Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1895-05-03

Tuesday afternoon about 1890
o'clock Fulton Gordon shot and
killed his wife and Arch Dixon
Brown. The tragedy occurred at the
disreputable resort of Lucy Smith, a
colored woman, at 1925 West Madi-
son street, Louisville.
Arch Dixon Brown was the eldest
son of the Governor of the State, and
was employed at Frankfort as his
fathers private secretary.
Mrs. Gordon was Miss Nellie Bush
before her marriage. Her mother,
Mrs. Mamie Bush, was for many
years State Librarian. Mr.. Sam
Stone Bush, of Louisville, was Mrs.
Gordon's brother, and Mrs. George
Berry, of Frankfort, her sister,
l.4Eulton Gordon was some years
clerk at the Gait House, and later
manager of the Kenyon Hotel at
Frankfort. He is now manager of
the Merchants Advice.
Gordon left the house Immediately
after the tragedy, but was arrested
and taken to Jail, where he became
completely Frustrated from excite
ment and nervous strain.
An inquest was held by the Coro
ner late Tuesday afternoon, and af-
ter hearing the evidence the jury
brought in a verdict of justifiable
homicide.
STORY OF THE TRAGEDY.
Brown and Mrs. Gordon arrived at
Lucy Smiths house, 1025 West Madi-
son street, just after the clock
had struck IL. Matte Mattinglv,
colored, was in charge, as Lucy Smith,
the proprietress of the house, was
away.
The Mattingly woman says she
was we'll acquainted with the pair, for
they had been to the house every Sat
urday for the past five weeks, with
the exception of last Saturday,
Half an hour later, or at 1l:35
o'clock, a man, who proved to be
Gordon, rang the door bell. 81 an
swered the bell myself said Matte
Mattingly. "The man says:
i want to engage two rooms. L
have friend who will be here di-
rectly. Gordon at once paid for his
room.
II took him into the front room,
the parlor, on the first floor, west
side,' said the Mattingly woman.
,"He opened the door leading into the
back parlor and said that his friend
would take that room. He then took
off his coat, hat and shoes and sat
down on chair near the door. He
seemed nervous. Before could go
out he walked to all the doors lead
ing from both the front and back
parlors and bolted them. / did not
think this strange for most of the
people who come here do that.
The account of the terrible strug-
gle in the room is given from the
combined statements of Gordon him
self, Matte Mattingly and the house
boy, Geo. Wallace.
The door leading to the room from
the little hall at the top of the steps
was not locked. Gordon had only to
turn the knob and push the door
wide open. AS Gordon opened the
door he drew his revolver, a 32-cali-
Der of Hopkins e. Allen pattern. The
couple sprang up to sitting positions
in bed; as Gordon fired point blank at
Brown, the latter rolled toward the
far side of the bed. He rolled out of
the bed and tumbled down into a
narrow space between the bed and
the front wall of the house. The
first bullet passed into the muscle of
his left. arm crushing the bone, a
point of which protruded from the
flesh. He hardly struck the floor be
fore he was ON his feet again, and
made dash for his revolver, which
lay beside his cuffs on the dresser in
the fartherest southwest corner.
As soon as his head showed above
the bed again Gordon continued fir