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Minnesota Sad Tales

The Minneapolis Journal, March 1, 1913, p. 1

WOMAN SHOT, MAY DIE;
SUED HUSBAND SOUGHT BY POLICE ,

Bullet Cuts Optic Nerves and Keeps Victim From Seeing Assailant.

DIVORCE ACTION CHARGES HUSBAND WITH THREATS

Passerby Hears Groans and Finds Wounded Woman Near Death.

Following the shooting of Mrs. Marie Phillips at her home in the rear of her grocery store, 3857 Thirty-eighth avenue S. at 7 a.m. today, the police were searching for her husband, Samuel Phillips, from whom she has been separated for about four months. Phillips, his wife said, had on a number of occasions threatened to take her life, following her suit for divorce, filed Jan. 11. Phillips was in court on Feb. 21, in contempt proceedings, for alleged failure to respect a court order restraining him from interfering with his wife.

At that time Mrs. Phillips charged that her husband lay in wait for her in a shed near the store and threatened to kill her.

Sight May Be Destroyed.

The bullet, fired by someone Mrs. Phillips said she did not see, entered the cheek to the right of her nose, coursed upward into the brain, and apparently destroyed her optic nerves, causing blindness. She was reported to be in a dying condition at the city hospital, but if she should live the attending physicians believe that she will never be able to see again.

The entire detective force was ordered to investigate the case thoroughly and apprehend Phillips. Two detectives, Melvin Passolt and Alfred Johnson, were sent to St. Paul, where, it is said, Phillips has been living recently following separation from his wife.

While passing the store soon after the shooting, Walter A. Wood, a barber employed in the Beaufort hotel shop, heard a woman groaning and screaming in the Phillips home, and he rushed through the store to the living room, where he found Mrs. Phillips lying on the floor with blood streaming from a bullet wound in her face. He notified the police and she was hurried to the city hospital.

During a few moments of apparent consciousness Mrs. Phillips told Sergeant Thomas Mullin, who was detailed to the case, that she did not know who shot her; that she did not think it was her husband. The police were working on the theory that Phillips when found may be able to throw some light on the mystery.

Victim's Story.

Later, at the hospital, during a short period of consciousness, Mrs. Phillips told Detective Passolt and Johnson and Herman Liss, municipal court clerk, that she did not see the man who shot her.

According to the detectives, Mrs. Phillips said that during the night she had stayed with her niece, Miss Bessie Levinson, 3847 Thirty-seventh avenue S. fearing to be alone in her home at the rear of the grocery store. She left the Levinson home about 7 a.m. to open up for the day's business. She entered the store and went directly to her living room at the rear to remove her wraps when someone whom she says she did not see, bounded out from behind a door and struck her in the face. Then she said she heard a crash, which the police believe to have been the noise of the revolver, and she fell to the floor unconscious. Mrs. Phillips told the detectives that she did not know that she had been shot.

Says Husband Threatened.

Working on the theory that Phillips might be able to throw light on the mystery surrounding the shooting, the detective questioned Mrs. Phillips concerning her husband's actions since she filed suit for divorce in January. She told that Phillips hung around the store on a number of occasions, threatening with the assertion: "I am going to get you."

She said she thought Phillips had a key to the store, and that the person who assailed her must have entered the place in the night and secreted himself there.

In the room where the shooting occured a .38 caliber revolver with one chamber empty was found; also a pair of gloves, which were later declared by Bessie Levinson to be Phillips' property, according to the police. She did not know how long they had been there.

Victim Beaten, Too.

Hurried examination of the woman's wounds at the hospital showed that the bullet entered her cheek at the right of her nose. Her face was bruised, and it appeared that she had been beaten by someone.

A severe contusion at the base of the scull, which might have caused concussion of the brain, was believed by the police to have been caused when the woman fell to the floor after being shot.

Bessie Levinson, with whom Mrs. Phillips has been living recently, told that Mr. and Mrs. Phillips married life had not been happy. They were married four years ago, and have been separated about four months, following a suit for divorce brought by the wife, the girl said. Mrs. Phllips declared in her petition, which is now pending, that Phillips was given to drinking and was abusive.

The niece declared that on a number of occasions Phillips had attempted to see his wife, but that she feared him and would not admit him to their home. About a week ago, she said, Philips went to the store to see his wife, and that when she saw him approaching she bolted the door.

Records Show Trouble.

Samuel Phillips was before District Judge H. D. Dickinson, Feb. 21, on contempt proceedings, growing out of his alleged failure to respect a court order of Jan. 20, restraining him from interfering with his wife pending a divorce action she brought Jan. 11.

In the divorce action Mrs. Maria Phillips gave her age at 41 and that of her husband as 53 years. Divorce was asked on the grounds of alleged excessive drinking and cruelty and inhuman treatment.

Temporary alimony was requested by Mrs. Phillips. Her husband informed Judge Dickinson that he had no means.

The Minneapolis Journal, March 2, 1913, p. 1

MAN HUNT IS ON; PHILLIPS SOUGHT

Woman Shot, Believed Dying, Fights For Life While Police Trail Husband.

SAMUEL PHILLIPS,

Fifty-three years old; five feet, five inches tall, 138 pounds, gray hair, sandy gray mustache, somewhat bald, face is thin. He wore a black overcoat when last seen.

