The Hired Assassin: A Hotelkeeper's Plot Against Mrs. May North
A signed confession in the Spokane county jail reveals that the shooting of a woman at Elk, Washington, was no random attack but a cold-blooded murder plot arranged two months in advance.
Mrs. May North, who was mysteriously shot in the Montgomery Hotel at Elk, Wash., on the night of May 1, was the victim of a deliberate plot to murder her, hatched in cold blood two months ago by E. T. Montgomery, proprietor of the hotel, and his brother, H. M. Montgomery. The plot was admitted last Saturday night in the county jail at Spokane by H. M. Montgomery, who confessed to Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Fred C. Pugh that he was the hired assassin of his brother and that he fired the shot which was intended to put an end to the woman's life. The confession, which is in writing and signed, was the climax of many days of painstaking work on the part of the officers.
“He fired the shot which was intended to put an end to the woman's life.”
A hotelkeeper, a secret pact and a signed jailhouse confession gave Elk a true-crime drama that Spokane readers followed for days. The case is a reminder that sensational crime and small-town life have never been strangers—only the speed of the scandal has changed.
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