The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1921-09-28
SHOOTS FORMER CHUM,
THEN ENDS OWN LIFE

Mrs. Grace LaWes, Rich New York
Society Woman Fires Three Bullets
Into Miss Mildred IIanan and Kills
Self.
New York, Sept. 23.-4shot and
wounded three times by her former
chum who then ended her own life
with a bullet, Miss Mildred E. Han
an, daughter of the late Alfred p.
ianan, shoe manufacturer tonight
hoyered between life and death in n
Brooklyn hospital.
with the outcome of the girls in
juries still in doubt, police took up a
back trail from the scene of tho noe
turnal tragedy into the world ne
high life" blamed by Miss Hanan,s
assailant, Mrs. Grace Iawcs. for the
accumulated misery and heartachos
which impellcd her to take her
friends life.
The pace is too fast and the
iiquor has. driven me crazy" she had
written In a letter addressed to her
mother.
Still another possible motive Tor
the deed, that of jealous rage over
the attentions Of man who was with
MISS Hanan when the shooting occur
req, is being scrutnized by detectives
VINO are trying TO clear up many un-
explained points.
for more than three hours this
man, John S. Borland, importer and
exporter, was questioned regarding
details of the affair, as well as the
circumstances Of his acquaintance
with the two women.
"a further complication DEVELOPED
when San Francisco newspapermen
reported they had located and oues-
toned Mrs. M. L.. Dittmar to whom.
calling her mother darling" Mrs.
Lawes had addressed q letter found
among her effects.
Mrs. Dittmar at first denied anv
relationship and then told her ques-
toners she was a sister of the dead
woman and volunteered the informa
ton that jealousy was not the motive
for the killing
This information was at variance
with both the salutation of the
mother darling" letter and tho con-
tents Of another addressed to Mrs.
Birdie Williams, ! a former nurse in
the Hanan household, Of which Mrs.
Lawes had also been a member for
four years.
Make 1t easy for my darling
mother" Mrs. Lawes had written in
the second letter, which began with
request that her body be sent home
TO California and cremated.
The stories Of the tragedy and IN,
events preceding it told by the in
jured girl and Borland, a Dartmouth
graduate, coincided closely. With
MISS Dorothy Gottschalk, Miss Han
an told detectives she and Borland
had dined at her own home in one
of the most exclusive residential dis
tricts of Manhattan.
At / o'clock last night, she said.
she and Borland drove Miss Gott-
schalk to her home in Schermerhorn
street Brooklyn, where they stayed
until shortly after o'clock.
we had just emerged from the
Vestibule when saw Mrs Lawes step
from an areaway," Miss Hanan con-
tinued. "The next thing heard
three pistol shots. dropped to the
sidewalk and when got up l saw
blood running from my arm.
Il ran for hundred feet and col
iapsed then heard another shot
fred"
1t was this last shot that ended the
life of Mrs. Lawes.
One other person witnessed the
tragedy. A neighbor Of Miss Gott~
schalk's said she was at her window
and saw Mrs Lawes sit down on
nearby stoop, take a cup from her
handbag, drink something from it
and dash the vessel into the gutter.
Searchers later found fragments OF
the china, and in the dead woman's
bag q nhial labelled with the name
Of drug.
Borland, while admitting that he
and Mrs Lawes had quarralcd over
Miss llanen, emphatically denied that
any feeling concerning himself had
led to the shooting. He said the mo-
tive was positively not jealousy >"
expressing the belief that she was
temDOrar rily doroppod rnon+oll,,