While Mrs. Marie Phillips lay blinded in the city hospital last night fighting what, it is believed, will prove a vain struggle for life, the Minneapolis police, in person and by wire, searched the northwest for her husband, who had left the woman a month ago and had been sued by her for divorce.

Mrs. Phillips was probably fatally injured yesterday by a bullet which severed her optic nerve. Who fired the shot she is unable to tell. The assault occurred in the living room back of her store at 3857 Thirty-eighth avenue S. Phillips' gloves were found on a chair in the room in which Mrs. Phillips was shot. Mrs. Phillips had recently [obtained] a court order restraining her husband from annoying her.

Philips has been living for a month in a rented room somewhere in the twin cities, the location of which he kept a secret, and for this room the police are searching.

The Minneapolis Journal, March 7, 1913, p. 10

PHILIPS GUARDED AT WIFE'S FUNERAL

Formal Charge Against Slain Woman's Husband Promised During Obsequies.

Walking between two armed detectives, Samuel Philips today went to the county morgue to attend the funeral of his wife, Marie Philips, who died early yesterday at the city hospital as the result of a mysterious shooting in her store, 3857 Thirty-eighth avenue S. Philips, who was wanted by the police to help them solve the mystery, gave himself up to the police Wednesday, but no charge has yet been placed against him.

While Philips was at the funeral a charge was to be placed against him, according to Chief of Police Oscar Martinson.

Louis L. Schwartz, attorney for Philips, today notified the police that he would demand a formal charge or the release of his prisoner. He said that if a charge was not on the books after the funeral he would obtain a writ of habeas corpus. Chief Martinson said the charge would be made.

There was to be a brief funeral service at the morgue, and the interment and further services were to take place at the Adath Yeshurun cemetery. The Adath Yeshurun Burial society took charge of the services.

Mrs. Philips and her husband formerly conducted a store together, but divorce proceedings were begun and she took charge of the store. When she entered the living rooms back of the store March 1, after spending the night with a niece, someone shot her. She died early yesterday.

For five days Philips could not be found, but Wednesday, with his attorney, he went to police headquarters and gave himself up. He said he had been sick in his room at 35 Washington avenue S. He claims to remember nothing that happened March 1.

The Minneapolis Journal, March 8, 1913, p. 1

PHILIPS IS HELD ON MURDER CHARGE

Detectives File Formal Complaint - Husband Asks Probate of Wife's Estate

Charged with the premeditated murder of his wife, Samuel Philips was today arraigned in municipal court before Judge E. A. Montgomery and after he waived examination was held to the grand jury without bail. The complaint, sworn out by Detective Fritz Ohman, charges Philips with shooting his wife when she entered her store at 3857 Thirty-eighth avenue S, March 1.

Mrs. Philips, on entering the living apartments back of her store, was shot by a man who jumped out from behind a door. She died early Thursday before she could make a statement.

While Philips was being arraigned in municipal court, a petition for probating the estate of Mrs. Philips was being filed in the probate court. Philips is the only heor-at-law to the estate and there is no will. The petition is filed in order that a sale of the little store and goods at 3857 Thirty-eighth avenue S may be made to George Philips of Grand Forks, N. D., a son of the accused man by a former marriage. The estate is estimated at $700. Mrs. Bessie Levinson, 3845 Thirty-seventh avenue S, is a niece of the dead woman. Other near relations of the dead woman are a sister, Mrs. Annie Silverman, Grand Forks, N. D., and two nieces, Mrs. Bessie Levinson, 3845 Thirty-seventh avenue S, and Mrs. Annie Grossman, Grand Forks, N. D.

Philips could not be found for several days following the shooting, but he went to police headquarters late Wednesday and gave himself up, saying he had been sick in his room at 35 Washington avenue S. He professed to remember nothing that happened on the day of the shooting.

The funeral of Mrs. Philips took place late yesterday at Adath Yeshuran cemetery, being conducted by the Adath Yeshuran Burial society.

The Minneapolis Journal, March 9, 1913, p. 13

WIFE KILLED SELF, PHILIPS' DEFENSE

Suspect Claims Slain Woman's Estate at Same Time - He Is Arraigned as Murderer

Declaring that his wife had taken her own life and that the evidence the police have obtained substantiates that theory rather than the theory that he killed her, Samuel Philips, prisoner in the county jail charged with the murder of Marie Philips, at their store, 3857 Thirty-eighth avenue S, said last night that he was confident of acquittal. The grand jury will consider his tomorrow.

Philips said last night that when he told Chief Oscar Martinson that he did not remember of being at the store on March 1, when his wife was shot, he meant it as a denial. Points which he said be believed would prove his wife shot herself are:

Philips was arraigned yesterday before Municipal Judge E. A. Montgomery, waived examination and was held to the grand jury without bail.

Almost at the same time a petition asking that he be declared the sole heir to his wife's estate was filed in the probate court together with a request for permission to sell the store, which is valued at $700.

The Minneapolis Journal, March 13, 1913, p. 6

PHILIPS IS INDICTED AS SLAYER OF WIFE

Samuel R. Philips, whose wife, Marie Philips, was mysteriously shot to death March 1 at her home, 3857 Thirty-fifth [sic] avenue S, was formally indicted on a charge of first degree murder by the Hennepin county grand jury today. He probably will not be taken into court to plead until tomorrow.

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