Show r SUICIDE CLUB REVEAlED BY BYMAN MAN DEAT 24 of 50 Members May Have Killed Selves as Part of Cult Belief WOMAN HELD IN SLAYING Denies Killing Brother and Reveals Weird Group MINEOLA l L. L I L May 16 United I Press Press Residents Residents of a quiet Long Island town near here I were ere startled today to learn of a suicide cult cull which alread weird already ma may have claimed the lives of twenty four of its original fUt fifty members The existence of or such a club came cameto to light authorities s said with the I arrest of a year old spinster Louise Schwartz who is under indictment on ona ona a a. second degree murder charge In connection with the death of her Invalid invalid In in- valid brother Edward 55 Miss Schwartz was taken into custody custody cus eus tody when police pollee said they had learned she wa was wa the only one who ha opportunity or the motive for firing the shot which took her suffering suffering suffer suffer- ing brothers brother's life lICe The Thc tall angular woman oman Is of an old and respected family here herc and had devoted nearly all n of her life to the care of her brother She denied the killing kUling and told palice police po pa- lice her brother took his own life lUe as asa asa asa a member of the suicide club Schwartz was found last Wednesday freshly shaven and dressed In his best clothes seated In an easy chair dead His ankles were crossed and a revolver Continued on rue Page Two TIo S SUICIDE CLUB REVEALED BY BYMAN'S MANS MAN'S HEATH Continued from Face laro One lay ay in his lap tap loosely clutched in his right hand He had two wounds in inUs his Us head Police at first accepted the suicide theory until the coroner pointed out that hat one of the shots destroyed his motor centers and It would have been Impossible for him to have fired the second shot hot which caused his death The Tie coroner also said that as Schwartz was a a. helpless Invalid It I would have been impossible for him to dress himself Miss Schwartz was then arrested I She told authorities that if it she shot I him ilm she did so while my soul had flown own from my body Her brother she tie said had suffered almost I ably bly for the past PMt twenty years ears and I they hey had agreed that it was best for fori him to end it all I This agreement came she said after a meeting of the suicide club at t her home when members offered prayers for relief of his suffering to tono tono too no o avail avaU The cult originally composed composed com posed of fifty aged and suffering members but with only twenty six remaining re rc had an unwritten law she said aid whereby It was understood that If f the weekly prayers for some member memo mem ber failed the tho victim would end his life Ife It was under this understanding that hat the brother and sister decided it w was as best for him to end his life she said aid She helped him put on his best clothes lothes shaved him and placed him himIn himin in n the easy chair s so that he would look ook his best In death She then got the revolver and handed It to ilm him she said leaving the house shortly thereafter not to return until five Ive hours later When she got back her brother was dead She called for fora a neighbor who summon summoned d police Authorities were at first Inclined to place lace little credence in her story until un tn til 11 she told of how another member ot of f the club George Breitenbach had hanged himself In tho the cellar of his home lome after the clubs prayers had failed ailed Authorities looked up the case and nd found the de details taUs of the death of Breitenbach coincided In every detail with her description Miss Schwartz went on to name nearly early a a. dozen late residents of Suffolk Suf folk oik county who as members of ot the club lub had ended their lives es Police Pollee were ere attempting to learn the names or of f other members to ascertain whether the m missing ing twenty four four of ofle the le original fifty had met death at their heir own hands |