Rejected Suitor Shoots Tacoma Woman and Ends His Life
A young worker targeted by a spurned admirer survives the shooting while the assailant commits suicide outside her home.
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.
Miss Mabel Thorp, a well-known young woman of this city, lies at St. Joseph's hospital today suffering from a bullet wound inflicted last night by Ernest Grant, who, because his suit for her hand was spurned, attempted to murder her and then ended his own life by swallowing the contents of a four-ounce vial of carbolic acid. A quarrel between the young woman and her rejected suitor came to a sensational climax when Grant fired three shots at Miss Thorp as she stood near her home at 1964 South M Street. Only one bullet took effect, however, lodging in the fleshy part of the young woman's right shoulder. The bullet was removed last night and the hospital authorities say today that Miss Thorp will recover rapidly.
“Well, if we can't live together, we can die together.”
This incident reflects the tragic prevalence of intimate partner violence in early 20th-century reporting, often framed as 'crimes of passion.' Today, Tacoma resources like the Crystal Judson Family Justice Center work to intervene in domestic abuse cases before they reach such violent ends.
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