The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-03-30
The Mistress of a Spokane Gam
bier Shoots Herself.
HE JUMPS INTO THE RIVER.
An Unknown Man Knocked Off Hang
man Creek Trestle and Killed.
Degradation of Murderer Longs Fam
ny-Port Townsend Council to Hold
Meeting on the Leper-The End of
the World Didn't Come Yesterday.

SPOKANE, March 90. = Special A
woman shot through the head and CHASTITY
in death, and a man crazed with rum and
making an attempt to commit suicide by
drowning, but rescued and locked behind
prison bars under strong suspicious of
murder, is the tragic sequel to a jealous
quarrel, and to the unhappy life of Mrs.
NJ. Fredericks, known in Spokane as Mrs.
Trixey Leighton, wife of Allen c. Leigh
ton, formerly of San Francisco.
About half past l o'clock this morning
while Officer Mines was patrolling his reg
ular beat near the Howard street bridge,
he heard cries of distress coming from the
water below. as if some one was drowning.
Fastening to the place he found A. C.
Leighton, faro dealer, in the water and
clinging to log in desperate effort to
save himself from drowning. With some
difficulty he was rescued and taken to the
police station. Oscar Rasmussen, an ac-
quaintance of Leighton, when he heard of
his arrest hastened to his rooms in the
Heller block to inform Mrs. Leighton of
what had happened.
When the door of the room was opened
the woman whom Leighton called his wife
was half lying, half sitting on the floor
near the bed. with her feet drawn under
her and her head resting in pool of blood
upon the floor. The police were notified
at once and the coroner summoned. The
woman had evidently been dead about an
hour when found. The body was still
warm, and the blood had just begun to
clot. A 32-caliber revolver with which the
woman had been killed was found on the
bureau. Leighton refused to talk at all.
There was blood on Leighton's clothes,
and he was locked up on charge of muir
der. The room was left in charge of the
police, and this morning at 10 o'clock the
jury repaired to the scene of last nights
tragedy for the purpose of making thor
ough search for evidences of the murder or
suicide, as the case might be. The room
presented more CHASTITY and revolving
appearance than it did soon after the body
was found.
The body of Trixey Leighton, as she
called herself, was lying stretched upon
disordered bed, her face and hair covered
with black, clotted blood. Her black silk
dress and fur cloak and the sheet upon
which she lay were besmeared and stained
with gore, and the room presented CORY
appearance, in keeping with the situation.
Upon the floor by the side of the bed was
pool of clotted blood and brains,
the spot where she lay when she died.
Upon the table near the foot of the bed
were a number of letters in her own hand
writing, few pictures, a couple of half
smoked cigarettes, pencil and scraps of
paper. On one of these scraps the follow
ing was written in her somewhat mas
culine hand: II love my Al: 1 am to
blame for it all. n, forgive ME, my dar-
ling. Trix."
This morning Leighton gave the chief
of police what he claimed to be the facts
in the case. He said he had been on a
protracted spree of late, and they had had
frequent quarrels. When he went home
last night he learned she was making ar
rangements to leave him and go into a
house of ill-repute. He told her that if he
were she he would blow his brains out and
end the matter. She replied, II will do
it," and in an instant placed the revolver
to her head and fired. She fell, and he
tried to get her on the bed, but was too
weak He saw her die, then went
to the river to drown himself
Leighton says that the woman's real name
is Mrs NJ. Frederick. and that she form
erly lived in San Francisco, but she is di-
vorced from her husband. She has four
children, the Oldest IA years of age, ali at
school at Oakland, Cal. Letters found in
the room show that she also lived for
time at Butte, Mont. She was 80 years
old. and Leighton is 45. The coroner and
jury made careful examination of the
body. They found that the ball entered
the head on the right side, just above the
temple. No place where the ball made its
exit could be found, and it is supposed
that it lodged near the skull on the left
side The index finger of the left hand is
powder-burned, showing close contact
with the muzzle of the pistol, but the face
is free from any powder burns whatever.
Late this evening the jury returned a YER
dict that the woman came to her death
from pistol shot, but whether fired by
herselfo or some one else the jury was una
bic to determine.