the last three months at the Keystone Kid Company, Sixteenth and Mickle streets, to support her husband, Samuel, who is ill, and their two children, Roy, 12 and Kenneth, 5.
It has been her custom several days a week to ride to and from work with Daniels, who is employed at the same plant.
Yesterday afternoon when she finished work at 5 o’clock, Mrs. Barrett met Daniels outside the leather works and they started for home in Daniels’ sedan.
Near Tenth and Cooper streets, Daniels stopped his car and sat chatting with the woman.
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Suddenly she clutched the arm of her companion.
“See that man. Well he’s the one that’s been annoying me,” she said, frightened as Williams approached.
“Look, he’s got a gun,” screamed the woman, and Daniels saw that Williams had come to the side of the car waving a revolver. Before Daniels could get out of the car, Williams pointed the revolver at the other man’s temple and pulled the trigger.
There was a click. The cartridge failed to explode. Daniels tugged frantically at the door and managed to open it just as Williams pulled the trigger again. The shot went through the roof of the car. Daniels lost his balance and fell at the feet of his assailant.
Fired Second Shot
Williams took another shot at Daniels as he lay on the ground and once again the weapon missed fire. On his hands and knees, Daniels crawled around Williams, who was looking into the muzzle of the revolver.
Daniels leaped to his feet and ran over Cooper street toward Eleventh. Another shot whizzed over his head as he ran.
Williams then turned to the woman. Without a word he started to the other side of the car. Mrs. Barrett tried to escape by the other door. Williams fired again, and this time the bullet pierced the windshield and struck the woman in the right shoulder. Screaming with pain from the flesh wound and cut by glass from the splintered windshield, Mrs. Barrett leaped out of the car and ran across the street to the home of Rev. John Norberry, pastor of Bethany M.E. Church, at 1001 Cooper street.
As she got to the top step, Williams fired again, but the bullet went wild.
Boy Sees Tragedy
With both of his intended victims out of range, Williams ran into the alley, removed the unexploded cartridges from his revolver and, after reloading the weapon, fired two shots into his chest.
The first shot entered his body just over the heart and came out his back. The second struck near his heart. John Warren Davis, 17, of 622 Pine street, a high school student, who was passing on his bicycle, heard the shots and saw the man and woman flee. He stood on the opposite side of the street and watched Williams halt, refill the chamber of his revolver and fire the two shots.
Had Letter in Pocket
A score of persons on the street scampered into homes and doorways as the other three shots, aimed by a nervous hand, went wild and shattered windows of nearby houses.
In the pockets of the suicide the police found a letter addressed to the “Camden Courier-Post.” The missive, laboriously penciled and in poor English, showed that the attempted murder had been planned. The note, which purported to give the motive, started as follows:
“I’ll tell you why I done this. I knew this woman three years ago, when she was living in a court with her husband. Her husband was a deadbeat and he spent all his money in a saloon, while she had to go without a cent. She got tired and she got jobs, and while she was working he would have men drunk around the house and running the bottle. She had to depend on the leftovers from Masonic affairs to feed herself and her children.
“Grocers in the neighborhood helped her out, and when they got tired she came to me and asked me to help her out. I gave $35 at one time, and other money. She started to run out at night and neglected her children. Her husband let her go. He couldn’t say anything to her, because she was keeping him. I coaxed her to stop going riding with Daniels, and when I did she got a warrant for me. She used to ride in his yellow Ford. To please her he got a bigger car. She stuck up her nose at me.”
The letter concluded with “This is pretty hard to stand.”
Denies Receiving Money
Williams was taken to the hospital in a motor truck and died without regaining consciousness. Women in the neighborhood came to the aid of Mrs. Barrett, who was taken home and later treated at the hospital.
At her home today the woman denied she ever had received any money from Williams and declared she had persistently discouraged his attentions. Williams had boarded at her home for three months, she said, but her husband had ordered him out of the house. When he continued to follow her on the streets and threatened to break up her home, she added, she had him arrested. That was three months ago, Mrs. Barrett stated, at which time Williams was held under $500 bond to keep the peace.
“He was the one that made my husband lose his job,” the woman continued. “He went around telling lies about my husband, who hasn’t worked now since Christmas because he has rheumatism. As for Mr. Daniels, it’s a shame to have him dragged into this. He works at the same place I do and sometimes he drives me or some of the other people in the plant from work. That letter is filled with lies. Williams never gave me any money.”
Explains “Leftover Food”
Explaining the reference to “living in a court” and receiving “leftovers from Masonic affairs” in the letter, Mrs. Barrett said she and her husband formerly lived at Newkirk court near the Masonic temple.
“When they had big affairs at the Masonic temple, they often sent food to all the people in the neighborhood,” she said, “not only to us.”
Williams was a veteran of the Spanish-American war and, according to his sister, Mrs. Thomas J. Kelly with whom he has lived since leaving the Barrett home, he has been receiving a pension. The body will be viewed by friends and relatives tomorrow evening at the new funeral home of Charles H. Murray & Son, 405 Cooper street. Services will be conducted at 11 a.m. Monday and burial will be in Evergreen cemetery. Williams is survived by the sister and a brother, Joseph, of West Philadelphia.