Publication information

Source:
Atlanta Constitution
Source type: newspaper
Document type: article
Document title: “Crime Is Hated by His Family”
Author(s): anonymous
City of publication: Atlanta, Georgia
Date of publication: 25 September 1901
Volume number: 34
Issue number: none
Pagination: 3

 
Citation
“Crime Is Hated by His Family.” Atlanta Constitution 25 Sept. 1901 v34: p. 3.
 
Transcription
full text
 
Keywords
Czolgosz family (at Buffalo, NY); Czolgosz family (interrogation); McKinley assassination (investigation); Czolgosz family.
 
Named persons
William S. Bull; Patrick V. Cusack; Jacob Czolgosz; John Czolgosz; Leon Czolgosz; Paul Czolgosz; Victoria Czolgosz; Waldeck Czolgosz; Charles H. Fredericks; John J. Geary; Frederick Haller; John Martin (a); Jacob Mintz; Thomas Penney; Albert Solomon.
 
Document


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.