Methever

—Defendant has been convicted of murder, and the death penalty adjudged. The homicide occurred at the village of Long Beach, Los Angeles County, July 25, 1899. Dorothy McKee, an attractive young woman of about twenty-four years of age, lived with her mother in a small house, and they were engaged in conducting a bakery business in the front part thereof. This house was divided by a partition, and in the other part lived the defendant, who there carried on a small shoe-store business, and as a cobbler worked at his trade. The relations between these three people were of the most friendly character. Defendant received his food from the table of the McKees, and their daily intercourse was continuous. On the morning of July 25th, Dorothy McKee and a friend, Mrs. Scudder, went for a bicycle-ride at about six o’clock. Soon thereafter, defendant mounted his bicycle, followed the course the two women had taken, and meeting them returning, directed his bicycle against that of deceased, Dorothy, and the moment both were dismounted, he fired either two or three pistol-shots at her, which resulted in her immediate death. He then inflicted a serious wound upon himself, by a shot from the same…