The Unexplained Ending at Snoqualmie
A local saloon keeper was found dead with a bullet through his heart, leaving behind a revolver six feet away and a town full of questions.
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.
Frank S. Stevenson, a Snoqualmie saloon keeper, was either shot or committed suicide in a room over his saloon at Snoqualmie last evening. While it is believed that he took his own life, there is an air of mystery surrounding the case. Stevenson's body was found in a room above his saloon with a bullet hole through his heart. The revolver, with one chamber exploded, was found on a dresser fully six feet from where the body of the man was found. It is stated that Stevenson had been drinking heavily during the past few days and that he had been suffering a great deal with rheumatism.
“While it is believed that he took his own life, there is an air of mystery surrounding the case.”
Mysterious death cases like this highlight the volatility of frontier-era business ownership. The physical impossibility of the suicide narrative (the gun being six feet away) mirrors the cold-case mysteries often revisited by local historians today.
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