The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 24, 1897, Page 14

14 THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, FRIDAY. DECEMBER 24, 1897. KEEFE'S STRA GE DISAPPEARANCE LEADS 10 HINTS OF MURDER The Four Children of an Alameda Man Fear | Their Mother Has Been a Victim of Her Husband’s Brutality. The Woman Missing Since the Fifth of Last July. Stories of Shocking Cruelty In- flicted Upon His Son and Daughter. A SEQUEL TO HOLIDAY. n to This City, and 1rn Their Mother The wife of Daniel Ke as ing since Jul arrestec the matter. There seems to be a ques- tion whether a new mystery of crime has been added to a list aiready of appalli length. Not only has a wo- man disappeared, leaving no trace, but she left behind her all her ordinary ap- pare Even her shoes remain in the deserted home. During her absence the children have been neglected and abused to such an extent that the law has taken them from the father and inflicted a fine up- on him, and yet mother-iove hus ¢ prompted the woman, even from a dis- tance, to ask after the weifare of those it had been her wont to cherisn. Hence has come into existence a belief that the woman is dead—murdered; that the | husband and father is guilty of the | deed. It is only fair to state that Dan Keefe tells, as he denies the charge, a story of tolerable clearness. Neither can it be overlooked that it leaves much to be explained, ahd that the ation on every y he abuses of kick and children dispute his alleg: essential point. They & them, and show the sca blow. He says the mother was the one who abused them, that they lie, and their defense of her is born of fear, the memory of beatings bestowed when the woman was in her cups. The children declare their mother did not drink. Eddie Ke the eleven-year-old son of Daniel Keefe, tells a strange story of the disappearance of his mother. He is a bright boy, and he gives the impression of truthfulness in his state- ments. He said that on the morning of July 5, the day the nation’s birth- day was celebrated, he and his sisters were routed out of bed early in the morning by their mother and told to get dressed as quickly as they could, as they were to go to San Francisco for a holliday. They were delighted at the prospect of a day’s enjoyment in the city, and they were soon out of their beds and hunting for their best clothes. They had breakfast, and dur- ing the meal their father became cross and found fault with them and their mother on the least possible excuse. The breakfast was over soon after 6 o'clock, and the father by that time was very abusive. Then the father and the mother engaged in a quarrel over some matters that he had found fault with. In a rage the father ordered the children out of the house, and as they were going he told them to go to the Park-street station and purchase tick- ets for them all to go to San Fran- cisco. He gave the eldest girl the money to purchase the tickets with left. He said he would go to the depot soon after them and be there in time to take the 7 lock train to the city. The four children left the house, but when t ived at the station he had not open kets. ted the ticket window w :d they could not buy the T said he thought it that they should be sent to v tickets when they could be had on the train from the conductor nd they s at the ailles home instead of 1 the way to the —more than a mile The 7 o’clock >d and went toward the ci ather did not come. Half an erward another train bound till the and eir father. would met d ing the day them ahboard the cars and the ci They spent a streets in the city he hurr started short duri ark. There they re- all the day. ined nes cruzity, and Mes. Benson, who and they | noon, then went out to | | ed to be out of order. some sick person. Afterward when she did not come home he was told to say that she had gone to visit a sis- ter, who lived in Minnesota. The boy says he never heard of his mother having a sister in Minnesota until his father told him of such a person at that time. Iiddie has a deep scar over his right eye, and the neighbors say that Mrs. | Keefe told them that it was caused | from a blow from a weapon in the | hands of the father when the boy was an infant. It was administered dur- ing one of the rages that Keefe fre- quently got into. Two of the girls—Margaret, 16 years | of age, and Julia, 12 years old—are at | present domiciled with Mrs. Lydia. Prescott of the Alameda County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty | to Children, at her home 764 Lydia street, Oakland. Minnie, the second child, whose age is 14 years, is tempor- arily staying with a family on Twenty- third avenue until a permanent home can be provided for her. The girls are surprisingly bright and intelligent, and Mrs. Prescott, after having had them | in her charge for nearly a week, speaks | in_the highest praise of them. Lying in bed last evening Margaret, | the elder girl, told the story of her | life—a story with scarcely a gleam of unshine in it from the time her baby 1ind could comprehend her unhappy imprint it upon her mem- The story was told with all the seeming truthfulness and simplicity of childhood, and not once was there a | | falter in words. Of her birth and infancy she knew | but little, her first vivid recollection | being her home with a woman in Ade- laide, Australia, which home she occu- pied for eight During that time | her two younger ers and brother at Mount Barker. Once during period the family was united. o years before they rted for the | United States her brother and sisters were taken to Adelaide and there they met their father and moth®r. Coming down to her mother’s disap- pearance, Margaret narrated the cir- cumstances with a frankness that made the recital intensely graphic, while her youngest sister sat beside her and at times nodded her head | appro when the father’s strange | | and brutal conduct was touched upon. Her statement did not vary from that made by the boy, although some details that had escaped