The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1893-04-02
Police Captain Donovan Say She
Shot Herself.
A VERY MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR
The Woman Claims to Have Been
Robbed Of Her Diamonds.
And Says the Thief Shot Her When She
Screamed, but Her Own Pistol Had
Been Fired and Placed
III Drawer.

GUS shooting affair occurred in the Crane
building, on south Main street, last
night.
AT just 11:30 O'Clock q woman rushed
to an open window on the third floor,
fronting on Main street, and began cry
ing for help at the top of her voice. Carl
Brandy, who is employed at the electric
light works, and G. H. Wood were direct
ly opposite the building when the
woman's cries stopped them, and they
rushed across the street and up the stairs,
followed by several other men.
Brandy reached the hallway on the
top floor first. and in the
dim light he saw the white robed fig ure
OF a woman on the floor.
The gas was quickly lighted, and the
woman proved to be Mrs. Florence c..
Wallace, who has charge OF the furnished
apartments in the building.
A small stream of blood was trickling
from wound in the heshy part of the
left arm, and she appeared to be in a
fainting condition.
MRS. WALLACE's STORY.
When she recovered somwhat, Mrs.
Wallace said: 81 was in my room to-
night, when someone knocked at the
door. | opened it and found man there,
who first said he had message for me
from Professor Andre. AS came for
ward he seized me, saying: IF you
scream, l will Kill you. He then tore
my diamond ear rings out OF my ears and
also took my purse containing $50 or $40
from the bureau. | commenced scream
ing and he fred, the bullet going through
my arm. Tnen ] made my way to the
front window and screamed for help
DOUBTED BY DONOVAN.
This was the substance of all the in
formation that Mrs. Wallace could give.
she was undble to describe her a5sailant,
as he turned the light out, so she says.
Captain Donovan and several officers who
we're at the scene Immediately after the
shooting, made q careful search through
the building, but could find no trace
OF the robber, and Captain Donovan
then commenced analizing the circum-
stances. He soon arrived at a concln-
sion, which was that Mrs. Wallace had
not been assaulted at all, but had shot
herself. Then he went into the room
where DR.. Hicks was dressing the wound,
and found that the bullet had passed
through the heshy part of the left arm,
and that the woman's night robe was
powder burned. That didn't surprise
him at all. He expected it.
FOUND THE GUN.
"Have you revolver?' asked the cap
lain of Mrs. Wallace.
Eyes," she answered, ''but 1 don't
know where it is. -
t'I'll find it, - said the captain, and he
did. TWAS lying in the open drawer of
the bareau. He picked it up, found it to
be 81 calibre, and smiled. Then he
smelled it, and the smile broadened into
a regular grin.
The pistol had just been fred, as the
odor from it incontestibly proved.
Next the captain poked a lead pencil
into one OF the chambers and threw out
an empty shell. Mrs. Wallace, who had
been watching this proceeding somewhat
neryously, now fairly raised up in bed
and said: 81 was not shot with that
pistol.''
''Of course not,'' replied the officer,
s'no one intimated anything of the kind.'
Captain Donovan was now thoroughly
satisfied with his investigation and left
the room.
THINKS SHE SHOT HERSELF.
''Its clean case,'' he said to HER
AID man. 1.-THE woman shot herself.
In the first place the bullet passed
through the arm from the inside, and
could hardly have been fired by any other
hand than her own. In the next place,
her mig hit robe was badly powder burned,
which could not have been the case if the
shooting had occurred as she describes it.
Then her own pistol has just been dis
charged, and its calibre is the same as
that which inflicted the wound. Finally,
her own remark to me when l examined
the weapon confirms this view. There
ism any doubt about IT."
AS to the woman's motive, if she did
fire the shot, that is unexplained. An
officer who has known her for some time
says she has been IN poor health lately,
and ii may be that suicide was her inten-
ton. Her condition forbade her being
put through any examination, and. be-
sides, she was so mach excited that her
voluntary statements were largely inco-
herent.
Dr.. Hicks, who attended her, states
that the wound is slight one.