7 Mar 1914 - Seattle Star (Seattle, Washington)
Page 1, Column 4,5,6,7
Arrested After Disclosures at Inquest; Prosecutor Says Some Person Stabbed Victim, Then Another Butchered Him with a Mattock
Mrs. Magdalene Werner was arrested at Issaquah yesterday afternoon, at the conclusion of the inquest into the death of her husband, Henry Werner, the Beaver Lake rancher, and brought to Seattle last night and lodged in the county jail. Henry Paulone, an Italian known to the Issaquah community as "Henry Smith," was taken into custody yesterday morning. A second Italian, who departed hastily the morning of the murder, and who has been traced as far as Renton, is sought by the deputy sheriffs. He has been referred to as Roderigo Rocco, though that is not his name. It is this man who, according to the theory upon which the prosecutor's office is working, slew the aged rancher. The case would delight the soul of Lombroso, the world's greatest criminologist, for into it are woven the most primitive emotiors and passions that vex the peace of the human heart. To delve intot he mystery, one must go back to the beginning, as Lombroso would do, scrutinizing such facts as are known.
Werner, middle-aged and lonely, was "baching it" on the farm, which by hard work he had wrested from the wilderness. Came to him a maid-of-all-work from the neighborhood, in her teens, buxom, virile, fond of pleasure, and a little savage.
He married the maid-of-all-work. Deputy Prosecutor Wright is investigating a rumor, long current in the neighborhood, that there was a bargain between Werner and Magdalene' mother. ONE VERSION IS THAT 40 ACRES WAS INVOLVED IN THE TRADE. Another that Werner paid "ONE HUNDRED BUCKS AND A MULE" Children were born. It was a lonely life for the girl. Werner, one of the gentlest of men, was also one of the most silent. The farm work absorbed him. The Italian appeared - young-curly-headed, good-looking, whose laughing lips and shining eyes paid the young wife compliments. It is said he came as a peddler of cheap gimcracks, such as rustic women delight in. There was, it appears, an "affair".
Werner found letters in the house which he turned over to his brother, H. T. Werner, 218 Ninth av., Seattle. One is from "Agnes," Mrs. Werner's sister, asking: How in the world do you manage to keep that man there and Henry not say anything about it?" Another is from "Patsy," who declares his love and cautions: Don't let the old man get hold of this letter."
The whole neighborhood watched the "affair" A. A. Jackson, a neighbor and local game warden, wrote Werner: "Please keep your wife away from my place. I don't want her with my wife any more." Was there more than one lover? There is a letter from Mrs. Werner to John Gobel, Tona, Wash.: "I love you just the same. Be careful who you trust. I am not mad at you and will love you always. Is there any one you can get to give you your letters?"
Another is from Mrs. Werner to Mrs. J. A. Lund, Ballard, with a note to "John" inclosed. The note says: "My Darling John. I went back to the farm because of the children and not because I care for my husband. BUT, DARLING, IF YOU COULD KNOW HOW I FEEL SINCE I LEFT YOU, WITHOUT A HUG AND A KISS FROM YOUR SWEET LIPS AND HOLD OF YOUR WARM HANDS. I sit and cry for the love you gave me and the kisses I got from you" and much more in the same strain.
Come now to Monday morning and the hour of the murder. Werner was milking the cow. Later, milk was found spilt on the barn floor. And when the cow was again milked, she gave but a pint, though usually two gallons flowed from her udders at a milking. The murderer came from behind and slashed Werner's throat with a knife. That, at last, is the hpothesis upon which the state is proceeding. Then he fled, taking the knife with him. On Werner's body were 27 wounds, in throat, abdomen and head. Some of the throat wounds were the sharp, clean incisions of a knife. Other cuts were ragged, a bloody mattock was in the barn.
Does a murderer pause in the commission of a murder to change weapons? "I don't believe it," said Prosecutor Wright today. WHO, THEN, USED THE MATTOCK?
It is the favorite theory of Lombroso that, while a man in passion will strike to kill, he will then pause to note the consequences of the blow. If the blow is fatal, he will not strike again. On the other hand, when a woman has struck, a FRENZY SEIZES HER AND SHE WILL STRIKE BLINDLY, FURIOUSLY, AGAIN AND AGAIN."
"I shall proceed on the theory," said Wright today, "that the murderer was joined by another person who finished the job with the mattock. The boy, Wilhelm, may and may not hae told the truth at the Inquest. The story he told then is not the story he told Deputy Roberts the day of the murder.
Mrs. Werner was not popular. Many dogs have been killed recently in the neighborhood. She is a dead shot, and it was she, not her husband, it is said, who killed so many of the dogs. A neighbor tells this story: "I had driven into the Werner place to see Henry on businss, and was closing the gate behind me, when Mrs. Werner, barefooted, came running from the house. She had a rifle in her hands. I was frightened because I knew her violent temper.
"Suddently she fired from the hip while still running, and a littel dog, which I hadn't noticed before, fell dead almost at my feet. It was a wonderful shot. "I'LL TEACH THEM' SHE SAID, 'TO CHASE MY SHEEP!"