TO HURRY MARKOE’S SLAYER TO ASYLUM
Grand Jury to Get Case Thursday; Lunacy Inquiry to Follow Indictment.
RECTOR PICTURES TRAGEDY
Dr. Reiland Tells of Premonition and Nervousness During Services Before Shooting.
Thomas W. Simpkin, the demented printer who shot and killed Dr.
James W. Markoe, the distinguished surgeon, in St. George’s Protestant Episcopal
Church, Stuyvesant Square, on Sunday, was arraigned yesterday before
Magistrate Simpson, in the Yorkville Court, and held without bail for further
examination tomorrow. The charges were homicide, felonious assault and violation
of the Sullivan law.
Benedict Dineen, Assistant District Attorney in charge of the Homicide Bureau, said he
would present the evidence to the Grand Jury on Thursday, so that an indictment
for murder in the first degree could be returned. The court will then be asked
to appoint a lunacy commission, and efforts will be made to have Simpkin
committed to the Matteawan State Hospital for the Criminal Insane. The
witnesses before the Grand Jury will be Dr. George E. Brewer, whose leg was
grazed by one of the bullets fired by Simpkin; Herbert L. Satterlee, who saw the
shooting, and Patrolman Burns of the East Twenty-second Street Station, who took
Simpkin into custody.
It developed yesterday that it was not Dr. Markoe’s custom to pass the
collection plate in the aisle in which he was shot, but that on last Sunday he
had taken the place of Wolcott. G. Lane, a lawyer and a vestryman, who was out
of town.
Dr. Reiland’s Premonition.
Dr. Reiland told friends yesterday that he had a premonition
on Sunday; just before the shooting, that
“something was wrong,” and that several persons asked him why he was nervous
during the service. The rector, who was an eye-witness of the shooting, in
telling his story of the tragedy yesterday, for the first time, said :
“I had ordered a taxicab to wait for me at my home. (The rectory is next
door to the church on East Sixteenth Street). I had announced that I was going
away for a five-day vacation to my Summer home. My secretary notified me that
the taxi was outside.
“My wife had a feeling that something was wrong and decided to remain in the
church until I was ready to leave. She had intended leaving before the services
were over, but several people, including Mr. Jones (J. Morgan Jones, an usher,
whose cheek was grazed by a bullet), told her that something was wrong with me
and that I was nervous.
Had a Feeling ‘Something Was Wrong.’
“In fact, Mr. Jones had come up to me during the service and
asked what the trouble was. I couldn’t tell him, but I had a feeling within me
that something was wrong, a premonition, you might call it.
“I waited for a moment to hear George Bagdasarian, the young Armenian
tenor, sing the offertory anthem, ‘Seek you the Lord.’ I wanted to hear him sing
the first two bars.
“Suddenly I heard a shot. I thought maybe it was an automobile at first. Then I
thought it might be some Bolshevik who had come into the church to get somebody.
There was a second shot, bang, like that, and then I heard the collection plate
fall. It made a noise like crashing glass. The third shot I thought was a bomb.
“I jumped up and looked down the aisle and saw the door open and a man run out.
Then I realized that someone had been shot. Safford, the organist, stopped
playing for an instant. I motioned him to continue and waved to the little boys
and girls in the choir to keep on singing. I ordered my four assistants to
remain behind and continue the service. Bagdasarian was a trump. He kept right
on singing.
“Then I threw my Bible into the pulpit and leaped the chancel rail and started
down the centre aisle after the man. Several women had arisen in their seats.
One had reached the aisle. I don’t know who she was, but I do know that I ran
into her and knocked her into the pew. I hope she was not hurt.
“I shouted to several of the ushers at the head of the aisle, ‘Get that man!’
They told me several men were after him. Then I turned my attention to Dr.
Markoe who was being brought up the aisle by four men, among whom were George
Earl Warren, Vice President of the Columbia Trust Co., and Frank Lawrence
Stratton. Mr. Warren was the first man to reach Dr. Markoe after he was shot. He
had been seated two pews back of the man who fired the shot. He jumped into the
aisle and caught Markoe before he touched the floor.
Sent Emergency Call.
“The men carrying Dr. Markoe asked, ‘Where shall we take him?’
