"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 DeNicoli 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.