The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1909-07-20

ST. LOUIS, July 20.-With two
men slain in a political feud and
two more shot, Mrs. Marie Mohrle,
widow of the first victim, kissed
her 5-year-old son as he slept and
sent revolver bullet into her
breast.
Now, as she lies between life
and death in a hospital, this city
is beginning to take account of
one of the most remarkable
clashes in the history of ward
politics.
During the last campaign Con-
stable Sam Young was the demo-
cratic leader in the fifteenth
ward, and Fred Mohrle was his
neighbor and his political foe.
The Sunday before election
Young and Mohrle met by chance.
Both drew revolvers. A dozen
shots rang out, and Young fell
dead.
Mohrle and VIM. Wright, a
friend, were arrested for the kill
ing.
When they were arraigned the
next day police had to force a
way for the prisoners through a
crowd.
AS Mohrle stood covering at
the dock small, dark-haired
man pushed his way beside him.
Never fear the law" he whis-
pered, and Mohrle smiled. At last
he had found a friend.
"Why?" he whispered back.
Because" the stranger Missed,
well get you before the law has
a chance at YOU" This. was on
April 5.
June 7 the trial came. The
same crowds that had watched the
two men arraigned a month be-
fore were there. The election had
been decided and the gangs fiat
of revenge was sealed.
Mohrle and Wright could hear
the crowd murmur above the
clang of their prison doors as
they were led out. Mohrle came
first. AS the turnkey turned to
lock the door Michael Kane,
Young's friend, faced Mohrle.
Without word, Kane raised a re-
volver and shot Mohrle dead. The
report echoed through the dingy
Four Courts building where Folk
had sent boodlers to the peniten-
tiary.
Mohrle fell into the. arms of a
policeman who was there to- pro-
tect him. Wright, trembling and
pale, was rushed back to his cell.
When the shot echoed on the
judges ears upstairs he knew
what 1t meant. Before the crowds
wonder had been satisfied the
bailiff raped loudly.
Court is adjourned" the
judge cried.
Then Mrs. Mohrle went out with
her son and saw all ambulance
taking her husbands body away.
Well might Wright, the only one
alive who was involved in the
original feud, tremble. Only a
few days before the death of
Mohrie, Wright, out on bonds,
heard someone call him. Think
ing the gang had got" him, he
opened fire on two men and shot
Alfred Nelson, bystander.
Last week, when he finally was
acquitted, Wright accidentally
shot Chas. Tozer in the home of
the widow of Mohrle. He had
gone insane.
The life of one of the gang had
been taken, and a life had paid the
forfeit. The gangs score was
wiped out.
But day after day little wom-
an in black was trying to comfort
her son.
A diary found under her pillow
after she shot herself showed her
thoughts. She kept this diary be-
side the revolver that she used.
Everything is gone" she had
written In trembling hand.
Everything is gone - my
sweetheart is dead. The gang is
after me. / think l had better
kill myself before they kill me.
They would not shoot me like
they did sweetheart They'd drag
me into an alley and choke me to
death before / could scream"
Seven violent deaths in the fif-
teenth ward In the last few years
the police ascribe to the feud
feeling that caused the latest po-
litica1 outbreak of murder. A Sc
cret organization grimly called
the Jolly Five" was headquarters
a few years ago of what the po-
lice called a school of crime. Two
cardinal principles of conduct
were taught there.
0na ruaa ttuaf l1rour man -