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These articles were articles that Virginia
(Webbe) Smith had saved. Notes that Virginia had put with them were, the large article
"Cleveland Plain Dealer Nov. 6, 1894" for the smaller, "Cleveland Plain
Dealer? Feb. or March 1875" . Also for the smaller article she writes "The first
mentioned person, Mrs Ruth Webbe, was my paternal grandmother. Her youngest son Earnest
Albert Webbe was my father. Virginia C. Smith" Retyped here for your pleasure and
preservation are the two articles she had saved - BW
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MORNING AND SUNDAY
10 Cents Per Week.
CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER
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Fifty-Third Year.
CLEVELAND, 0., TUESDAY MORNING NOVEMBER 6, 1894
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DEADLY BULLETS
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Double Tragedy Startles the Village of Collinwood.
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An Angry Husband Murdered His Wife and Kills Himself.
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A Farmer's Terrible Crime.
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Met his Wife with a Revolver, Fired Three bullets into her body. Then sent a Leaden
Messanger Into His Own Throat-The Victim the Divorced Wife of De Muth the Crayon Portrait
Artist Graphic Description of the Shooting.
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Three fatal shots were fired into the body of
Nellie Johnson by her husband, Humphrey Johnson, of Collinwood yesterday afternoon, after
which he turned the revolver on himself and forever blotted out his worthless life. The
small children are left without a mother's protection and with the memory that she was
murdered. The crime is of the most sensational nature, but lacks the fiendishness
displayed in the murder of his wife by Lafayette Prince in Noble short time since.
It was shortly after 1 o'clock yesterday when Mrs. Nellie Johnson returned to her borne
at Lyman and St. Clair streets.
She had been to the store, and as she entered the side door of the pretty little home
and passed into the sitting room she saw her husband standing beside a bed in the dining
room, which had been converted into a bed chamber. He held a revolver in his hand and
started toward her. She screamed and fled from the house. As she reached the pavement on
Lyman street a bullet crashed through the window behind her and found lodgment in her
back. She fell, and, after turning a complete somersault, landed on her back. She
had hardly fallen before Johnson was beside her and fired two more shots into her body.
Death must have been instantaneous, for when Benjamin Carter, a market gardener, rushed to
her from across the street, there was not the sign of a pulse beat.
As Carter reached Mrs. Johnson the murderer turned and walked into the house, shutting
the door. The next moment there was the report of a pistol shot, followed by a heavy fall.
Calling a young man to his assistance Carter carried the body of the murdered woman to
the home of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. William Webb, a short distance down Lyman Street.
Returning toward the Johnson house they found Johnson's fourteen-year-old son lying
upon the sidewalk screaming at the top of his voice "I saw papa kill mama.' He kept
repeating this as fast as he could articulate. He was given into the care of a neighbor.
Marshals A.J. Waite and F.M. Ruple were summoned. They burst open the door to the
house, where they found Johnson lying on his back in the bedroom, with his head in a pool
of blood. He was still living, but expired shortly afterwards. Johnson had placed the
revolver to his mouth and shot straight down his throat, the bullet cutting away the main
veins and arteries of the neck from which the blood spurted in a stream. Beside him and
clutched tightly in his right hand was the weapon of destruction, a huge American bulldog
revolver. It contained one loaded and four empty cartridges, and as three bullet holes
were found in the woman's body every shot fired had reached a mark.
In the roadway. a short distance from where Mrs. Johnson fell dead, a six-cylinder
British bulldog revolver with the chambers empty was found. Its presence there was
explained shortly after by the story of the little boy, Arthur. He said that his father
had resumed his frequent quarrels with Mrs. Johnson Sunday afternoon and she had secured
possession of the revolver found in the roadway. Evidently contemplating murder Johnson
had gone to the gun store yesterday morning and purchased the revolver with which he
committed the double crime. When Mrs. Johnson started to run away from the house she
carried the empty revolver, dropping it as she fell.
In less than an hour after the tragedy was committed Coroner Arbuckle, Patrolmen Creter
and Thomas and a reporter for this paper reached the scene. With the assistance of
Undertaker C.S. Mapes, who afterwards took charge of the remains, the bodies were examined
for wounds. There was but one bullet fired by Johnson into his own body. It had passed
down his throat, breaking the lower jawbone and cutting out the root of the tongue. Death
was plainly due to internal hemborrage. Three bullet holes were found in the body of Mrs.
Johnson. One bullet had entered her back near the spinal column, another had cut through
the shoulder directly above the right breast, severing the main arteries. The other, and
the one that would have been instantly fatal in itself, had entered the right breast a
short distance above the nipple. In this case there had been internal hemborrages which
would have choked the woman to death.
As soon as the news of the murder became known it seemed as though the entire
population of Collinwood gathered on the spot intent on making short work of Johnson if he
still lived. The appeared to deeply regret that he was dead. Large numbers of the
villagers continued to hang about the spot till a late hour. Arthur, the little son of
Mrs. Johnson, was so overcome by the scene he had witnessed that he was placed under the
care of Dr. J. T. Smith.
The terrible affair was the culmination of a continuous quarrel between husband and
wife since their marriage seven months age, due to Johnson's fierce and ungovernable
temper, which before had involved him in serious trouble. A few months ago he cut and
nearly killed a man in Collinwood and only escaped conviction by chance. At the time of
the cutting he was suffering with a broken ankle. Three weeks ago he broke his left arm
and still carried it in splints at the time of the shooting yesterday.
Johnson was seventy years old and was a widower of three years when he met and married
Mrs. Johnson. Three years ago Mrs. Johnson was one of the most talked of women in
Cleveland, owing to the divorce case she was engaged in. She applied for and secured a
divorce from her husband, a crayon portrait artist named De Muth. Her allegations were
that he threw her down cellar, pulled her about the yard by the hair and abused her
generally. Mrs. De Muth was herself an artist of some repute. Many of her pictures being
placed on exhibition in the New York Academy of Art. Through her marriage with De Muth she
had three children, who are John, aged fifteen years; Arthur, aged fourteen years, and
Lithe, aged thirteen years. After her divorce from De Muth she supported herself and
children by the brush, and De Muth went to San Francisco, where he now lives. One of Mrs.
De Muth's children, a half witted boy named Daniel, fell from a street car a year ago this
month and was killed. De Muth was not her first husband, she having been married to a man
named Trowbridge many years ago. By him she had a son named Fred, who is now twenty years
of age and lives on Woodland avenue.
Although forty years old Mrs. Johnson still bore traces of her former beauty and was
what might be called a pretty woman. She was of English parentage, as was her husband. At
the time of her marriage to Trowbridge she resided in Pittsburg, where she was rapidly
making for herself a reputation as an artist. When she married Johnson she went to live
with him in the house where the murder occurred yesterday.
Shortly after her marriage Mrs. Johnson sent to England for her parents and younger
brother and they arrived here three months or more age. They took up their abode in a neat
little house, with a stone front, on Lyman street, a short distance from the Johnson house
and on the same property, all of which was owned by Johnson. Mrs. Webb, Mrs. Johnson's
mother, early began to object to the manner in which Johnson treated his wife, all of
which made Johnson the more vicious in his attacks on his wife. After having made out his
will in favor of his wife he called at Mapes', the undertaker, who had the will, and
taking it from him destroyed it. He was possessed of much property, both personal and
real, and a short tome since sold a large tract of land in Euclid to W. I. Lindsely.
Besides the real estate owned by Johnson it is said he had $15,000 in the bank.
The body of both Johnson and his wife were removed to Mapes' morgue, where they were
prepared for burial. A postmortem was not deemed necessary by the coroner.
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