the little fellow's ob- | servation were brought out. Along in the afternocon I asked if T could go and meet mother, but he said no. After that I asked two or three | times if it wasn't time to meet mother, | | and finally he said there s no need | of going, for she was not coming over. He did not v why she was not com- were th it | n ing, but after a while we left the park We did not | that and went to the Chutes. get home until half past twelve night, and 1 noticed when we the house that the front door w 1y open. I went in and found eve upset. The breakfast dishes stood on | the table just as we left them in the morning, and the whole house appear- I went into | DANIEL KEEFE, who admi's having treated his children wita of having caused his wife’s disappearance. i 31 s erk /’.I.e‘;bfmn | defends him against accusa ions The boy says that all day long his father was cross and nervous and abused them without any apparent reason. About dusk they left the park and went to the Chutes. They re- mained there all the evening watching wrath too much to ask for his mothe He said that during the day when he or any of his sisters asked for her they would receive some cross word from their father of perhaps a cuff on the ears. Eddie was in bed but a short ime when he said he heard his father going down the stairs of his home. He could hear every tread of his heavily- shod feet as they went down the steps and out the back way of the house. Then he heard the stable door in the rear opened. The heavy latch on the door rasped as it unfastened and the hinges creaked as the door was swung open. Then all was still. For awhile the boy listened for the next move of his father; then he dropped off into sieep. It was near daylight when he awoke, and a heavy tread coming up the It was his father returning. Soon the door of his room opened and his father entered. He started when he saw his son awake and he backed out, saying in a husky voice as he went, “Your mother has gone; your mother has gone.” After the mother's disappearance Eddie says he was told by his father to say in answer to all inquiries about his mother that she had gone to nurse the fireworks and then started for home. They caught the last boat | I ac the bay and as soon as they reached the house they were sent to bed. Eddie said he feared his father’s stairs was the first sound he caught. | | mother’s bedroom, expecting to find-her in bed, and the other children followed me. “Mother was not there, but before I could say anything father came into | the room, and, without saying a wor | sat down in a chair and began to cr asked nim where mother was but he | did not answer. He went upstai.s and | we followed, going to our own rioms. “I could not go to sleep, for I ex- - | pected to hear mother come in every | | moment. In a short time I heard futher | go down stairs and walk about the house for some time and then g5 out- | side. About half past 3 Eddy came into | my room and sz out and left that he was room alone. yet retu nad, “About 5 o'clock father came into | my room and said he had not slept any all night. He had us children get | up and I went out to milk the cows— | | something that mother usually did. I | | thought she had staved all night with | | one of the neighbors and would soon | be home, but as soon as I had finished | } milking father told us children to de- | | | 1ud to stay in hiz o He said mother hal n liver the milk. This was another thing that mother used to do and I asked father if he knew where she was.. He told us to tell the customers, if they | asked any questions, to say that moth- er was sick. Julia forgot and when she came home she said she had told | one lady that mother had gone away. | Father flew into a rage and sgruck and | kicked her,. knocking her - from the front door down the steps into the yard. “For some time he told us to say high we JULIA KEEFE, MAGGIE KEEFE. The two gir s who hint at a possible dark crime of their father. that mother was laid up with sore feet, and then he told us to say she was in the hospital, and finally that she had gone to see her sister in La Sueur Minn.” “Had you ever heard of this aunt in Minnesota before?” “No; I never knew we had an aunt there before.” “After mother disappeared,” contin- ued the girl, “'father would never let us go near the beach. Before that we had to go down every day and gather | driftwood, but since ther we only got near the water twice, and both times father drove us away before we got close to the beach.” Vere missing ?” “Nothing but an old black hat. Every dress she had, old and new, is still in the house. Even her shoes are all there. She had three pairs and 1 have seen them all since she disappear- ed. I did not have a chance to look at her clothes at first, for father kept the closet locked where they were, locked all the time and carried the key in his | pocket, but after a time he sometimes forgot and went away, leaving it un- locked, and 1 looked at my mother’s things. I am positive everything she had except the hat still there.” “About eight weeks ago I started to write a letter to the aunt in Minne- sota that father said mother had gone to se While I was writing the letter father came in, and when he found what I was doing he told me what to write. I directed the let®r as he told me and also put on my own address, but the letter has never been return: to me and I think father must have got it.” Mr. Keefe, who has recently moved to a humble little cottage at 16 Bishop street in Alameda, was in a disturbed state of mind last evening when asked concerning the strange disappearance of his wife and the fact that his chil- dren have been taken away from him on charges of cruelty. He admitted all, with the exception that he had had anything to do with his wife's disap- pearance, and told a story of misery caused by his wife's fondness for stim- ulants. He said last evening, “You ask me for information concerning the where- abouts of my wife and also why my children have been taken