Blood in the Streets of North Seattle
A long-simmering domestic feud between a husband and his estranged wife's companion erupts in an exchange of gunfire near a Fifth Street lodging house.
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.
William C. Sanderlin, a bookkeeper, was shot twice last night at 12 o'clock by J. E. Wall, a painter. One bullet broke his right leg, and another inflicted a flesh wound in his right shoulder. About eight shots were fired, both men shooting. Wall is in jail, and Sanderlin is at his home, 121 Lombard street, North Seattle. Sanderlin claims that Wall has alienated his wife's affections and has broken up his home, and at the time of the shooting last night, Wall was walking along Depot street with Sanderlin's wife. The shooting began at the corner of Fifth and Depot streets. Wall started for the stairway opening into the lodging house at 716 Depot street, and Sanderlin followed. When Sanderlin reached the foot of the stairs, Wall, who was then on the first landing above him, turned and fired a parting shot. Sanderlin uttered a cry of pain, tottered and fell.
“When asked if the woman was Wall's wife he cried out: 'No! no! She's my wife!' And he buried his head in his hands and groaned.”
This incident highlights the volatile nature of private conflicts in early Seattle's cramped, multi-family lodging house districts. While the street names have changed and the 'North Seattle' of 1895 (near today's downtown/Belltown) has been entirely redeveloped, the intersection of personal grievance and gun violence remains a recurring, tragic feature of civic instability.
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