Tragedy at the Vinson Hotel
A former cowboy and night clerk shoots his sweetheart before ending his own life in a downtown Spokane tragedy.
John Brown, age 22, a former Oklahoma cowboy and night clerk at the Vinson Hotel, located at Howard street and Trent avenue in Spokane, fired a shot into the breast of his sweetheart, Mrs. Ethel Taylor, aged 34, on Monday. The wound resulted in her death 30 minutes later. Brown then turned the gun upon himself, firing four bullets into his head and body.
“resulted in her death 30 minutes later, and then turned the gun upon himself”
The Vinson Hotel stood in a bustling corner of downtown Spokane that has seen constant evolution. Such crimes of passion, frequently reported with a grim brevity in 1917, remind us of the isolation often faced by transients and night workers in the city’s early boarding house culture.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.