‘Take him to the Lying-In Hospital,’ I said. I had been to the
hospital many times to visit Dr. Markoe and he had explained to me the emergency
call.
“I ran ahead, still in my vestments, and gave the emergency call. By the time
the elevator reached the ground floor they were carrying Dr. Markoe into the
entrance. The elevator man asked: ‘Who is it?’ ‘It’s Dr. Markoe,’
we said.
“‘My God,’ said the man. ‘He’s my friend.’
“We took him to the operating room on the fourth floor. It was the very same
room in which Jim had performed an operation above my left eye, in the very spot
where he was shot.
“Dr. MacPherson came in. He asked who it was. We said it was Jim Markoe. He
looked at him and said he was dead. A few minutes later Mrs. Markoe came in.
They told her he was dead. The poor woman collapsed.
“Then I felt like killing the man because I thought he was some Bolshevik. I was
relieved to learn that he was an insane and irresponsible person. I returned to
the church and found the choir still singing. I had been gone four or five
minutes. I concluded the service.
“I have been thinking over the whole affair since yesterday and I have come to
the conclusion that what happened in the church took thirty-two seconds, so
swift was the tragedy from the moment the first shot was fired to when Dr.
Markoe was carried out.”
George Bagdasarian, the tenor soloist referred to by Dr. Reiland, was formerly a
widely known boy soprano and years ago sang at Grace Church.
Planned to Shoot J.P. Morgan Sr.
Simpkin told Assistant District Attorney William O. Shaughnessy
in Yorkville Court yesterday that he came to this country from England to kill
J. Pierpont Morgan, the elder, but gave up his plan when he learned Mr. Morgan
was dead. This statement gave rise to the report that on Sunday Simpkin had
inquired from an usher whether St. George’s was the church attended by the
Morgan family. Neither Dr. Reiland nor any other of the church officials had any
information concerning this report. Dr. Reiland felt certain that if any inquiry
of such a nature had been made it would have been reported to him. It was said
that the man spoke to nobody when he entered the church and did nothing to
attract attention.
At Yorkville Prison, where he was confined last night, Simpkin smoked a great
many cigarettes and read a copy of a magazine on mechanics. He told the keeper
that he was studying mechanics so he could “break out of jail.” A close watch
was kept on him.
Simpkin told the story of his wanderings and of his hallucinations for the last
seven years to Assistant District Attorneys Dineen and Shaughnessy. He also made
a statement at police headquarters before he was taken to court.
“I’m not sorry for what I did,” he said after his arraignment. “I’m only sorry
for Dr. Markoe’s wife. My heart aches for her. If I had the chance I’d do it all
over again. If I had gotten away with this I would have killed Congressman
George B. Miller, of Duluth. I heard Miller say in a speech, ‘If you see an
I.W.W., kill him.’ Any man advocating the killing of another man should be
killed himself.
“I came to this country to kill J. Pierpont Morgan, but when I arrived I learned he was dead.”
Wanted to Rest Aching Head.
Asked by Mr. Shaughnessy what induced him to shoot Dr. Markoe,
Simpkin said: “I justify this deed because I wanted to wake up people.”
He said he was attracted to the church, “lured by the beautiful chimes of St.
George’s in order to rest my aching head.”
Simpkin said he had escaped five times from insane asylums, always “at the
psychological moment.” He escaped three times from the State Insane Asylum at
Fergus Falls, Minn., where he had transcribed hundreds of messages which he said
came from “the spirit world.” He escaped from an asylum in Winnipeg, where his
wife had him confined, and last Thursday from the Eastern State Hospital at
Williamsburg, Va.
When transcribed his narrative as related to Mr. Dineen will take up about 100
typewritten pages. Here is a summary of the salient features of his story :
“I was born in the Borough of Bow, London, in 1879. My father was a printer on
the London Times. He died of a tumor shortly after I was born. My mother was
sent to an insane asylum and I was brought up in an orphanage.”
“My sister, Mrs. Florence Grace Quigley, lives in London, and my brother Charles
P. Simpkin, was a printer for The New York Herald a year ago, the last time I
saw him. I ran away from my brother because he asked me questions about my
rolling eyes and I was afraid he would say I was crazy.
