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Chico, California, April 8th, 1887.

About 6.30 o'clock last evening, a horrible murder was committed on the ranch of Joseph Ballou in Colusa County,

12 miles west of Chico. Mr. Ballou was not at home, having gone to San Francisco a few days ago.

At the supper table in his house were seated Mrs. Billu, her daughter's Annie and Maude,

and a man named William Weaver.

Directly back of Weaver was a door opening into a hall which led to the kitchen.

The people were eating their supper quietly when the door behind Weaver was suddenly pushed open, and immediately

afterward, and without a moment's warning, a report was heard, and a bullet went crashing

through Weaver's left shoulder, shattering the bones in its passage, entering his back,

and coming out just above his heart. He fell to the floor as if dead.

Mrs. Boulou, who was seated at the side of the table, turned immediately to see where the shot came from.

She saw in the hallway the Chinese man who acted as their cook and who had been her servant for many years.

At his shoulder he held a rifle, still smoking from the shot he had fired.

Before she could make a motion to protect herself or even speak a word, the man fired again, this time at Mrs. Belou.

She was turned with her breast directly toward the assassin, and the bullet pierced her heart.

Death was instantaneous. Without a struggle, without a groan, she fell to the floor, the blood gushing out in streams.

Weaver was not killed, as the assassin evidently supposed, and immediately after the first shot

which killed Mrs. Ballou, he managed to reach out from where he lay on the floor and closed the door in the

hallway. But the murderous man's thirst for blood was not yet quenched, and after the door was

shut, he again shot through the door. The bullet was harmless and merely made a hole in the wall opposite.

Annie, the older daughter, now ran to a door opening out on the side porch and peeped out,

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