Crime of any kind, much less murder, was such a rarity in Somerset County at the turn of the century that the shooting of Warren's George Williams on February 2, 1905, made newspaper headline for months afterwards. "Apparently without motive or previous intent, the cold-blooded murder of George Williams, the Watchung grocer, on the Coontown road yesterday morning, is the most mysterious case of its kind the Somerset County authorities have ever had to contend with," reported the Daily Press. "Seated in his sleigh, driving a stranger to the Pollack place near Millington, a revolver of heavy caliber was pressed against his back on the left side and a bullet was sent through a vital spot in the region of the heart, killing him instantly. Robbery was evidently not the motive, as his overcoat had not been unbuttoned and money and checks were still in the inside pockets; there is almost positive certainty that there had been no quarrel and up until the time Williams was engaged by his slayer to carry him on the trip, it is an assured fact that they had never met before." "While the echoes of the pistol shot were still resounding through the deep woods wherein the crime was committed, the murderer leaped from the sleigh backwards and walking this way for perhaps 50 feet, strode up the road to the Pollack place a mile off, entered the barn on the premises, came out again in the rear and made his way to the Millington station of the D.L. and W. railroad, where all trace of him was lost. Who is he? Where did he come from? Why did he kill Williams? How did he know of the Pollack place and the way to the Millington station unless he was acquainted in that section? And why should he have wanted to go to Pollack's? are questions that no one can answer at this time. Watchung residents, and those at Warrenville where Williams' parents have always resided, declare he never had an enemy in the world and in the pretty Plainfield suburb where he conducted the general grocery store for two years, he was popular with everyone. The young widow, lying prostrated at her house, can throw no light on the mystery and County Detective George Totten and his assistants are hopelessly in the dark." "The murderer first made his appearance at 10 o'clock yesterday morning at Hugo Maul's Washingtonville hotel, at the head of Somerset street. He was served with a drink of whiskey by the bartender.... After being waited upon, he casually mentioned the fact that he had come up on a Somerset street trolley car from Plainfield and he asked if there was anyone about who could drive him to Pollack's...." "The stranger departed and then appeared at Williams' store directly in Watchung.... The request for a rig was repeated after inquiry had been made for William Demler, thus establishing the point that Williams was not being sought. Demler was not in and Williams volunteered to make the trip and went across the street to get a cutter, turning the care of the store over to his wife. He was just hitched up when Demler appeared and asked where he was going." "This man wants me to drive him to Pollack's," said Williams, "and I am coming right back." "That was the last he was seen alive in Watchung and nothing further was heard from him until shortly after 1 o'clock when a man named Jennings came into the village and asked Demler how he could inform the county physician that he was needed at John Miller's place on the Coontown road as a man had been murdered. Naturally asking about it, Demler at once concluded the dead man was Williams and he hurried friends off to make certain. It was he who broke the news to the wife and though it was done as gently as possible, she collapsed immediately." "Williams and the stranger drove along the valley road through Warrenville up to Coontown and they were seen to pass John Miller's place on the Coontown road at 11:30 by his hired boy, George Cruse, who was playing in the road with a dog. The two were sitting talking in the cutter and Cruse noted nothing peculiar about them as the horse jogged along." "Two hundred feet from the Miller residence a stretch of woods begins and the road bends just after entering them. Hardly had the sleigh disappeared around it when Cruse heard the report of a pistol and then what he described as a moan...." "The boy did not attach much importance to it and thought nothing of it until Eugene Pope, a former resident of this city, came hurrying down and reported that he had come across a horse and sleigh standing in the road, with a dead man sitting bolt upright in the seat. He had tied the horse to a tree, he said, and asked that the men about Miller's place go back with him and investigate. The body was then still warm but none of the party knew that murder had been committed until the pistol shot was spoken of by Cruse and looking over the clothing, a hole was discovered in the back of the overcoat with burned powder marks about it" "The truth flashed upon the men and roused to the highest pitch, they secured rigs and notified every resident in the vicinity...." While one part of the posse scoured the woods, the other part went up to the Millington station where they learned that a man answering the description of Williams' rider had been there inquiring about the New York train. Williams' body meantime remained in his sleigh until the coroner arrived, followed by the County Detective and a group of Plainfield newspapermen. By 6 o'clock Williams' body had been taken home. An investigation by the coroner and Detective Totten revealed that Williams had not been robbed. Totten told the newspapers that he was stumped. "Motive? That's the question. This is the most puzzling case I have ever encountered. I don't believe it is robbery and at the present time I can venture no explanation. The 32-year-old murder victim was the son of Peter Williams of Warrenville. After working in Plainfield, Bound Brook and Brooklyn, where he conducted a bakery, he settled in Watchung, purchasing a bakery from Demler. Besides his wife and child, he was survived by five sisters and a brother, Peter Jr., of Warrenville. Williams was a member of the Gallia Council of the Junior Order and the Watchung Social Club. Williams' funeral drew hundreds of mourners from New York, Brooklyn, Plainfield, Dunellen "and all over Warren township." Rev. George Bowers of the Coontown church conducted services first at the Wilson Memorial Chapel in Watchung, then at the Coontown church. "As the cortege moved away from Watchung, first to Coontown and then to the little burial ground where nine members of the Williams family have been laid away in the past three years, there seemed to be a hush all through the valley back of Plainfield, which was made still more mournful by the solemn, measured tones of the bell which had so often called George Williams to worship." The mystery of Williams' murder was apparently solved a few days later when