The Tragedy on the Streets of Port Townsend
After a violent street confrontation involving an iron wrench, Dr. I. R. Herrick has died, leaving a judge accused of the killing in precarious condition.
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.
Dr. I. R. Herrick, the victim of an unfortunate street quarrel with Judge S. P. Carusi yesterday, died at 11:50 o'clock last night from internal hemorrhages. An autopsy revealed the bullet had traveled downward from the right breast and lodged in the hip bone. A coroner's jury found the shooting was done by Judge Carusi under great provocation, as Dr. Herrick had repeatedly struck the judge on the head with an iron wrench, inflicting dangerous wounds. The judge is in precarious condition, only partly conscious, and doctors fear for his survival. Dr. Herrick, 26, was a Vanderbilt graduate who had resided in Port Townsend for three years. Judge Carusi, 57, a former Washington City resident, was previously exonerated in a homicide case in Southern California where he killed a man in defense of his life.
“The jury found that the shooting was done by Judge Carusi under great provocation, as Dr. Herrick had repeatedly struck the judge on the head with an iron wrench.”
Street violence involving high-profile residents remains a staple of civic alarm, though modern Port Townsend is better known for its preservation of Victorian architecture than its dueling jurists. The report highlights the era's reliance on 'defense of life' justifications in homicide investigations, a legal narrative that persists in contemporary debates.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.