The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-03-28
Johnnie Forren, . Tacoma Bar
tender, Fatally Injured.
HORRIBLE TRAoEpYlN SPOKANE.
A Gambler Kills . Variety Actress,
Wounds Another, and Suicides.
He Fires From Box ct Women ON the
stage-suicide st Tacoma Of . Cler-
gyman's Son-rrial OF Port Townsend
Postofne Robbers.

TACOMA, March 27.-[Special. ]--Johnnie
Forren, q gambler and bartender, was shot,
shortly after o'clock this evening, at the
Hotel Leon, corner of Ninth and D streets,
by his mistress, Mollie Adams. Two out
of five shots fired from 3S-caliber re-
volver struck Forren. One ball took effect
in the iieshy part of the left arm, and is
not dangerous. The second ball passed
through the brain from point two inches
above the left ear, ranging upward and
lodging against the skull near the top OF
the head, and will probably result in death,
although Dr. Agnus, who is attending him,
says he will recover if Inflammation of the
brain does not set in.
The shooting was the result of quarrel,
Since the pair met two years ago they
have had . highly sensational existence.
Mollie is q Californian by birth. of medium
height, plnmp blonde and wears gold
trimmed spectacles. Shortly after arriving
here she fell in with Forren. He was
very popular among the gambling trater-
nifty. and they spent money freely, Mollie,
it is said, having saved some $40. 600 from
immoral earnings. Things went smoothly
till last November, when Mollie met .
piano player. named Leon de Four
of prostitution, in Opera alley. To
spite Forren she married De Fourcey and
was boarding q train with him to go to
Montana when Forren turned up and
dragged her away from the piano player.
Subsequently he boasted that he would
have killed her there and then if she had
not left De Fourcey. In December Mollie
and Forren went to California, and For
rem was introduced by her to her relatives
as her husband. Leon De Fourcey. Since
their return to this city Forren has been,
dissipating and spending Mollie's money
freely, and she in turn was accused by
him Of being too intimate with other men.
Yesterday Forren drank heavier than
usual, and today decided to go to Olympus.
Mollie, he said, had been hack riding and
drinking with another man. and he was
evidently jealous and half drunk when he
returned to the hotel this evening with an
expressman to take his trunk to the
wharf. The expressman stood in the hall,
while Forren went to the room. Soon he
heard some angry words, followed by i've
pistol shots. He called the bartender Of
the hotel, and together they went to the
room.
Mollie, wringing her hands, was stand
ing over Forren. who lay in pool Of
blood. He was unconscious. Mollie at
first denied all knowledge Of the shooting
Later she said it was purely accidental.
and still later she acknowledged having
shot Forren, saying she expected him to
strike her. He had abused her for several
weeks, and she said she was afraid Of him.
When removed to the city prison she
became calm and refused to talk. Forren
is resting quietly in the room where the
shooting occurred. He regained con-
sciousness three hours after the shooting.
The hotel Leon was formerly known as
the notorious Loomer house.