The Seward gateway daily edition, and the Alaska weekly post., 1918-03-18
WOMAN PLACED ON TRIAL FOR
 SHOOTING MAN
VISALIA, Cal, March IS. - Mrs. Orlean il. Howe was today placed on trial for the shooting of w! Brooks, prominent orange grower.
Story of Shooting

VISALlA, Cal. March Is. - Mrs. Orean B. Howe, 35 years old, was ar rested following the shooting of Will H. Brooks, d Porterville, California orange grower, in the lobby of Port erville hotel the afternoon of Novem- Der l9, 1917. She was charged with murder When questioned immediate ly after the shooting by the police, and into whose custody Mrs. Howe gave herself, she is alleged to have said: "Hc ruined my life"
 Brooks was seated in the lobby of the hotel talking with several friends and acQuaintances when shot. Three bullets took effect, one Of them pass ing through his heart. He fell for yard from the chair dead.
 The state will seek to show that Mrs. Howe left her apartments short Y after noon on that day and went to a sporting goods store where she pur- chased a heavy calibre automatic re- volver which she asked the clerk to load for her. 1t is then contended that she went to the hotel, entered the lobby and fired four shots at Brooks from distance of four feet.
 After Mrs. Howe was put in jail she made a detailed statement in which she dated the inception of her alleged trouble with Brooks as eleven years ago. At that time, she said, Brooks and her husband, w. c. Howe, were intimate friends. They had grown up together. Shortly after her mar riage, Mrs. Howe said she accepted a dinner invitation from Brooks. They went to a well known San Francisco cafe. At the close of the meal, she declared, he insulted her. She refus- ed his advances and, she said, few days later Brooks went to her hus- band with the first of a series of stories which reflected on her moral ity. These stories, she said, were told by Brooks, not only in San Francisco but in Los Angeles and other parts or the state where she had acquaintances yith the result according to the story, that she was summed by former l friends.
 Mrs. Howe is the owner of an orange grove near PorteIville, to which property she gave her atten- tion during a portion of the year. She went to Porterville from her home in Oakland early in October and shortly after her arrival, according to her story, she found evidences that the malicious stories reflcctng on her character were still being told. Her mind, she said, was blank from the time she bought the revolver in a Polterville store until she came to herself after being lodged in jail.
 For some years Mrs. Howe was prominent socially in Oakland. Her husband, w. C. Howe, is representa- tive and for some time prior to the 1 tragedy had been stationed in South ! America. At the time of the shoot
 ng he was making his horne in Buen- os Aires. He was notified of his wife's arrest and the circumstances sur. rounding it and started immediately
 for the United States arriving in time to be with his wife when she was ar raigned on Jan. Is.
 Will H. Brooks, the victim of the
 shooting, was 50 years old. He was wealthy man and prominent in the business and social life of the San Joaquin valley and Southern Califor- mia. H was a member of the Jona- than and Country clubs of Los Ange- les, as well as of the Masonic, Elks, and Mystic Shrine lodges.