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Show KILLS NEIGHBOR WHO IS BURGLAR Intruder Proves to be Woman, Mother of Three-Year-Old Daughter. St. Louis, Mo., Jan. 26. After a mysterious burglar had entered her hotj hore soveral times recently, Mrs. Jennie O. Thornburg determined to prevent further repetitions of tho intrusions. Tonight she darkened her home, and, revolver in hand, awaited the coming of the burglar. At about S o'clock her vigil was disturbed by someone filing the fastenings fast-enings of a bedroom window. After a few minutes the window was raised stealthily and someone crawled into the room. Mrs. Thornburg raised her revolver, and fired. Then she turned on the lights. There, on the floor, near the win-Hnw win-Hnw inv tho hnrlv nf n. woman. Mrs. Thornburg bent over tho quivering form and peered into the woman's face. It was Mrs. J. F. McWilliams, a neighbor and the mother of a three-year-old daughter. Jn her dead hand was clutched a thin, flat file. A pocket of her apron wsa filled with matches, and in another pocket were several unpaid coal bills. A little while before Mrs. McWilliams McWil-liams had sent her child to play with another neighbor's children. Mrs. McWilliams' Mc-Williams' husband is a railway mail clerk. Mrs. Thornburg tonight told the police po-lice her house had been entered several sev-eral times recently, and once a fur coat and six pairs of silk stockings had been stolen. In each case, she said, matches had been strewn about the house by the burglar. At the home of Mrs. McWilliams scores of cheap novels were found. Mrs. McWilliams was 26 years old and was considered unusually pretty. In October, 1913, she was tried on a charge of attempting to poison four persons at a house where she and her husband boarded, but was acquitted. ac-quitted. Late tonight Mrs. Thornburg told the police how she had set the trap which resulted in Mrs. McWilliams' death. "I suspected it was a neighbor who had been stealing things from my home,"," she said, "so tonight I went out and slammed the door that the noise might be heard by all the neighbors. 1 walked around the block and entered my home by a rear window win-dow which I had left open. Then I waited in the dark for the burglar to come." The clanging of the ambulance which came to take away the body of Mrs. McWilliams brought to the scene, among other children. Mrs. McWilliams' little daughter. The child saw the body of her mother, but did not recognize it, as a sheet covered the face. |