Bowery Murder, page 29
“He then greeted Rose with exaggerated affection and took her by the arm to have her sit down at the table. Peter O’Neil was using Rose as bait for men of Woodward’s type and was insisting that Rose play up to Woodward. It was entirely against her wishes, and she had determined to tell her father that night that she was through with Woodward and the others of his kind, and if her father insisted on her continuing she would leave his flat and take an apartment of her own where she would be perfectly free to do just as she pleased. In fact, Rose had gone into the back room seeking her father to tell him this and had asked me to come along to act as her escort away from the place should her father not agree with her. O’Neil was temporarily out of the room when Woodward took Rose’s arm, and I stepped forward and shoved his hand aside.
“‘You ought to know, Woodward,’ I said, ‘Miss O’Neil doesn’t sit in the back end of the bar drinking with political friends of her father’s. She had no idea that you were here. Further, she’s in my company. Keep your hands off her. I resent any attention you’re paying to her.’ Just then O’Neil returned, and I guess he heard the last part of my statement. He turned to me angrily and said:
“‘Who’s appointed you Rose’s guardian? What are you sticking your face in here for, Gordon? My friends are good enough for my daughter, I guess.’
“‘You consider Woodward, who’s Chinatown’s most notorious dive keeper, a suitable friend for her?’ I asked.
“Woodward jumped at this and yelled, ‘Where did you get that bit of—information, you dirty snooper?’
“Rose had broken away from Woodward, and as Woodward started to curse she broke in and told her father that she was through with Woodward and all O’Neil’s friends. She was through with acting as a cat’s-paw for her father in attracting the men he was dealing with politically.
“‘You can make your choice, Father,’ Rose said to him; ‘either I stay here with you upstairs and do just exactly as I please, or I leave this house to-night.’
WOODWARD THREATENS O’NEIL
“Woodward got excited again when Rose expressed her disgust for him, and turned to O’Neil yelling:
“‘You—! So that’s been your game, huh? Well, it’s a good thing I found it out, because she’s been the only thing that brought me down here to-night. Since I’ve found out how matters stand I’m going to tell you something, Pete. I’m clearing out for Europe. To-night, unless we can fix this bird Gordon.
“He then turned to me.
“‘Will a quarter of a million dollars shut you up? You’ll work a hell of a long time as a reporter to make a tenth of that.’
“‘It’s too late to shut me up with a million now,’ I told him. ‘And even if it wasn’t, you haven’t got enough to buy me.’
“Then he turned to O’Neil.
“‘This—[here Woodward motioned toward me and called me several dirty names] has finally got the goods on the franchise deal. He’s got all the evidence, and he’s going to break it in his paper to-morrow, but I’m clear. They’ll never send me up the river for bribery. You’re going to be holding the bag, see? You’re going to be the one who’s going to get socked, and you’re going to get it strong. You’ve been the go-between, and a lot of money’s been paid to you directly. If these aidermen wanted to speculate in Omnibus through my office that was their lookout. They can’t indict me because I acted as their broker. But they can break you.’
“O’Neil’s face turned livid, and he swung around toward Woodward, cursing him.
‘“You’ll never leave me holding the bag, Woodward, I’ll tell you that,’ he yelled. ‘I’ve got you sewed up into this too. I’ve been in politics too long to let some stinking outsider like you get me in a hole. If this—reporter’s evidence, provided he’s got it, get’s me into trouble, you’ll go right along with me. I’ve got you in the bag too, body and soul. You didn’t know it—did you?—but I have.’
GORDON TOLD ROSE OF FATHER
“I had nothing to say during this argument between them. I had hoped to have a talk with O’Neil that night to ask him some questions in an endeavour to find out if he was as guilty in the Omnibus graft as the evidence I had been obtaining the previous two weeks had shown. I cannot help but admit that I was in love with Miss O’Neil. He was her father. We were not engaged, but I hoped we might be. In all fairness it was up to me to make sure that O’Neil was guilty before I presented a story which would indicate he was.
