WHY SARAH SCOTT WAS KILLED.

BALTIMORE, Jan. 31.—Thomas M. Gray fatally shot Sarah L. Scott last night. Mary Gray, in giving her version of the tragedy says: “Sarah came home carrying a basket of coal, and Gray asked her where she got it. She refused to tell him and he remarked: ‘I’ll shoot you if you don’t.’ She still refused, and he pulled a pistol from his pocket, and three times snapped it in her face. The fourth time he pulled the trigger the hammer struck a loaded chamber in the cylinder and the woman fell dead at his feet.” All are colored people.

A TRAGIC STREET FIGHT.

Administering the Sacrament to a Murdered Man on the Highway.

CHICAGO, Aug.5.—John, alias “Bull” Flaherty, a packing house hand, was drunk yesterday and while passing the residence of Thomas Ryan, at 4712 Loomis Street, insulted Ryan and challenged him to a fight. Ryan approached Flaherty. The latter then drew a revolver but the weapon missed fire. The men grappled and while struggling Patrick Garrity, a friend of Ryan’s, attempted to separate them. Flaherty shot him and he fell. The fight continued and a great crowd collected. Father Hayes was called and while
Flaherty and Ryan continued to fight like tigers up and down the street, the priest administered the sacrament. Ryan was being badly worsted. Several of his friends now made a rush, knocked Flaherty down and beat him nearly to death. A police officer arrived, clubbed his way through the crowd and carried Flaherty to the station. Flaherty is said to be an old criminal. Garrity is not expected to live.

MRS. CLUTE’S SLAYER NOW UNDER ARREST

Ventured Into the Police Office to Talk the Deed Over With the Officers.

DETECTIVES BROKE HIS STORY

Almost a Certainty That Albert Hoff, a Russian Upholsterer Committed the Guerrero Street Tragedy.

SAN FRANCISCO, December 17.—The mystery attending the brutal murder of Mrs. Mary Clute in a Guerrero-Street flat Wednesday evening has apparently been solved. The police believe a Russian known as Albert Hoff, whom they have arrested, is the murderer. He says he was born in Baden in 1830, but he does not appear to be 50 years of age. He had been employed by Mrs. Clute to help her move and to make over some mattresses.

Knowing that he had been assisting in the work of preparing Mrs. Clute’s newly-rented flat for occupancy, and being satisfied that the carpet layers, Foley & Jackson who had been there on the same day, were innocent of the crime, the police were on the lookout for Hoff. Greatly to the surprise of Chief Lees, the suspected man walked into the police station yesterday and told a story regarding his visit to the Clute flat which at first seemed plausible. Clever cross-examination, however, soon involved the Russian in a maze of contradictions, and he was placed under arrest as a suspect.

Suspicion as to his guilt was soon changed to certainty, for last evening he was positively identified by Mrs. L. A. Legg, who occupies the flat directly under the rooms where the murder was committed, as the man she and her invalid father-in-law saw leaving the house after they had been alarmed by Mrs. Clute’s dying calls for help.

Mrs. Legg asserts that she cannot be mistaken.

He has also been identified by Foley as the man who was in the house when he and Jackson left.

Further strong circumstantial evidence that he is the murderer is furnished by the fact that he is left handed, and that his left hand is badly cut. The flange of the coupling pin with which Mrs Clute was killed is sharp and jagged, and held in a tight grasp could easily have caused the wound, which he says was made by a tack. The police surgeon, however, says it could not have been produced except by some heavy instrument.