Crime Is Hated by His Family
Father, Brother and Sister of Assassin Have Arrived
in Buffalo.
NO SYMPATHY EXPRESSED FOR THE DOOMED MAN
They Are Anxious to Clear Themselves and Hope to Be Able to Secure
Confession from the Prisoner—Father Talks.
Buffalo, N. Y., September
24.—Paul Czolgosz, father; Waldeck Czolgosz, brother, and Victoria
Czolgosz, sister of the president’s assassin, arrived here from
Cleveland this afternoon. They came over the Lake Shore railroad,
and in the union station the father and sister became separated
from the brother. The father and sister did not appear at District
Attorney Penney’s office in the city hall until shortly after 4:30
o’clock.
Superintendent Bull and Assistant
Superintendent Cusack took charge of them and sent them to police
headquarters with Detectives Solomon and Geary. As they were leaving
the city hall they met Waldeck Czolgosz and Inspector Martin. The
brother had gone to police headquarters looking for his relatives
and the inspector sent the three members of the Czolgosz family
back to police headquarters.
The family was taken upstairs to the
quarters reserved for witnesses and Assistant Superintendent Cusack
announced that he would examine them this afternoon. Jacob Mintz,
a private detective, who accompanied them to Buffalo, did not call
upon the police or the district attorney.
Mr. Penney said he did not send for
the prisoner’s family, and he knew of no reason why they should
come except to see the assassin.
Superintendent Bull said the same
thing and stated that if they wanted to see Czolgosz permission
would probably be granted them to see him in the jail before the
sentence of death is pronounced.
The police officials discredit the
story that they came to Buffalo to make the murderer reveal the
plot to kill the president, as they hold to the theory that the
prisoner did the deed without the aid of accomplices.
Put Through Examination.
The father, brother
and sister of the assassin were put through a rigid examination
tonight by Assistant District Attorney Frederick Haller in the presence
of Assistant Superintendent Cusack and Detectives Geary and Solomon,
of the police department. For an hour and a half they were under
a searching fire of questions which resulted in the information
that they knew nothing about the plot; that they came from Cleveland
to vindicate their own name, and, if possible, to aid the authorities
by securing from the prisoner some statement as to his reasons for
the assassination. They will spend tonight at police headquarters,
not as prisoners, but in hope that the authorities will permit them
to see the prisoner tomorrow.
Paul Czolgosz, the father, is about
60 years of age and cannot speak English. His examination was conducted
through Sergeant Fredericks, a Polish officer. Waldeck Czolgosz,
the brother, is the oldest of Czolgosz’s eleven children, being
34 years of age. The sister, Victoria, is not quite 17 years of
age, and is the youngest of Czolgosz’s nine children by his first
wife. The two children by his present wife are aged 10 and 13 years.
Some years ago Paul Czolgosz owned
a farm in Warrensville, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. Three or four
years ago the father sold it to four of his sons, Leon, Waldeck,
Jacob and John, for $1,400, the murderer having a $250 interest
in the farm. The sons ran the farm, but the father says that Leon
would do no work, claiming all the time that he was ill. Last July
Leon left home, saying he was going west, and $70 was advanced him
upon his interest in the farm. Shortly afterwards Waldeck, the oldest
brother, received a letter from him in Fort Wayne, Ind. Nothing
more was heard from Leon until August, when he wrote Waldeck asking
that $10 be sent him at West Seneca, this county, in the name of
Frank Snider. The brother sent it, as he now explains, that he thought
that Snider was the name under which his brother was working.
They Feel the Disgrace.
All three of the Czolgoszs
state that they heard nothing more about Leon until they read in
the newspapers of the shooting of the president.
Great sorrow was expressed by the
three because of the disgrace which Leon has brought upon the family.
They told Mr. Haller that their neighbors in Cleveland were heaping
abuse upon them, and that they decided to come to Buffalo to clear
themselves. They said they hoped that they might be able to get
their brother to talk to them and tell them why he had committed
the murder, who instigated it and who were concerned in the plot,
if there was one. They expressed no sympathy for the plight in which
the prisoner is, and said that their sole purpose was to clear themselves
and aid the authorities if possible. They did not know that Leon
had been convicted of the crime until their arrival in the city
and were apparently not at all affected when the news was told them.
After the examination they asked to see Leon tonight, but were told
that it was impossible. Mr. Haller said they would not be permitted
in the jail tonight, and that he would not promise that they could
see him tomorrow.
The father and brother told the assistant
district attorney that Leon was the strange one of the family and
that he did not get along with the others. They claimed that they
knew nothing about his anarchistic views; that they never knew of
his reading anarchistic papers and that they were ignorant of his
membership in any anarchistic societies.
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