“I had mentioned to Rose just before coming to the bar the fact that I was afraid that my duty would force me to expose her father in a tremendously crooked deal against the city. I explained to her that as a reporter I had absolutely no other alternative. She had asked me to give details and was tremendously perturbed. I told her that I could not do so then but that I was going to ask O’Neil some questions concerning it to make sure that what I presumed to be facts were correct.
“The statements of Woodward and O’Neil confirmed exactly what I had told her, and she turned to her father.
“‘Oh, it’s true then, Father. It’s true what Watts has just told me. Oh, this is terrible! Why did you ever let a crook like Woodward get you into this mess?’
“Woodward then became nasty to Rose. ‘I’m no more a crook than your old man or than you are.’
IRENE PULLS OUT HER PISTOL
“As he said this he saw Irene Williams, whom he had evidently forgotten, taking in everything. I guess he realized that here was a witness whom I could call upon to corroborate his guilt in the graft business.
“‘What are you still hanging around for?’ Woodward yelled at her. ‘You cheap gold digger! Get out of here before I kick you out. I’m through with you forever, see?’ He turned his back toward her and approached Rose. Woodward was standing at the table facing the door to Bayard Street. O’Neil and Irene Williams were in front of him to his right. I was in front of his left, and Rose was on the same side but nearer Woodward.
“I saw Williams open up her handbag but I did not know she was getting a gun. My attention was entirely focussed upon Woodward and Rose. I heard Williams scream at him to the effect that he wasn’t through with her by a damn sight; that she’d been waiting for two months for just this opportunity to get him; that he’d kicked her into the gutter and that she was going to see that he gypped no more women with promises of money only to throw them over. She was highly excited and screaming, but Woodward apparently paid no attention.
“Afterward, in thinking about his sudden turning away from Irene, it struck me that some new thought had come to him concerning Rose which he wanted to get off his mind. As a matter of fact this was exactly the situation. In his endeavours to seduce Rose O’Neil he had told her that if she didn’t accede to his wishes he would tell his friends she was his mistress and they would all believe it and that her reputation would be ruined anyway. Rose’s testimony in her false confession which she gave to the police was substantially correct in this regard, although she was not in the least guilty of having caused Woodward’s death. She had not told me everything by any means that was in her confession.
“I had suspected that Woodward had been very nasty to her but I was totally unprepared for what he said as he turned to Rose.
ROSE O’NEIL FIRES AT WOODWARD
‘“And you get out of here, too. I’m through with you. I’ll settle what I’ve got to settle with your old man. I’ve got all I want from you.’
“He then turned to me.
“‘How do you like that? Your little sweetheart has been my woman. I’ve had her, soul and body. Hear that? You can have her now; I’m finished with her. She’s—’
“Rose staggered back, and I could see her flush to the temples.
“‘You lie, Woodward, you lie!’ she cried. ‘You told me you’d say that, and I told you I’d shoot you like a dog if you did.’
“At the same time Rose, who had kept her handbag on the table, reached into it, and before I could stop her she pulled out a pistol and fired at Woodward, but missed him. I jumped toward Rose to take the pistol from her hand, and at the same time I heard Irene cry:
“‘And I’ll help her, too. You’ve got one bullet coming from me, Woodward.’”
O’NEIL’S CONFESSION CONCERNING KILLING
Peter O’Neil’s statement to the police, which is quoted as follows, gives the next sequence of events which led to Woodward’s death. His was the most complete of the four concerning the incidents of the shooting. O’Neil seems to have been the calmest person in the room and his confession, with its colloquialisms, bears the stamp of absolute truth.
“I didn’t know that Rose had pulled a gun on Woodward until I heard a shot. I was standing up in the corner of the room with my back to the Bayard Street door, at Woodward’s right. He was between me and Rose. She was standing near the table. As she fired she ran toward Gordon, who was about opposite me, and I saw him grab the gun from her hand and put one arm around her to hold her.
