Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1911-07-17
SHOOTING UP
IMMORTALITY
Walter Nelson's PurifiCaion
Of His Aeighborhood
HIS ARREST THEREFOR
The Complainants Were
Two Women w hose
House Near East Lake
Park Was Made to Look
Like a Sieve.

waiter Neison, carpenter living
near Eastlake park. is i'm the county
jail, charged with attempting to root
out immortality in his vicinity by
methods not sanctioned by the stat
utes. and which menaced all his neigh
bors. just and unjust alike, with the
impartiality of the rain which falls
from heaven
There is a house standing about 75
feet from the home of Nelson, his
mother and his two children. This
house is occupied by a couple Of wo-
men of bad repute, who settled there
after having been driven from pillar
To post by the reform movement
which began with the abolition of the
block.
The house had formerly been occu-
pied by woman by the name of Bal
ley. who was much in the public eye
until a couple Of weeks ago. At that
time Nelson was complaining to the
authorities of her presence. and after
she went away. the present occupants
of the house moved in Complaint was
made by Nelson against them
on Friday night. while the women
were sitting on a porch on the south
side of the house, two bullets were
fired into the upper part of il. The
shooter was not seen, but the flashes
of the gun Were seen, To the south.
These turn out to have been only
warning shots, for yesterday morning
little after midnight, a fusilade was
opened on the house; it was raked fore
and aft. The attack was opened from
the south. and then the besiegers. for
there We're evidently more than one.
moved to the east and. taking a new
position renewed the bombardment.
One of the bullets passed through
the house and crashed into the porch
of a citizen who was lying on a cot.
300 yards away. He had been awakened
by the firing, so that when he heard
the ping of the bullet over his head he
knew what it meant.
He telephoned to the city. and Con
stable Murphy and Alberto Lopez went
out i'm machine. They found the
house occupied by the two women in
a wrecked condition. 1t was riddled
with bullets. all of which had appar-
emily passed entirely through the
structure. They had bored their way
through chairs. tables and other arti-
cles of furniture. Only an overruling
providence had saved the two women
and man. said to he a prominent
citizen of Phoenix. who was passing
the night within the fire zone.
The bullets all seemed To have been
directed to the lower part OF the
house, as il homicide were intended.
Great splinters were thrown about
where the bullets passed through
wood work An investigation showed
that bullets of two calibers had been
used. and later in the morning cart
ridge shells of two kinds were found
where they had been dropped by the
assailants
After the ammunition of the attack
ing force had been exhausted. the men
came to the house and smashed IN
such windows as had escaped the
riddling shots
The women said that they suspected
Nelson OF being one of the attaching
party. They had perceived previous
remarks of his disapproval of their
vicinage, and only the afternoon be-
fore, when one of them was sitting in
the front part of the house. he called
and asked for a drink of water. He
was told to go to the rear, but he en-
tered the house, quarreled with the
women and threatened to slap one of
them.
A little later in the morning another
thing pointed to Nelson. An ac-
auaintance of his called on Deputy
Sheriff Jeff Adams and said that Mel
son. who was in a highly nervous
state. had come to him processing
great sollcitude for a friend, on ac-
count of the shooting the night be-
fore. He did not mention the name of
his friend, but his acquaintance sur
missed that Nelson was really solicitous
only for himself The deputy sheriff
and Constable Murphy then investi-
gated. and as a result of the investi-
CATION they took Nelson into custody.
At the same time another man was
taken to the sheriffs office. hut the
officers were rather of the opinion that
he had nothing TO do with the shoot
ing.
Later a warrant for Nelson was
sworn out in Justice Johnstone's court.
He is said to have been drinking heav-
ily the afternoon and night before the