Tragedy in Tacoma: A Lover’s Final Act
A heartbroken teenager dies by suicide after the death of his sweetheart, leaving a note requesting they be buried side-by-side.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
On Wednesday, Julia Elende Gustafson, aged 17 years, died in this city of heart failure. Last night, at Brookdale, a suburb, Charley Wilcox, aged 18 years, the girl's lover, swallowed five grains of strychnine, dying at midnight. He left a note asking to be buried by Julia's side. Since her death, he had refused to eat, and when he bought strychnine, he said he was going to kill rats. He was playing cards with friends last night and excused himself, saying he was ill. Someone saw him take a dipper of water to his room, and an investigation followed. He refused to assist in overcoming the effects of the poison by taking antidotes.
“He left a note asking to be buried by Julia's side.”
This heartbreaking story from 1892 captures the intense social and emotional pressures of the era. The Brookdale area, once a rural suburb of Tacoma, has long since been integrated into the modern city's fabric, but the story of young love and tragedy remains a haunting anchor in the region's historical record.
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