“The Williams woman was in front of me, and out of the corner of my eye I saw her drag a gat out of her dress and heard her yell at Woodward. She said something about getting him, too. Now if it’s one thing that scares me it’s a woman with a gun. There’s only one thing to do. Either knock it out of her hand before she pulls the trigger or clout her one over the head so she can’t use it. So with one swipe I walloped the Williams woman alongside the arm and the pistol dropped out of her hand. At the same time I seen Woodward reaching inside his coat and heard Rose fire at him. Then I saw Gordon grab Rose and wrench her gun away.
WOODWARD PULLS GUN AND FIRES
“I suddenly remembered Woodward had told me he’d been carrying a rod for several days ’cause some people had been threatening him on account of the market. I ducked down and grabbed Williams’s pearl-handled toy off the floor, keeping one eye on Woodward. He jerked out a big, heavy weapon and I heard Gordon yell at him to drop it. There’s one thing about Woodward; you couldn’t bluff him very much. Instead of dropping his gun he let go with one shot at Gordon. He missed the lad, and the bullet landed above the wainscotting. I remember thinking about having to get the plaster fixed. By this time I’d got my mitt on the gun on the floor and pointed it at him.
“‘Stop it, Tom, or I’ll give you one,’ I said.
O’NEIL AND GORDON FIRE SIMULTANEOUSLY
“But that don’t feaze him, and he swung his gun toward me. With that I fired, not taking any chances on getting a slug, and within the same half second Gordon shot. I don’t know which one of us hit him. We ain’t never been able to decide. Woodward fell back against the table. Just as I fired I noticed Woodward’s eyes sort of shift from me, and as he was hit he suddenly looked surprised as hell. I don’t know what he thought he saw. It wasn’t my gun because he saw that first as he swung on me.
“Harry Kelly’s statement must check with my story. I ain’t seen what you cops got from him. He came in the door just as Rose shot and saw the whole business. I never suspected Kelly would squeal,’cause God knows I had nothing to do with his death. I told Harry I couldn’t back him any longer as my lieutenant as he was getting too bad a reputation. The news of this must have got out, and some of the boys who didn’t like Kelly ‘took him for a ride.’ I hope they find the dirty skunks that did it, and I’m willing to help the cops in every way to do it.”
KELLY SAW UNKNOWN WITNESS
The foregoing confession of Peter O’Neil’s gives substantially the same story the others told. It is the same as Kelly’s confession to the police before he died. Kelly looked in the door, as O’Neil states, and saw the actual killing. Kelly’s statement, however, contains the following additional information, which adds a certain new element of mystery to the situation.
“I don’t know how many shots were fired. There may have been four or five or six. I saw O’Neil let go at Woodward and heard a couple of other shots. I remember that both O’Neil and the young guy opposite him had their backs to the door, which I saw open up just at that time and some guy look in. I didn’t pay much attention to that because I rushed in, pulling a gun of my own and intending to let Woodward have it myself, but he was all over on the floor and table before I could shoot.”
This statement of Kelly’s confirms the previous story in one of the tabloid newspapers that an unknown man had driven up to the Bowery Bar in a taxicab, had jumped out, opened up the side door, and then, after about ten seconds’ interval had jumped back into the cab.
District Attorney McDermott’s entry into the case, according to the testimony given by those present, was exactly as he detailed it in a public statement made several days ago. From Gordon’s confession, made yesterday, it is learned that after Woodward had been shot, neither O’Neil, Gordon, nor Kelly realized immediately the seriousness of their situation and rushed to Woodward to see whether or not he was alive. They pulled off his coat and vest, found him breathing, and tore open his shirt. From Gordon’s confession the following is taken verbatim:
BUT ONE FATAL WOUND
“Until we had torn off Woodward’s clothes neither O’Neil nor myself realized that one of us had missed. Woodward’s chest was covered with blood and Kelly rushed out in the bar to get a towel. When we had wiped the blood away we found but one bullet hole.
