The Tragedy at the Marion Street Rooming House
A discarded lover murders a popular music teacher in her home before turning his gun on himself, leaving her two children orphaned.
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.
Mrs. Marie S. Story, a beautiful and accomplished music teacher, was murdered last night in her home on Marion Street by Charles Rogers Moulton, a discarded lover who immediately committed suicide. Mrs. Story had just returned from the opera and was standing before her mirror when Moulton, who had been hiding in her closet, stepped out and shot her twice before turning the pistol on himself. A well-known figure in the local music scene, Mrs. Story had spent months rebuffing Moulton’s increasingly obsessive advances. Witnesses recall her fear of him in the days leading up to the tragedy. The couple was found dead on the floor of her room, their bodies discovered by Colonel Hilder, a boarder who heard the shots. The tragedy has left her two young sons, Percy and Colin, in the care of friends.
“Moulton... threatened violence if she did not yield, and since then she had been so much afraid of him that she did not receive him alone.”
This horrific instance of 'if I can't have you, no one will' violence in 1892 Seattle mirrors the persistent and lethal reality of domestic violence and stalking that still plagues our city today. The Marion Street rooming houses of the late 19th century were the predecessors to today's transient housing crisis, where privacy and safety are often precarious.
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