“I came to this country in 1912. The sinking of the Titanic started me thinking
about dead people and it was hard to stop. I went back and saw my mother in
London and said it was my mission that I go to Canada.
Wanted to Make World Better.
“I wanted to make the world better, I married Maude E. Shelley,
an English girl, in Winnipeg. She had been a friend of the family. We had three
children but I saw only two of them.
“One night I had a vision of Christ and the resurrection and told my wife about
it. I told her I saw a great multitude of people. They pointed their fingers at
me and said, ‘That’s he. He is the only one who can stop the war.’ My wife
thought I was crazy and committed me to an asylum. I escaped and we moved to
Minnesota where she told a clergyman of my vision. He had me sent to the asylum
at Fergus Falls. The minister was Dr. Gebour of 533 East Superior Street,
Duluth.
“I escaped from the asylum three times. The first two times I just walked out.
An attendant warned me that if I escaped again and was returned I would go out
in a wooden box. I escaped a third time and let myself down to the ground. Then
I bought a revolver to protect myself.
“The Eastern Star Lodge sent my wife back to England and the third child was
born there.
“I went to Chicago and as I was afraid I would be sent to an asylum again I used
my wife’s name, Shelley, and worked as a non-union printer. I didn’t dare to
show my card in the typographical union.
“After a while I came to New York and worked as a printer once at Jacques’ in
Forty-second Street, near Lexington Avenue, and afterwards at the Ashley Press,
on East Sixty-fifth Street.
“Then I heard of a job open in Richmond, Va., and I went there. I lived
at 708 West Grey Street. I went to a
hospital, where I had two operations for tumor. This was at Memorial Hospital. I
went to the Sheltering Arms Hospital for another operation. The operations cost
me $187. Then my head felt queer again and I went of my own accord to the
Eastern State Hospital at Williamsburg, Va.
Comes to New York.
“I escaped from the institution and came to New York. I had put
the revolver in the suit case. I took it out and when I got to the Pennsylvania
Station on Sunday morning I put the gun in my pocket. My head hurt and I wanted
music. I remembered the chimes of St. George’s, where I had worshipped before,
and so I walked to Stuyvesant Park. The chimes were playing and I was soothed. Then
I went into the church.
“My mind has always been attracted to people of religion and religious
institutions. A year ago I heard Father Gillis, one of the Paulist Fathers, in a
church at Columbus Avenue and Sixtieth Street. He is the best orator I ever
heard.
“In St. George’s yesterday I was pleased and felt all right until I heard the
minister say that some people seem to ignore others and don’t treat them kindly.
Then I shot the man who passed the plate.
“Murder came into my heart after a foreman in a printing shop in the West told
me that if I had no money to keep my mouth shut. After that I decided to have my
say. I reached my decision in the church.”
“Did you have anything against Dr. Markoe?” he was asked.
“Nothing whatever - I had never seen him.”
“Why did you think of killing Mr. Morgan and Congressman Miller?”
“I had heard that they said the I.W.W. ought to be killed.”
“Are you friendly to the I.W.W.?”
Doesn’t Like Wilson Administration.
“No. I am opposed to them. I admire President Wilson but I don’t
like his administration. I think a republican form of government is best, and I
think that anybody who advocates killing anybody else should be killed himself.”
“Did you think that Mr. Markoe advocated killing anybody?”
“No, but the minister said to wake up and I woke up.”
“The statement of Simkin that he had worked for the Ashley Press was verified by
Frank B. Ashley, head of the concern at 122 East Sixty-fifth Street.
“He left us about a year ago,” said Mr. Ashley, “having worked as a compositor
for about four months. He gave the name of Thomas W. Shelley and appeared to be
a trustworthy employee, although his readiness to argue on all subjects and
apropos everything that was said got him the reputation of an erratic sort of
person in the shop. He was good natured though and not disliked.”
Simpkin left the place after a dispute with shop companions.
“Charles P. Simpkin, a brother of the prisoner lives at 15, Franklin Street,
Astoria, and is a printer on a morning newspaper in Manhattan.