Eugene Wood, a local hackman, notified police that after reading the murderer's description in the paper, it matched that of "a fare he had picked up at Blimm's Farmers' Hotel on Somerset Street and taken over the mountains." Proceeding to Blimm's, the police learned that the hackman's passenger was one George H. Wood, that Wood had not returned to his room for several days and that his valise was upstairs. When the valise was searched, police found a partially-filled box of .32 caliber bullets and a New York address. Convinced that Wood was the murderer, local police sent out a general alarm and contacted New York City police. "After sending out the alarm," reported the Daily Press , "Chief Kiely proceeded to Watchung and informed all the searchers to look for Wood and by every possible means spread his description. It was an easy task...for Wood is known throughout the entire section, being a grandson of Mrs. Pollack, whose place he was trying to reach, and having been born and raised at Warrenville.... A strange thing in connection with Wood's being known in that section is the fact that he was not recognized by Williams when he was asked to act as driver. Williams belonged in Warrenville originally and the one knew a great deal about the other." "Coroner Toms empanelled a jury Thursday and in its presence made an examination of the body at Williams' home.... It was found that the bullet had entered the back on the left side, sped through the lung and then directly through the heart, showing that death must have been almost instantaneous. The bullet was taken out and found to be of .32 caliber, the same as those found in Wood's valise. The jury took no further action and adjourned indefinitely. It is composed of Israel V. Adams, Peter B. Friday, John H. Mundy, Frank Winn, Frank Jennings and William Miller, nearly all of whom are Warrenville residents." According to the press, Chief Kiely declared the motive for the murder was robbery. "Wood needed money and he started for Pollack's to get it some way. He believed Williams was a prosperous grocer; that he must have money on his person an d shot him. He evidently was frightened off before searching the pockets...." "Wood was born and raised at Warrenville," said the paper. "His father, George H. Wood, now dead, was respected highly by his neighbors, who had no such liking for his son. Fifteen years ago Wood left Warrenville and went to New York. He came back to Plainfield from time to time, and spent two years working on his grandmother's farm. That was three years ago. Seven years ago he married Viola Whitten, the daughter of George Whitten, who used to be the village schoolmaster. Whitten hasn't seen much of his son-in-law since and hasn't got along with him very well, according to the story he told." The next day Wood, accompanied by his wife and brother-in-law, walked into a New York City police station and gave himself up. "Telling a disjointed story and with his mustache removed," Wood was locked up pending the arrival of Plainfield officials. According to the press, Wood, his wife and brother-in-law were put in a patrol wagon and taken to Police Headquarters where Wood claimed that last week he met a man named 'Mac' who knew where $1,000 could be found for a business venture. Wood said he started for Pennsylvania with 'Mac' and ended up in Trenton. "It was thought Wood was under the influence of drugs, on account of his disconnected way of talking, and he was taken before Dr. Ball. The latter said Wood had not been drugged but that he seemed to have some mental disorder not unlike aphasia [a brain disorder]." After extradition papers were signed, Wood was returned to Somerville to stand trial. His wife returned to the Pollack farm, near Mt. Horeb, where she said she would live. "The couple had been in arrears for rent before the crime was committed and Mrs. Wood was evicted from her apartment last Friday," reported the paper. Mrs. Wood told reporters that ever since her marriage, "we have had a hard struggle to get along, but we were very happy." Wood's case came to trial in Somerville in April 1905. His defense to the charge of first degree murder was that he had been drugged by a stranger and did not know or remember what had happened after that. More than 30 witnesses testified for the prosecution, establishing that Wood had bought a gun and disguise and had made at least two trips to the Pollack place before his fateful journey with Williams. Wood's claim that he had acted while in a subconscious state attracted such wide attention that "alienists" [psychiatrists] from New York, Boston, Philadelphia and other cities "traveled all the way to Somerville to see the prisoner. In court hundreds of eyes watch his every movement and to the young women of the town who slip past the constables at the doors he is an object of wondering sympathy," reported the Press. Wood's trial came to an abrupt end after the prosecution rested. In a surprise move, Wood's attorney retracted his client's not guilty plea to first degree murder, pleading his client guilty instead to second degree murder. Thirty minutes later the judge sentenced Wood to the full penalty prescribed by law, 30 years at hard labor in the State prison., "thus ending one of the most remarkable homicide trials that has ever come before the New Jersey bar. One of the by-products of Williams' murder was a religious revival that swept over Warren in the winter of l905. According to the press, "A religious revival has swept over Watchung and that section of Somerset County, including Warrenville, Coontown, Mt. Horeb and other nearby places. Such a revival has not been known in years and persons who never attended a religious meeting are now taking a prominent part in those gatherings. "Several farmers who have held grudges against each other for years have settled differences and are now joining in the movement to spread the interest in those cottage prayer meetings. Those who are leaders in conducting those meetings say that they never remember a time when such deep religious interest was shown. All attribute the commencement of the revival to the death of George Williams." "In the meetings that have been held at the various farm-houses, those who have not spoken to each other for several years, have voluntarily approached one another and asked forgiveness." "Among the leaders in the revival is Rev. George Bowers, who conducted the funeral services of George Williams, and his remarks at that time are said to have been fruitful in awakening the interest of the residents in that section. Mr. Bowers has been invited to attend the meetings now being held and it is believed that they may be continued during the rest of the winter. At nearly every meeting some one professes conversion and this lends an additional interest to the religious work." [The Constitutionalist, 2/14/1905] © Warren Township Historical Society |