NO CLUE TO THE ASSASSIN
Real Estate Agent Cummings Never Recovers Consciousness Sufficiently To Tell a Story – Horribly Mangled With a Hatchet
W. A. Cummings, the leading real estate, insurance and loan agent of this city, who was found in his office yesterday morning with his head almost chopped to pieces with a hatchet, died last night without recovering more than partial consciousness, and the whole case is wrapped in mystery. So far there has not been found the slightest clue to the identity of the murderer or the motive for the crime.
Cummings recovered partial consciousness yesterday afternoon, but when asked by his brother if he could tell anything about the attack on him, he merely said, “I don’t know.” Then he relapsed into a state of unconsciousness and died at midnight.
Thursday afternoon Cummings hired a team at the stable of C. A. Japhet, saying that he wanted to drive several miles out into the country. Sometimes between 1 and 3 o’clock in the night he brought the team back to the stable and he got out, asked the boy who took it if he knew where “Van” was, alluding to a man who commonly worked about the barn. The boy answered, but Cummings repeated it several times, appearing not to understand the answer. The boy thought he was slightly intoxicated, although he was not a drinking man. He then walked out of the stable and was not seen again by anybody who can be found, until Dr. C. H. Boulson, whose office adjoins and connects with that of Cummings, entered his office at 11:30 o’clock yesterday morning and found him lying, covered with blood, upon the lounge on the north side of the room.
Cumming’s coat, vest, shoes, hat, collar and necktie had been removed and he was lying in a natural attitude as if asleep. The lounge, cushion and a small floor mat were under his head and his vest was wrapped around a large cuspidor, which was on the floor near the lounge and which had received most of the blood. A small mirror, which had hung upon the south side of the room, had been torn down and was leaning against the lounge. There was perhaps a pint of bloody water in a basin against the south wall, and the wall adjacent was sprinkled with diluted blood as if one had washed hastily. There was the mark of bloody fingers on a match box half open on a medicine table near the wash stand and the mark of scratched matches on the wall near where the mirror had been, suggesting that the murderer had tried to discover whether any blood remained upon him. An old rusty hatchet which belonged in the office was on the floor and blood and hair upon its blade showed plainly how it had been used. There were drops of blood upon a pad of note paper on the writing table in the middle of the room.
The blinds of the doctor’s office—which is on the second floor of a business building in the middle of town—were closely drawn. The connecting door between the other offices was open, but the outside door of both offices were locked and the key to his own room was in Cummings’ pocket.
Dr. Boulson had spent the night with a patient at a distance from town and arrived in Iola on the 11:10 o’clock passenger train. As soon as he reached his office and made the shocking discovery, he made it known.
Forepaugh’s circus was in town and as the news spread through the large crowd, there was intense excitement. Other physicians were summoned, the shirt and undershirt of the apparently dying man, which were soaked with blood, were removed and his wounds were dressed.
Fifteen separate blows had been dealt to Cummings’ head with the hatchet, ten of which blows penetrated to the brain. The surgeons removed a number of small fragments of the skull which had been off and were pressing against the brain. On the left arm were three deep cuts, evidently received in trying to ward off blows, and there was a severe bruise also on the right arm.
As the wounds were being dressed, stimulants were administered and about 4 o’clock the wounded man seemed to have recovered partial consciousness. He was then taken to his home. His brother, Dr. Cummings, who lives at Bronson, just over the line in Bourbon county, arrived in the afternoon and was recognized by the dying man, who put out his hand, saying, “Hello, doctor.” Asked how he was hurt, Cummings said, “I don’t know,” and relapsed into a state of semi-unconsciousness again and said nothing more that would throw any light on the mystery. The coroner will hold a searching inquest, but so far neither he nor the town officers have anything on which to work. The theory of suicide is scouted by every one.
Cummings had a partner, but the two men were on the best of terms and moreover the partner was away from town that night and did not return until about 10 o’clock in the morning. Dr. Boulson, the only other man who has a key to the rooms, was also out of town. Besides, the character of both these men is such as to preclude suspicion against them. The fact that both outside doors to the rooms were locked adds to the mystery which may never be solved.
Little can be learned of Cunnings’ movements Thursday afternoon and night after he left here, about 1 o’clock, for Colony. A moment before he started he was seen in his buggy talking with a stranger who stood on the ground. The stranger was apparently very much excited and angered, but it seemed that he had been offended by a third person over a transaction, which Cummings understood, and the conversation so far as the two were concerned was good natured. The conversation ended, Cummings drove away, going north toward Colony, and was seen to cross the Missouri Pacific railroad track at the edge of Iola. This was the last seen of him in Iola until he drove his horse into the livery barn, sometime between 1 and 3 o’clock yesterday morning.
