A Bartender, a Bullet, and a Stranger on the Bridge
Seattle police found Harvey L. Hellossis dying on the Grant Street bridge. His saloon was robbed, his keys were missing, and the man last seen with him had vanished.
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.
SEATTLE, Feb. 5. — Police have a mysterious shooting case to unravel today. Following the report of a pistol shot early this morning, officers rushed to a dark portion of the Grant Street bridge and there found Harvey L. Hellossis, a bartender, writhing in the agonies of death.
Hellossis was immediately sent to the hospital, where late this afternoon he was still unconscious. At first the police believed it a case of suicide, but hospital attendants found an ugly bullet wound at the base of the injured man's brain.
Gradually clues were unraveled. Hellossis and his brother own a saloon on First Avenue South. When Hellossis left the saloon last night at 7 o'clock he was in the company of a stranger. When his clothes were searched at the hospital only a half dollar was found. It then developed that the saloon keys were missing, and the police now learn that the place was robbed during the time the saloon was closed last night.
Two checks and $16 in cash were taken from the till. Hellossis' brother is prostrated and can furnish no clues to the identity of the assassin.
“At first the police believed it a case of suicide, but hospital attendants found an ugly bullet wound at the base of the injured man's brain.”
A dark bridge, a dying bartender, a missing stranger and a robbed till made this the kind of true-crime puzzle Seattle papers loved. The saloon on First Avenue South places it in the city's working waterfront district, where nightlife and violence often shared the same blocks. More than a century later, unsolved shootings still become tests of how much police can piece together before memory fades.
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