Tragedy at the Central Theater
A young man shoots a local actress before taking his own life in a violent act of obsession.
Ed Hanifield, a young man about town, shot his mistress, Ida Hall, a Central Theater actress, and then fired a bullet into his own brain. Hanifield died instantly. The woman is currently in a hospital with a bullet wound and is not expected to survive. Hanifield, who was the son of a wealthy family in Ashfield, Massachusetts, had reportedly led a dissolute life in Tacoma. The violence followed the woman's refusal to marry him.
“Ed Hanifield, a fast young man about town, this afternoon shot his mistress, Ida Hall, a Central theater actress, and then fired a bullet into his own brain.”
This event serves as a grim example of how local papers in the 1890s covered domestic violence and 'crimes of passion' with sensationalism, often identifying women by their profession and men by their wealth.
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