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Show Woman Beaten, Kicked; Shoots ate to Death Fatal Gun Is Overlooked By Husband and It Costs His Life. CHICAGO. Charles Mueller, 41, a war veteran, was shot and fatally wounded by his wife, Lucille, in their apartment. Less than two minutes before the shooting, Mueller had taken apart or made harmless two guns, but overlooked a third. This lapse cost his life. A witness to the battle and shooting shoot-ing was Frank A. Dell Aquila. From his story and that of Mrs. Mueller, the police learned details of the slaying. Wife Asks Help, Dell Aquila was working on the first floor partment for his own use when Mrs. Mueller appealed to him for aid, complaining her husband had beaten her. He went upstairs and lectured both. While he was there, he said, Mueller went into a bedroom, took a revolver apart, and unloaded a pistol. Then, as Mueller led Dell Aquila toward the kitchen, Mrs. Mueller threw a glass ash tray at her husband. hus-band. Mueller returned, Dell Aquila told police, knocked his wife to the floor and kicked her. Then the two men walked toward the kitchen again. Mrs. Mueller ran to a second bedroom and got a .25 caliber Spanish type pistol, which Mueller had overlooked. She fired two shots at the men, but missed. Del Aquila ran into the kitchen for protection, but Mueller wheeled around and faced his wife. She fired again, hitting him twice in the abdomen. Mrs. Mueller called police, saying, say-ing, "I just shot my husband." When a squad arrived they found Mueller on the floor, his head on a pillow placed by his wife. She was declaring her love for him, but also saying, "You shouldn't have kicked me, Charles." Died in Hospital. Police asked her if she shot him. She nodded. They asked how many times, and they said she cried, "I don't know, but if I had had 25 bullets bul-lets in the gun, I'd have used them aU." Mueller was taken to Loretto hospital, hos-pital, where he died 10 minutes later. Mrs. Mueller said she was married mar-ried to Mueller two years ago after they met in Kansas. It was his third marriage and he had an 18-year-old daughter, she said. "He was always beating me and telling me to get out," she added. "He said that I was too old for him and that he hated the sight of me." Mrs. Mueller denied that either was .drinking that day. When she asked him to join her in their usual drink before dinner, she related, he took the bottle and smashed it in the kitchen sink. Mrs. Lona Baits, who visited the Muellers before the fatal quarrel, said that both Mueller and his wife were enthusiastic hunters and both "good shots." She said Mueller always al-ways praised his wife as being the better marksman. |