The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1895-10-15
A SHOCKING TRAGEDY LAST NIGHT.
Mrs. William Ctist Shot and Killed
Instantly.
Her Husband Says lie Dropped His
Pistol and it Was Accident
ally Discharged.

Mrs. William Crist was shot and in
stantly killed in her home on L street,
between Sixteenth and Seventeenth. be-
tween aud 10 o'clock last night as the
result of what appears to have been an
accident.
Crist is well-known barber, at present
employed in the Capital Hotel barber
shop. According TO his story, he and his
wife had just partaken of light repast in
the kitchen of their comfortable little
cottage, and he was about to make prepar-
ations Tor retiring.
as has been his custom, he took his
pistol, 3S-caIiber Coils revolver, from
his pocket and laid it on the edge of
small desk In the dining-room close by
his bedroom door. His wife had followed
him into the room and was about three
feet from him as he laid the pistol down.
lie says II slipped from the leather
holster. struck either on chair OF the
floor, anu was discharged.
Mrs. Crist dropped TO the floor with
tue blood squirting from wound in her
! right temple, and GIed without being
( aule 10 say word. The bullet had en-
tered her brain, inHicling a terrible
! wound.
MIS-. Crist's mother, an elderly woman,
! who lived with them, was in her own
! bedroom at the time, and ran out to the
Gining-rOom, only to find her daughter
breathing Ter last.
The report Of the pistol attracted sev-
erAl neIEhbors TO the spot, and someone
Ielephoned Tor the Coroner and police.
! Coroner Clark. District Attorney Ryan
anu RECO&D-J MON reporter fastened
10 the house and fonnd Mrs. Cris5 lying
where she had fallen in pool of blood
/ Ior brother aud several neighbOrs were
present.
Crist told over and over again how the
shooting had occurred. lie said the pistol
had several times partially iRlIen from the
/ holster, but he had always managed 10
| eaten it aud prevent its accidental DIS
charge
The District Attorney. Coroner and
/ others held cons citation, and rs mat
! ter .! precaution II was decided To take
/ Crist into custody pending an iDvestiga-
llon OF the shooting. lie WAS taken to
the police station by Officer Fisher.
lie declared that his wife and himself
had lived happily together, and inquiries
j made oi the ueighoors failed to show that
they had been in the habit OF quarrehng
: stllI the oAcers wished 10 be on the safe
/ side, and deemed it best 10 hold Crlst at
j leass until the nature of the wound in
his wile's head could be determined. 1t
seemed little odd that the bullot from a
/ pistol ex ploding near her feet should take
effect in her temple.
/ The Crisis had been married about
eight years. and Mrs. Crist was a niece o
! y alther, who once kept a drug store at
Second and X streets She was quite
! prepossessing young woman. the parties
have no children.
LATER-LooKS SUSPICIOUS.
After the above was written and about
midnight DR.. White made an examiua-
/ ton of the wound in Mrs. Crisis head,
and the result was such as to warrant the
! belief that the shooting did not occur as
stated by her husband.
The bullet entered about an inch above
and back of the right eye. 1t ranged
/ back ward and downward, lodging at tho
base of the skull behind and below the
ear.
This would indicate that when the shot
was fired the pistol was on level with
her head. or that the head was bent for
ward. The deceased's right hand was
/ powder burned. as If the hand was over
her forehead and the weapon in close
proximity.
All about the eye there are also powder
marks, some of the powder entering the
eye itself The skull about the temple
was pulverized, and the bullet when ex-
tracted WAS found to be badly splintered