The independent. [volume] (Elizabeth City, N.C.) 1908-1936, 1921-03-04
TRAGIC ELIMINATION OF
A TOW-BARGE ROMANCE
The Beginning of The Tragedy Which eliminated
In Triple Shooting Here Sunday Night Was
When the Woman Married Before
She Had Seen Life
BY w. o. SAUNDERS.

upon the part of night police
man w. P. Comstock of the E1iz-
abeth City police force contribut-
ed to the shocking tragedy at
the Southern Hotel in this city
last Sunday night when John E.
Emory shot and killed his 20
year-old wife, shot and nearly
:, killed another woman, her COM
panion, and then fired a bullet
into his own brain.
Mrs. Emory and an 1S-year-old com
panion, Miss Eva Harrell, of Norfolk,
were brought to this city Sunday night
as witnesses in the robbery of an auto
mobile. The women were we'll dressed
and of apparent refinement and there
was no criminal charge against them.
Instead of holding them in the county
jail the police incarcerated them in a
room on the third floor 1of the Southern
Hotel and Officer Comstock was detailed
to guard them and see that they did not
make their escape.
Instead of locking the women in the
room, Comstock left the key with the
women on the inside of the room. Then
came the mad husband with murder in
his heart and deadly automatic pistol
in his pocket. And Comstock left the
door he was supposed to guard, (or says
he left it), and went to a lavatory down
the hall; left his post, according to his
own statement, leaving the key to the
room with the women. And in his alb
sence (if he tells the truth) the door
was opened, Emory was admitted and
in a moment the Harreu girl was writh-
ing in her own blood in the hallway and
Emory and his wife were dying, all
from wounds inflicted by Emory's pis-
tol.
Comstock was performing true to the
type of men so often employed for police !
duty in Elizabeth City. Had he been
at his post or had he retained the key !
to the room the tragedy might have /
been averted.
JOHN e. EMORY.
The story of the tragedy is this. John |
E. Emory was a tugboat captain in the
employ of the McNally Towing Co. OF .
Norfolk He was about 30 years old.
He came from the Core Sound country
OF North Carolina and was strong,
sturdy. hard-working, conscientious type
Of fellow with old-fashioned notions of
morals and social obligations. He was
what is popularly called "a good man.
straight as a string and without any
Imagination. His life was ordered and
prosaic He knew only to work and
save and build a home for a. woman
Life held out nothing else for him and
he didn't care about anything else.
THE WIFE
His wife was a Miss Grace Balance.
Her father, Henry Balance, is tow
barge captain, also in the employ OF
the McNally company. They lived at
Hatteras. Dare county until 10 years
ago. They moved away from Hatteras
when Grace was five years old. she .
was beautiful as so many children OF
the coast country are. The blue OF the
sea was in her eyes, the warmth OF the ,
sun was in her hair, made curly by the
Salt-laden humidity of the coastland.
Strong. 1.-the, graceful and radiant with
the glow and sparkle of untetterea
Youth. she won her way readily into 9
the hearts of men. And this little girl =
was raised, one might say 'fetched-up !,
on a tow-barge Up and down the IN
land sounds of North Carolina, up and
down the Chesapeake Bay, often on the
bosom of the broad Atlantic itself, lived
this little girl from Hatteras, because +
for years her father and mother knew
no other home than the cabin OF tow :.
barge e
It was on a tow-barge that Emory, -
captain of a tugboat first saw her; sa" n
her when She was just child IN snort
skirts. He loved the child. Stanolng r
at his wheel in the pilot-house OF the
tugboat he often thought of the little
girl on the barge far astern. Some day
he would have a home of his own and
a'iittle girl like that to climb upon MS vi
knee and call him Daddy. But girls fc
of the coast country mature swiftly, ana IN
While John Emory dreamed she grew p1
INTO womanhood. And John Emory IT
found himself loving the child in an en- b,
tircy different way. He married her dt
when She was seventeen years OF age. h,
tie married her and built the pretty II
tfie home he had so often built in his sc
dreams. in
II" nut this child wife in the pretty
ii''I' home in a Norfolk suburb. He re-
opened accounts for her at various IL
'% and paid her bills promptly. He
5"'e Ter $40 a month for pin money.
ne encouraged her to dress as beftted
youth and beauty.
'o child came to make their union yt
l'fe Interesting, but John Emory was in
."prE- He stuck to the tugboat and fo
vas away from home night after night; tn
- lines two nights at a time; some k1
'r> as much as four nights at a time. Y
",' tie pretty child wife loafed around fe
".f pretty little bungalow; nobody to L
'liir" her pretty silk hose; nobody to W
'|"' her and kiss her; nobody to tease T
| n >coLd. She had nothing to do but az
-''eFtaln romantic fancies and there w