Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 June 1886 — AN AWFUL DEATH. [ARTICLE]

AN AWFUL DEATH.

Eight Innccsnt Victims of a Man’s Desperate Revenge Perish in the Flames. Oil Poured Over Clothing and the Floor and Then Fired by the Villain. [Chicago special.] Fritz Schleier, a watchman at Sehoen - hofen’s brewery, near the corner of Canal and Eighteenth streets, observed flames issniDg from the basement of the two-story frame building Nos. 731 and 733 South Canal street about 3 o’clock yesterday morning. Schleier s first attempt to give an alarm was a failure, owing to his not understanding the working of the box, and when he saw that no apparatus responded he telephoned to the Twelfth-Street Station, from which point the fire department was notified. When the department arrived the two buildings were enveloped in flames. The work of subduing the fire was brief. Engine No. 25 first reached the scene. Capt. Schimmels placed his men, and himself hurried to the rear where he elevated a ladder and raised the windows. As the smoke lifted he beheld a terrible sight. Huddled together in one room whither they had rushed in their race for life lay eight human beings. Capt. Schimmels’ men conveyed them to the sidewalk as rapidly as possible, where they were identified as follows: Michael Murphy, aged 45, an employe of the South Division Kailway Company. Mrs. Annie Murphy, wife of Michael, aged 40. Nellie Murphy, aged 12. Annie Murphy, aged 10. Aggie Murphy, aged 1. Mrs. Mary Durkin, aged 23. Patsy Lavin, aged 4, a son of Mrs. Durkin. The firemen came very near missing the only survivor of the terrible experience on that floor, the tiny 3-weeks-old child of Mrs. Durkin. A heavy shawl, it seems, kept out the heat and smoke and saved its life. The child is doing well at the County Hospital. Exploring the ruins further the firemen discovered the body of William Hahn, a butcher, aged 65, in a bedroom in the rear of the second story at No. 731. The old man lived there with his son William. The latter saved his wife and children and jumped from the front window to the street. He aroused his father, and thought he might make his way out alone, but, being so feecle, tbe old man succumbed. John Kawleigh, who occupied the ground floor of No. 733, stated yesterday that this was the third time within a year the premises had been fired. He reveit3 to tbe arrest of a man named Savage for burglary a year ago, in which Mr. Kawleigh and his father, the owner of No. 733, assisted. The friends of the prisoner, who received five years in the penitentiary, it is said, swore revenge against the Kawleighs, and two days after the arrest the premises were on fire. Nine days later the building was again fired. Each time rags saturated with oil were found in the basement. Kawleigh and the watchman say that the flames seemed to break out simultaneously from several pails of the building.