The Fatal Cowboy Game
A former reporter and lawyer died after accidentally shooting himself while showing off his 'cowboy style' revolver skills at home.
Frank Hartley Jones, an attorney and ex-newspaper man, accidentally shot himself in the abdomen with a 44-caliber Colt's revolver last evening at his home on Stewart street. Jones had a habit of keeping revolvers about him and took pleasure in playing with them. While in his home, he stood in the middle of the room twirling the revolver on his finger in true cowboy style and, as his wife passed near him, he put his arm around her. The long barrel of the revolver caught in some manner, there was a report, and Jones staggered. He was transported to Providence hospital where doctors found the bullet had perforated his intestines and lodged near the sacrum. Despite an operation, he died later that night. Jones was born in Philadelphia and had a notable career in journalism, working on papers in Chicago and Minneapolis before moving to Seattle to work on the Press, later turning to law.
“He stood in the middle of the room twirling it on his finger in true cowboy style.”
Jones’s death speaks to the prevalence of firearms in 1890s Seattle social life, where carrying and twirling heavy-duty revolvers was sometimes seen as a social grace rather than a deadly hazard. It marks a sharp contrast to the modern gun violence debate while remaining rooted in the same tragic carelessness.
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