Obituary: Winnebago County, Wisconsin: Albert KLEIST ************************************************************************ Submitted by Kathy Grace, August 2004 © All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ************************************************************************ Daily Northwestern April 6, 1893 He Killed Himself Rash Deed of Albert Kleist The resident in the neighborhood of Eighteenth street were startled about 6:30 o'clock this morning by the sound of two pistol shorts in quick succession. Where the sound came from nobody knew, but in a short time Mrs. Albert Kleist rushed out on the front porch of her residence and in pitiful tones, cried, "My husband has shot himself and is dead." This she repeated several times until the entire neighborhood had gathered in front of the Kleist residence. A number of the neighbors went into the residence, and on being told by Mrs. Kleist that her husband was upstairs, wen up, only to find Albert F. Kleist in a pool of blood and evidently breathing his last. Near his right hand was a thirty-two calibre bull dog revolver, with two of the charges gone. His coat, vest and hat had been laid on the bed near by, and his shoes had been unlaced. Kleist was asked why he had committed the rash deed, for it was a clear case of suicide, but although conscious, he could not say a word, but pointed to the revolver on the floor. He was laid on the bed, and a neighbor sent to town for a physician, but at 7:30, just one hours after the fatal shorts had been fired, the wounded man breathed his last, dying in great agony. Dr. Roos arrived on the scene a few minutes after Kleist died, and on examination it was found that one of the bullets had entered the flesh just above the heart, and the other had glazed the lower part of the heart. Mrs. Kleist, when questioned by a reporter of The Northwestern as to whether her husband had ever dropped a word that would intimate in any way that he intended to kill himself, said than an unhappy word had never passed between her and her husband, and he never said a word that would give one the idea that he would commit suicide. She says that election day her husband was with a crowd of his old friends all day and never came home to his supper. She waited patiently for him, and about nine o'clock she began to worry about him. The hours went by and three o'clock came and her husband did not return. Fearing that her husband had become intoxicated, and was sleeping is some saloon. Mrs. Kleist says that she went down to the place where her husband was in the habit of spending his evenings, a saloon on Seventeenth street kept by Carl Klabunde, and found the doors still open, although the place should have been closed three hours before. On asking if her husband was in the saloon, Klabunde told her, so she says, that he was not there nor had not been seen about the place for some time. She says she thought that the man was telling a falsehood from the tone of his voice, and walked into a back room where she saw her husband stretched out on a low cot and fast asleep. She said nothing to the saloonkeeper, but awoke her husband and took him home. Yesterday morning Kliest awoke as usual and went to his work at the Morgan planing mill, but on returning last evening said but little and went about the house acting very strangely. He went to bed early and as far as Mrs. Kleist knows, slept well. He awoke about 5:30 o'clock this morning, and went about the house doing the usual chores, but unlike his usual way, making no reply when asked by his wife how he felt. He built the fire in the kitchen stove and told his wife that he was going up stairs. Not aware that he had a revolver in his possion [sic], Mrs. Kleist thought nothing of what her husband intended to do. In the course of three or four minutes she heard the shots and immediately rushed up stairs to find her husband lying on his back in the middle of the floor in an unconscious condition. She says that in her opinion her husband was ashamed of his actions, and in a temporary fit of insanity committed the rash act. He had evidently intended to kill himself when he went up stairs, if not before, for he had unlaced his shoes after he had left the lower floor. Mrs. Kleist says that her husband had always been good to her and that he had been very steady, never losing a day's work unless sickness compelled him to, and that he was saving money all the time. They have been married only eighteen months, and have just completed the residence in which she now resides. A coroner's jury was impaneled late this afternoon and was taken to the scene of the suicide in the patrol wagon. Kleist is only twenty-five years of age. The funeral will be held Sunday afternoon.