Theodore Coneys suffered from poor health and had been told by doctors not to expect to see his 18th birthday, so he did not finish high school.
[2] In September 1941, 58-year-old Theodore Coneys intended to ask former acquaintance Philip Peters for a handout at his home on 3335 West Moncrieff Place in Denver, Colorado.
After the gun broke apart, Coneys continued the battery with a heavy iron stove shaker[6] and bludgeoned the 73-year-old Peters to death.
Peters' wife, who had been in the hospital recuperating from a broken hip during and prior to Coneys' occupation of the attic, returned to live in the house with a housekeeper.
The housekeeper quit after becoming convinced the house was haunted and Mrs. Peters moved to western Colorado to live with her son.
[2] Coneys remained in the vacant house with the occasional signs of his occupation written off as an apparition or local pranksters.