Globeville, Colorado Rocky Mountain News, May 13, 1901
The mysterious shooting of Mrs. Anna Wiederspahn, at the home of Louis Loos, in Globeville, early Sunday morning has roused the town to excitement and speculation.
One minute before the tragedy she was kneeling at the bedside of Loos' wife, ministering in love and kindness to the woman who was passing through the critical period of motherhood, and the next she passed into the kitchen where a shot was fired. A light was struck and she was found lying in a pool of blood with a
bullet wound in her left temple. This was at 2:00 Sunday morning and since then the authorities have vainly endeavored to solve the puzzle of her death. Close by her side lay a .38 caliber revolver, but there were no signs that she had committed suicide. Her face bore no marls of powder buns and her family says she could never be induced to handle a weapon.
Many believe the shooting, while probably accidental, was the act of Loos, the husband of the woman Mrs. Weiderspahn, as she was known by her neighbors, went to wait. Loos is in a desperate mood over the shooting and has, according to several citizens of Globeville, told conflicting stories.
Ex-Marshall Johnson says Loos came to him a few minutes after the shooting and said he had killed Mrs. Weiderspahn. The family of the dead woman say that Mr. Loos appeared at their home in great excitement saying his brother had killed the woman. Mr. Loos yesterday said the death was accidental and offers no satisfactory account of the tragedy. He has not been arrested, as his protestations of innocence are taken in good faith, and the two families have been on very intimate terms.
Important light is thrown on the mystery by William Wheeler of 1723 Thirty-fifth street, and Dan Corkey of Globeville. They were coming from a dance at Argo, and passed the Loos house about 2:00 in the morning. They say they distinctly heard four shots fired. Joseph Heim, town magistrate, examined the weapon and found it contained five empty shells.
Mrs. Weiderspahn was a prominent member of the Lutheran church of Globeville. As an intimate friend of the Loos family, she was called to their home about midnight of Saturday to render services to Mrs. Loos. Mr. Loos says she came, and went at once into the little bedroom off the kitchen. There she kneeled down by Mrs. Loos' bedside and prayed silently for a few minutes. Earlier in the evening, he says, he moved his revolver and other articles from the bedroom out onto the kitchen table. He says the gun was covered by some children's clothes.
After praying, he says, Mrs. Weiderspahn stepped into the kitchen. At that time he claims to have been in the front room sitting on the bed. He heard a shot and the light in the kitchen suddenly went out. When he struck a match he saw Mrs. Weiderspan lying on the floor, a stream of blood flowing from her left temple,
and the gun about three feet from her head. He roused the neighbors and went at once for his pastor and other citizens.
This is the story of the husband, told yesterday. On the night of the shooting he appeared greatly excited, and first told that his brother had done the shooting and next that he was "fooling" with the gun and accidentally shot Mrs. Weiderspahn.
A large crowd gathered at the Loos home, but the body was not disturbed until the coroner came. A close examination of Mrs. Weiderspahn's face did not reveal any powder marks and the weapon lay at some distance from her head. Her daughter, Miss Anna, says that she had a horror of firearms and the day before had refused to pick up a book that lay near one. It is not believed she would find the gun under the clothes on the table and handle it in a way to shoot herself.
T. F. Johnson was the first to examine the body and the kitchen closely. He found no signs of struggle and no signs indicating suicide. All talk of suicide is ridiculed by Mrs. Weidersphan's family and her pastor. She attended prayer meeting on the night of her death and made an unusually strong testimony, full of faith and hope, and is said to have been a model woman.
When the body was found it lay in the southeast corner of the kitchen in a diagonal position with the head near the wall, in the corner. The revolver was not near her hands.
Mrs. Weiderspahn was the wife of George Wiederspahn. She had six children, Anna, Amelia, Pauline, Jacob, and George. The family was grief stricken and the husband was almost crazed. The family home is at 377 North Logan Avenue, Globeville, and the husband is a laborer on the tramway. The Loos and Weiderspahn families lived in Russia together some twenty years ago. Their homes stood side by side, and the two families have always been intimate. Both families have lived in Globeville for about six years.
Loos is said to have been a somewhat unsavory reputation since coming to Globeville. He has been mixed up in several brawls and is said to have made the statement that nothing was ever said of a killing in Russia.
He was much perturbed throughout yesterday. It is stated by some of the neighbors that he had been drinking on Saturday. Loos' wife gave birth to a baby girl an hour after the shooting.
The Loos home is an unpretentious little dwelling on East Second Street, in the extreme western part of Globeville, not far from the Argo smelter. The kitchen in which Mrs. Weiderspahn met her death is small. No windows were up at the time of the shooting, and no shot could have entered from the outside.
The bullet wound does not bear the statement regarding suicide. While it is believed that someone else held the revolver from which the fatal shot was fired, it is not held that the killing was malicious. It is considered entirely accidental. There are no powder marks on the head about the wound. The bullet went straight in over the left ear and caused instant death. Statements of witnesses, as well as the facts concerning the condition of the body, will be submitted to the corner's jury.
The coroner was informed that Loos has been in trouble before. Justice of the Peace Heim said last night that Loos had a fight with Carl Goertz in a saloon on North Logan Avenue in February, assault to kill, said the justice, and was withdrawn.
Loos' statement to the officers is as follows: "About 12:00 Saturday night my wife told me to go over to Mrs. Weiderspahn's house and bring her to her. Mrs. Weiderspahn had acted as a mid-wife in the neighborhood, so she was the one my wife called for. I went directly, woke her up and told her my wife wanted her. She got up and I waited for her until she was ready to go.
"We then started out for my house. I had a 38-caliber revolver in my hip pocket. When we got to my house, I took the revolver out of my pocket and placed it on the table. I took a linen rag that was hanging on a chair and rubbed it over the barrel of the gun and then turned around and put it down again, and told Mrs. Weiderspahn that I was going to bed. She said all right. I went into the adjoining room and lay down on the bed, and was not awakened until I heard the discharge of the revolver.
"I jumped up and ran into the kitchen where she was and saw her lying on the floor with her head toward the window, dead. I picked her up in my arms and said Oh, Mrs. Weiderspahn, for God's sake are you dead? I could not stop any longer so I ran over to find the marshal to tell him but I could not get him. Then the neighbors came in"
Anna Margaret Schoessler-Weiderspahn was born 19 July 1873 in Walter Russia. Her parents were George and Anna Margaret Alles also of Walter.
