"Gussie"
is Mrs. Schiller.
Finds
'Gussie’ Hysterical
Keefe
ran to
Federal Street, but could not see Mrs. Schiller.
Meanwhile,
Constable Dugan of the Twelfth Ward, saw Mrs. Schiller walking on
Federal Street near the Cooper River. She was mumbling to
herself and was in a hysterical condition, Dugan said.
Dugan
telephoned police headquarters. City Detectives Rox Saponare
and Maurice
DiNicola went out
Federal Street and took her back with them to detective
headquarters. There they sought to quiet her, but she continually
sobbed.
"I
want to take the blame- if I hadn't gone to Pop's home he would be
living now."
"Pop
wanted to save me," she said. "and he was shot. I can't eat or sleep. I
think I'm going crazy."
Later,
she was permitted to return to the home.
Young
Schiller had been held in the city jail over the weekend. Today he was
taken into police court. He wore no necktie and carried a raincoat over
his arm. He was rep resented by counsel, C. Lawrence
Gregorio, who said he had been retained "by friends" to act
as attorney for the accused man.
City
detective
Benjamin Simon had signed the complaint in which he charged
"on information received” that Schiller did feloniously and with malice
aforethought shoot and kill his father.
The
complaint was read to him and Gregorio
told him not to say any thing, as Judge Pancoast
would enter a plea of "not guilty" in his behalf. This was done by the
court and Schiller was then held without bail pending grand jury
action. He was taken to the county jail.
Declared
Sane
After
the hearing, Mrs. Etta C. Pfrommer, acting overseer of the poor, told
Judge
Pancoast that on July 26, Dr. Harry Jarrett,
Broadway and Cherry
Street, well known alienist, had examined young Schiller and
declared him sane. The examination was made on the request of Mrs.
Schiller in police court on the previous day. At that time young
Schiller had been released by the court in the custody of his father.
County
Detective Chief
Lawrence T. Doran, who was among the first to question young
Schiller Saturday night, said the man did not seem repentant over what
he had done. He said Schiller did not give authorities much
information. According to Doran,
young Schiller declared he had objected frequently to his father that
he did not want his wife to come to their home.
"It
doesn't seem possible," said young Mrs. Schiller some hours after the
tragedy. "It seems as though it was only a dream. I don't seem to
remember anything.
"Poor
Bill. He must have been crazy. He idolized his father. You can blame
this all on the depression. He has been without work since they
eliminated summer policemen two years ago. He has been worried as a
result of being unable to obtain work. Just recently he started to
drink.
"Bill
intended to shoot me but his father tried to get the gun away from him
and I believe it went off accidentally. Nothing could convince me that
Bill would shoot his father in cold blood.
"I
went to his father's home last night to try to effect a reconciliation
with my husband. He had been drinking."
Registered
as Sober
The
police docket at headquarters shows Schiller registered as sober. The
entry was not made until 2.15 a. m., and the shooting occurred shortly
after 9.30 p.m.
Relatives
said the father had attempted for months to patch up the marital
difficulties of the couple.
Young
Schiller had been living lately with his sister, Mrs. Bennehler, 2530
Bank Street and his wife with her parents at 409 North
Thirty-seventh Street. He formerly lived at that address with his wife.
He was appointed a summer policeman in 1929 and served until they were
all dismissed two years ago.
Coroner Holl
and Dr. Edward B. Rogers, county physician, yesterday performed an
autopsy on the senior Schiller's body and ascertained that death was
due to an internal hemorrhage caused by a bullet wound of the upper
portion of the abdomen. They said a .32-callbre revolver had been used
in the shooting.
Camden Lodge of Elks
will hold services tomorrow night at the Schiller home, at which time
the body will be on view. The funeral will be private on Wednesday with
burial in Evergreen Cemetery.
Judge
Pancoast last night recalled that young Schiller was arrested
two months ago after he had kept his wife a prisoner on a lot all
night. At that time "Jake,"
as he was affectionately known to his friends, tried to act as a
mediator between his son and daughter-in-law.
The
young Mrs. Schiller at that time told Pancoast she believed her husband
was deranged and asked permission to have him examined by physicians
she would name.
Pancoast released young Schiller in the custody at his
father. The police judge said the examination had apparently not been
made as no commitment papers had been sent through his office.
Few
political workers were better known that "Jake” Schiller.
He was born in Philadelphia and was brought to Camden in early life by
his parents, who conducted a saloon near Twenty-third and
Federal Streets. East Camden
was then the town of Stockton and the scene of Saturday night's
shooting was a farm. Schiller
recalled to friends that he drove cows through a pasture on which his
house now stands.
He
was originally a Democrat but became a Republican through persuasion of
the late U. S. Senator
David Baird and remained a friend of the former leader for 40
years.
Schiller
had been melancholy over the death of his wife on February 13 last,
friends said.
When
his son was arrested he remarked to Pancoast: What is next?"
Figured
In Shaw Case
None
was more in the public eye 35 years ago in South Jersey than Schiller.
It was the that he figured prominently in one phase of the locally
celebrated Shaw murder trial.