“Then I suddenly realized that only one of us had killed Woodward. One of us was guilty and the other wasn’t. He was still breathing, but there hardly seemed a possibility that he would live because it struck me that his wound was a bad one. McLarney, the bartender, came in about that time and said McDermott was outside. O’Neil immediately called to him and the district attorney came in. We told him only that Woodward had been shot but gave him no details. I asked O’Neil if there was a doctor anywhere close, and he said there was.
“He sent McLarney across the street to get Solburger, who came over right away. We tried to stop Woodward from bleeding but couldn’t do anything. Solburger, after he had looked at the wound, said that there was no hope and that Woodward would be dead in ten minutes.
“Rose had fainted away, and we put her in a chair. Irene had fallen down on the floor and was crying hysterically. McDermott then asked what had happened, and I decided to tell him that I had shot Woodward. There was certainly no use bringing the women into the case, and I felt that I had a better chance to get away with it than O’Neil.
“I had no means of knowing but that I actually did kill him. The wound was such that either of us could have caused it when we fired. I whispered to O’Neil to shut up, that I would confess to the district attorney.
GORDON’S CONFESSION
“O’Neil seemed undecided what to do, and I pulled him aside for a moment and told him to have everyone hushed up; that I would go out into the next room and make up some story to tell McDermott. It was evident that no one heard the shots except those of us in the bar, because no one came in. I took McDermott out into the hall, and in this interval O’Neil got hold of Irene and Rose and told them to say absolutely nothing about the situation. We could count on Kelly, of course, and O’Neil had Solburger in his power as well. The doctor never peeped a bit with the truth.
“Outside in the hall I told McDermott that I had shot Woodward in a row over an interview, and that the girls were not concerned at all. I said I would make a written confession if they were kept out, and since I knew that he was friendly with Irene, I hinted that the less questions he asked the better it would be. We came back in the room, and the doctor said that Woodward was dead. We then told Solburger that we would carry him over to his office and that he should be absolutely quiet about the case. He was considerably indebted to O’Neil for political favours, and O’Neil knew that he could count on Solburger’s keeping his mouth shut.”
GORDON’S IDEA TO CONFESS
Gordon was asked at this point in his final confession as to whether he, O’Neil, or McDermott took the lead in suggesting that the women’s names be kept out of the story and that his confession be made the sole basis of facts.
Gordon replied: “It was my thought and my suggestion. McDermott was considerably excited and was largely concerned because of Irene Williams’s presence. He did not know who killed Woodward and I don’t know whether he has known at any time who actually fired the shots, unless Irene told him. It was a fifty-fifty chance that I shot Woodward, and I was quite willing to assume the full blame for doing so.
“As I said before, nobody apparently heard the shots except Harry Kelly and McLarney. There was nobody else in the bar, and after we had called Solburger and found that Woodward had died we decided upon a course of action which would keep the women out of the case. No police were called until about a quarter after one, when we notified Quinlivan. I got O ’Neil to take McDermott out into the bar while I talked to Rose and Irene. I told them to say nothing about their presence in the place. We then had McDermott take the two girls down through the cellar entrance and out while I talked the matter over with O’Neil.
TOLD ROSE TO DROP GUN
“Before Rose went I told her to dispose of her pistol by throwing it in a garbage or ash can somewhere along the street. At the same time I asked Irene where her pistol was, but she did not know. O’Neil had used it, and I presumed he had it. When he came back and McDermott was escorting the women out I asked O’Neil concerning Irene’s pistol. He said he had laid it on the table. We looked high and low but could not find it. Afterward we learned that Irene had seen her own gun lying where O’Neil had put it and dropped it in a cuspidor, where it was found by Inspector Carr. She was too excited to remember what she had done with it.
“We were considerably concerned over the missing gun, but since we couldn’t find it we presumed it would be hard for anyone else. I suddenly remembered that there might be bullet holes in the wall and covered over two of them, leaving two remaining. I know nothing about six shots being fired. To my knowledge there were only four shots. The noise of them was deafening, and the powder smoke prevented me from seeing well for a few seconds after I had shot.