“I cannot understand what led my brother to commit this deed with which he has
been charged,” he said. “There is no insanity in my family so far as I know. My
brother visited me when I lived in Woodside last Summer. He told me that his
family was in the West and that he was going to Chicago. That is the last I saw
or heard of him. I did not even know that he was in New York City. Since he has
been here he has not communicated with me.”
A telegram received yesterday from George W. Brown, superintendent of the
Eastern State Hospital, Williamsburg, Va., said that Simpkin voluntarily entered
the institution on March 15 and escaped on April 15. “He gave no indication of
violence,” the telegram said. “He was affable and cheerful and apparently had no
grudge against any one.”
Many of Same Type at Large.
Noted specialists who were asked last night about mental
disorders, with especial reference to the case of Simpkin, who has apparently
been composed in mind ever since he killed Dr. Markoe, agreed that men of his
type are dangerous and should never be released from an asylum, as they are
incurable, but that there are many of them at liberty. Dr. A.A. Brill of 1 West
Seventieth Street said there are many persons of the same type as Simpkin at
large, as they can readily conceal their dementia.
“The trouble is that we cannot keep them in the asylum always,” said Dr. Brill,
“because relatives and friends who visit the place talk to the victims
superficially and imagine them to be entirely cured. They take the case to the
courts and the jury, not knowing any better, orders the person to be released.”
“Dr. Smith Ely Jeliffe of 64 West Fifty-sixth Street said that from what he had
heard he believed Simpkin to have a “very deep-seated mental disease.”
“Undoubtedly a great many types of that disorder cannot be appreciated by the
lay mind,” he said. “He is a very sick individual in my estimation, and may be
suffering from acute delirium which may develop into homicidal paranoia.”
Dr. M.B. Heyman, superintendent of the Manhattan State Hospital, said that “men
of the paranoiac type usually are adroit and plausible until they commit some
overt act, and then, for perhaps the first time, their insanity is made known to
the lay mind.”
Plans for the Funeral.
Funeral services for Dr. Markoe will take place tomorrow morning
at 10 o’clock in the chapel of St. George’s Church. The funeral will be strictly
private, with only the physician’s relatives and most
intimate friends present. Dr. Karl Reiland, rector of the church, who had been
intimately associated with Dr. Markoe during the many years of his service as a
vestryman, will officiate.
A private funeral, it was explained yesterday, was necessary to keep away
inquisitive strangers who, having read of the physician’s tragic death, would be
attracted to the church. The arrangements are in the hands of Charles L. Sargent,
Jr., son-in-law of Mrs. Markoe. There will be not more than 200 present. These
will include a delegation from the Police Department, as a token of respect for
Dr. Markoe’s service as a police surgeon some twenty-five years ago. The
trustees of the Lying-in Hospital, which Dr. Markoe was instrumental in putting
into its present important position, using funds furnished by the late J.
Pierpont Morgan, also are expected to attend.
Daughter Hastening Home.
Following the services, the body will be taken to a receiving
vault at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, where it will remain for a few days, pending
the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. William Jay Schieffelin, Jr., son-in-law and
daughter of Dr. Markoe, from California. The couple went to the Pacific Coast
about four weeks ago. They were informed by telegram of the death of Dr. Markoe
just after its occurrence. They were said to be in San Francisco yesterday and
will leave immediately for the East.
Mrs. Markoe, the physician’s widow, was said to be somewhat recovered from the
shock yesterday, and will be present at the services. At the Sargent home, 46
East Seventy-fourth Street, where the body of Dr. Markoe was taken from the
hospital on Sunday
night, many letters of condolence and floral tributes were received.
WILL NOT RECONSECRATE.
Ceremony for St. George’s Church Not Required by Episcopal Law.
St. George’s Protestant Episcopal Church will not have to be
reconsecrated because murder was committed within its walls Sunday when Dr.
James W. Markoe was shot. Bishop Charles S. Burch said last evening :
“I have never heard of anything like that being done in the Episcopal Church.
There is nothing, to my knowledge, in our canon law that calls for the
reconsecration of a church.”
The Rev. Dr. Loring W. Batten, a professor in the General Episcopal Theological
Seminary, said: “There is nothing in our canon law requiring a reconsecration of
a church. The fact that a murder was committed within its sacred walls does not,
in our minds, affect the character of the church.”