While Cummings had the reputation among temperance people of being a temperate man, it is known that he drank regularly and sometimes to excess. The stable boy who received the team reiterates his original statement that Cummings conducted himself very much like a drunken man. He was in a sort of stupor and, although he was able to handle himself all right, his movements were heavy and he repeatedly asked the questions without paying any attention to the boy’s replies. This gives room for the theory that he had fallen in with some drinking friends on his journey or possibly had driven into Colony after he had transacted his business in the country and induled too freely in liquor.
The object of Cummings’ journey is supposed to have been to see a tenant named Lewis, who lives on a farm near Colony. It is said that Lewis was in Iola Wednesday, seeking to lease the farm of Cummings for a term of years. They agreed upon terms, but a condition precedent to the execution of the lease was that Lewis was to make a cash payment of $50. Lewis had not that sum with him and as some repairs to the house were necessary, Cummings agreed to visit the farm on the following day, when he would execute the papers.
Whether the murderer accompanied Cummings when he entered his office, followed him afterward or was concealed in the room before his victim arrived is, of course, a matter of conjecture. The most plausible theory, all the circumstances considered, is that the murderer entered the office and attacked him after he had fallen asleep on the couch in Dr. Boulson’s office.
The only keys to the rooms besides the one found in Cummings pocket are those belonging to Dr. Boulson and Dan Dry but the locks on the doors are common and it would be an easy matter to select a key out of a bunch of a dozen ordinary keys that would fit. The ease with which the murderer elected an entrance into the office is therefore readily accounted for but him evident familiarity with the room and its furnishings deepens the mystery. The office lamps show no sign of having been lighted and the burnt matches found in the tin wash bowl and elsewhere in the room prove that the visitor was so familiar with the place that he had no use for a light except flashes long enough for him to find the office hatchet which he evidently knew Dr. Boulson possessed.
That Cummings was attacked while asleep is also apparent. This is proved by the lack of any sign of a struggle and by the wounds on Cummings’ left arm. The position of the couch against the wall showed that he was lying on his right side and when he was aroused by the attack of the murderer, he instinctively threw up his left arm to ward off the blows. The inquest, it is expected, will be long and tedious. First the witnesses must be found and the movements of the murdered man will thereafter be traced from the hour of his supposed conversation with the farmer, Lewis, on Wednesday until the tragedy in his office. Couty Attorney Campbell will issue subpeonas this afternoon and send the sheriff over the road taken by Cummings and the inquest will be begun Monday. The funeral has been set for tomorrow afternoon at 3 o’clock.
Cummings carried $8,000 insurance in fraternal societies. A telegram from Colony says Cummings stopped there to feed his team and then proceeded east to see somebody who owed money to him. He was not seen at Colony after that. There seems to be no doubt among the authorities of Iola and others that the man who committed the murder, if not a resident of Iola, is well acquainted in the place and knew before Cummings left here Thursday afternoon that his errand was to make some collections of money due to him as an insurance agent and landlord. It is believed that when he left he had a quantity of liquor in his buggy in which he indulged with his tenants and other debtors whom he met on his journey. He probably went to his office to sleep off the traces of the liquor.
Two theories of the causes which led up to the murder are advanced. One is that the crime was committed for money and the other that it was an act of vengence by somebody with whom Cummings had had a quarrel over a matter of business. If it be found that he made collections, the theory of murder for money will be admitted as only a small sum was on his person. If he made no collections then it may be accepted that the murder was for revenge.
Cummings was about 37 years of and had lived here nearly all his life. He was happily married and had four children. The Kansas City Star, Kansas City, Missouri. August 25, 1894. Page 1.
WAS SUICIDE, NOT MURDER
After a week’s close inquiry into the circumstances attending the death of W. A. Cummings, the real estate agent who was found in his office Aug. 24 with his head hacked to pieces with a hatchet, the coroner’s jury has returned a verdict that “The said Cummings came to his death by reason of an overdose of morphine administered by himself, death being superinduced by loss of blood from wounds presumably inflicted by himself while suffering from delirium caused by morphine so administered.” The verdict is merely an official declaration of a conclusion upon which the community had already settled. The Wichita Eagle, Wichita, Kansas. September 5, 1894. Page 1.