A Deadly Domestic Dispute
A Bellingham woman sues to collect her husband’s life insurance after shooting him in an act of self-defense.
Suit has been brought by Mrs. Frank Eggleston to recover from the Maccabee lodge of Bellingham $500, the amount of a policy taken out in that order by Frank Eggleston, her husband, whom she shot and killed last July. Mrs. Eggleston committed the homicide in self-defense as her husband at the time she shot him was dragging her out of her children's bedroom, with the intention of shooting her when he got her out of their sight. Arrested on a charge of murder, she was afterward dismissed.
“Mrs. Eggleston committed the homicide in self-defense as her husband at the time she shot him was dragging her out of her children's bedroom.”
This case illustrates the intersection of gendered violence and insurance law in early 20th-century Washington, where the legal system’s recognition of 'self-defense' in domestic disputes was often inconsistent and highly dependent on local perceptions.
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