Victim Speaks Out After North Seattle Shooting
J. A. Holt, recovering from three gunshot wounds, tells reporters his attacker was a man driven by delusion and business failure.
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.
J. A. Holt, who was shot three times by W. N. White in North Seattle last Monday afternoon, has improved so much that Dr. Neville thinks his chances for recovery are good. Holt talked to a reporter yesterday and said that White's act was that of a man who was laboring under a delusion. Holt was propped up in bed, his face partly concealed by bandages. 'White would not have done as he did if he had been in his right mind,' Holt stated. 'The idea of his being jealous of me was ridiculous. I never have entertained more than an ordinary friendship for Mrs. White.' C. B. Bagley, who knew White for thirty years, remarked that White had suffered constant business reverses and began drinking heavily, which caused him to become irritable and unsettled in his mind. Bagley noted that White's wife had been a 'true helpmate' and that there was never any ground for his suspicions.
“The idea of his being jealous of me was ridiculous. I never have entertained more than an ordinary friendship for Mrs. White.”
This story offers a grim look at the intersections of mental health, economic instability, and domestic violence in the 1890s. The journalistic framing of 'insanity' was often used to explain away violence, a precursor to modern debates on how media should report on domestic tragedies.
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