A. B. Brady, 65, Dies After Alleged Altercation with W. D. Whitney, 72

WOUNDED IN CHEST

Victim Lives Only Short Time; Charge of Murder Filed

A feud of 17 years' duration reached its climax Monday night when W. D. Whitney, 72, shot and mortally wounded Abner B. Brady, 65, at 520 Riverview.

The immediate cause of the shooting was an attempt by Brady to collect rent from Whitney.

Whitney sat last night in the police station and recited his version of the affair.

"I and my wife, Anna," he said, "had gone to bed. We heard Brady cursing. He said he wanted the rent he claimed we owed him. You see, we occupy the upstairs of this house on the front of the lot at 520 Riverview. He lives in the house at the rear.

"I had expected trouble and put a .38 caliber pistol in my pocket. I went downstairs and he was at the door. He shouted and yelled. Then he struck out at me and hit me in the eye," Whitney said, displaying marks on his left eye.

"Now I had heard the man was a knife fighter and I thought he had hit me with a knife. The blow in the eye knocked me over against some cord wood I had pulled just inside the door.

"As I got to my feet I expected him to knife me again (you see, I thought it was a knife the first time) so I pulled my pistol and shot. He fell back into the grass."

Mrs. Whitney told the same story of the affair as her husband.

When the shot rang out Mrs. Brady was standing at the door of the house at the back of the lot and she screamed. Elmer Higgs, 1623 Jackson, a son-in-law of Mrs. Brady, called police.

Officer Murrell and Woods arrived and found Brady lying in the grass. Whitney was standing nearby making no attempt to escape.

A Gill ambulance rushed the dying Brady to Wichita hospital. Examination by physicians showed the bullets had entered the chest at the right of the breast bone, tearing into the lung.

Brady clung to life for 40 minutes before he died. Nobody gave him a chance to survive from the time he was picked up from the grass.

Mrs. Brady and her daughter, Mrs. Higgs, were hysterical and were placed under the care of a physician. When the ambulance bore Brady away they collapsed, but later they went to the hospital with a friend and were at Brady's bedside when he died.

Whitney is hard of hearing and, while he can understand his wife well, he has trouble hearing what is said to him by strangers. Mrs. Whitney last night spoke for him and told the story of the affair, which started years ago.

"I was married to Brady back in 1892," said Mrs. Whitney. "We lived together for years and then adopted a little girl named Leone. She is Mrs. Higgs now and has three children.

"Brady and I did well enough until a woman who lived in our house carried on with him. I stood it for 12 years and then I could stand it no longer. I had to leave.

"My mother died before we parted and she left me $900," Mrs. Whitney continued. "My brother sent me this money and I spent $100 of it. That left me $800.

"When I parted with Brady we made an agreement that he was to get the girl we had adopted and I was to get the money.

"We never had a written agreement. We parted and I asked him time and again for the money. He never did give it to me. That was 17 years ago and I never have obtained a cent of my mother's money.

"I married Whitney after I got the divorce and have lived with him since.

"Last October we came to this house which Brady had for rent and I made up my mind that I was going to get some of that money back. I did not pay rent, for he owed me that. My husband and I are on the county and I told the county commissioner about the money. He told me not to pay rent.

"We have lived there since October and he has tried to collect rent from me many times. I just knew that there was going to be trouble last night. I knew that something would happen. Brady and my brother had a knife fight years ago."

Mrs. Whitney, who is 57, came immediately to the aid of her husband. When he was brought to the city jail she followed with a pipe and some of his favorite tobacco. Whitney was clad only in overalls, so she brought him a shirt.

Taking a seat close to her husband, she interpreted all questions he could not hear and told details of their lives in order to speed the conversation.

The aged Whitney sat stolidly in the station, seeming partially dazed by the sudden turn of events. He made no statement of regret at the occurrence and apparently was firmly convinced he had shot in self-defense.

When police finally decided the charge would be murder, they did not take the aged man to the book and make him stand while asking for information. They questioned him as to his age and other details needed for the blotter and then marked the charge of "murder" behind his name. Whitney did not see this charge written.

Whitney is a man of the old West. He said he was born in Illinois and came to Kansas when 14 years of age by way of Fort Scott. He said the family settled on Walnut creek north of Shawnee Mission and he became an expert teamster and freighter.

"I freighted for years between Pawhuska and Anadarko before there were white men in Oklahoma," he said. "I drove mules and horses over those long trails when a man had to look out for himself."

More recently, Whitney said, he has been forced to work at almost anything he could get. He said of late he has had a hard time finding any work at all.

"I have lived in Wichita off and on for years," he said. "This last time I have lived here eight years. I have lived either in Kansas or Oklahoma for all these years, moving back and forth several times."

So broken were the Bradys over the tragedy last night they could offer little concerning the incident.

They said they had been good to the Whitneys and had treated them well for many months. They said when the rent was not paid they made no effort to get the Whitneys evicted and had allowed them to live in the front house because they wanted to treat them decently.

"I knew that old many would do something awful," cried Mrs. Brady as her husband was taken to the hospital. "Oh, I knew that something might happen to my husband. He was so good to me and now they say he is dying."

Several neighbors seemed to agree with the Bradys that they had been good to the Whitneys.

Other neighbors in the big crowd which started gathering after the shot was heard all seemed to have a good word to say for Brady. They declared Brady was not a troublemaker and never was known to harm any person. One man classified Brady as one of the best neighbors he ever knew.

Brady had several apartments in the house where the Whitneys lived and made his living renting them. He came here about eight years ago from McAlester, Okla. In addition to his wife, Etta, and the daughter, Mrs. E. F. Higgs, he is survived by a sister, Mrs. Mary Smith, Moline, and two brothers, M. J. North, McAlester, Okla., and Peter Brady, Arkansas City. Funeral arrangements will be announced by the Gill mortuary.

Mrs. Whitney refused to leave the city hall last night after her husband was led back to jail. She said she wanted to be near him and did not want to go home. Police booked her as a "sleeper" and allowed her to spend the night in the women's ward.
(Wichita Eagle ~ Tuesday ~ June 30, 1931 ~ Submitted by Lori DeWinkler)

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