The Fatal Insurance Plot
A prominent Seattle attorney meets a violent end after a rapid, chaotic life involving a string of marriages and questionable associates.
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. Harry L. Carr, the wife of the attorney who was murdered at his home Sunday night, was arrested this afternoon, charged with complicity in the crime. Bessie Etherwood, Jim Tracey, a gambler, and Doleon, friends of Mrs. Carr, were also taken into custody. The theory upon which the arrests were made is that these people entered into a conspiracy to make away with Carr for the purpose of securing possession of his life insurance, said to amount to $13,000. Mrs. Carr stoutly maintains that her husband was killed by burglars. Carr was one of the most prominent attorneys in the city, but his life has been very rapid and checkered. He came here from Baltimore several years ago, where he left a wife and two children and obtained a divorce here. His second wife committed suicide in this city a year and a half ago. Six months later he met Miss Jennie Black, who had lately arrived from Buffalo in a Market street bagnio, and, becoming infatuated, married her January 3, 1893. Since her marriage it is well known that Mrs. Carr had been leading a dual life, making the rooms of her friend, Miss Etherwood, a rendezvous where she met Tracey and Doleon.
“Mrs. Carr stoutly maintains that her husband was killed by burglars.”
This sensational crime story highlights the era's tabloid fascination with the 'dual lives' of women and the perceived dangers of the city's red-light district. Such reporting was a staple of late 19th-century journalism, often used to sell papers by moralizing the private, chaotic affairs of the professional class.
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