away from me on charges of cruelty. way, so 1 will commence from the first and follow down to the present time. All I ask is that I will receive fair play and justice will follow. It is | shameful that I should be even men- tioned as a murderer in this matter, as I have always been a good husband and a fond father. “1 got up early on Monday morning, which was the 5th of July, and milked the cows and made other arrangements for leaving for the city. As we were about to start my wife informed me that she would not go with us, as her feet had been troubling her for the t few ( and that the walking hich she would have to do while in the city would be painful. I pleaded with her to go, 1 thought the day would be spoiled without her, but she was obstinate, and I thought at the time that she had been drinking again. “I gave the children money with which to buy some tickets and told them to go to the Park-street depot and wait for me there. I then again ed my wife to go with us, but she uld not listen to me. We had some rds, and 1 left her to join the children. We went to San Francisco on the 7:30 o'clock train and returned here on the last boat at 12:30 in the morning. While in the city we visited the cliff and park, and in the evening we went to the Chutes to see the fire- works. All day long I kept the chil- dren with me and returned with them | to our home that night. “When I arrived there I was sur- prised to see that my wife was not in the house. I did not care to worry the children, so I put them to bed and then went to look for my wife, as 1 thought it possible that she might be in the neighborhood, as she was in the | habit of visiting Mrs. Benson, who | lives but a few doors from us. I could not find her and slept but little that night. “‘Next morning I went to Mrs. Ben- | son’s house and asked her if she had seen my wife during the previous day or night. She told me that my wife had visited her on the afternoon of the 5th, but that she had not seen her since that time. Then the trouble came up concerning my children. I was accused | of having treated them in a brutal manner, and when the case came up for trial I pleaded guilty, at my at- torney’s suggestion, and paid a fine of $20. The children were then taken from me, and since that time I have been drinking to drown my lonesomeness and sorrow. My wife is gone and my children are separated from me for rea- sons which I have no control over, but I am pleased to think that. no matter | what the public thinks concerning me | or the disappearance of my wife or the charges against me that I was brutal to my children, I am an innocent man. “When the case of cruelty came up against me I hired Attorney R. Tap- pan to conduct my case, and he ad- vised me to plead guilty to the charge. I did as I was told and paid my attor- ney $30 and a fine of $20, which left me almost destitute. I forgot to state that I had given my wife $160 on the morning I left for the city, and this also left me without much money, and it was partially for this reason that I pleaded guilty to the charge of cruelty to my children, as I was left without means to keep them in as comforta- :)}lle coudition as I should like to keep em. “I have never punished my children | any more than any father often pun- ishes his children. I have had con- siderable trouble in keeping them clean, as my wife’s habits prevented her from attending to them as I wish- ed would be done. I inquired for my children to-day from Judge Morris but received no satisfaction in the matter whatsoever. “I am of the impression that my wife has gone to La Sueur, Hendercon | County, Minn., to visit her sister Mrs. Michael Lynch, but I have writtes there twice and have as yet r2‘-iv: no answer. ¥ am sorry that I am placed in what scems to be a rather tight position, but althoueh [ have had considerable trouble with my wife, it has always been for her own Zood and the good of her children. T do not fear the consequences, as I am an innocent man. I have slept in the house since the time my children were taken awa; and intend doing so to-nigat. I have no fear of arrest, whereas if 1 was a guilty man I would try to escape. [ am merely a man who has been ruined any of your mother's clothes | If I am to | anything 1 wish to have my own | | through the desire of his wifs to get | drunk and abuse anything and every- thing with which she came in -ontact. 1 will prove myself innocant when the | time comes.” Mrs. Benson, a neighbor of Mr. Keefe, said last evening: “I do not | know much about the family except | that they are known as a respectable and quiet people.. I know that Mrs. Keefe has disappeared, but I was told | by her son that his mother w visit- ing his aunt. Mrs. Keefe visited me on July 5 and stayed with me a couple | of hours, as I had a sick child. I had been taking milk from her for some time and offered to pay for it at that time, but she said I would need the money, and offered to sive me $5 or $10 if I needed it. “She came to my house without coat or hat, and I have not seen her since that time. I was surprised to hear that Mr. Keefe’s children had been taken away from him, as I always thought that they were taken good care of. She had been to see me on days previous to her last visit, which EDDIE KEEFE, The Boy Who Tells a Story of His Mother’s Disappearancs. to me during my child’s illness. I know nothing of the report that she was a drinking woman, and have always felt as though she was interested in myself and famil This Week's Wasp. The Wasp, which is int of the Christmas holiday, is a ticularly bright and readable paper. T The s are timely and to the point, the one entitled Not See,” represent- 1 prior to the in- ure Lord Mayor of telling argument ne-man powe -known Democrati tured. The - s Diary er departments are bright. all exceptionally LS b Low's Horehound Cough Syrup for coughs and colds; price 10c. 417 San- some street. ——ee Convicted of Grand Larceny. 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