It
was during the second trial of Eli Shaw for the murder of his mother
and grandmother, Mrs. Anna Shaw and Mrs. Emma Zane. They were found
shot to death in September, 1897, in their bedroom of their home on Line
Street near Third.
Detective John Painter had found a revolver hidden in the chimney, one
of several points in the circumstantial evidence that resulted in the
indictment of Shaw. He was then a widely known young man about town and
his arrest caused a big sensation. As time drew near for the trial
feeling was intense, for there were adherents for and against the son
and grandson, those arguments often grew bitter.
Henry
Sidney Scovel, then one of the prominent criminal lawyers of Camden
county, was retained to defend Shaw. Scovel was son of James Matlack
Scovel, himself one of the leading barristers of this section. When the
trial of Shaw was under way the city was astounded when it was charged
Scovel had tampered with the jury. It was Schiller
who made the charge.
The
trial stopped abruptly. Scovel emphatically denied the story of Schiller
and demanded vindication. An indictment for embracery was returned and
at a trial, which had Camden on the tip toe of expectancy for days, it
developed there was absolutely nothing to verify the charge, and Scovel
was acquitted. He acted in two subsequent trials of Shaw, the second
being a disagreement and the third acquittal for the son and grandson
of the slain women.
Schiller,
strangely enough, in later years became friendly with Scovel and when
the latter was prosecutor from 1905 to 1912, "Jake," as
he was familiarly known, was usually to be found in the office at the
courthouse. Scovel was then a white haired man of flowery speech and
impressive personality who let bygones be bygones.
Long
Excise Inspector
For
more than 20 years Schiller
was inspector of the Excise Commission in Camden. It was during the
days when the principal object of the inspector apparently was to keep
the saloonmen in line. He was considered pretty good at that job, by no
means an unimportant one from the organization viewpoint. It was also
during that period the city had its troubles enforcing the Sunday
liquor laws. There were those who considered they had enough pull to
keep their back or side doors open on the Sabbath to let in their
regular thirsty trade. Some succeeded in getting by, but "Jake" had
his own troubles in keeping the boys straight and sometimes causing
their arrest, although that was not frequent by any means.
His
reign as inspector, too, was in the halcyon days of free lunch and
schooner beers. Saloonmen themselves were against the lunch idea
eventually since it meant too much of a financial burden. Jake kept
tabs on the recalcitrants so that the liquor dealers knew who was
obeying the order and who was "cutting corners" to get some extra trade.
Schiller
was virtually raised with the saloon trade since his father was one of
the old time German beer garden owners here, having had a place at Fourth
and Line
Streets. That was in the days when that section was largely
populated by the German, English and Irish families lately come from
the motherlands. When he was a boy, Schiller
entered the U. S. Navy and served several years. When he came out he
went to the old Town of Stockton, now East Camden,
where he opened a saloon on
Federal Street near Twenty-fourth.
At that period, some 45 years ago, Stockton seethed with politics and
it was just as natural for a young man to get into the game as it was
for a duck to swim. Jake at that period was a Democrat and during the
battle in the middle 90's when the West Jersey Traction and the Camden
Horse Railway Company were fighting for the rail franchises in the town
he was a candidate for council from the old Second Ward. The late
Robert Lee was the Republican candidate and won out by the narrow
margin of two votes. In later years Schiller
became a Republican and was elected a constable.
Never
Ran From Scrap
Throughout
his career Schiller
never quite forgot his training In the navy, particularly with
reference to boxing or fighting at the drop of a hat. He was a scrapper
in his early years and never ran from a fight. That was just as true in
political battles, frequent then around the polls, as in purely
personal matters. And Jake
would battle for a friend just as readily as for any personal reason.
He was usually in the thick of the political fracases of the years when
it was the accepted thing to fight at the drop of a hat. But he also
had lots of native wit which kept things interesting when he was a
frequenter of the prosecutors' office during the Scovel and Wolverton
regime's. In late years, with the approach of age, he had tempered his
propensity to get into an argument and liked nothing more than to tell
of “the good old days" when he helped the elder Baird in his
organization battles.
He
made his last political stand for leadership of the Twelfth Ward in
1926 when he supported the candidacy of Sergeant Ray Smith
against Commissioner
Clay W. Reesman for ward committeeman. Schiller
was supporting Congressman Charles A.
Wolverton and the late Senator Joseph H. Forsyth
in a campaign against former Congressman Francis F.
Patterson and State Senator Albert S. Woodruff.
Reesman won
and among the first to visit the hospital after learning of the
shooting was the city commissioner. Reesman was
his latest chief as lights inspector as he was attached to the highway
department. Commissioner
Frank B. Hanna also visited the hospital.
"In
all the years I have known him he has always been an enthusiastic and
loyal friend with a good heart for everybody in trouble," Congressman Wolverton
said when he learned of Schiller's
death.
Schiller
was also a familiar figure at the Elks Club,
where he was an ardent card player. But after the death of his wife he
gave up this pastime, contenting himself with watching the games. He
was also a frequent visitor among old friends at the courthouse.