Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1912-06-27
OF THE
MURDERER
ARRESTED
TANNER ARRESTED, AID.
MITS HER HUSBAND KILLED
WALLACE, WHEN HE FOUND
HIM IN HIS WIFE'S ROOM
MURDER MYSTERY CLEARED
UP.

Mrs. Hazel Tanner, wife Of W. R.
Tanner, and formerly Hazel Erwin,
was arrested at the Bllgh Hotel last
night at $3.50 o'clock by officer Jack
Whitlatch upon a clew given him BY
a stranger, The woman is wanted
IN Portland for completely in the
murder of Ray W, Wallace, who was
Killed at the Collins hotel early in
The morning of Wednesday, June 10
l0l2' The tip to the officer from the
stranger was to the effect that If the
officers would go to room 60 they
would probably find the missing wo-
man Patrolman Whitlach accord
ingly went to the hotel office and
found that there was but one woman
registered at the hotel and that in
the name of Helen MCGEE, so he de-
cided to take a chance. He went to
her room and placed her under ar
rest and upon being questioned, she
told the officer the whole story. Ac-
cording to the woman's story she
and her husband arrived in Salem
early in the morning after the MUIR
der was committed and took a room
at the Richmond rooming house,
which Is over the Spencer Hardware
store Here they remained until Fri
day Of the same week, when, accord
ing to the woman's story, her hus-
band left going north. As soon as
detectives Vaughn and Litherland ar
rived from Eugene, where they had
spent strenuous day in search
for the girl, she was turned over to
them, but she refused to talk after
this. To officer Whltlach she re-
lated the story of how she had be-
come intimate with Wallace, having
on the evening before the murder
gone to her room with him. She
said that before she had removed her
wraps and while looking in the mir
ror, she saw the reflection of her
husband as he entered the room and
seen after he struck Wallace once.
She then ran from the room and was
followed close behind by her hus-
band.
Mrs. Tanner told the policeman
that she had seen her husband jeal-
Gus on former occasions and that he
had said that If ever he caught her
in company with Wallace that he
would kill them both.
Immediately after the killing De-
tectlves Vaughn and Litherland we're
put in charge of the case and have
worked constantly on 1t since. They
made an extended examination Of the
scene of the murder and after every
clew seemed to have been exhausted
some old letters were discovered in
an unused stove from which It ap-
peared that her name was Hazel
Tanner. AS soon as her name be-
came known, some unknown man
called up the detectives by phone
stating that her name was Erwin,
and that she lived in Salem. Com
ing Immediately to Salem they found
that the woman's father formerly
lived on Chemeketa street and that
they now live at Albany, The father
was communicated with, with the re-
suit that he sent a photograph of the
girl and later came to Salem with a
letter from her dated June 18th,
three days before the murder was
committed. The envelope was post
marked at Salem. The girls father
rendered every assistance to the Of
acers possible in the search for his
daughter and 1t was probably
through some Of the various photo
graphs Of her that she was located
and arrested
Mrs. Tanner was married twice,
her former husmand's name was Pig
gctt. She is about 20 years old.